RWANDA: HOW THE GENOCIDE TOOK PLACE

APRIL, A Month to Remember.

I have watched two very classic movies and several documentaries which tell the story of a horrific genocide which took place in a small country in the middle of Africa. The country is called Rwanda. The people of this beautiful country look just like any other African I have met. Dark skin, black hair, brown eyes, some are tall and some are short, some are fat and some are slim. Some speak and write very good English like I do and some speak and write very bad English. They have similar cultures like what I have in my country and they are generally very nice people. Infact, they are no different from me as a Ghanaian!

The genocide began in April of 1994 and ended in mid July of 1994. It has sparked and re-kindled a lot of debate about how brutal a human being could be towards another. It also revealed to me how to best of friends could suddenly become the worst of enemies simply because of tribal differences. The genocide also showed how married couples turned against each other and even butchered their own children and relatives for fear of being killed themselves. It showed how almost one million people were deliberately killed in a spate of just three months! If we work out the mathematics of this slaughter and compare it to the Nazi German holocaust of the early 1940s it could have surpassed that one. Why? Because if an average of about 300,000 people were killed in one month in Rwanda at the time, it stands to reason that about 14 million would have been killed within 4 years if the genocide had been allowed to continue. It is reported that Nazi Germans killed about 6 million Jews between 1940 and 1944 during WWII, a period of 4 years! Correct me if I am wrong but that is my candid opinion.

I personally talked to some soldier friends of mine who served with the United Nations peace keeping force in Rwanda (UNAMIR) before and after the genocide and they told me stories of what happened. Some of the Ghanaian soldiers kept having these nightmares even long after they returned from the peace keeping mission. They told me stories of very horrific scenes which I found very hard to believe, but that was the Gospel truth. Even they would have found it hard to believe if it weren’t for them being there to witness such horrific mass killings of fellow human beings.

Official government sources state that out of a population of 7.3 million people, 84% of where Hutu, 15% Tutsi and 1% Twa. The official figures published by the Rwandan government estimated the number of victims of the genocide to 1,174,000 in just 100 days. Mathematically, it worked out to about 10,000 murdered every day, 400 every hour, 7 every minute.

Reports further state that most of the victims were killed in their villages or in towns, often by their neighbors and fellow villagers. Militia members typically murdered their victims by hacking them with machetes, although some army units used rifles. Victims were often found hiding in churches and school buildings, where Hutu gangs massacred them. Ordinary citizens were called on by local officials and government-sponsored radio to kill their neighbors, and those who refused to kill were often murdered themselves. "Either you took part in the massacres or you were massacred yourself.”

One such notable massacre is reported to have occurred at Nyarubuye. On April 12, more than 1,500 Tutsis sought refuge in a Catholic church in Nyange, then in Kivumu commune. Local Interahamwe, acting in concert with the other local authorities, then used bulldozers to knock down the church building. Those who tried to escape were hacked down with machetes or shot dead. The local priest of the church called Athanase Seromba was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison by the ICTR for his role in the demolition of his own church and convicted of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity. In another case, thousands sought refuge in Ecole Technique Officielle school in Kigali where Belgian UNAMIR soldiers were stationed. However, on April 11, these soldiers withdrew from the school and thus allowed members of the Rwandan armed forces and militia to kill all the Tutsis who were hiding there.

You would be amazed to learn that all these mass killings was well organized before hand and by the time it had started, the Rwandan militia numbered around 30,000. The plan was that each trained militia member was to be responsible for killing every ten families and this was organized nationwide, with representatives in every neighborhood of that country. Some of the militia members were able to acquire guns by completing requisition forms. Other weapons, such as grenades, required no paperwork and were widely distributed. Many members of the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi were armed only with machetes.

The Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda revealed, in his testimony before the International Criminal Tribunal, that the genocide was even openly discussed at cabinet meetings and that one cabinet minister once said that she was personally in favor of getting rid of all Tutsis, she believed that without the Tutsi, all of Rwanda's problems would be over. In addition to Kambanda, the genocide's organizers included one Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, a retired army officer, and many top ranking government officials and members of the army, such as the notorious General Augustin Bizimungu. On the local level, the genocide's planners included Burgomasters, or mayors, and members of the police. Can you imagine that? For me this whole thing just smacked of government complicity!

The Rwandan media was the main catalyst to fueling the genocide. Due to high rates of illiteracy at the time of the genocide, radio was an important way for the government to deliver messages to the public. Two radio stations were direct keys to inciting violence before and during the genocide. They were Radio Rwanda and Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). The RTLM had used terms such as inyenzi meaning cockroach in Kinyarwandan and Tutsi interchangeably with others referring to the RPF combatants and warned specifically that RPF combatants dressed in civilian clothes were mingling among displaced people fleeing combat zones. So you see how powerful the radio was used as a tool to directly incite combatants to perpetrate the genocide?

These mass killings have also been committed in other parts of Africa in places like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. It simply beats my mind to imagine how people could just pick up guns and machetes to kill others just like that. Whole villages would be wiped out in a matter of days all because some our politicians sitting in the comfort of their luxurious air conditioned mansions talk loosely or some even conspire and inspire the youth to commit such heinous crimes against humanity. Ironically, they are the first to fly out of the scene when all hell breaks loose. I say this because most of these mass killings I am talking about have been sparked simply by loose political talk and failed promises.

No wonder I am not surprised at what is happening today in Bawku, a town located in my own country. For me this is Childs play compared to that of Rwanda or even the recent violence which took place in the city of Jos, Nigeria a few weeks ago. I often here people talk about Ghanaians being a very peaceful people hence the absence of a civil war ever taken place here in Ghana before. For me, I disagree to this assertion because I believe no groups of people are born with the license to kill. They are either instigated to kill or simply coerced or forced to do so and this can happen to any group of people in any country. We as a people simply have to be sincere and tolerant with each other so that we can live in harmony as one people with one destiny. We as a people should realize that we come from different cultural backgrounds and thus we will have differences in opinions and views and this should be the main reason why we should learn to be tolerant with each other.

Folks, I present to you an article which I culled from the Internet about the crime which was committed against humanity in Rwanda, a sister African country. It is my wish that this article will show us the consequences of not learning to be tolerant with each other as a people. What you are about to read is my selected article of the month which is just a brief summary of what really happened and how it did happen, so be my guest.

How it all Started.

Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days. Most of the dead were Tutsis - and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.

Even for a country with such a turbulent history as Rwanda, the scale and speed of the slaughter left its people reeling. The genocide was sparked by the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, when his plane was shot down above Kigali airport on 6 April 1994.

A French judge has blamed current Rwandan President, Paul Kagame - at the time the leader of a Tutsi rebel group - and some of his close associates for carrying out the rocket attack. Mr Kagame vehemently denies this and says it was the work of Hutu extremists, in order to provide a pretext to carry out their well-laid plans to exterminate the Tutsi community.

Whoever was responsible, within hours a campaign of violence spread from the capital throughout the country, and did not subside until three months later.
But the death of the president was by no means the only cause of Africa's largest genocide in modern times.

History of violence

Ethnic tension in Rwanda is nothing new. There have been always been disagreements between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, but the animosity between them has grown substantially since the colonial period. The two ethnic groups are actually very similar - they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions. However, Tutsis are often taller and thinner than Hutus, with some saying their origins lie in Ethiopia.

During the genocide, the bodies of Tutsis were thrown into rivers, with their killers saying they were being sent back to Ethiopia.
When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity. The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.

Resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of riots in 1959. More than 20,000 Tutsis were killed, and many more fled to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda. When Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence in 1962, the Hutus took their place. Over subsequent decades, the Tutsis were portrayed as the scapegoats for every crisis.

Building up to genocide

This was still the case in the years before the genocide. The economic situation worsened and the incumbent president, Juvenal Habyarimana, began losing popularity.
At the same time, Tutsi refugees in Uganda - supported by some moderate Hutus - were forming the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), led by Mr Kagame. Their aim was to overthrow Habyarimana and secure their right to return to their homeland.
Habyarimana chose to exploit this threat as a way to bring dissident Hutus back to his side, and Tutsis inside Rwanda were accused of being RPF collaborators.
In August 1993, after several attacks and months of negotiation, a peace accord was signed between Habyarimana and the RPF, but it did little to stop the continued unrest.

When Habyarimana's plane was shot down at the beginning of April 1994, it was the final nail in the coffin. Exactly who killed the president - and with him the president of Burundi and many chief members of staff - has not been established.
Whoever was behind the killing its effect was both instantaneous and catastrophic.

Mass murder

In Kigali, the presidential guard immediately initiated a campaign of retribution. Leaders of the political opposition were murdered, and almost immediately, the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus began. Within hours, recruits were dispatched all over the country to carry out a wave of slaughter. The early organisers included military officials, politicians and businessmen, but soon many others joined in the mayhem. Encouraged by the presidential guard and radio propaganda, an unofficial militia group called the Interahamwe (meaning those who attack together) was mobilised. At its peak, this group was 30,000-strong.

Soldiers and police officers encouraged ordinary citizens to take part. In some cases, Hutu civilians were forced to murder their Tutsi neighbours by military personnel. Participants were often given incentives, such as money or food, and some were even told they could appropriate the land of the Tutsis they killed.
On the ground at least, the Rwandans were largely left alone by the international community. UN troops withdrew after the murder of 10 soldiers.

The day after Habyarimana's death, the RPF renewed their assault on government forces, and numerous attempts by the UN to negotiate a ceasefire came to nothing.

Aftermath

Finally, in July, the RPF captured Kigali. The government collapsed and the RPF declared a ceasefire. As soon as it became apparent that the RPF was victorious, an estimated two million Hutus fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
These refugees include many who have since been implicated in the massacres.
At first, a multi-ethnic government was set up, with a Hutu, Pasteur Bizimungu as president and Mr Kagame as his deputy.

But the pair later fell out and Bizimungu was jailed on charges of inciting ethnic violence, while Mr Kagame became president. Although the killing in Rwanda was over, the presence of Hutu militias in DR Congo has led to years of conflict there, causing up to five million deaths.

Rwanda's now Tutsi-led government has twice invaded its much larger neighbour, saying it wants to wipe out the Hutu forces. And a Congolese Tutsi rebel group remains active, refusing to lay down arms, saying otherwise its community would be at risk of genocide. The world's largest peacekeeping force has been unable to end the fighting.

Folks, the Rwandan genocide took place only 16 years ago, which is not very long ago so my purpose for sharing this piece is to let us be reminded that what happened there was a very horrific, barbaric and despicable crime which was committed against humanity and under no circumstances should it be allowed to happen again any where in Africa and especially in our own individual countries. May God keep us safe and sound as we remember this very sad period in the history of mother Africa!

THE MAN WHO WAS CALLED THE OSAGYEFO

INTRODUCTION

I read an article about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and in it he was referred to as the Osagyefo, so for this presentation I will borrow the title with the author’s kind permission. The Osagyefo was born in Nkroful, a village in Nzima land then known to European sailors at the time as Appollonia in the Gold Coast now the Republic of Ghana. According to our history the Osagyefo was the only child born to his mother. He also had half brothers and sisters born to other wives of his father, who was a goldsmith.

According to the Osagyefo himself, he was born on a Saturday, hence the name Kwame and incidentally, that day was the day his parental grandmother’s funeral was being performed. His original name was Francis Nwia Nkrumah and was born on September 21, 1909. He is quoted as saying “On that particular day in Nkroful, my birth was of very little interest to the villagers. I am told, however, that there was a good deal of commotion going on where I was, for apparently I took too long to show signs of life”.

“But my female relatives, having dragged themselves away from the funeral celebrations, would not give in so easily. They were determined to put life into me and proceeded to make as much noise as they could with cymbals and other instruments, at the same time jolting me about and even stuffing banana into my mouth in an effort to make me cough and draw breath. They finally succeeded in arousing my interest and, their job completed, handed me back to my anxious mother, a yelling and kicking Saturday’s child.”

The Osagyefo was educated at the Achimota School in Accra, where it is said he enjoyed his education but above all, where the foundation for his exceptional public speaking skills was laid. It was while at the Achimota School that his role model and mentor, Dr. Kwagyir Aggrey, then first Vice Principal of the school died.

“A few of us”, says the Osagyefo, “got together and formed the Aggrey Students’ Society in his memory. The society acted as a forum for speech-making. Eventually this became a debating society. I thoroughly enjoyed these debates and could never resist taking the side of the minority group, whether I agree with their view or not, because it prolonged the debate and gave me a chance to express views that I would otherwise never have thought of.”

He also mentioned that many years later, what he regarded as a pastime proved very useful in the struggle for Ghana’s independence and continued, “Although this was a kind of game with me then, it turned out to be my most valuable discovery. Without this ‘gift of the gab’, my battle would have been lost from the very beginning and the whole struggle would have been in vain.”

Upon leaving Achimota school he taught at the Roman Catholic school in Axim for two years then moved on to teach at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano near Elimina.

STUDY AND YEARS OVERSEAS

In the year 1935, he received a letter from the Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, USA, admitting him to pursue a first degree course. He then left the shores of Africa for the United States of America via Liverpool in the United Kingdom (UK) where he was assisted by an agent of George Grant (Paa Grant). Paa Grant later became the first President of the United Gold Cost Convention (UGCC).

The Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with hard work and perseverance eventually graduated from the Lincoln University in 1939 receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Economics and Sociology. He later said of himself “I had never experienced any difficulty in getting along with my fellow students, but I was very touched and highly honoured when they voted me as being the Most Interesting among them, recording this in the Class Year Book of 1939.”

“I still owed the University some money” he continued, “My original intention on leaving Lincoln was to enter the Columbia School of Journalism, but I was so financially crippled that this was quite out of the question, for the time being at any rate. I was very despondent, but just when my prospects seemed at their blackest I received a letter from the Professor of theology and philosophy at Lincoln, Dr. Johnson, inviting me to return there as an assistant lecturer in philosophy”.

“This was quite an honour but not what I had planned for myself. However, I really had little option, for the nature of my passport as a student was such that I was not allowed to stay ‘out of school’ during winter months. I sat and thought about it. The offer had arrived at a most opportune moment. I was desperately broke. Maybe it was the hand of fate. In the end I accepted and so, in the autumn of that year, returned to Lincoln as a philosophy assistant.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed it as it turned out, but I was not fully occupied. To my way of thinking, unless I was busy pretty well the whole of the twenty-four hours of each day I was wasting my time. I spent my time reading every book on modern philosophy I could lay my hands on. After acquainting myself with the works of Kant, Hegel, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud and others, I appreciated the truth in the saying that law, medicine and arts are the arms and legs of learning but philosophy are the brain” he concluded.

Later in the same year he gained entrance into the Lincoln Theological Seminary while studying at the same time for his master’s degree in education and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvanian and a Master of Arts in philosophy, first year Greek and Negro history.

While lecturing in political science at Lincoln, he was elected president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada.

During his time in the United States, he also visited and preached in black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City. In all the Osagyefo spent Ten years in United States of America. He also mentioned that many times while studying and working overseas he had to sleep out rough, and worked at jobs that caused him untold misery as a black man from Africa. On one occasion he said that he nearly froze to death at the controls of a counter in the Sun Shipbuilding Yard at Chester.

He finally left New York in May 1945 and arrived back in United Kingdom with the intention to study at the London School of Economics. However, following a meeting with Dr. George Padmore, he helped to organize the Faith Pan-African Congress in Manchester. After that he began to work for the decolonization of Africa and thus became Vice-President of the West African Students Union.

THE RETURN HOME

In the autumn of 1947, the Osagyefo was invited by the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) a conservative nationalist movement, to serve as its General Secretary where he worked directly under Dr. J.B. Danquah. This political convention was exploring paths to attain independence for the Gold Coast. The Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah humbly accepted the invitation and returned home to the Gold Coast by December.

Two months later, in February 1948, the Osu Cross Roads Shooting incident occurred. Police fired upon African ex-servicemen who were protesting the rapidly rising cost of living in the Gold Coast in which three ex-servicemen died. The shooting incident spurred a series of riots in Accra, Kumasi and other towns and this led to the government of the day suspecting that the UGCC was behind the protests and therefore arrested its leading members including the Osagyefo himself. However, having realized their mistake the government later released them from detention. Shortly after that he emerged as the leader of the youth movement.

The Osagyefo then began a series of country-wide travel, and moving from community to community, he proclaimed that the Gold Coast needed “self-government now”. This then led to the establishment of a large power base in which he gained the massive support from the cocoa farmers who rallied to his cause because they disagreed with the government policy concerning the containment of the swollen shoot disease. He also appealed to the market women to be a part of the political process and this was at a time when women’s suffering was new to Western Democracy. The workers unions also allied massively behind his movement. By 1949, he had organized these groups into a new political party called the Convention People’s Party (CPP) after he had fallen out of favour with the UGCC.

The Osagyefo’s political momentum had reached such a peak with moves towards the establishment of self-government that the colonial government had to call for the drafting of a New Constitution that gave some responsibility for policy decisions. Under the new Constitution drawn up by a selected commission of the middle class, wages and property requirements were the basis for suffrage in the Gold Coast. The Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah brought together his own “People’s Assembly” which was composed of representatives of party members, youth for a universal franchise without property qualifications, a separate house of chiefs, and self-governing status under the Statute of Westminster. This amendment, known as the Constitutional Proposals of October 1949, was rejected by the colonial administration.

The colonial administration’s rejection of the People’s Assembly’s recommendations eventually led directly to the Osagyefo’s call for “Positive Action” in January 1950. This “Positive Action” was to include the call for civil disobedience, non-cooperation, boycotts, and strikes which would force the government to yield to their demands. This action back fired and the colonial masters retaliated by arresting the Osagyefo and many of his party leaders and supporters. He was eventually sentenced to three years in prison at the James Fort prison.

The Osagyefo’s conviction was seen as a move to silence and break the back of the CPP so it generated considerable international pressure and protests to British continued rule and hence the decision by the Queen of England to grant independence to the Gold Coast. Britain therefore organized Africa’s first general election to be held under universal franchise in 1951. Even though in jail, the Osagyefo won the election by a landslide victory and his CPP party gained 34 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Osagyefo was released from prison in the mid morning of February 12, 1951 to become the Leader of Government Business. A wholly new period began, in which the principle of ultimate independence was no longer in question. This finally paved the way for the Gold Coast to begin preparations towards the attainment of independence within the “shortest possible time”, when the then British Governor in the person of Sir Charles Arden-Clarke asked him to head a new government which would eventually lead to independence.

AT INDEPENDENCE

As leader of the newly established government business, he was appointed Prime Minister. The Osagyefo faced three major challenges. The first was that he needed to learn the art of government and secondly, he was required to create a unified Nation from the 4 territories of Gold Coast. The last hurdle was that, he needed to win independence for the Gold Coast. Being a man in a great hurry, the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was very successful at achieving all three challenges and within a span of Nine years of his release from prison; he became President of a unified Nation with complete political freedom.

Under the Osagyefo’s exemplary leadership, the Gold Coast took enormous steps forward to lift the nation out of poverty by creating Welfare system. He also started various community based programs, and established many schools. He also ordered the construction of major roads and bridges to further commerce and communication. In the interest of the nation’s health, he had portable drinking water systems installed in the villages and ordered the construction of concrete drains for latrines.

At the stroke of 12 midnight on March 6, 1957 the Gold Coast was declared an Independent state and the Osagyefo in his inaugural speech named her Ghana. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was hailed as “Osagyefo” which means “Victorious Leader” in the Akan language.

Ghana was declared a Republic in 1960 and the Osagyefo became its first President after winning the general elections again. In 1962 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. The Republic of Ghana also became a character member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963.

THE OSAGYEFO’S POLITICAL CAREER

The Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah generally took a non-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believed the malignant effects of capitalism were going to stay with Africa for a long time. Although he was clear on distancing himself from the African socialism of many of his contemporaries; Nkrumah argued that socialism was the system that would best accommodate the changes that capitalism had brought, while still respecting African values. He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled ‘African Socialism Revisited’

He was also best remembered politically for his strong commitment and promotion of Pan-Africanism. Having been inspired by the writing and his relationships with black intellectuals like Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and George Padmore; he went on to inspire and encourage Pan-Africanist positions amongst a number of other African independence leaders and activists from the African Diaspora and perhaps his biggest success in this area being his significant influence in the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

The Osagyefo attempted to move Ghana’s economy towards a more industrial model. His reasoning being moving Ghana out of the colonial trade system by reducing its dependence on foreign capital, technology, and material goods, which would allow it to become truly independent. Unfortunately, he moved massively to industrialization at the expense of his country’s cocoa growing sector, which had been a strong economic sector then.

In the end, the various economic projects that he undertook, though generally successful, like the case of the Volta Dam, were a total drain on the foreign reserves of the country. Neither did they also remove Ghana from dependence on western imports. By the time he was overthrown, Ghana had gone from being one of the richest countries in Africa to one of the poorest.

In 1958, The Osagyefo introduced two pieces of legislation that would restrict the freedoms of the people of Ghana. In the wake of the Gold Miners Strike of 1955, the Trade Union Act was introduced, which made strikes illegal. In reaction to a suspected plot on the part of an opposition member of parliament, the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) was also introduced and this made it possible to arrest and detain anyone charged with treason without the involvement of the nation’s court system.

In 1961, when the railway workers went on strike he ordered the arrest of the strike leaders and opposition politicians under the Trade Union Act of 1958 even though he himself had organized strikes a few years before. There was no longer any place for those who opposed him in his plan for the rapid industrial development of the country. He told the unions that their days as advocates for the safety and just compensation of miners were over and their new job was to work with management in the mobilization of human resources. Wage incentives were to give way to patriotic duty. In the Osagyefo’s eyes, the good of the nation as a whole superseded the good of all individual workers.

THE FALL OF THE OSAGYEFO

The Preventive Detention Act led to widespread disaffection in his administration. Some of his henchmen used the law to have innocent people arrested and thrown into jail so that they could acquire their political offices and business assets and his closest advisers were reluctant to discuss Ghana’s true economic situation for fear that they might be seen as being critical of him. So when the nation’s clinics ran out of pharmaceuticals, no one notified him and this made people believe that he no longer cared. The situation was such that even his advisers trembled at the sight of the Osagyefo when they were called in to answer questions about the economy and the quite justifiable fear of an assassination attempt made him become even less accessible.

By 1964, Ghana was declared a one-party state with the Osagyefo declaring himself Life President. The Osagyefo had by now become one of Africa's most ruthless dictator. He was also described as a man in a very great hurry.

However, his commitment to the industrial development of the country at any cost led to his decision to construct a hydro-electric power plant on the Volta River at Akosombo. American corporations built the dam but they also placed numerous restrictions on what could be produced using that power from it. The cost of borrowing money to build the dam placed the nation in serious debt; and financing the debt required higher taxation from the cocoa farmers. The dam project was eventually completed and officially opened amidst world publicity on January 22, 1966. The dam today continues to generate about 60% power for Ghana and neighboring countries like Togo, Benin and the Ivory Coast.

The Osagyefo also wanted Ghana to have modern armed forces so he acquired military aircraft and ships and also introduced conscription in the armed forces. He also gave military support to those fighting the white minority governance of Southern Rhodesia which is modern day Zimbabwe.

The momentum of the Osagyefo’s actions, symbolized by the break with Britain, threatened the independence of the army and the police so on February 24, 1966, while he was on a gratuitous peace mission to Vietnam, his government was overthrown and his CPP party outlawed. The military rulers then announced that "the myth of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is ended forever."

The jubilant crowd destroyed all statues of the Osagyefo and renamed the many roads, circles, buildings and universities that had borne his name. From a dreary exile in Guinea, he ineffectually tried to rally Ghana against the new military regime. Though initially proclaimed "Co President of Guinea" on his arrival, a gesture of sentiment. He soon found himself watched and isolated without his Egyptian wife Madam Fathia of 8 years and children who had also been kicked out of the Flag Staff House and had to return to Egypt.

The Osagyefo never returned to Ghana, but he did continue to push for his vision for African unity in Guinea, where he spent his time reading, writing, corresponding, gardening, and entertaining guests. Despite his retirement from public office, his fear of western intelligence agencies did not abate so when his cook died, he began to fear that someone would poison him and he took to hoarding food in his room. He also suspected that the foreign agents were going through his mail and lived in constant fear of abduction and assassination.

By 1971, then in failing health, he was flown to Bucharest in Romania for medical treatment where he was diagnosed with skin cancer. He died there on April 27, 1972 at the age of 62 and was flown back to Conakry and buried. His body exhumed and finally brought back to Ghana after very difficult diplomatic wrangling and it was interred in a tomb at Nkroful, the place of his birth. In July 1992 his remains were transferred to a purpose built mausoleum and park situated in the capital Accra.

REFERENCES

The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
Other web articles, books and magazines

THE COUNTDOWN TO INDEPENDENCE: PT-5

The SMC I and II Era

Between 1972 and 1975 the NRC achieved tremendous successes and endeared itself to Ghanaians. It abolished some of the harsh economic measures introduced by the PP by, for example, revaluation of the cedi, the abolition of the development levy and the restoration of elite and employment related fringe benefits formerly enjoyed by military, civil and public servants; it repudiated several foreign loans and encouraged the principles of self reliance by launching ‘Operation Feed Yourself Your Industries’. The latter policies led to a considerable boost to agriculture resulting in very high growth rates as for example 4.5% in 1972,6% in 1973 and 7% in 1974. In real terms, the quantity of rice produced rose from 11,000 tons in 1971 to 61,000 tons in 1973 while that of maize witnessed the spectacular increase form 53,000 tons in 1971 to 430,000 in 1973.

In addition, in 1973, the NRC established Regional Development Corporation in all the nine regions of Ghana with an initial seed money of ¢800,000 over the next three years to spearhead development in the regions taking into account the resources of the regions and their peculiar needs. In October 1975, NRC transformed itself into a 7-man Supreme Military Council (SMC) chaired by General Acheampong and composed of military service commanders: the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Border Guards as well as the Chief of Defense Staff and the Inspector General of Police.

The failure of policy and governance of the country during the period of the SMC until it fell on 4 June 1979 sharply contrasted with the spectacular successes achieved the period of the NRC from 1972 to 1975. First, the SMC had to contend with severe external economic factors, such as, astronomical increases in the prices of crude oil; dwindling foreign earnings; domestic policy failures; poor fiscal management; gross mismanagement and long spells of natural disasters such as drought and bush fires which adversely affected agricultural output. Second, the SMC rather that hand over the reins of government to civilian politicians in a democratic constitutional election initially sought to introduce a political system which it called the Union Government (UNIGOV), that was to be devoid of political parties and based on a partnership among the military, the police and civilians. In furtherance of the UNIGOV policy, a referendum was held on 30 March 1978 to ascertain the wishes of Ghanaians on the issue. Halfway through the referendum, the Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Justice Isaac Kobina Abban, a judge of the High Court, had to give up his job, flee into hiding apparently to save his life.

SMC's zealous pursuit of UNIGOV in the midst of loud and resolute opposition by all sections of the Ghanaian populace severely divided the nation and led to the fall of General Acheampong as head of state in a “palace coup” on 5 July 1978. The reconstituted government led by General F.W.K. Akuffo known as SMC II, also consisted of military and police service commanders lasted for only 11 months in power from 5 July 1978 to 4 June 1979. The only achievement of significance of SMC II was that it soon announced a programme for the return of the country to democratic constitutional rule, lifted the ban on party political activities and initiated all the requisite processes that would culminate in general elections on 18 June 1979.

But before it could carry out its programmes, it was overthrown on 4 June 1979 by a group of revolutionary junior officers who formed a junta, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), under the chairmanship of Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. Other members of the Council were Captain Boakye Gyan who was its official spokesman, Major Mensah-Poku, Warrant Officer Class 2 Obeng, Private Owusu Ansa, Corporal Owusu Boateng, Staff Sergeant Alex Adjei, Leading Aircraftsman Gatsiko, Lance-Corporal Peter Tasiri, Lance-Corporal Ansah-Atiemo, Lance-Corporal Sarkodee-Addo and Corporal Sheikh Tetteh.

The Turbulent Years

The tenure of the AFRC was a mementos three months until to 24 September 1979 during which it ruled through the Council, Liaison Officers and Decrees and set out to punish the corrupt and the guilty, to ensure social justice and to restore the tarnished image of the armed forces. It, for example, expressed dissatisfaction wit the indemnity clauses in the 1979 Constitution that would have absolved corrupt individuals from liability to criminal proceedings. Consequently, under the AFRC three former heads of state: Generals Afrifa, Acheampong and Akuffo and five senior army officers who were leading members of the SMC government: Major General Robert Kotei, Major General Felli were executed for being directlly or indirectly responsible for the profound extent of corruption and decadence into which the country had been plunged.

The AFRC did not disturb the process of returning the country to constitutional democratic rule. Consequently, the Third Republic Constitution of 1979 was duly promulgated and elections held under its provisions. The Constitution provided for and executive president elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of four years with eligibility for a second and final term of four years; a unitary government and a single chamber legislature elected for a term of four years; ministers appointed by the president from outside parliament but with the approval of parliament and finally, for the first time in the constitutional history of Ghana, a Council of State whose composition comprised members was drawn from identifiable bodies and establishments and the reduction of the age of franchise from 21 to 18 years.

General Elections were held on 18th June 1979 as was scheduled by SMC II and it was contested by six political parties: Peoples’ National Party (PNP), led by Dr. Hilla Liman, that won 71 seats; Popular Front Party (PFP), led by Victor Owusu, that won 47 seats; Action Congress Party (ACP), led by Colonel Frank George Bernasko, that won 10 seats. United National Convention (UNC), led by William Ofori-Atta that won 8 seats, Social Democratic Front (SDF) led by Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama that won 4 seats. The Third Force Party, (TFP), led by Dr. John Bilson, which did not win any seat so also did no independent candidate win a seat. Elections for the president were conducted simultaneously with the parliamentary elections. While PNP claimed that its roots laid in the CPP tradition both PFP and UNC claimed that they descended from the PP.

Ten candidates, six of who were leaders of political parties and four others who were independents, contested the first round of the presidential election. They were Dr. Liman of the PNP who won 631,559 votes representing 35.32%, Owusu of the PFP, who won 533,928 votes representing 29.86%, Ofori-Atta, of the UNC, who won 311,265 votes representing 17.41%, Colonel Bernasko of the ACP, who won 167,775 votes representing 9.38%, Alhaji Mahama of the SDF, who won 66,445 votes representing 3.72%. Dr. John Bilson of TFP, who won 49,104 votes representing 2.75%, Dr. R.P. Baffour, independent candidate, who won 8,490 votes representing 0.47% Mark Diamond Nii Addy, independent candidate who won 5,957 votes representing 0.33% and Alhaji Imoro Ayannah, independent candidate who won 4,874 votes representing 0.27%. Since none of the ten candidates had more than 50% of the total valid votes as provided under the 1979 constitution, there was a second ballot on Monday, 9 July between the two candidates who had the highest number of votes in the first election. Dr. Hilla Limann won and was sworn in as President of the Republic.

The PNP government was prematurely overthrown on 31st December 1981, by Flt.-Lt. JJ Rawlings who had incidentally handed over power to Dr. Limann only 28 months ago.

The Revolutions Days.

His second coup, the sixth successful one in the history of Ghana ushered in a new revolutionary era of far reaching reforms and rehabilitation at all levels. Flt.-Lt. Rawlings became the Chairman of a nine-member Provisional National Defence Ruling Council, (PNDC) with Secretaries of State in charge of the various arms of government. The PNDC government formed the National Commission for Democracy (NCD) in 1989 and this finally led to the appointment of a Committee of experts to draw up constitutional proposals for the consideration of a Consultative Assembly. The Assembly prepared a draft constitution based on proposals submitted to it by the PNDC, as well as from previous constitutions of 1957, 1969 and 1979. The final draft constitution was unanimously approved by Ghanaians in a referendum which was held on April 28, 1992.

The Return to Constitutional Rule: The Forth Republic

Elections were subsequently held in December 1992 and the National Democratic Party (NDC) which was lead by Flt. Lt. JJ Rawlings, winning a land slide victory over the other political parties. This ushered in the forth Republic which was inaugurated on January 7, 1993 with the swearing-in of Flt. Lt. Rawlings as President. The newly elected Parliament was also opened on the same day. In December 1996, President Rawlings was re-elected for a second term, an achievement which was the first of this kind in the history of Ghana since its independence and in West Africa.

On December 7, 2000 Mr. John A. Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), won the election with the largest share of the presidential vote of 48.17% but could not win a majority and so there was a run-off election held on 28th December 2000 in which he won a majority vote of 56.73% becoming the first elected president in Ghana’s history to succeed another elected president. This ushered in the first ever successful change of government of the forth Republic with Mr. J.A. Kufuor becoming President. In December 2004, President Kufour was re-elected for a second term in office and this became another record breaking feat in Ghanaian politics and West Africa as a whole.

In December 2008, after a grueling three rounds of balloting between candidate Akuffo-Addo and Evans Atta-Mills, the latter won the most votes and he was sworn in as President of the Republic of Ghana on January 7, 2009. President John Evans Atta-Mills will preside over the celebration of Ghana's 53 years as a republic come Saturday March 6, 2010.

THE COUNTDOWN TO INDEPENDENCE: PT-4

Military Interventions

In 1964 the Constitution was amended to make Ghana a one-party state with Nkrumah as its life President. That coupled with increasing dictatorial and oppressive tendencies, which for example, led to the death of Danquah in detention, eventually led to the overthrow of the CPP Government in a military coup led by Colonel Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka. Nkrumah lived the rest of his life in exile in Guinea where Sekou Toure, the president of Guinea, appointed him co-president until he died in April 1972.

The first Coup

The successor regime, the National Liberation Council, was a military-cum-police Administration, headed by Lieutenant-General Joseph Ankrah. Other members of the Council were J.W.K. Harley, Commissioner of Police, Deputy Chairman, Colonel E.K. Kotoka, General Officer Commanding the Ghana Armed Forces, B.A. Yakubu, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Colonel A.K. Ocran, J.E.O. Nunoo, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Major A.A, Afrifa and A.K. Deku, Deputy Commissioner of Police.

To administer the county effectively and efficiently, the NLC appointed seventeen commissioners, of whom fourteen were civilians to head various ministries and exercise functions formerly performed by Ministers. The seventeen commissioners together with the members of the NLC were constituted into an Executive Council that was responsible for the general direction and control of government. In addition, the NLC constituted five expert advisory committees, namely, the Economic Committee under the chairmanship of E.N. Omaboe, the Foreign Relations Committee under the chairmanship of H.R. Amonoo, the Administrative Committee under the chairmanship of T.K. Impraim, the Publicity Committee under the chairmanship of C.C. Lokko, and the National Relief Committee under the chairmanship of B.B. Asmah to assist in the urgent need of solving the pressing problems of governing the county. Finally to arrest the deteriorating standards of behaviour in business and social life, a National Courts Campaign Committee was set up and so also was the Centre of Civic Education established under the national chairmanship of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia to help the citizenry to understand and appreciate their rights and responsibilities as citizens of Ghana.

Very early in its administration, the NLC released all persons held in custody under the PDA, generally restored freedom of speech and of the press and committed itself to return the country to constitutional democratic rule as soon as it was practicable to do so. Consequently, the NLC appointed a sixteen member constitutional commission on 1 September 1966 under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Edward Akufo-Addo, then Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, to draft a constitution for the country. The NLC also appointed another sixteen-member commission under the chairmanship of Mr. J.B. Siriboe to make recommendations on new electoral system for the country. The recommendation of these commissions facilitated the birth of the second republic.

Before the NLC could successfully carry through its programme of returning his country to democratic constitutional rule two incidents of major significance occurred revealing that a military government was not immune to coup d’état and corruption. The first incident occurred in April 1967, when Lieutenants S.B. Arthur and Yeboah with a platoon of 120 soldiers stationed at Ho attempted unsuccessfully to overthrow the NLC. In the event, Lieutenant General Kotoka was killed. After a court martial, the leaders of the insurrection were publicly executed by firing squad, the first in the history of Ghana. The second incident occurred on 2 March 1969 when Lieutenant General Ankrah resigned as chairman of the NLC after he had confessed that he had collected moneys from some foreign companies to organize a political party of his own. He was replaced as chairman of the NLC Head of State by Brigadier Afrifa.

The second republican constitution was promulgated in August 1969. It provided for a unitary state; a-one camera parliament; an executive Prime Minister who must be the leader of the majority party in parliament and must himself be a Member of Parliament; a non-executive ceremonial president to the elected by an electoral college and a leader of opposition who must himself be a Member of Parliament and a member of the largest opposition party in parliament.

Elections under the 1969 Constitution were conducted on 29 August 1969 and were contested by the Progress Party, (PP), led by Dr. Busia, that won 105 seats in the 140-seat parliament; the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL), led by K.A.Gbedemah, that won 29 seats. The United Nationalist Party (PAP), led by Imoru Ayarna, which won 2 seats; the All People’s Republican Party (APRP), led by P.K.K. Quaidoo, that won 1 seat and an independent candidate. In accordance with the provision of the 1969 Constitution, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, leader of the PP who was also the Member of Parliament for the Wenchi East Constituency became the Prime Minister and leader of government on 1 October 1969 when the NLC handed over power. Mr. Edward Akufo-Addo, then Chief Justice was elected the non-executive ceremonial president and the leader of the opposition was Dr. G.K. Agama who was later replaced by Mr. E.R.T. Madjitey.

The Prime Minister met the press in 1971. This was the first of its kind to be held. He called on the media to help rebuild the nation. Busia’s government believed in the rule of law which allowed individuals to sue the government as in the case of Salley vs. government. By allowing his government to be sued, the Prime Minister said his government has demonstrated to the world that it had come to serve every Ghanaian and “not to show where power lies.”

For the period that the PP ruled the country in focused attention on reviving the national economy and developing the rural areas. While pursuit of the former entailed the adoption of International Monetary Fund and World Bank led polices of strict monetary control and adherence to budgetary estimates, pursuit of the latter meant levying additional taxes for the revenue required for rural development. The Government achieved mixed results: implementation of the economic policies became its nemesis, while the policy on rural development achieved modes successes reflected, as for example, in the continuation of the NLC policy on rural development achieved modest successes reflected, as for example, in the continuation of the NLC policy of establishing a Ministry for Rural Development and the initiation of programmes for rural health service and the supply of water and electricity to rural areas.

Second Coup

However, in the process of establishing sanity in the economy the PP Government adopted bitter and unpalatable policies such as the devaluation of the Cedi, retrenchment in the public service, particularly in the state owned enterprises; withdrawal of some elite and employment related privileges; disbanding the Trades Union Congress; implementing the Aliens Compliance Order that forced out of the country several thousands of African migrants and the dismissal of 568 senior civil and public officers from the civil and public service, some of who successfully challenged the legality of their dismissal. This made the PP Government very unpopular and provided justification for the coup of 1972. The PP was in government for only 27 months from 30th September 1969 to 13 January 1972 when it was overthrown in a military coup d’état led by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

Even though initial announcement by Colonel Acheampong revealed that the country would be governed by a National Redemption Council (NRC) comprising an Executive Council and broad based ‘representatives form various walks of life’, namely, Regional Commissioners; the Christian Council; the Moslem Community; Farmer; the Trade Unions; Chiefs. Chambers of Commerce and the Ghana Bar Association, the eventual government that was constituted was the NRC and Commissioners responsible for Ministries and the Regions. Colonel I.K. Acheampong chaired the NRC whose other members were Brigadier N.Y.R. Ashley Larsen, Chief of Defense Staff, Colonel E.A, Erskine, Army Commander, Commodore, Major A.H. Selormey, Major R.M. Baah, Major K.B. Agbo and Mr. J.H. Cobbina, Inspector General of Police.

To be continued ...

THE COUNTDOWN TO INDEPENDENCE: PT-3

On 17 July 1956 the third General Elections were held. The CPP once again won, this time round, 72 out of the 104 seats contested. The NPP won 15 seats; the NLM won 12 seats, the TC won 2 seats the MAP and the Federation of Youth Organization (FYO) won 1 seat each and 2 independent candidates also won seats. On 3 August 1956, Nkrumah as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast moved a motion, which he called ‘the motion of destiny’ in the Legislative Assembly for independence of the Gold Coast. The British Government obliged and granted the Gold Coast independence within the British Commonwealth of Nations on 6 March 1957.

The roots of Ghanaian nationalism go back to the early decades of the 20th century. It owed much to the influences of the Pan African Movement of W.W.B. Du Bois, Sylvester Williams, Edward Blyden and Marcus Garvey among others and the West African Students Union based in the United Kingdom. Dr Du Bois’ first Pan-African Congress was held in Paris in 1919; and within a year of that meeting, Casely Hayford convened the inaugural meeting of the National Congress of British West Africa, (NCBWA), in Accra. The NCBWA was intended as a platform for the intelligentsia of British West Africa to bring “before the Government the wants and aspirations of the people” for attention. In the longer term, the Congress aimed at the attainment of self-government for British West Africans by constitutional means. Among the specific demands of NCBWA were the election of African representation to both the Legislative and Municipal Councils; cessation of the exercise of judicial functions by untrained pubic servants; the opening up of the Civil Service to Africans; establishment of a British West African University and compulsory education.

Following the death of Casely Hayford in 1930 the NCBWA became moribund; and in the mid 1930s national politics became radicalized as a result of the activities of the Sierra Leonean, Isaac Wallace Johnson, and then based in the Gold Coast, and his West African Youth League. The colonial Government and the chiefs, who were seen as their collaborators came under increasing pressure as a result. Nationalist agitation was suspended during the Second World War years of 1939 to 1945 but was resumed after 1945. Indeed, the peoples of the Gold Coast actively supported the British war effort, contributing troops and funds to purchase a helicopter. The 5th Pan African Congress held in Manchester in October 1945 inspired Nkrumah returned home at the invitation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) formed on 4 August 1947 to help free the Gold Coast from colonial rule “within the shortest possible time.

At Independence

Nkrumah, who became a major driving force behind the UGCC, had been educated at Achimota College, Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Arts Philosophy in 1942 and 1943 respectively. He then proceeded to the United Kingdom, in 1945, to study law at the University of London’s London School of Economics and Political Science. At the time of his departure for the United Kingdom, Nkrumah had completed most of the requirements for the award of the degree of Ph.D. by the University of Pennsylvania but was constrained by poverty, ill health and the desire to study law as a guarantee to an independent profession in the Gold Coast to leave the United States.
In 1948 demobilized Gold Coast soldiers a peaceful march to the Christianborg Castle to present a petition to the Governor about their plight, were shot at the Christianborg crossroads resulting in three casualties; Sergeant Cornelius Frederick Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey. The riots that ensured led to the taking into custody, in remote parts of northern Gold Coast, six of the nationalist leaders of the UGCC, namely, Ako Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, Emmanuel Odarkwei Obetsebi-Lamptey, William Ofori-Atta and Kwame Nkrumah and the setting up of a Commission of Enquiry under the chairmanship of Sir Aitkin Watson.

The detained nationalists have since then come to be known as the “Big Six”. The outcome of Watson’s Commission was the Sir Henly Coussey Constitutional Committee set up in December 1949 to draw up a new Constitution for the country. The recommendations of the Coussey Committee formed the basis of the 1951 Constitution, which marked a giant step forward towards independence.

On 12 June 1949 Nkrumah parted ways with the leadership of the UGCC and formed the first political party in the history of Gold Coast, namely, the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), to fight for “Self-Government Now”. Initially the CPP opposed the Coussey Constitution and on 8 January 1950 declared “positive action” that urged a strike and non-cooperation with the colonial Government. Nkrumah and his associates were arrested, tried and imprisoned for instigating a strike. However, notwithstanding CPP’s opposition to the Coussey Constitution it soon changed its mind and contested the first General Elections in the history of the Gold Coast scheduled for 8 February 1951. The CPP won the General Elections securing 34 out of the 38 popularly elected seats in the 84-member Legislative Assembly with Nkrumah himself winning the seat for the Central Accra Constituency obtaining 22,780 votes out of a possible 23,122. On 12 February 1951 Nkrumah was released form prison and appointed Leader of Government Business in a cabinet of three expatriate and eight African ministers. The Governor however retained his reserve powers.

Under the Independence Constitution, Nkrumah as leader of the majority party in parliament became the Prime Minister of Independent Ghana. He was a Member of Parliament, head of the Cabinet and exercised executive powers. The Constitution also provided that all Ministers should be appointed from among Members of Parliament. A Governor General who would represent the monarch of the United Kingdom as ceremonial head of state and a leader of Opposition appointed form the largest minority party in parliament. The first Governor General was Sir Charles Arden-Clarke who, as Governor of the Gold Coast helped steer the country to independence. The Earl of Listowell, in 1957, placed Arden-Clarke as the last Governor General of Ghana.

The deterioration of relations between Government and the Opposition in the run up to independence was not helped by the passing of the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), in July 1958, to empower the Governor-General upon being satisfied that it was in the interest of the state so to do, to cause the detention of a citizen. Under the PDA, the Opposition was hounded for suspected acts of subversion.

On 1 July 1960 Ghana became a republic and the Republican Constitution that provided that the monarch of United Kingdom ceased to be Ghana’s head of state and there should be an elected president who was at once the head of state, executive head of government and a Member of Parliament. Nkrumah won the election for the first executive president of the Republic of Ghana with 1,016,076 votes representing 89.1% of. The total votes with Danquah of the United Party as the other contestant polling 124,623 votes representing 10.9%.

After Independence

The post independence period also witnessed tremendous social and economic achievements. The CPP Government continued to build on its successes in the field of education, the development of health care facilities and other forms of social infrastructure.

In 1961, for example, a Compulsory Free Education Act was passed and the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology became autonomous degree awarding universities. In 1962, the University College of Cape Coast was established as the third public university to train graduate teachers and it became a full university in its won right ten years later. Similarly, infrastructural developments continued to witness vas expansion; in 1958 the Ghana Airways and the Black Star Shipping Line was established as national carriers followed by the building of Tema as the first fully planned residential and industrial which was subsequently linked to Accra to west with city dual carriage, four lane motorway.

On 23 January 1966 the Hydro-Electric Project also known as the Akosombo Dam was completed at the cost of US $140,000,000 to provided electricity for domestic and industrial consumption. Politically, the CPP Government made its greatest impact in foreign affairs. On the day of independence Nkrumah declared that independence of Ghana was “meaningless unless” it was “linked up with the total liberation of “. Consequently, the Government invested considerable energy and resources to hasten the liberation of African countries still under colonial rule. In practical terms the Government established the Bureau of African Affairs to coordinate the Government’s African programmes and to assist African liberation movements.

On 15 April 1958, a conference of independent African states, then numbering only eight, namely, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, the Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic) was convened in Accra to discuss the liberation of the rest of Africa from colonial rule an generally the development of Africa. Again in December 1958, the All Africa was convened in Accra. The period also witnessed the settlement in Ghana of several blacks in the Diaspora, prominent among the being Dr. Du Bois who commenced the Encyclopedia Africana Project and Padmore who was joint secretary with Nkrumah at the 1945 Pan African Congress in Manchester.

In May 1959, only two years after independence, the Government began to lay the foundation for African unity when it established the Ghana-Guinea Union and in December 1960 the Union was enlarged to include Mali. Ultimately, the Organization of African Unity when it established the Ghana-Guinea Union and in December 1960 the Union was established in Addis Ababa on 25 May 1963 in partial fulfillment of the Government’s dream of African unity and a continental government. It was, however, ironical that while the CPP Government worked so hard to promote African Unity it systematically dismantled existing structures of continental unity such as the West African court of Appeal and the West African Research Organization.

To be continued ...

THE COUNTDOWN TO INDEPENDENCE: PT-2

Ghana's Independence Struggle

Partly as a result of the several administrative, judicial, financial and social measures taken by the British to consolidate their presence in the Gold Coast and also the pressure put on her by the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to check possible French incursions into the northern parts of the Gold Coast, Her Majesty’s Government annexed Asante and the Northern Territories to the British Crown by two Orders-in-Council of 1st January 1902.

The former was the result of conquest in the Yaa Asantewa War of 1900-01 and the latter being the conclusion of Treaties with the help of the Fante Surveyor George Ekem Ferguson. Trans-Volta Togoland seized from Germany at the end of World War I became an adjunct of the Gold Coast Colony with the approval of the League of Nations in July 1921. This completed the territorial definition of modern Ghana and also the beginning of colonial rule property defined.

British colonialism in the Gold Coast was all embracing; it involved economic, social and political infrastructural development. Economically, cash crop farming and the mining boom of the last decade of the 19th century promised great economic opportunities. In 1890 and 1901 palm oil and palm kernels constituted 44% and 48% respectively of export revenue. From a modest export of 80 lbs. of cocoa beans worth £4 in 1891, the Gold Coast became the world’s number one producer of cocoa in 1911 with an output of 88.9 million lbs. worth £6 million. In that year, cocoa accounted for 46% of Gold Coast’s total value of exports.

The country also experienced a “gold rush” in 1901 with an estimated 3,000 concessions taken up. The promise of prosperity held out by cocoa and minerals underscored the need for a good infrastructure of railways and roads. Between 1898 and 1901 the mining town of Tarkwa was linked by a 41-mile railroad to Sekondi. In 1902 the line was extended 124 miles to Obuasi and in 1903 it was further extended 168 miles to Kumasi. Construction of Accra-Kumasi railway, begun in 1905, was completed in 1923. The third railway a branch linking Kade, a diamond mining centre, to Huni Valley was completed in 1926.

Between 1895 when the Public Works Department was established and 1927 when Governor Frederick Gordon Guggisberg left Gold Coast, a total of 3,338 miles of motorable roads were constructed of which 260 (21.8%) miles were targeted. By then it was possible to travel from Kumasi to Tamale a distance of 240miles in twelve hours, and to do a circuit of the Northern Territories in a week.

Breakwaters were constructed in Sekondi and Accra between 1908 and 1910. Construction of an artificial deep-sea harbour was begun at Takoradi in 1926 and completed in 1928. Until the construction of Tema Harbour in 1964, Takoradi harbour was Ghana’s sole deep/sea harbour.

The burden of the development of social infrastructure was mainly borne by Christian missions. Indeed, before the turn of the 19th century education occupied a low place in the colonial Government’s order of priorities. By 1881 the Basel, Wesleyan, Bremen and Catholic Missions owned 136 out of the 139 schools in the country. The Education Ordinance of 1882 merely set up a Board of Education and appointed a Director of Education. Another Education Ordinance of 1887 provided for token annual grants of £100 and £50 to be made to the Basel and Wesleyan Missions, respectively. By that date Government maintained only two schools, namely the Cape Coast Castle School and the Elmina Dutch School. From the beginning of the 20th century Government began to pay some attention to education. The number of Government schools consequently rose from 7 in 1902 to 22 in 1925.

In the field of higher education as in elementary school education, it was the Missions that led the way. Akropong Seminary founded in 1848 in Akuapem, Mfantsipim founded in 1876. Wesley Girls High School founded in 1884, St. Nicholas Grammar School (now known as Adisadel College) founded in 1910 and St. Augustine’s College founded in 1936, all in Cape Coast, The Evangelical Presbyterian Church Seminary was founded in 1864 in Peki, Wesley College founded in 1924 in Kumasi and Presbyterian Secondary School founded in 1938 in Krobo Odumase, were all established by the leading Christian Missions.

As at 1913 Government did not own a single secondary school in the Gold Coast. In that year Government’s education budget was only £25,000 or 3% of the national budget. In 1931, considered the peak, the budget was only £250,000 or 7% of the national budget. Greater strides were made under Governor Guggisberg, who was governor from 1919 to 1927, who considered improvement in education as the ultimate goal of all his economic policies.

In 1922 he set up 4 Junior Trade, industrial schools at Yendi, Asanti-Mampong, Asuansi and Kyebi. He also initiated the construction of Achimota College in 1924 and appointed Rev. Frazer and the Gold Coast educationist Dr James Kwegir Aggrey as Principal and Assistant vice Principal respectively in October. Achimota opened its doors to students in January 1927. As part of his plans for encouraging education, Guggisberg set up an Education Committee in 1925 whose membership included such prominent Gold Coasters as Nana Ofori Ata I, Mr Hutton-Mills and Dr. Quartey Pappafio.

Guggisberg also brought to fruition Governor Hugh Clifford’s plans to build a much larger hospital than the old colonial hospital, which stood on the site of the present High Coourt buildings. In January 1921 he laid the foundation for Korle-Bu Hospital, which was duly opened on 9 October 1923. This was the 9th of the hospitals built by him in the colony, Asante and the Northern Territories. Guggisberg’s plans for a medical school were shelved by his successor, Governor Alexander Ransford Slater who was governor from 1928 to 1932. The medical school which formed part of his plans to develop Achimota into a University to train doctors locally had to wait till 1962 when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah commissioned the University of Ghana Medical School. By 1939 the Gold Coast had 38 hospitals and dispensaries.

Accra was provided with its first drinking fountain in 1910. In 1934, Kumasi had its first pipe-borne water supply and in the same year the Water Works Bill was passed to authorize payment for the supply of pipe-borne water to the public. The bill was fiercely resisted and was one of the issues, which the Gold Coast and Asante Delegation to London raised with the Colonial Secretary in 1934.

The first electricity installation in the country was built at Sekondi in 1919. Accra, Koforidua and Kumasi were provided with electricity in 1921, 1925 and 1927 respectively.

Before Independence

In the six years that elapsed between the first General Elections in 1951 and Ghana's attainment of independence in 1957, the government of the CPP took bold initiatives to advance the development of the country economically, socially and politically. In the economic sphere, it launched a 5-year Development Plan for the country.

Its achievements included the sealing of many of the country’s existing roads and the construction of new ones; the construction of a bridge over the Volta at Adomi, to facilitate travel between what is now the Volta Region and the rest of the country; the construction of a new and modern harbour at Tema; the extension of Huni valley to kade railway line to Accra and tema; support for the cocoa industry and formulation of plans for the building of a hydro-electricity plant at Akosombo.

In the social field, the CPP Government launched, in 1952, the free compulsory primary education programme for children aged between 6 and 12 years. It increased Government expenditure on primary education from £207,500 in 1950-51 to over £900,000 in 1952. As a result, the number of registered pupils in elementary schools increased from 212,000 in 1950 to 270,000 in 1952. Sixteen new Teacher Training Colleges were established to increase the output of teachers while the number of Government-assisted Secondary Schools increased from 13 in 1951 to 31 in 1955. In 1952 the CPP Government established the Kumasi College of Arts Science and Technology and co-operated with Nigeria, the Gambia and Sierra Leone to establish the West African Examinations Council to organize and administer examinations in the four countries. University education was free and textbooks were supplied to all pupils in primary, middles and secondary schools.

Politically, the CPP Government accelerated the pace of Africanisation of the civil and public service, resulting in the rise in the number of Africans in the so-called “European posts” from 171 in 1949 to 916 in 1954 and to 3,000 in 1957. It also introduced a new system of Local Government with an elected majority in 1952. But the biggest political challenge to the Government during the period was the threat to the cohesion of the state.

Amendments were made to the Constitution in 1952 and Nkrumah, as leader of the largest party in the Legislative Assembly, was designated Prime Minister. Further amendments to the Constitution in 1954 excluded ex-officio members from the Executive Council, now accountable to the Legislative Assembly and consisted of a minimum of eight members of the Legislative Assembly nominated by the Prime Minister assigned portfolios to the Ministers. Finally, the Constitution provided for a 104-member Legislative Assembly elected by universal adult suffrage and a Speaker. The resultant elections on 15 June 1954 were contested by the CPP that won 71 seats; the Northern People’s Party (NPP), that won 12 seats; the Togoland Congress Party (TC) that won 2 seats; the Ghana Congress Party (GCP); the Muslim Association Party (MAP) and the Anlo Youth Organization (AYO) that won 1 seat each. In addition 16 independent candidates won seats in the Assembly.

Various constitutional conferences held in 1956 to narrow the difference between the CPP and the NLM and the other opposition parties amicably failed to achieve tangible results and violence broke out in Asante resulting in destruction of property, injuries and fatalities across the political divide. In the midst of the upheaval, the NLM and the other opposition parties continued to press for constitutional changes while the CPP continued to demand independence. In the event, the British Government decided that elections would be held again in July 1956 and the victorious party would lead the county to independence.

To be continued ...