Opinions of Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Columnist: The Royal Enoch

Dr Kwame Nkrumah: A Work Cut Short

They say that the greatness of a man is measured upon his deeds. However, there are some men, who feel that greatness could be bought. These type of men do often flatter their egos with whatever mediocre accomplishments, which they manage to realize during the course of their professions. Greatness is such a big word, which unfortunately could only be associated with a chosen few in our midst. Mortals who happen to be called to walk on the path of greatness are the most misunderstood individuals on earth. These individuals are naturally gifted with visionary eyes. The word genius often accompanies the word eccentricity. The word innovation compliments creativity. Their actions are marked with defiance and sheer bravery. To these gifted souls born to us mere mortals-life's motto is do or die. Sink or swim, but never surrender.

Some characters go into politics to serve a higher course, whilst others embark on this journey to serve themselves. Indeed, in a world of greed and self-centredness-a selfless politician is very hard to find. Men who would trade their self interests for a collective course are in extinct. Visionary politicians have given way to politicians, who only talk loud but do say nothing. Dr kwame Nkrumah was without a doubt Ghana's most gifted politician. A visionary whose vision has yet to come to pass. What made Nkrumah's political career so impressive was that it was inspired by his love for humanity. Simply put, Dr kwame Nkrumah was a humanist, who simply wanted to awake the giants in each and everyone of us. Then again, this is what great men and women usually do.

It's said that human triumph often accompanies human tragedy. Legends also have it that half a work done is no work done at all. Dr Nkrumah was on course to clear the misconceptions, which the White race had about the Black race. Moreover, his intention was to ridicule racism. The White supremacist ideology of Blacks being inferior to Whites would be given a death blow. See, Dr Kwame Nkrumah became race conscious during his stay in America. He witnessed with his own two eyes how Black people were being treated by racist America. He saw the injustice, the deny of justice and the misuse of justice against the people that he loved-Black people. He also witnessed up close and personal how it feels like to be told that you're nothing by White people. He had seen racism, and it made no sense to him at all.

Our independence was definitely the first blow to the face of racism. The White supremacist ideology, which entertains the notion that Blacks are of an inferior race. However, it was not a knock-out blow. Simply because, we are still relying on them for hand-outs. We are migrating in our masses to their country in search of employment-only to die from old age in our own country. We are busy helping the White-man build his country, when we should be busy building our own. The idea that we Black people are capable of making it on our own has remained an idea only. And the question is; would there ever be a time when this idea would be given wings to fly? Would there ever be a time when we would dare to try, or have we just simply given up trying?