My Kwame Nkrumah

Nana Kwame Appiah, my grandfather, was the Adontenhene of Toase in Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region when the famous Chief Owusu, the father of the equally famous Nana Akwasi Agyeman, was the Chief of Toase.

Nana Kwame Appiah was a diehard UP supporter. He bought a Peugeot Caravan for the party. As far as I can remember, certainly from the age of four, he told us about the United Party and mentioned names such as Baffour Akoto, Kofi Busia, Chief Dombo, B.F. Kusi and many more.

I did not hear anything positive about the “CCP”. This was how he called Nkrumah’s CPP. The whole extended family followed our Patriarch and became members or sympathizers of the United Party and its traditions.

Later on in life, I began to appreciate the works of Kwame Nkrumah. I believe that Nkrumah should be seen not only in terms of the physical things he built, which were massive and no one else comes near him, but also in terms of how he affected human lives.

Undoubtedly, he was the most important person in the fight for Ghana’s independence and also mentored several African leaders fighting for independence in their respective countries. He brought hope to the Black people everywhere on the globe.

Nkrumah championed the concept of African Personality when he declared that: “The African must assert his own personality and develop according to his own ways of life, his own customs, traditions and culture.”

I do not like everything Nkrumah did. But then, I do not even like everything I do myself. Such is the fallibility of man.

During Nkrumah’s reign, Ghanaians were respected throughout the world. Ghanaians who studied abroad returned home immediately after their studies to take up positions to help build Ghana with a sense of pride. Sub-Saharan Africans abroad all portrayed themselves as Ghanaians. Everybody was proud to be associated with Ghana.

Ghanaians were held in high esteem throughout the world. Unlike today, when young Ghanaians are struggling to travel abroad to seek greener pastures because of harsh economic conditions, due to corruption and mismanagement. Nobody dared to lay his hand on a Ghanaian. In our days, we have witnessed the slaying of Ghanaians in many parts of the world, including The Gambia and Nigeria.

Nkrumah did all he could to eliminate tribalism and promoted loyalty to the State of Ghana. This position is exemplified by a statement he made in his book, Africa Must Unite: “We were engaged in a kind of war, a war against poverty and disease, against ignorance, against tribalism and disunity. We needed to secure the conditions which could allow us to pursue our policy of reconstruction and development.”

Through the Ghana Education Trust, Nkrumah established secondary schools in all parts of Ghana. This enabled poor children, including me, to access secondary education.

Again, Nkrumah established the Ghana Medical School against all odds and made it possible for me and thousands of Ghanaian young women and men to be trained as doctors in Ghana. The vital role that doctors trained in Ghana have played in the development of Ghana is evident to all.

Kwame Nkrumah established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) to develop and promote the peaceful utilization of nuclear, biotechnology, and other related technologies for socioeconomic development through research, training, and commercialization, and also to advise the government on policies related to the peaceful applications of these technologies.

Although GAEC has had a chequered history through coup d’état, misrule, political ignorance, and neglect by governments, through its institutions such as the Biotechnology & Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI), Ghana Space Science & Technology Institute (GSSTI), Graduate School of Nuclear & Allied Sciences (GNAS), National Nuclear Research Institute (NRI), Nuclear Power Institute (NPI), Radiation Protection Institute (RPI), Radiological & Medical Sciences Research Institute (RMSRIS), it has advanced to become one of the scientific and research institutions spearheading the development of this country.

Kwame Nkrumah established the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cape Coast University and the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Komfo Anokye Hospital.

Nkrumah did not have a sufficient number of technocrats – doctors, engineers, architects, scientists, etc. and the greatest of all tools, the computer, the internet, G.P.S, scanners, mobile phones, etc. were not available. But, think about what he did with the little that was available to him.

Factories and Industries: State Boatyards Corporation, State Brick and Tile Corporation, State Cannery Corporation (Nsawam), State Cocoa Products Corporation, State Distilleries Corporation, State Electronic Products Corporation Sanyo factory, (Tema), Glass Manufacturing Corporation, State Marble Works Corporation, State Paints Corporation, Sheet Metal Works Corporation, State Textile Manufacturing Corporation Akosombo, GIHOC Nzema Oil Mills Company Limited, GIHOC Vegetable Oil Mills Company Limited, Tema Food Complex Corporation (TFCC), Fibre Bag Manufacturing Corporation (Kumasi Jute Factory), Kwame Nkrumah Steel Works Corporation, Paper Conversion Corporation, State Footwear Corporation (Kumasi shoe factory), Sugar Products Corporation (Komenda & Asutuare), State Advertising Company, GIHOC Bottling Company Ltd, GIHOC Pharmaceuticals, GIHOC Paper Conversion Co. Ltd., GIHOC Printing & Paper Products, GIHOC Refrigeration and Household Products Ltd., Mosquito Coil Co Ltd, Abosso Glass Factory, Zuarungu Meat Factory, Wenchi Tomato Factory, Kade Match Factory, Akosombo Textiles Limited, Pwalugu Tomato Factory, Tarkwa Bonsa Tyre Factory, Bolgatanga Rice Mill Factory, Cocoa Silo, Tema were all built by Nkrumah.

Nkrumah built State Owned Enterprises and Other Projects including: Ghana Black Star Line with 15 ships, Bank of Ghana (BoG), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), National Investment Bank (NIB), State Insurance Company (SIC), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ghana Oil Company (GOIL), Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GHAPOHA),

Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), The National Management and Productivity Institute, Ghana Film Industries Accra, Ghana Airways Corporation, Afienya Gliding School, Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC), Cocoa Marketing Board (COCOBOD) and VALCO.

Housing and Hotel Projects: In Accra (Labone Estate, Kanda Estates, Osu Ringway Estates, Airport Residential Area); In Kumasi (Patasi Estate, Kwadaso Estate, Buokrom Estates, North and South Suntreso); Tema Township (Communities), Army Barracks – Tema, Army Barracks – Sunyani, Tamale Air Field, Army Officers Bungalows – Burma Camp, Air Force Quarters on the way to Burma Camp, YWCA, New Government Transport Terminal – Kumasi, New Government Transport Terminal– Accra, Black Star Square, Block of Flats for Volta River Authority, High Rise Office Blocks for the Income Tax,  Police Headquarters, Prison Warden Quarters, Police Quarters at Tesano, Airport and Mamprobi, New Judges Bungalows, Larterbiokorshie Flats and Peduase Lodge.

Hotels (Star, Meridian, Ambassador, Continental now Golden Tulip Accra, Atlantic, City Hotel Catering Rest Houses now Golden Tulip Kumasi).

Other projects: Ghana Museums, Ghana Film Corporation, Ghana News Agency, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Akosombo Dam, Accra (Kotoka) International Airport (paradoxically named after the person who overthrew him), Accra-Tema Motorway, Tema Harbour and Adomi Bridge.

Kwame Nkrumah wrote several books:

1.Negro History: European Government in Africa, The Lincolnian, 12 April 1938, p. 2 (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) – see Special Collections and Archives, Lincoln University

2.Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957) ISBN 0-901787-60-4

3.Africa Must Unite (1963) ISBN 0-901787-13-2

4.African Personality (1963)

5.Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965) ISBN 0-901787-23-X

6.Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (1967) ISBN 0-901787-54-X

7.African Socialism Revisited (1967)

8.Voice From Conakry (1967) ISBN 90-17-87027-3

9.Dark Days in Ghana (1968) ISBN 0-7178-0046-6

10.Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968) – first introduction of Pan-African pellet compass ISBN 0-7178-0226-4

11.Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation (1970) ISBN 0-901787-11-6

12.Class Struggle in Africa (1970) ISBN 0-901787-12-4

13.The Struggle Continues (1973) ISBN 0-901787-41-8

14.Speak of Freedom (1973) ISBN 0-901787-14-0

15.Revolutionary Path (1973) ISBN 0-901787-22-1

None of the detractors of Nkrumah has written a single book.

There were at least 8 attempts on his life in the following locations: Dodowa Vilas, Railway Station Annex, UAC Motors, Accra Stadium, Kumasi Assembly Hall, Flag Staff House, and Kulungugu and around the main ministries in Accra.

Nkrumah is dead and gone.

However, he has relatives and children, and the legacy of Nkrumah, a global icon, must be respected.

Nkrumah’s greatness and his unparalleled contribution to Ghana and Africa were sealed when, in the year 2000, he was voted African Man of the Millennium by a BBC World Service listeners’ poll.

Asɛm asa!

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The author, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, is a Ghanaian physician and cardiothoracic surgeon. He is also a former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.