Today,
September 21, marks a very important day in the history of Africa and the
world. Today marks the birth of a Visionary Leader, a Revolutionist, a Path Breaker
and a strong Pan-Africanist, a man named Francis Nwia-Kofi, later known as
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. If today marks the birthday of my mentor and
founder of my alma Mata, Ghana National College, Cape Coast, I may not have flowers
to put on his grave, shout his name on radio but what I can do to honour such a
personality is to bring back memories of his primary goal for Africa. So if God
has blessed us with such a wonderful day to celebrate, it is important we
re-enact history in order to understand the present situation and to guide us
in making future decisions to bring improvement in our lives. As recorded in
the Bible, “…at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…”. This often cannot be
said about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. However, at the name of Kwame Nkrumah generates a
lot of controversies about his leadership style and foreign policies, perhaps,
people have not yet been able to decipher the real Nkrumahist philosophy.
However, I must state categorically that this article does not concern itself
with whether or not if Nkrumah was a good leader, instead it focuses on who
Nkrumah was and what he stood for. It concentrates, primarily, on Nkrumah’s philosophy
for a continental Unity of Africa. It assesses what entails African Unity and
why unity is necessary for the African continent.
As
indicated by Nkrumah, “There are those who maintain that Africa cannot unite
because we lack the three necessary ingredients for unity, a common race,
culture and language”.[1]
It is evident that some political leaders and the masses still maintain that
African Unity is irrelevant or cannot manifest. If you subscribe to such
notions, perhaps, you should do away with such Eurocentric views about Africa
before making an attempt to read further.
From
the 1960’s, many African nationalists and freedom fighters had managed to
secure independence for their various countries. Under many circumstances such
independent heroes such as, Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Julius
Kambarage Nyerere (Tanzania), Sylvanus Epiphanio Olympio (Togo), Sekou Toure (Guinea),
David Dacko (Central African Republic) and Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) were elected
as President of the first Republic. Some of these leaders had to employ
constitutional means while others had to engage in war for their country’s
independence. The irony in the situation was that to the masses, who aided
these leaders to achieve political freedom believed that independence was a
sign of prosperity and a good life, after all, the oppressor has been sucked
and made to go back to his country. And it is not surprising that even in this
twenty-first century, some people still hold on to this notion. To some extent,
this notion was widely accepted by the military, so much so that, they capitalized
on this notion to seize power from civilian leaders when the economy of many
African states was in shambles. To be able to decipher the whole situation very
well, one must know that colonialism deals with dominating a country’s
political, social and most importantly, economic fields. I should state
emphatically that the underlying reason for the acquisitions of colonies in
Africa was not so much of political, instead, economic. With the rise of
capitalism in Europe, the search for raw materials and new markets for
Europeans manufactured products during the industrial revolution was the
primary objective of the imperial powers. Hence, to the imperial powers, granting
Africans total independence will be tantamount to the collapse of their economy.
Therefore, granting Africans political freedom was not so much of a problem to
the colonial masters. The real problem, therefore, was granting Africa an
economic freedom. Economic freedom in the sense that Africans will be supported
and encouraged to build industries to process her vast raw materials in order to
increase its value in the world market.
It
is, therefore, obvious that the arduous task that faced Africans decades after
independence was to enter into a new struggle for economic independence, so
that the ordinary citizen can enjoy the full benefit of Africa’s independence like
peoples in the United States of America. However, in Africa once you become
part of the president’s family, you don’t need to bother about this because all
what the leaders care is to fill their banks with the state coffers so that
when their tenure of office is over, they can live lavishly with their families.
Fortunately,
as visionary and intelligent as he was, Nkrumah found the only solution that will
surely enable Africa to attain economic independence as the same way he was
able to find a strategy to accelerate the decolonization of African countries.
Nkrumah believed that if Africa can be economically independent, then
neo-colonialism and its major instrument, balkanization be removed from Africa.
For a better understanding of the nature of Neocolonialism read Nkrumah’s book,
Neo Colonialism, the last stage of
Imperialism. However, for the sake of this article, I will talk briefly
about the two phenomenon. Neocolonialism has to do with the imperial powers
using various subtle means and agencies like the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank to manipulate the economies of African countries. We should
not forget that the IMF and the World Bank are controlled by the imperial
powers and under no circumstance will they put Africa’s interest at heart. The
leaders of these agencies are accountable to their citizens so as our leaders
should be accountable to us. Balkanization has to do with breaking large territories
into smaller sizes. As Nkrumah puts it, “Converting Africa into a series of
smaller states is leaving some of them with neither the resources nor the man
power to provide for their own integrity and viability”.[2]
This has accounted for the reason why some countries in Africa cannot develop
and they are constantly at the mercies of the so-called aid from Europe. To
Nkrumah, the only remedy for neo-colonialism and balkanization lied in African
Unity. In his book, Africa Must Unite, Nkrumah
proposed that the salvation of Africa lied in Unity. As he puts it, the
activities of the Union of African States (U. A. S), which comprised by then of
Ghana, Guinea and Mali, was to adopt a common domestic and foreign policies.
Nkrumah believed that African Unity will define a common set of directives
relating to economic planning, which was aimed at the complete decolonization
of the set ups inherited from the colonial system and organizing the
development of the wealth of African countries in the interest of the people.
Also, in African Unity, there will be the organization of a system of joint defense,
which will make it possible to mobilize all the means of defense at their
disposal of the state, in favour of any state of the union which become a
victim of aggression.[3] In
short, African unity will provide Africans equal opportunities, collective
mobilization of African resources and a high military command for Africa. As
the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.” This adage indicates that
there is power in Unity. Which African country can one say has power in World
politics today? What do you think will happen in World affairs if Africa unite
with one president? Have you ever imagined how powerful such a president will
be in the world? Why do you think the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics, the
United States of America and Canada etc., united to form one block? The thirteen
English colonies in the New World after fighting for their independence from
Britain united to form the United States of America because these colonies were
convinced that if they stood alone, it was likely that Britain would assert her
authority over them again. Hence, the colonies United to provide military
support for each other. The USSR also united but later disintegrated. However,
we cannot overlook the fact that the USSR was at her peak during the cold war.
Had the various English colonies in the New World stay independently, Britain
could have managed to get them back on their knees after their independence.
This is a simple example African leaders should consider to revisit the issue
of African Unity more importantly and not to be holding numerous AU conferences
without results.
The
present situation in Africa constantly reminds us that Nkrumah never dies. What
right does America or the West has to invade Libya? Governance and standard of
living in Libya was so good that even many people from other African states run
to Libya to seek for greener pastures for their families, yet Libya’s leader,
Muammar al Gaddafi, was tagged as a tyrant leader and killed. Look at what the
International Monitory Funds and the World Bank have done to the economies of
many African countries. Decades after Africa’s independence, the IMF encouraged
many African countries to allow trade liberalization. African countries were
ordered to remove all forms of protectionism. The effect of these policies was
that local industries were stifled. Ironically, these same European nations,
who manage the IMF and the World Bank, adopted a similar policy of
protectionist during the height of the industrial revolution in order to
protect their local industries.
All
evidences point out to the fact that it is only Africans who understand and can
solve their own problems. So African leaders should halt the habit of seeking
for aid from the imperialist powers and find a lasting solution to Africa’s
problem which lies only in UNITY. As indicated by Dambisa Moyo, “Aid is never
the solution to Africa’s problem”.[4]
Sons
and daughters of Africa today, the mantle has been handed down to us, the
foundation is well laid, it is up to us to take up the challenge as our
ancestors did to secure independence for us. It is time for us to continue the
revolution which will set Africa free from the shackles of neo-colonialism and
balkanization.
I
will end with an African proverb which says, “The best time to plant a tree is
twenty years ago. The second-best time is now.”
To
the Memories of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
Long
live Africa!!!!!
The Author
COLLINS NANA YAW
ABEBRESE
(B.A. HISTORY &
RELIGION)
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE
COAST
E-mail : collyns3t@gmail.com
Tel : +23354 2083 047
REFERENCES
Nkrumah
Kwame, Africa Must Unite, New York:
Frederick Inc., 1963
Moyo
Dambisa, Dead Aid: Why Aid is not working
and how there is a better way for Africa, New York: Macmillan, 2009.
[1] Nkrumah Kwame, Africa Must Unite, New York: Frederick Inc., 1963. p.132
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid. p. 142
[4] Moyo Dambisa, Dead Aid: Why Aid is not working and how there is a better way for Africa,
New York: Macmillan, 2009.
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