Samia Yaba Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, launched the Italian version of her father’s book, ‘Africa Must Unite’ at a meeting in Brescia – north of Italy.

Kwame Nkrumah, a leading protagonist in Africa’s liberation struggle for Independence authored 15 books; among them were: Revolutionary Path, Africa Must Unite, The Challenge of Congo, Voice of Conakry, I speak of Freedom, Towards Colonial Freedom, Dark Days in Ghana and Neo-Colonialism:The last stage of Imperialism.

Samia, the Chairwoman and Member of Parliament on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) lived in Italy working as a Freelance Journalist till her interest in politics took her to Ghana in 2008.

The launching, organised in collaboration with the Ghana Citizens Associations in Brescia, ‘Casa Padana’ (a Cooperative Credit Bank) and ‘Dominato Leonense’ Foundation attracted communities of Ghanaians not only in Brescia but from other cities. Present among them were: Bishop Samuel Oscar Mensah (Peace & Love Church in Brescia), Benjamin Amu (President of Ghana Citizens Association - Brescia) and Henry George (Proprietor of Window Tech and Patron of the Association). There were also a good number of Italians including the Director General of ‘Casa Padana’, Luigi Pettinati.

In a short remark before Samia took over to launch the book which she wrote parts of the initial paragraphs, Mr. Pettinati said his organisation has been to Ghana and seen the progress the country is making. He praised the works of Samia Nkrumah for empowering people in her constituency adding it’s a great initiative in launching the Italian version of the book ‘Africa Must Unite’ hoping Italians will read it and know the good works of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and what he did for Africa.

Speaking before the audience, Samia expressed her profound gratitude to all the participants. She said indeed Ghana is making progress and for 20 years power has been transferred smoothly from one political to another, a situation she mentioned shows Ghana’s maturity. “It doesn’t matter which political party you belong, we are one people,” she told the audience referring to the Ghanaians present. On the book ‘Africa Must Unite’, she also mentioned she has read it over and over again and that its contents has changed her life being one reason she decided to go home (Ghana) after 25 years staying outside the country. ”The message in the book gave me the courage and focus to go back home to do what I am doing now,” she said, adding the book does not start with Africa must unite but with nation building.

“We need to pull our resources together to build a strong Africa. We need to shed up the dependence syndrome, nobody is going to help us but ourselves, we must use our resources to build Africa.”

The message in the book she also noted is about self-reliance and dignity of the black man. “That tells us nothing is impossible and the future of Africa is bright. We need to have people with integrity and honesty, people who will sacrifice for their country. If you read this book you will become inspired to contribute to the development of Africa. We must rely on ourselves to gain the strength to help ourselves. Many people want to help us but we must begin to help ourselves,” she pointed out.

There was time for questions and comments as the CPP Chairwoman spoke about current situation in Ghana and the behaviour of western countries towards Africa. She opined Africans should make sure their leaders are accountable to the people. “We have to make some adjustments and we can rely on your voice for these adjustments,” she said in response to a question on Ghanaians in the diaspora and voting in Ghana’s Presidential and Parliamentary election. Speaking on developments in Africa, she noted that what happened in Ghana and Congo in the 60’s has cost Africans decades back on development and that Africans should exercise the power they have to take the right decisions. A participant at the function thanked the Ghanaian Member of Parliament for having the book ‘Africa Must Unite’ translated into Italian. She said it will enable the African youths in Italy, especially the Ghanaian youths, who were born in Italy and are not too conversant in the English language to know more about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, his works, what he stood for and his ideals towards Africa’s struggle for Independence. – Reggie Tagoe in Brescia, Italy (rtagoe@live.com)