Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
Before I continue next week with my discussions on Nana Akufo Addo’s vision of implementing a policy of free Senior Secondary Schools, if he is elected as the President of this nation, I consider it more prudent to highlight the Founder’s Day which was observed yesterday to honour Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as the Founder of independent Ghana, and macro-politically, the Founder of the African Union establishment which was initially called OAU (Organization of African Unity) now known as the AU (African Union). In fact, all African nations observed this unique day yesterday.
Let me say it pointblank that all the hullabaloo made to the effect that the term FOUNDER’S DAY should be pluralized to be FOUNDER’S DAY to mean that the founding of Ghana as an independent nation was the work not only of one person known as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah but of the totality of the (UGCC) United Gold Coast Convention members including Dr. J.B Danquah, Obetsebi Lamptey, Akufo Addo etc. has no sound historical basis and is therefore naïve and ludicrous. When the British colonialists cajoled the Fantes to agree to armed protection and logistic support all against the occasional insurrection and threats of the Asantes, a document was prepared to be endorsed by several Fante chiefs who had formed a union called the Fante Confederacy. The document was codenamed: the Bond of 1844, and this placed the Fantes under the British colonial rule by which there were promises of armed protection, and building of such social infrastructure as roads, schools, hospitals and clinics etc.
Later, the British were able to include the Gas, the Akwapims, the Akims and the very large Asante expanse including the Brongs and Ahafos in the Bond. The irony here was that the Ashantis who became the original focus of the Bond of 1844, had been embroiled in this British deal, and so the original motive here had gradually changed from military assistance to their protégés to economic profitability which involved trade in gold and diamond and later cocoa and timber. And the whole network of various tribes under the control of the Bond of 1844 had been called the Gold Coast, and this expanded into the Northern Territory through the negotiation skills of George Ekem Ferguson of Anomabo who was an official or employee of the then Cape Coast-based British colonial administration.
Another interesting irony in the British colonizing saga was that the Fante Confederacy which was the prime concern of the Bond of 1844, began to express their disappointment at the forcible taxes which the British colonial administration was levying on the poor colonial subjects, especially the Fante and Ga fishermen and farmers. The chief of Anomabo Nana Amuanoo spoke against such a colonial rule and called for freedom from the British yoke. He received a refrain from the Cape Coast chief, and when the Fante Confederacy met and tabled a motion for freedom from the British colonialism and imperialism, it was relayed to the governor of Cape Coast. This did not register well with the British officers. Fortunately, Paa Grant who was a ship owner and a wealthy merchant at Takoradi got to hear of this freedom motion, and thus quickly contacted the confederacy for a renewed petition for freedom. But the Cape Coast British administration which was later moved to Accra was silent to the Fante Confederacy’s motions.
It must be reemphasized that most historians interpret the movement of the British colonial office from Cape Coast to Accra as due to the ever-increasing fiery agitations of the Fantes in Cape Coast for the destruction of the Bond of 1844 and freedom from the colonial rule, since they had built no schools, and hospitals, and had constructed only a few roads, all against what were envisaged in the Bond document.
The Fante confederacy prompted Paa Grant to contact some people in Accra to continue the fight for freedom. He was able to negotiate with lawyer Dr. J.B Danquah who arranged with lawyer-friends and others to oppose the colonial rule. This Accra group formed the UGCC (the United Gold Coast Convention), and the wealthy Paa Grant who was a member, always readily footed the administrative bills of the club (which was not a registered party). Since the UGCC was not making much headway in its social and political demands, lawyer Ako Adjei who had earlier met Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in London proposed that he (Nkrumah) be brought to Accra to be a full-time secretary. It is to be noted that the transport bill for Ako Adjei and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Kojo Botsio was fully footed by Paa Grant and not by Dr. Danquah as some politicians falsely peddle around.
In London, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was fiercely agitating for the independence of Gold Coast right at the nose of British Government, and he came down to Accra to do the same work, when he was given the mandate of General Secretary of the UGCC.
Things began to change in the operations of the political ‘aluta’ of this UGCC club, as Nkrumah was presenting it as a political party. Nkrumah opened several offices in the then Gold Coast (more than 30) all to sensitize Gold Coasters for the need to brace themselves up to fight for independence.
The message was well received all over the country, and particularly in Sekondi-Takoradi, people were brazenly clamouring for independence, with railway workers making their agitations before the residential whitemen.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah arrived in 1947 when I was a young school boy, and my cousin, my father’s nephew, Mr. Enin who was a police officer in Accra often came to Breman Asikuma to brief his uncle about Nkrumah’s political activities. (Mr. Enin later became the ‘Adontehene’ (Adonten divisional chief) of Breman Esiam. It was through him that my father had the courage to bring the CPP to Breman Asikuma in October of 1949, from his original home town, Saltpond. And I often overheard Mr. Enin’s briefings about Nkrumah.
So, right from 1947, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became my academic and political mentor, and I am simply cut to the quick when the remnants of his opponents argue that the FOUNDER’S DAY should be pluralized as FOUNDERS’ DAY! How can Dr. J.B. Danquah, Obetsebi-Lamptey, Akufo Addo, etc who broke their political relationship with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and left him alone to pioneer his CPP to achieve independence so to be logically known as the founder of the nation, be paraded as co-founders, when at one stage in their political struggles, they agitated to break away from Nkrumah’s Gold Coast to form their own country consisting of the Akims and Ashantis; and that they were not party to Nkrumah’s self-government demands. Dr. Danquah and others had formed a new party called NLM (National Liberation Movement) with its citadel in Kumasi, operating under the auspices of Baffour Akoto, a leading linguist of the Asante King. The serious objective of Danquah’s NLM was to break away to form their own nation, and the Twi clarion call of this party was “MATE…….MATE ME HO” (I have broken away…….. I myself have broken away).
The question is how can such political leaders who have openly declared their disassociation with Nkrumah’s objective of fighting for the independence of the Gold Coast be falsely and deftly dragooned into Nkrumah’s achievement of independence and be called ‘co-founders’, and therefore be considered in the celebration of FOUNDER’S DAY which fell yesterday.
Can the critics consider it proper to include the ‘break-away’ NLM leaders when the FOUNDER’S DAY is celebrated or observed on Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s own birthday of “September 21st”? Yes, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah came to upstage his UGCC and NLM antagonists or opponents to found Ghana through his achievement of independence for Ghana. The learned Professor Atta Mills, our former President, knew this truth, hence his institution of the FOUNDER’S DAY which is observed in the whole of Africa. This is the greatest honour Atta Mills has given to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, hence his name will always be associated with Dr. Nkrumah on every September 21st. Long live the memory of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. And long live the memory of former President Atta Mills!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
