Gassa,
I share your views on the late Kwame Nkurumah and hope you will also agree
that his shortcomings should not disqualify him from being considered as one
of the greatest Pan Africanist that the world will ever see.
Indeed the late Dr Kwame Nkurumah made some costly mistakes among which
include his declaration of a one party State, allowing J.P Danquah to die in
prison and not accommodating dissenting views. After all, Kwame was just
human and therefore like everybody else susceptible to commiting judgmental
errors and practical mistakes. It is nowadays believed that because of his
inspiring effects on people, he came to be regarded in the early days
post-independence by many of his compatriots as a super human whose every
word was like the gospel and every act, saintly. In order words, he started
to be worshipped as a living god especially by those close to him who
succeeded in convincing him that he was not only perfect but worthy of
worship as well and that for his noble vision for Ghana and the rest of
Africa to be realised, he must resort to harsh and repressive measures to
surpress his political opponents who were all subsequently branded by his
regime as agents of the the imperialist West. In my view, that was the
greatest mistake which led to his popular overthrow from power. Had Kwame
tolerated dissent and protected the human rights of all his compatriots, the
people of Ghana would have resisted and defeated the NATO-backed military
coup that brought him down.

The APRC regime should learn from lessons from that. Those who wish to
differ from the APRC are not neccesarily unpatriotic or even enemies of
president Jammeh. Let us hope that President Jammeh will henceforth start a
new page to uphold the constitution, just as as he swore to do, yesterday.

Kwame had a great vision to work with like-minded leaders of his time to
transform a fragmented and poverty-afflicted Africa in to a United States of
Africa, which would harness her human and natural resources to be a world
power just like the United States of America. Unfortunately the vision he
had for Ghana and Africa at large fell victim to the so-called cold war
politics that the world descended into at the end of the Second world war.
The West led by the US gave Kwame the ultimatum of allying with them against
the Soviet bloc or he would be considered as their enemy just as George Bush
recently proclaimed: 'You are either with us or with the terrorists'. Kwame
was ultimately considered by the West as an enemy because of his
anti-imperialist stance and refusal to be dictated by Uncle Sam & co as well
as his Pan Africanist agenda. Ultimately they plotted Kwame's downfall and
succeeded as towards the end of his reign, he had also alienated the
majority of Ghanians.
All said, the late Kwame Nkurumah was a great man.

As you would state, have a good day.

The yoke of oppression must be shattered!


BMK



>From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Is Senghor a true son of Africa or not?
>Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 15:49:05 +0000
>
>You see, you do use your head sometimes. It sometimes seems that we are
>programmed in such a way that any view that is unconventional is to be
>dismissed as lacking merit or irrelevant. For example, people would rather
>remember Kwami Nkrumah for his speeches and vision rather than the way he
>tried to implement that vision. Nobody, in his right mind, would deny the
>fact that Dr. Kwami Nkrumah was both an intellectual and a visionary. But
>try to talk about his short-comings and you are labelled "Anti-Nkrumah".
>The
>fact remains that Dr. Kwami Nkrumah was one of the first dictators that
>Post
>colonial Africa
>produced. It is also a fact that one of the most repressive legislations
>ever passed in any country in Africa was the Preventative Detension Act
>(PDA). This piece of thrash was used by Nkrumah and those close to him or
>in
>uniform to jail inocent people for indefinite periods just because they
>dared ask where the country was heading. Instead of explaining his vision
>of
>Ghana to those who were better placed/equiped to implement them, he treated
>them as insurbodinate anarchists. This is were President Jammeh differs
>from
>the rest of those Pan-Africanists. You people may not believe it now, but
>time will tell.
>
>Have a good day, Gassa.
>
>
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