Hi G-lers
Kindly subcribe my friend Mr. Sabally. His e-mail is
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UNCLE JAY.
>From: madi jobarteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: afrika
>Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 15:10:36 GMT
>
>IN DEFENCE OF AFRIKA AND HER LEADERS
>
>Dear Editor,
>
>This a reply to the ex-editor of the New Africa magazine Alan Rake about an
>article he wrote in june. i thought it necessary to send it to you for the
>wider Afrikan community who might have read his malicious article and be
>convinced. i hope this small piece will help to clarify the situation.I
>have
>also sent a copy of this same letter to New Africa.
>
>I am writing this article with the hope that you would publish it in your
>magazine. It is in reaction to your ex-editor Alan Rake's article "A drum
>boy in Afrika", in the June 99 issue of the New Africa magazine in which he
>talked about his Afrikan experience which was a diatribe against Afrikans,
>as far as am concerned. Particularly, I am concerned about his Ghana
>experience and his comments about Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the True
>Guide
>of the Afrikan Revolution. I deem it my duty to protect and promote the
>great personalities of my nation who especially happened to be grossly
>smeared and misinterpreted. I consider it my duty because I recognise
>that
>the peace and independence I enjoy today, even though not satisfactory, was
>not a charity from any monarch or president of Euope, or anybody else for
>that matter, but as a result of a struggle gallantly led by my ancestors.
>I
>owe them gratitude and respect for having fought for my freedom and
>upliftment when I was not even aware of my own degradation.
>Ungratefulness
>is the biggest sin a man can commit. To start, I am Madi Jobarteh a
>Gambia
>student at the University of Ghana, Legon. I am a revolutionary
>pan-Afrikanist, and as such my thoughts and actions and feelings are guided
>by Afrocentricity.
>
>
>Mr. Rake said in his article that Nkrumah was an idealist. I guess he
>said
>that in reference to Nkrumah's pursuit of Afrikan Unity. At the dawn of
>independence the Osagyefo pointed out that the only way for us to make
>progress was that we need to unite politically and economically. This was
>more apparent and necessary considering that we just emerged out of foreign
>domination of our lands, bodies and minds for a very long time, by a force
>which was never willing to leave, in fact for which it was necessary to
>oppress us in order for them to advance. Lack of unity, claimed Nkrumah,
>will lead us into the spheres of these powers which will manipulate and
>exploit us, while at home we will be engulfed in a guagmire of poverty,
>fratricidal fighting and ignorance. At the Casablanca Group Conference
>from 3-7 January 1961, he made this statement to his colleagues. "I can
>see
>no security for Afrikan states unless Afrikan leaders, like ourselves have
>realised beyond all doubt that salavation for Afrika lies in Unity ... for
>in unity lies strength, and as I see it, Afrikan states must unite or sell
>themselves out to imperialist and colonialist exploiters for a mess of
>pottage, or disintegrate individually."
>
>
>In this statement not descriptive of Afrika today? All our countries are
>either puppets, exploited for a mess of pottage, or are disintegrating and
>burning. Today who can claim that Afrika and Afrikans are protected. We are
>probably the most defenceless and valunerable species in the
>world,including
>whales, rocks and trees. Which Afrikan Army can protect its territory
>from
>American or European aggression or terrorist attacks from outside?Which
>AFrikan currency can compete with the dollar or Yen?Which Afrikan economy
>can determine world market trends?Which Afrikan government can twist the
>arm
>of the UN or FIFA?Which Afrikan country can protect its citizens from toxic
>waste dumping through foreign aid or technical assistance? The only
>government to protect every individual Blackman and Blackwoman is the
>continental government of Afrika. Afrika is rich, but Afrikans are poor,
>and no afrikan government can determine either its resources or its
>destiny,
>especially if such a move would harm the interest of the multinational
>corporations exploiting our people. The answer lies in unity. This was
>the Osagyfo's call, and how dare Alan Rake call that idealism. Are
>Europeans
>not calling for unity? Is that idealism too? True, Nkrumah was impatient.
>He said that in his book "Afrika Must Unite", that as far as the
>development
>of Ghana was concerned he was impatient.But which leader would not be
>impatient if you lead a nation like Ghana at that time.To be impatient
>doesn't imply irrationality or madness. Nkrumah was no fool. He was a
>success, but which was interrupted by the imoperialists who overthrew him.
>Since he took office up to his overthrow, he set up more that 100
>industries, numerous schools, hospitals, roads, harbours, townships etc.
>In fact today Ghana is surving because of the foundation laid down by
>Nkrumah. All the governments of Ghana put together do not come near an
>inch the Osagyefo's achievements. In fact there is no government in Afrika
>which has come near the Osagyefo's achievements in Ghana. The only
>comparable government would be Libya under the courageous and
>revoluntionary
>Gaddafi. Here is the statistics of some of his successes since he joined
>the government of Ghana in 1951, in school enrolment:
>
> 1951 1961 %Increase
>Primary Schools 154,360 481,500 211.9
>Middle Schools 66,175 160,000 141.8
>Secondary & Technical Schools 3,559 19,143 437.8
>Teacher Training Colleges 1,916 4,552 137.5
>University Students 208 1,204 478.8
>The building of schools and colleges was given top priority in his
>development plans.
>
>
>BASIC SERVICES
>
>Number of Hospital beds 2,368 6,155 159.9
>Rural and Urban choices 1 30 -
>Doctors and Dentists 156 500 220.5
>
>
>TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATION
>
>Roads (in Miles)
>
>
>Class I (Bitumen) 1,398 2,050 46.7
>Class II (gravel) 2,093 3,346 59.8
>
>(Since 1961 up to his overthrow, the mileage of motor roads has risen to
>19,236. Feeder roads connect most villages to the trunk road network).
>Post Offices 444 779 75.4
>Telephones 7,383 25,488 245.2
>
>ELECTRICITY
>
>Installed electrical capacity (kw) 84,708 120,860 42.7
>Electrical power generated (kw '000) 281,708 390,174 38.4
>Anything that makes Ghana stand today was built by Nkrumah's government.
>
>1. Akosombo Dam 2. Tema Oil Refinery
>3. Tema Township 4. Tema and Takoradi Cement Works
>5. Kumasi Sports Stadium 6. Trade Fair, LA
>7. Steel Works, Tema 8. GIHOC Pharmaceutical
>9. Ring Road 10. Ghana Airways
>11. Tema harbour and drylocks
>
>plus numerous other development plans rudely interrupted by the unpatriotic
>NLC neo-colonialists agents and their masters in Washington & London.
>
>
>These were the progresses taking place in Ghana, and with his pursuit for
>Afrika to unite in order to control her destiny and resources the
>imperialists felt threatened and the next logical thing to do was to remove
>the Osagyefo, the 2nd Greatest Leader of Afrika this century after Marcus
>Mosiah Garvey. So they started to squeeze Ghana economically both from
>within and without. In 1965 they drastically and artificially dropped the
>price of cocoa, knowing that commodity was Ghana's leading earner, from
>£476
>in 1954 to £87 10s. a ton in 1965. This meant that although Ghana
>exported
>500,000 tons of cocoa, she earned only £77 million, or less than her
>receipts in the mid 50's for 250,000tons. In 1965 he published his book
>"Neo-Colonialism: The Last stage of imperialism". In that book he exposed
>how the West controls and exploits Afrikan through economic, political,
>cultural, educational and spiritual means. He reiterated the need for unity
>and the potential we will create by uniting. That book was the last straw
>for the imperialists. The U.S government sent a note of protest to him and
>promptly refused Ghana $35 million of "Aid". These were the dynamics of the
>condition engulfing Nkrumah at that time, even though most of us, because
>we
>are so much obsessed with Western ideas and materials, think that
>nation-building, especially in our case, was just easy. We do not know that
>the countries of the West had to take centuries to establish themselves
>which was characterised by very severe fraticidal conflicts and a brutal
>onslaught on the peoples of other lands whom they ensalved and looted . Up
>to today Europeans are trying to fully define themselves, as events in the
>former Yugoslavia demonstrate. Ghana and Afrika cannot go that way, that is
>why we have to realise that even in an individual's life there comes a
>moment in which you have to open up your eyes because of the circumstance
>in
>which you find yourself. This becomes more true for a society.So those of
>you who claim that Nkrumah was a dictator and greedy, need to realise this
>fact.For Nkrumah, the prime agenda was Ghana and Afrika and not any
>individual, especially those bourgeois intellectuals who want the status
>quo
>to remain so that they can continue to bash in their misguided prestige
>while majority of our people continue to live in conditions of poverty,
>disease and ignorance. This is an abnormal situation as far as
>Revolutionary
>Pan-Afrikanists are concerned. America, which most of us admire today,
>though sadly, had to spend the first 100 years of her independence on
>fighting and oppressing each other. In fact the greater majority of
>present-day USA never wanted a USA, but they had to be forced to accept and
>belong. But nobody claims that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln was a
>dictator. So why do you want to destroy and confuse us? why are you so
>malicious? True, there were corrupt individuals in Nkrumah's government,
>but
>that does not discourage us, because we know every society has its
>contraditions. There are enemies everywhere, within and without. But
>was
>Nkrumah himself corrupt or had he done anything to anyone out of malice or
>greed or pomposity? All his actions are calculated and geared towards
>building Ghana and Afrika. Most of us can criticise now, especially our
>intellectuals. But that is just talking. Ask them what they have ever done
>for Ghana with their so-called BA's, MA's and PHD's. Ask them, have they
>ever organised one or two fellow Ghanaians to talk about Ghana's problems
>seriously? Have they ever spent a whole night awake seriously thinking
>about
>what they can do for Afrika? They are all talkatives who want some school
>in America or Europe to employ them ot to head some UN project.They are all
>running away from their distressed Motherland? Mkrumah does not belong to
>that category.
>
>
>Alan Rake said Nkrumah built a personality cult by naming himself
>"Osagyefo". This is a big lie. In Afrika, our people are fond of giving
>names to their beloved leaders. It is part of our culture. So that is why
>we
>have 'Madiba' for Mandela, 'Mwalimu" for Nyerere, 'mushin' for Kenyatta and
>'Kairaba' for Dawda Jawara, and many others.So where does your case lie,
>Alan? We call him the Osagyefo which means the Redemeer.That title fits
>him, and we are proud of it.
>
>
>You pointed out that Nkrumah wanted to become president of Afrika. Who
>told you that? Did Nkrumah himself tell you that? Or was it the enemies
>of Afrika who told you? Surely it must be them. Nkrumah declared on May
>25
>1963 at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on the day the OAU was formed that he was
>ready to serve under any leader in the United States of Afrika.He even
>proposed at that gathering that Bangui or Leopoldville in Central African
>Republic and Congo respecitvely to be the capital of the New Afrika. He did
>not name himself or Accra or Kumasi. So how can you conclude that he wanted
>to lead Afrika. Never in his life has he ever said or gave an impression
>that he wanted to be the president of Afrika.So to claim that is a white
>lie
>only designed to distort facts and destroy our leader. This was the same
>madness the neo-colonialist puppet leaders of most French-speaking
>countries
>in Afrika at the time were spreading, surely under pressure from their
>devilish French masters. The lying is too much, man!
>
>
>You also insinuated that the Osagyefo concentrated power in his hands, and
>by-passed the parliament. Now you may think that the parliament in Ghana at
>that time was a true parliament, but I tell you it was nothing other than a
>bundle of neocolonialist bourgeois agents who were the internal force of
>the
>imperialists bent on destroying the progress of Ghana and Afrika. Could you
>imagine a patriotic parliament in an emerging country like Ghana objecting
>to the building of the Akosombo Dam? They couldn't see the wisdom in it
>that
>to industrialise and develop first and foremost you need energy! But they
>couldn't see it because they lack vision for Ghana and Afrika. Nkrumah
>noted
>that:
>
>"a serious well-intentioned opposition keeps a government alive to its
>responsibilities, guarantees exteme care in the preparation and formulation
>of programmes and underlines the need for sponsors of legislation to be
>able
>to justify their proposals."
>
>In other words an opposition must be constructive.He said this is the
>strength of the opposition in established democracies of the world.
>"They recognise that they, together with the government of the day, proceed
>from the major premise that they have a joint aim to advance the welfare of
>the people...the government initiates; the opposition is constructively
>critical."
>
>This was not the case in ghana and because they have been repeatedly
>rejected by the electorate the possibility of gaining office by
>constitutional means was remote,they resorted to indecent politics.
>Nkrumah
>speaks again:
>
>"their politics have been narrowly regional in concept, and often violent,
>abusive and terroristic in action. Within parliament, the castigation of
>the
>cabinet has been, to them, and end in itself rather than an instrument for
>securing better condition for the people...it may be argued that some of
>these characteristics are present in any opposition party. This is true,
>but
>not to the same extent as in Ghana.Elsewhere they are set in the context of
>an alternative over-all programme of government.The Labour party in
>Britain,
>for example, follows a political doctrine opposed to that of the
>Conservative Party. Ideologically they are widely removed. There are
>clashes
>over such concepts as nationalisation. There remain, however, broad areas
>of
>internal and foreign affairs where there is a community of view... the
>opposition in Ghana cannot boast this same sense of responsibility and
>maturity".
>
>In fact Nkrumah did personally invite J. B. Danquah to join his government,
>arguing that Ghana being so young does not need infighting among her
>people.He refused. This clearly shows that we didn't have an opposition,
>but
>a bunch of self-destroyers, bourgeois intellectuals overwhelmed by colonial
>mentality and myopics who are interested only in their personal welfare.
>This is why Nkrumah declared a party-one state.
>
>"A people's parliamentary democracy with a one-party system is better able
>to express and satisfy the common aspirations of a nation as a whole, than
>a
>multi-party parliamentary system which is in fact only a ruse for
>perpetuating, and covers up, the inherent struggle between the 'haves' and
>the 'have-nots'".
>
>So Alan if you don't know the facts on the ground, shut your mouth and
>don't
>foul the atmosphere.While you shout on Afrika to establish numerous parties
>U.S and most of Europe have essentially two parties only, which are neither
>regional, religious not ethnic, but patriotic and mature. And as Nkrumah
>said, in fact, democracy and multi-partyism are not necessarily compatible.
>You can have a democracy without multi-partyism, and on the other hand also
>you can have mutli-partyism without democracy. sometimes, if not always,
>multi-partyism serves only the elites and bourgeois, while majority of the
>people suffer. For example, in India every minute they change a
>government
>in parliament, but never is there a change of condition of the people. So
>don't confuse us with your standards and desires. We know what we want and
>we went for it. Majority, if not, all Afrikan countries have multipartyism,
>but there is no iota of democracy and development in any of them. They are
>all puppets, sterile and oppressive. Criticise those ones, and praise those
>who are pro-people, like the Osagyefo.
>
>
>You said "his dreams were soon shattered on the rocks of reality". Which
>'rocks of reality?" The 'rocks of reality' which shattered his dreams and
>our dreams are the United States and Great Britain and your allies. You
>plotted against him and you removed him. I guess you must be proud of that.
>It was because he was an obstacle to your diabolical activities in Afrika,
>that you have to remove him. This is the reality. Why don't you just speak
>the truth for once? While you call him a dictator, you never called Mobutu
>a dictator, because that stupid man opened his legs wide open so that you
>can rape Zaire as you please. Nkrumah is no prostitute and Ghana is a
>dignified Black Star. No rapist can succeed.These are the "rocks of
>reality", you refused to see.This is the same reason why you refused to see
>the development which was taking place in Ghana, but only doom was what you
>wanted to see there. But this attitude is typical of White people and
>confused Black intellectuals.You never see anything good about anything or
>anybody which is not admitting to your desires. This is especially true
>with
>regards to Afrika. You have painted everything about Afrika as backward.
>This clearly shows that no good thing comes from Afrika. You say our
>culture
>and people are savages and backward, and your scholars went all out to
>create theories and hypothesis just to prove that assertion. When we try
>to define ourselves and chart a way for ourselves, you say we are wrong,
>stupid and evil. Why?
>And what beats my imagination is that Baffour Ankomah and all those Afrikan
>staff at "New Africa magazine" are there without showing up any objection.
>This is gross irresponsility and an act of betrayal. This act befits only
>traitors. While they condemn our leaders, they are proud of their
>abominable
>anti-christ dictators such as Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaule,
>Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin etc.etc. Why don't you talk about those?
>There wouldn't by any Nkrumah or a call for united Afrika if your fathers
>and mothers had not stepped their filthy feet on our land. This has
>always
>been their preoccupation to destroy our leaders. Anytime someone comes up
>you beat him down. You either kill him or you smear him in order to get our
>people shun that leader:
>- Marcus Mosiah Garvey - smeared
>- Kwame Nkrumah - smeared
>- Amilcar Cabral - killed
>- Sekou Toure - smeared
>- Malcolm X - killed
>- Martin Luther King - killed
>- Tom Mboya - killed
>- Eduardo Mondlane - killed
>- Patrice Lumumba - killed
>- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - smeared
>- Nelson Mandela - smeared
>
>
>
>I call on all Afrikans everywhere to be alert, and for the first time to
>stand up and defend the name and integrity of our leaders and Afrika, our
>beloved Motherland. We have to understand that it was those leaders, who
>were raped, killed, beaten, jailed and humiliated that we are free today.
>But it is not complete, and it is our responsibility to complete it. To all
>youths of Afrika, rise up and take your stands again. The enemy is at it
>again, and as Nkrumah said they mask themselves in all manners. You can see
>that while we thought the 'New Afrika' magazine is for us and truly we are
>proud of it, on the whole it has in the midst of it our enemy!
>
>
>
>To conclude, I demand the management of the Magazine to apologise to all
>Black-people for such irresponsible, misleading and malicious article by
>Alan Rake, immediately. We do not wish anybody or any magazine who bears
>our
>name to ridicule us with impunity. We do not wish anybody or any magazine
>who bears our name to destroy us. And we do not wish anybody and any
>magazine who bears our name to mislead us.
>
>
>Long live Afrika!
>Long live the Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and all our Leaders!
>Long live Afrikan Unity !!!
>
>
>MADI JOBARTEH
>LEGON HALL
>UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON
>GHANA.
>
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