by Sing Ling Jabbah
[On] Wednesday
April 27, 2005, progressive forces the world over were in deep
grief. They have, as a matter of fact, been in a state of mourning over the
past 33 years since the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah died in Budapest,
Romania on 27th April, 1972.
Immediately following the coup in 1966 which overthrew him
while he was abroad, Dr. Nkrumah, born Francis Nwia Kofie, had written to June Milne, one of his closest
friends during his long, bitter years in exile: "You shouldn't worry about
me now June. I am safe and well. I did not write earlier because I was trying
to get myself sorted out. I know very soon I shall be back in Ghana
and I don't think that you should bother about the criticism, abuse,
vilification and the lies being told about me. The truth will out."
A personal letter to a close friend it was but heavily laden
with revolutionary naivety. Five years later, he was to pass away in exile,
with his British close friend and associate, June Milne, by his bed side.
Revolutionary because while in exile, Nkrumah had continued to count on his
friends back home to overturn the new system of things and restore him to
power. But like Jesus Christ, some of his friends betrayed him, others doubted
him and yet many more denied him. Naivety, in that he did not
fully comprehend the situation. That the truth will out was a matter of
time. Today, the truth is out but after countless attempts to obliterate the
name of Nkrumah, his followers have been practically eviscerated. The fragments
of the CPP family that remain, is enough testimony that attempts to dismantle
the Nkrumahist front have been largely successful.
Progressive forces are in mourning.
The bickering among Nkrumahist
adherents today is only another manifestation of the conflict and
contradictions that characterized the Pan Africanist
movement, from which the CPP tradition draws inspiration. This Pan Africanist conflict was symbolized by the grave
disagreements between W.E. B. Du Bois and Marcus
Garvey over approach in advancing the cause of the Black liberation struggle.
The accent had always been on the necessity for black people
to work closely together. Du Bois' wish was that,
when once the blacks of the United States,
West Indies and Africa work and
think together, the future of black [people] in the modern world is safe. He
meant work with and not for black Africa but this theme stirred Marcus Garvey
when he insisted that we must work together . . . not to go to Africa for the
purpose of exercising over-lordship over the natives . . . but brotherly
co-operation which will make the interests of the native African and the
American and the West Indian Negro one and the same . . . a common partnership
to build up Africa in the interests of our race. Significantly, the conflict
here was purely one of approach and methodology in the face of a ruthless
colonial system. The same kind of conflict of approach that
the CPP cited for breaking away from the UGCC. The UGCC wanted self
government on the terms of the colonialist but the CPP wanted 'self government
now'. To this end, on January 8, 1950,
Nkrumah declared Positive Action, a means by which political pressure was
exerted for the attainment of Ghana's
independence.
This also set the pace for the liberation of the entire
African continent. But today, progressive forces are in mourning. The
independence won for us through the blood and toil of our forebears has been
traded off. Nkrumah's declaration on the eve of independence on March 5, 1957 that we are going to see
that we create our own African personality and identity has fizzled out. We are
no longer a sovereign state and we have no identity. The visible and shameless
hand of neocolonialism is actively steering or is it stirring the affairs of
motherland Ghana.
Honesty has disappeared from the political vocabulary and truth has assumed
variegated interpretations.
Corruption has become a state religion and poverty is now Ghana's
fastest growing industry. Progressive forces are in mourning. The world has
already paid and continues to pay glowing tribute to Dr. Nkrumah. The Osagyefo was only recently named by BBC listeners in Africa
as Man of the Millennium. But back here at home, instead of recognizing his
legacy and defending it, Nkrumahists are quarrelling
over signs and symbols, not paying heed to the signs of the times.
Progressive forces are in mourning with nothing to cling
onto, not even the announcement a few weeks back that the two feuding Nkrumahists parties, PNC and CPP, have merged. Ghanaians
have lost count of the number of times this has happened. On October 16, 1997, a memorandum of
understanding brought all splinter Nkrumahist groups
together. It turned out to be a memorandum of misunderstanding. This has been
the lot of the CPP family since Osagyefo inaugurated
the party in Accra on June 12, 1949. It was violently
overthrown in 1966. Its offshoot, the Peoples Popular Party (PPP) was disbanded
by an NLC decree for fear it could win the 1969 election. Ten years later, the
Peoples National Party (PNP) resurrected from the Nkrumahists
stables and won the general elections.
But the PNP was overthrown only 27 months later. In 1992,
like the NLC did in 1969, the PNDC, fearing that the Nkrumahists
could win power, broke the CPP front, which saw the PHP, NIP, PNC and NCP
registering as separate Nkrumahist political parties.
All attempts to bring the factions together, by the Founding Fathers, notably
the late Nana Kwabena Nketsiah,
were to no avail. Since then, the fortunes of the Nkrumahists
have swung between unity and disunity, to the point that Nkrumahists
have been at the starting point after every election. But being at the starting
point itself is not a bad idea - you get to start all over again and often with
the same or similar competitors, some of whom may be gasping for breath.
Progressive forces are in deep mourning.
It must needs be said that the great CPP of yore was not
conjured from the skies, neither did it spring from a
hole in the earth. It was founded and nurtured by the blood, sweat and tears of
some patriotic sons and daughters of Ghana,
some of whom are still alive today and many more have been born into the
family. Political differences have always existed but they have been on issues
of approach to attaining the same goal, not over signs and symbols. Osagyefo's speech at the inauguration of the CPP 44 years
ago that there can be no force, however formidable or impregnable that a united
and determined people cannot overcome does not seem capable of galvanizing his
followers into action. The abysmal electoral performance of the various Nkrumahist splinter groups in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004,
shows there is something more to politics than name, symbol or slogan. Indeed,
there is. As someone put it, an elephant gives birth to a huge calf but it does
not trumpet about it. The hen lays a tiny egg and cackles all day (No
allusions!).
Will Nkrumahists start talking
about charting a new course in unity and with determination as a tribute to
Nkrumah's name or will they be engaged in cackling over cockerels and coconut
trees? That, we know not. That which we know is that, progressive forces around
the world are in deep mourning, though Nkrumah may very well be alive!
5/6/05
Source: allAfrica.com
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