Mr Njie, Thanks for forwarding this piece on Nkrumah. Saul >From: Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: How Nkrumah was lured to his end >Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 13:44:02 +0100 > > > > > DECEMBER 1999 >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- > SLAVERY > COVER STORY > How Nkrumah was lured to his end > A new biography written by the woman who inherited Kwame Nkrumah's >will, the Australian-born June Milne, throws more light on how Nkrumah met >his end. June, now 79, met Nkrumah in 1957 and worked closely with him, >first as his research assistant and then his publisher. She was with him in >Romania when he died in 1972. Osei Boateng reports. > "Mr President, I have bad news. There has been a coup d'etat in >Ghana", the Chinese ambassador in Accra who had gone ahead to Beijing to >meet Nkrumah had the difficult task of breaking the news to the Ghanaian >president soon on his arrival in the Chinese capital on 24 February 1966. > > Nkrumah was on a peace mission to Hanoi, Vietnam, at the invitation >of President Ho Chi Minh who wanted a peaceful way out of the war with >America. > > "Nkrumah was taking a brief rest after the long flight from Rangoon >[Burma]. For a moment he thought he might have misheard the ambassador," >writes June Milne, in the just published Kwame Nkrumah - A Biography. > > It was the first, and bloodiest, coup ever in the history of Ghana. >No one knows the exact figures, but it is estimated that 1,600 were killed >on both sides, and many hundreds more wounded. As June puts it: "whatever >the exact figure, it was far from the 'bloodless coup' reported in the >British press." > > Though the coup took Nkrumah by surprise, the storm clouds had >actually been gathering long before he left Accra. His belief in socialism >and his radical pan-Africanism was hated in the West. > > In hindsight, socialism was a mistake, especially after the fall of >the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet empire. But in >the heady days after independence, with the exploitation of colonial rule >just behind them, and seeing how socialism had transformed the Soviet Union >into a superpower in just 40 years of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the >founding fathers of Africa could perhaps be excused for believing that >salvation lay in socialism. > > Nkrumah's other problem was his drive for an African union >government. His setting up of training bases in Ghana for African freedom >fighters and political refugees from South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique, >Angola, Guinea Bissau, etc. - a programme which saw nationalist leaders >such as Sam Nujoma (Namibia), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Kenneth Kaunda >(Zambia), Kamuzu Banda (Malawi), Franz Fanon (Algeria) and many more, >either visiting or living in Ghana - added to Nkrumah's troubles with the >West. A strong, united Africa with a strong voice in world affairs, and >able to look after its own matters was considered bad news by the >metropolitan powers. > > As Nkrumah himself wrote after his overthrow: "They want to destroy >me and Ghana for we are in the forefront of the African struggle for >emancipation". > > But the last straw, June Milne reveals, was the publication in 1965 >of Nkrumah's book, Neo-colonialism - The Last Stage of Imperialism in which >he exposed the workings of international monopoly finance. "The US >government regarded the book as a hostile, dangerous statement which >justified instant retaliation. There were angry diplomatic exchanges ... >and $35m of American aid to Ghana was cancelled." > > From then on, Nkrumah's days in government were numbered. According >to revelations in books written by former CIA operatives, the budget of the >CIA station in Accra was increased so Nkrumah could be kicked out quickly. > > They even changed the white American ambassador in Accra and brought >in an African-American, Franklin H. Williams, to take his place. Ambassador >Williams was Nkrumah's mate at Lincoln University (the class of 1941). >After the coup, Nkrumah wrote critically in his book, Dark Days in Ghana, >about the betrayal of his former school mate - an accusation which >disturbed Ambassador Williams greatly. > > On 21 July 1969, Dr Marvin Wachmann who was about to leave as >president of Lincoln University, wrote to Nkrumah thus: "As I prepare to >leave, I would like to write a word on behalf of Franklin H. Williams of >the Class of 1941... Mr Williams is a very bouncy and vigorous individual, >and I have never seen him so crushed as he has been, concerning your >feelings that he was involved in some way in the episodes in Ghana. He has >assured me, personally, that he had no knowledge of the coup." > > Nkrumah was not very amused with the denial, and as he told June >Milne, "it [is] extremely unlikely that Williams did not know what was >going on in the embassy with CIA officers operating from there." > > June herself adds in her latest book: "It is now generally accepted >that the CIA was involved in planning the coup. This involvement has been >confirmed in a book, In Search of Enemies, written by a former CIA officer, >John Stockwell, published in 1978. He disclosed that the CIA station in >Accra 'was given a generous budget and maintained intimate contact with the >plotters as a coup was hatched... Inside CIA headquarters [in America], the >Accra station was given full, if unofficial credit for the eventual coup.' >The CIA station chief in Accra, Howard T. Bane, was rewarded with promotion >to a senior position in the Agency." > > But the success of the coup depended on Nkrumah being away from >Ghana, and the Hanoi peace mission offered a perfect opportunity. The >mission had first been broached by the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' >Conference in 1965 but it fizzled out because the British prime minister, >Harold Wilson, wanted to lead the delegation, instead of Nkrumah who was >the only leader acceptable to Hanoi. > > President Ho Chi Minh thus sent a personal invitation to Nkrumah to >lead another delegation. Nkrumah had recently engineered almost >single-handedly the expulsion of apartheid South Africa from the >Commonwealth, and his stock as a world leader was quite high at the time. > > As he prepared to go to Vietnam in July 1965, Ho Chi Minh informed >him that his security in Hanoi could not be guaranteed unless the Americans >stopped the bombing of Vietnam. In August, Nkrumah sent his foreign >minister Quaison Sackey to Washington to ask President Lyndon Johnson to >order a halt to the American bombing so he could go to Hanoi. > > That was like Saddam Hussein asking American permission to invade >Kuwait. The CIA was fast at work in Accra, and Nkrumah's Hanoi mission >could not have come at a better time. To lure him away, President Johnson >assured Nkrumah that he would be perfectly safe in Hanoi, and that Ho Chi >Minh "was only making excuses". > > Three weeks to Nkrumah's departure, according to June Milne, >"President Johnson sent an emissary, Menon Williams, to Accra to encourage >Nkrumah to go. The CIA plans for the coup depended on Nkrumah being out of >Ghana at the time." > > So off, Nkrumah went - on 21 February 1966. Two days later, the coup >happened! > > A few months later, the newspaper Egyptian Gazette revealed in Cairo >that one Amihia, a man from Nkrumah's own Nzima tribe, who was the >go-between for the CIA and the local coup plotters had been killed after >the coup because "he knew too much". > > "I have information from a highly reliable source," Nkrumah himself >wrote on 2 November 1968 to Mrs Shirely DuBois, wife of W.E.B DuBois, who >had sent him the cutting from the Eygptian Gazette, "that Amihia was killed >by the NLC [the military junta] because he knew too much, and they feared >he might speak out." > > A year later when President Eyadema of Togo went to visit the NLC in >Ghana, June Milne reveals that "he was shown the Volta Dam and factories. >He asked: 'who did all this?' Everything they looked at, they had to reply >that Nkrumah did it. Eyadema got angry and asked: 'Why then did you do this >coup? There was no need for a coup'. Relations became strained, and the >state dinner arranged in his honour was cancelled." > > From Beijing, Nkrumah accepted an invitation from President Sekou >Toure of Guinea to come and live in Conakry. He had received similar >invitations from Presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Modibo Keita of >Mali and Abdel Nasser of Egypt, but he chose Conakry because it was nearer >Ghana where he hoped to return to power soon. > > "He had arrived in Conakry", writes June Milne, "with funds provided >by the Russians when he passed through Moscow en route from Hanoi to >Conakry. Later, the Chinese gave him some. Then Presidents Milton Obote of >Uganda and Nyerere sent envoys carrying diplomatic bags containing cash. >Both wanted to see Nkrumah back in Accra, and were realistic enough to know >that this was unlikely to be achieved without money. > > "Nkrumah had no funds in foreign bank accounts, and his account in >Barclays Bank in Accra into which his presidential salary had been paid, >was frozen by the NLC. He was therefore entirely dependent on the >generosity of political friends... > > "Apart from those who asked for money to carry out plans to restore >[his] government...Nkrumah faced considerable expense in providing for the >needs of his entourage. Board and lodging was provided by the Guinean >government. But Nkrumah paid the Ghanaians a weekly wage, half of what they >had earned in Ghana, the understanding being that they would receive the >other half of their pay, made-up in full, on their return to Ghana." > > But that was not to be. Nkrumah had stepped up his writing in >Conakry, and had understandably attracted a lot of interest from Western >intelligence agencies. His letters were interfered with, the ring of people >around him was infiltrated with spies, his residence Villa Syli was >attacked during a Portuguese invasion of Conakry and a boat full of >Ghanaian would-be assassins sent from Accra was seized near Villa Syli. > > Nkrumah survived it all, until his loyal cook, Amoah, who travelled >with him everywhere, died on 20 July 1967. > > Nkrumah liked his fufuo, the staple food of most Ghanaians. But when >Amoah died, according to June Milne: "Nkrumah was obviously exposed to >greater personal danger... Madame Sekou Toure recommended a cook to replace >Amoah, but it was not long before he left, and after that there was a >succession of Guinean cooks... When I did go [into the kitchen one day], I >realised the hopelessness of ever being 100% certain that his food was >safe. Apart from the cook, there were so many men working there, and others >wandering in and out all the time... At times when Nkrumah occasionally >seemed to suffer from digestive trouble, I began to fear for his health." > > June continues: "Towards the end of one of my visits to Conakry, >when I had shared all meals with Nkrumah, I developed severe stomach pains >and fever. For over six weeks on my return to London, I was seriously ill >with typhoid-like symptoms which mystified my doctor. Exhaustive tests at >the London School of Tropical Medicine failed to produce an explanation. >Health officers visited my home to inspect taps and drains, but could find >nothing to identify my illness." > > Nkrumah's health deteriorated gradually. First it was a Russian >doctor who treated him. He said Nkrumah was suffering from acute lumbago (a >disease that causes pain in the lower back, the region between the lowest >ribs and the hipbones). > > President Sekou Toure and other friends implored Nkrumah to go >abroad for medical treatment, but he was reluctant to go lest he >discouraged the Ghanaians working for his return to power. > > But later, in 1969 and 1970 when his health worsened, he asked the >Soviets twice to allow him to come over for medical treatment. They >wouldn't allow him, instead they sent two specialists to Conakry to examine >him. "They advised that there was no cause for concern, and that it was >politically an 'inopportune' time for him to leave Guinea," writes June >Milne. > > "I was not in Conakry when the specialists arrived," she continues, >"but Nkrumah wrote the day they left to tell me the outcome of their >visit... Whether or not on the specialists' advice I do not know, but there >followed a course of injections administered by a Bulgarian doctor. > > "The nature of the injections is unclear, but in 1971 when Nkrumah >was in hospital in Bucharest [Romania], the consultant there [Dr Maderjac] >told me that he had been given the 'exact opposite' of the treatment he >required, causing whatever he suffered from - they would not give it a name >- to 'spread to his whole body'. Nkrumah's [first] son, Francis, a >highly-qualified doctor, told me when I visited Ghana briefly in 1972, that >there was 'inexplicable medical bungling in Guinea'. > > "It seems inconceivable that the Russian specialists did not know >that Nkrumah was seriously ill when they examined him in 1970," June Milne >adds. "I suspect they did not want to offend the Busia regime in Ghana by >inviting Nkrumah to the Soviet Union. The Russians had recently reopened >their embassy in Accra. At that time they probably did not want him to >return to power in Ghana. They disapproved of [Nkrumah's] Revolutionary >Handbook, and his ideas on the need for armed struggle. For some time, even >before 1966, they were concerned about what they saw as Nkrumah's leaning >towards the Chinese and Vietnamese. There was much tension then between the >Soviet Union and China." > > By the beginning of 1971, Nkrumah's health had become so bad that he >had to go abroad for treatment. "When at length, in August 1971, he was >finally compelled to go," says June Milne, "he was carried on a stretcher >into the curtained-off front section of the Aeroflot plane which was to >take him to Bucharest." > > Dr Maderjac who treated him in Bucharest told June that "if Nkrumah >had been in his care two years earlier, a simple operation could have cured >him". > > Finally, the end came at 8.45 am on 27 April 1972. The man who in >good health had weighed 75 kilos had been reduced to under 57 kilos by the >disease. And he died. > > "There was no post-mortem," June Milne reveals. "One thing is, >however, certain: he would not have died when he did, in his 60s, if it had >not been for the 1966 coup in Ghana. If that had not occurred, he would not >have been subjected to the strains, and exposed to security risks, for >example over the preparation of his food while in Guinea. His doctors in >Ghana would have detected any early signs of illness, and he would have had >instant treatment of the highest quality." > > In 1992, after 20 years of dithering by various Ghanaian >governments, a massive mausoleum was finally built in Accra for Nkrumah by >the Rawlings government, shaped like "a giant tree with a fluted base, the >top cut off like a half-felled tree". At last, Nkrumah, "the tree cut >short", had been accepted by his own people. > > The mausoleum stands on the very same spot where on 6 March 1957, he >had proclaimed Ghana's independence. > > > > Copyright © IC Publications Limited 1999. All rights reserved. > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------