Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy

1. Early Life

1 EARLY LIFE IN ACCRA, ON 6 MARCH 1957, over six hundred reporters and photographers from the world’s press corps were assembled to record the independence celebrations of Ghana – the first of Britain’s African colonies to win its independence. Never before had so much of the world’s attention focused on a single event in Africa. TheColdWarwasbrieflyforgottenasMoscowandWashington vied with each other in offers of help. Vice-President Nixon led the American delegation, and in the United States every television network ran special features on Ghana, showing shots of Kwame Nkrumah’s recent visit to President Eisenhower. The Soviet delegation invited the Ghanaian ministers to Moscow. From Britain, Prime Minister Macmillan promised all the help that was possible, and said it was a great day, too, for Britain, which rejoiced in Ghana’s success. R. A. Butler and Sir Alan Burns a former Governor, joined the celebrations. Pandit Nehru, who had been the fiercest critic of Britain during the Suez crisis in 1956, pledged Indian support, and reminded the world that Britain deserved congratulations too for the part it had played in achieving such a happy, dignified and stable handover of power – so much more dignified than the unseemly scramble in India under Mountbatten ten years before. Canada, then as now, was ready with practical 18 plans for aid on a substantial scale. From British Guiana, Chedi Jagan and his rival, Forbes Burnham – whose dispute Nkrumah had settled personally – made it clear that their country wanted to follow Ghana’s lead towards independence. James Griffiths, Colonial Secretary in the Labour Government, who had done so much to forward Ghana’s cause, and the Reverend Michael Scott – the stalwart opponent of apartheid – joined the celebrations. The Earl of Dundee, showing remarkable prescience advised the new country to develop its own constitution from its own roots, and not to follow empty imitations of a European pattern. Ralph Bunche, who had observed that the drawback to gradualism was that it could not be enjoyed posthumously, represented the United Nations, and forecast that Ghana would be the eightyfirst member. Countries from both sides of the East-West divide offered gifts and loans to assist this pioneering African country to achieve progress and prosperity. Britain and France, the Soviet Union and the United States, India and Poland, East and West Germany, all contributed. Multinational companies – Mobil, Shell, Elder Dempster and others – set up trust funds for technical education, founded new chairs at the University at Legon near Accra, and offered scholarships for Ghanaian students to go abroad for specialist training. The Duchess of Kent – representing the Queen – and the British Governor General, Sir Charles Arden–Clarke, played their full part in the celebrations. But, for everyone there – the world’s press, the diplomats from East and West, the exuberant Ghanaian people – there was one figure which outshone all others. This was Kwame Nkrumah. Less than ten years before, he had returned to the Gold Coast as an almost penniless student, but in that time he had electrified the people with his determination and charisma, and created and led the most effective political party in modern Africa. Finally, to start the independence celebrations, at midnight on 5 March – the moment of independence – he had stood before EARLY LIFE 19 20 KWAME NKRUMAH - VISION AND TRAGEDY tens of thousands of deliriously happy supporters, and with tears streaming down his face, told his people ‘Ghana will be free for ever’. Few former colonies can have had a more auspicious start. Despite subsequent charges of neo-colonialist plots, there is little doubt of the genuine offers of goodwill and help – as if the whole world was willing Ghana to succeed. Most informed commentators expected that it would. The way had been carefully prepared. Arden-Clarke, a tough governor who would stand no nonsense either from Nkrumah’s party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), or from interfering Secretaries of State in the Colonial Office, had played a key role. He had welded a close friendship and partnership with the CPP leaders based on mutual trust and respect, which enabled Ghana to have six years of serious preparation for independence. The high hopes were based on very solid foundations. A robustly independent judiciary, upholding the best traditions of British justice and supported by a legal system staffed by able Ghanaian graduates, fulfilled its role with confidence and dignity, and with the full support of the people. A...