I will be generous and brief.
1. You said that you tried to post on USA Africa Dialogue, but couldn't get access. Thus, I have copied USA Africa Dialogue on my response to your email.
2. My response to Papa Ogugua on USA Africa Dialogue was just an opinion piece, not a book manuscript, or a Ph. D. dissertation. I hope you get my drift.
3. You don't have to tell me to update my views on Ghana's economic and political history. I am a trained and published historian of Ghana. My views are up to date. The problem is that my views are obviously different from yours. You would not tell your undergraduate students to update their views simply because you disagree with them!
4. I wish you could state your views on Nkrumah that offers different perspectives or even debunk my views. It is unproductive and unscholarly to respond that " I sincerely hope you'll take the trouble to update your knowledge on Ghana's economic and political history," more so when you have not offered your own views.
5. You state "I might also add Dennis Austin's Politics in Ghana 1946-1960 (Oxford University Press, 1966) for your instruction in these matters." I believe in historiographies and would only say that Austin's book contributes to our understanding of the epochal moment in Ghanaian history. But since then other scholars have revised, questioned, and buried some of his conclusions in the margins of Ghanaian historiography. Besides, as a historian of Ghana I have done original research on the Nkrumah era and therefore don't have to excavate the views of Austin to replenish my professional credentials. If you still have Austin's book on your desk, please, remove and place it on your shelf. That will enable you to have space to accommodate new books on Ghana that distills Austin's book.
Hopefully, you will share your Austin-driven views with us.
Kwabena
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 2:20 PM
To: Akurang-Parry, Kwabena
Subject: Fwd: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: OVERTHROW OF NKRUMAH 47 YEARS AGO!
I couldn't help responding to your post on Nkrumah last night. Alas, the piece couldn't get on to the list. I sincerely hope you'll take the trouble to update your knowledge on Ghana's economic and political history.
I might also add Dennis Austin's Politics in Ghana 1946-1960 (Oxford University Press, 1966) for your instruction in these matters.
With regards,
James Ahiakpor
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: | Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: OVERTHROW OF NKRUMAH 47 YEARS AGO! |
|---|---|
| Date: | Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:24:48 -0800 |
| From: | James Ahiakpor <james.ahiakpor@csueastbay.edu> |
| To: | usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com |
Caveat: You would realize these are perspectives on Nkrumah that I have restated time and again.
Nkrumah declared himself Osagyefo [Warrior-Saviour] because he was the seer of Ghana's independence. And Nkrumah never abandoned his focus. He pushed the winds of anticolonialism beyond the reach of the neocolonial reformist-induced elites like J. B. Danquah. In sum, Nkrumah revolutionalized nationalism around his able and charismatic leadership. Thereafter, some of the reformist, elitist nationalists never recognized his leadership and consequently sought to assassinate him by any means possible. They even spread rumors that Nkrumah was the son of slaves!
There can be no doubt that Nkrumah's political demise was due to his rigid bureaucratic tendencies (not dictatorship), including the imprisonment of his political opponents. But Nkrumah, with all the "dictatorial" assets imputed to him, for instance, by Prof. Ali Mazrui, did not seek to murder his opponents. Rather, it was his celebrated "democratic" opponents who sought to assassinate him on several occasions. Nkrumah did not steal a pin from Ghanaians. It was his detractors who became pen-armed robbers. Nkrumah certainly applied subtle constitutional reconfigurations to marginalize his reckless political opponents who were in the pay of the imperialists. Not surprisingly, his opponents with the assistance of the CIA removed him from power in 1966.
In my view, Nkrumah was a not a dictator; he was rather a self-assured, hard-hitting and no- nonsense bureaucrat whose unparalleled vision for Ghana and Africa as a whole was ahead of his political opponents who were deeply planted in unredeemable neocolonial and benighted provinces of thought and action.
Scholars, who on occasion, characterize Nkrumah as worthless fail to consider the uncertainties and roadblocks that existed at the dawn of independence, characterized by competing groups and ideologies, and sometimes fueled by the very imperialists that had reluctantly aborted their domination.
Cradled in kente cloth and batakari or agbaja smock, powerful symbols of Ghanaian culture, Nkrumah's ideas of cultural renaissance contributed to the incubation of popular ideologies of "African personality," "Black is Beautiful", and "I am Black and Proud," indeed, the empowerment of peoples of African descent and the marginalized all over the globe.
Nkrumah built several industries based on natural resources produced in the country. To harness the rapid industrialization of newly independent Ghana, he built the industrial township of Tema and the dam at Akosombo to supply power. Numerous roads were built to link different parts of the country.
In the field of education, Nkrumah built thousands of institutions, including elementary schools, secondary or high schools, teacher training colleges, technical schools, polytechnics, and research institutes. He built two new universities - the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast - and also expanded the University of Ghana which had been established in 1948 to meet the growing demand for university education in the Gold Coast.
Indeed, Nkrumah's educational efforts were not confined to the traditional classroom. Adult education and civic education were introduced nation-wide to complement literacy and civic duties of the citizenry. Mobile vans fitted with public address systems also disseminated public health education, etiquettes, and social mores that have made Ghana more livable. Indeed, if today Ghanaians are noted for their courtesies and politeness, the credit should go to Nkrumah for weaving civility into the national fabric as a part of the process of nation-building.
Nkrumah used roughly ten years – 1957-1966 - to build "modern" Ghana. Without Nkrumah, Ghana would have remained a backwater. Today, the avid detractors of Nkrumah agree and do champion the fact that to the end, Osagyefo [Warrior-Savior] Nkrumah remained a man of matchless honor and integrity.
Long Live Osagyefo! Long Live Kwame Nkrumah! Long Live the CPP!
Kwabena
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Anunoby, Ogugua [AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu]
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 12:10 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: OVERTHROW OF NKRUMAH 47 YEARS AGO!
--Kwame Nkrumah was a great man with a great vision for Ghana and Africa. He wrongly made himself the sole custodian and fulcrum of that vision. Why else would he have declared himself Osagyefo and president-for-life? Such political self-positioning when not moderated by compelling, introspective self-discipline and a free and active opposition, inevitably results in gross misdirection and misunderstanding of self and the polity, and gross abuse of power and the rights of fellow citizens.
Nkrumah started well but seemed to have lost his way well before the end of his rule. He championed Africa's causes and was very active in the Non-aligned movement with such leaders as Fidel Castro of Cuba, Pandit Nehru of India, Gamel Nasser of Egypt, and Josef Tito of Yugoslavia. His rule, in the opinion of many, became more imperial than democratic in an emerging, freedom hungry, post-colonial country. He became too much of an internationalist at the expense of Ghana it seemed. Ghana presidency had become for him, no better than a ladder to the apex of the international political stage. He eyes strayed so far off the Ghana ball that he could only heard what he wanted to hear, and see what he wanted to see. He had his eyes on the hills without his feet on the ground.
Was Nkrumah as good for Ghana and he seemed to be for Africa and the developing world? A critical mass of Ghanaians at the time did not seem to think so. Nkrumah's apparent loss of focus helped to create enabling conditions for successful interference in Ghana's affairs by foreign powers as some have claimed. Nkrumah's overthrow by Ghana's military forces seemed popular at the time. The forces' case against him and therefore justification for their seizure of power at the time, seemed unassailable?
Unfortunately, gross misrule of Ghana followed Nkrumah's overthrow. The non-recognition of Nkrumah's contribution to Ghana's political independence from Britain by his immediate military successors, and the humiliation visited on him by them was disgraceful for many. The man was imperfect but he was not completely undeserving of some dignity out of office. History has revisited Nkrumah's rule of Ghana. History has been so kind to him that it has for the most part ignored the many abuses of his government. Nkrumah's resurrection has been near glorious. He is now acknowledged as possibly Ghana's greatest leader and one of Africa's greatest. The many abuses that trailed his rule are mostly forgotten or swept under the carpet.
Collective memory loss is always a possibility especially when history is so inaccurately rewritten, that its more significant lessons are either not learned or ignored. History they say, repeats itself. Bad history must not be allowed to repeat itself. A people should forgive and move on. They must not forget.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Akurang-Parry, Kwabena
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 4:22 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - OVERTHROW OF NKRUMAH 47 YEARS AGO!
LONG LIVE NKRUMAH! LONG LIVE GHANA! LONG LIVE PAN-AFRICANISM!
On 21 Feb., 1966, Kwame Nkrumah flew out of Accra to Hanoi, Democratic Republic of North Vietnam at the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh. Nkrumah was to offer his Vietnam War solution. Ghana was left in the control of a 3-man Presidential Commission, consisting of a traditional Chief and 2 politicians... (Ghanaweb, Feb 24, 2013). PLEASE, READ THE REST
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=52409
Kwabena
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
--
James C.W. Ahiakpor, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Economics
California State University, East Bay
Hayward, CA 94542
510-885-3137
510-885-7175 (Fax; Not Private)
No comments:
Post a Comment