Kwame Nkrumah , a Founder with a vision

His vision lives on , he never dies Kojo Tamakloe

The first president of Ghana , Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to my mind is an embodiment of his social up bringing. Kwame Nkrumah before going for his teacher training was I n the seminary learning to become a Roman catholic priest . The Catholic Church in many ways has socialist doctrine , “each for all and all for each”. They take vows of poverty and in many ways it is egalitarian . We see the example in Mother Teresa Of Calcutta . She lived for the poor and the down trodden . Nkrumah’s dogma and doctrines relate to this , “ the masses’ , we the people. So he translated the Catholic working of groups to his political economic philosophy . One can remember after Jesus died and was taken to heaven . The disciples lived together , sharing what they had . “ One for all and all for one”

At Achimota College as a trainee teacher , one hears he was an easy going person , who could even entertain the whole College if the movie projector failed . But what must have moved him most would be a passage like “ Still in thy youth ,thou darest to look , far on to centuries of time” What a visionary statement ? You look far onto centuries of time . Very futuristic . So in his studies and travels over the world , he held on to that vision and dream . An independent Gold Coast and a United States of Africa . So by independence we hear him saying 'We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity. We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.' Nkrumah spent time in the diasporas during the war years 1939-1945 . He saw how the German bully Hitler in many ways isolated and conquered the Europeans , but when they came together in an alliance they were able to over come . Nkrumah must have been an avid naturalist also. He must have observed how in nature the birds of prey or the large animals divided and isolated the victims before pouncing . their cries would go unheeded and so Nkrumah said 'Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all man kind. 'He goes on to say to Africans both Arabs and dark skinned or chocolate color , “ Today we are one . If in the past the Sahara divided us, now it unites us and an injury to one is an injury to all” We did not listen and we paid a price both politically and economically . Today we have Somalia emerging from having been a failed State, Central African Republic is in chaos , Congo a country with resources 3 x that of Europe and USA is under developed and still at war . Sudan is now North and S Sudan , not to talk of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote D” Ivoire, Chad, Niger, Guinea, Mali, Egypt , Libya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Lesotho, Rwanda , Burundi. Our future , the children have not been spared either . In all these wars it is the children and women who suffer most , being raped, maimed, deprived of stability , being used as child soldiers or growing up in refugee camps . There they are deprived of education and the cycle repeats itself . “ On June 16, 1976, the fascist regime of South Africa murdered scores of African Youth in Soweto for simply protesting European, racist, colonial education. Africa's children worldwide have long been sacrificed at the hands of imperialism .Children are misused and exploited in factories from Asia to the Caribbean to produce everything from tennis shoes to baseballs at wages that won't buy a decent meal and surely not the products they produce” . Sekou Toure sums it up "Therefore, every social class, every man, every women, every youth in Africa is directly affected by anything that may influence Africa's future political, economic, social or cultural (life). It is (our) duty to labor to speed the pace of our people's progress." — Seku Toure Only a Unified, Socialist Africa can protect our children from foreign domination!

So there are many Africans in the diasporas who labor but in vain . In the last few years we saw the plight of Africans in France and today to go to UK our colonial home one needs to put a bond down so endure you return . That money will be used to earn interest for the colonial master . But we will gladly go and do the menial jobs of washing the old ladies and men , cleaning the homes, washing the dishes instead of being masters in our own homes We write about Africa’s wealth but we see it not . We cannot industrialize as the markets are too small. Our leaders are easily bought and we look for give aways from the high table . Our infra structure is non existent and we have lost our originality, enterprise, innovative prowess . We regurgitate theories that do not suit us and adopt practices that do not suit us Nkrumah always as a pragmatist and a scientist of a sort , action and reaction should be equal and opposite brought in the PDA . He says “but over the next few years 'Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of a totalitarian kind. 'We needed to run at a faster pace but to overcome the negative and resistance forces certain conditions needed to be put in place. Singapore and Malaysia reaped the rewards and also China AS we remember our Founder and Africa’s man of the millennium , let us say again in his words “ Africa must unite. We have before us not only an opportunity but a historic duty. It is in our hands to join our strength taking sustenance from our diversity, honoring our rich, and varied traditions and cultures, but acting together for their protection and benefit.

Why must we listen to Nkrumah? Judge a person by the company he keeps and he had the best haile Selassie, Sekou Toure. Franz fanon, Dr Obote, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Martin Luther king jr, Oliver tambo, Lee Kuan yew, Ben Bella and many more . His works also speak for themselves Surely “ here was a man when comes such another” , W Shakespeare

Forward ever backward never

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist who believes in African unity lies the solution to Africa’s underdevelopment