Kojo Sapara

“On behalf of Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP), I congratulate Nelson Mandela, Madiba and join the world in celebrating the 93rd birthday of a man who is without doubt the greatest African of all.”

These were the opening words of Nana Akuffo Addo’s message to Nelson Mandela on the latter’s 93rd birthday and as is typical, the NPP could not resist the temptation to cause public discord and disaffection by abusing the national sensitivities and pride of well-meaning Ghanaians by deliberately disregarding the well-known and unmatched historical achievements of Kwame Nkrumah as the African of the millennium. By withholding this fact in a curious twist of mischievous intent, they treacherously accorded this honor in favor of Nelson Mandela. Well, at the very least we can nevertheless breathe a sigh of relief that they have so far not been courageous enough to misplace the honor to some other wacky option such as any of their historically discredited Party heroes. Tweaking history and distorting fact to suit ones prejudices is injudicious and irrational. Truth is indomitable and no matter how much it is maltreated, it will always, like a cork submerged in water, resurface. It is normally white people who play such deceitful games on us only with the intent to lead us astray into confusion, then into chaotic conditions of under-development in order to maintain their racial and economic advantage over us.

This unseemly effort to ambush the truth, manhandle it and put it on its head is unbecoming of a fine gentleman such as Nana Akuffo Addo – even if he finds himself in the wrong Party – the Party that infamously resisted the granting of independence to Ghana in 1957.

In their typically myopic and bizarre understanding of world history – particularly of African history, perhaps due to their continuing predisposition and subservience to the whims of western imperialist interests, either the NPP, Akuffo-Addo or his handlers, betrayed a two-faced and immensely unforgiveable level of ignorance about the history and the person of Nelson Mandela himself. Perhaps this fumbling on their part was due to their nervous haste to superimpose the admittedly heroic exploits of Mandela above that of the person who is famously and officially acknowledged by the African Union, the discerning people of Africa and the world population who voted overwhelmingly in a global media survey in favor of according this honor to Kwame Nkrumah, above Nelson Mandela and others, as the definitive greatest African of the millennium.

It is amazing how the NPP and its antecedents as well as its contemporary adherents refuse to be truthful about history, to learn from history, or to be schooled and educated to look at life and politics from an objective and perspective interest of Africa as well as in favor of the human sensitivities of the long-suffering Black man at the hands of our historical oppressors – their political allies.

There is no doubt about the fact that Madiba Nelson Mandela is a great African. Let us admit that by his achievements, he has, by natural consensus, been elevated – or let’s say consecrated to the level of distinction of other historically immortal Africans. As a freedom fighter, he earned his due when bravely and against all odds, organized and led his people – many of who together with him, have, like Kwame Nkrumah, also become immutable icons of African history, to fight against the vicious colonial and Apartheid system. Many of the strategies they employed to attain their freedom and independence were deemed by the spurious standards of our historical oppressors and their local minions as unconventional, but these had to be applied in the face of infinitely execrable human rights violations and the routine perpetration of unspeakable brutality and genocide on Africans over several hundreds of years by white supremacist imperialists. No sensible or serious combatant would fight against an enemy by seeking permission to apply the enemy’s rules of engagement, from the self-same enemy. Similarly, they expected Kwame Nkrumah to handle those of our brothers and sisters, who had sold their conscience for a pittance in the interest of undermining our newly won independence in favor of the interest of our historical oppressors, to be treated like common criminals when in fact they were actually dangerous terrorists who were a threat to the security of innocent peace-loving citizens, the state and the future of all its people.

The liberation struggle for the independence of South Africa in particular, is significant in African history because due to several reasons, the gang of colonial oppressors who had greedily sliced and apportioned various parts of the African continent to themselves as one would share slices of a birthday cake to friends, had apparently taken the decision that the abundant resources and strategic location of that country was not something that they could ever leave for the exclusive benefit of its bona fide owners. Unlike other environmentally unfavorable parts of the continent where Europeans had similarly pitched camp to purloin the resources of the native people, the climate of South Africa was congenial and ideal; the land was not only arable and vast, but was also rich with abundant mineral resources. This was paradise on earth – the real utopia.

The fascination for South Africa, had, unlike any other African country – perhaps with the exception of Algeria, attracted over 3 million migrants of European descent in their gluttonous lust for quick wealth. As a result of greedy imperialist manipulation and sleaze surrounding the extraction of resources – particularly in developing countries, the arising chaos and chicanery has earned for itself the unenviable tag as the ‘resource curse’. The insatiable avarice and covetous nature of some of these countries who can go as far as falsely accusing another nation of harboring ‘weapons of mass destruction’ - only as a pretext to invade and occupy that country to freely usurp their resources, is a good example of what is described as the resource curse. Many millions of real innocent human beings like you and I continue to die or get displaced each year around the world as a result of the capitalist greed of a few people.

Because the climate of many parts of South Africa is generally of a temperate nature, the original Khoisan and Bantu natives who existed in the area around the 4th century, tended to be migratory and nomadic people who freely roamed the vast and varying climactic terrain of their country. Indeed, some of the earliest anthropological traces of humankind (the Australopithecus Africanus), of about 3 million years old, are said to have been discovered in South Africa - and there is no indication that they were white people.

The European colonialists, on their arrival in South Africa from the 14th century, appropriated, in their typical manner, large portions of the seemingly unoccupied coastal areas without much resistance. From there, they launched aggressive conquests into the hinterland. In that pursuit, and in possession of superior fire power, they slaughtered uncountable hundreds of thousands of the mainly Xhosa and Zulu natives who resisted their greedy and inconsiderate conquests. This was the horrific and ill-omened beginning of the sad history of South Africa.

To make this discourse brief, let us fast-forward to the 20th century. After several hundred years languishing under the genocidal oppression of colonialism by various contending European countries who often waged battles spurred on by sheer greed amongst themselves to gain the upper hand in this mineral-rich and strategic part of Africa, the African National Congress was, out of the unceasing pains of screaming tyranny, born on the 8th January 1912 by Pixley Ka Isaka Seme.

Fast-forward again to the mid 1960’s. The ANC had by then steadily evolved in strength and ready to reclaim their country. From around 1958 however, the determined ANC guerillas and other liberation movements stepped up the campaign against the ruthless imperialists. The collapse of the Apartheid regime was imminent. It was around this period, in 1963 that Nelson Mandela – the then ANC leader, was captured and jailed.

It is pertinent to note that before Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of incarceration on charges of being a communist and a terrorist, the whole world had on the mounting pressure from the ANC, Kwame Nkrumah, the OAU and communist countries around the world like the Soviet Union, Cuba, China and the Eastern European countries, engineered a diplomatic, trade and economic boycott of South Africa to release him and get the Apartheid regime to conform to civilized and democratic norms. Even imperialist countries such as Britain, Germany, America, France, Spain et al had to conform - more out of embarrassment than anything else, to the boycott, in spite of the fact they were the sponsors and the greater beneficiaries of the evil racist Apartheid economy.

Before and after the UN sponsored sanctions, the imperialists - particularly America, had continued to rail and rant daily against Mandela and members of the ANC as communists and a band of no-good terrorists – in the very same way and manner that they continue to demonize every progressive and meaningful African leader today. However, in spite of the appalling and brutal savagery of the Apartheid system, they did not find it necessary to criticize them in like manner. Incredulously, the beneficiaries of the imperialist sponsored 1966 coup d’état in Ghana, Prime Minister Kofi Busia’s Progress Party - of which Nana Akuffo Addo is a direct descendant, was one of the few countries in the world at the time to oppose the global sanctions against South Africa and disassociate themselves from Mandela. In the face of the monstrous Apartheid regime that was butchering Africans on a massive scale, Busia and his neo-colonial soul-mate, Felix Houphouet Boigny of La Cote d’Ivoire, in an obvious move to break the determined African political front and give the world conflicting signals of the crisis - in the same way that Akuffo Addo is now trying to do with the fame of Nkrumah, rather opted for what they curiously termed as engaging in Dialogue with the Apartheid racist regime - obviously under orders from their imperialist masters.

Considering the exceedingly glaring vindication of the Nkrumah era and all that it stood for – 50 sad and miserable years after his overthrow, the Danquah-Busia tradition has scrupulously stuck to their perfidious and mischievous western neocolonial beliefs only so as to first of all attempt to use this to minimize or absolve the guilt of their criminal collusion with imperialist powers in overthrowing the Nkrumah govt. Consistent in the style of their decadent and acrimonious western multi-Party system, they have continued to flaunt this incompatible creed against other options which are more suitable for effectively curing the difficulties of our peculiar circumstances of endemic poverty, social antagonisms, a high illiteracy rate and outrageous conditions of under-development.

In doing so, they have had to sustain - against all odds, the old imperialist anti-socialist clichés and insidious distortions with which they persistently bedeviled and undermined Kwame Nkrumah. In the forlorn hope that they can then forever bury the specter of the harrowing incubus of the fear of the immortal Kwame Nkrumah, they may then be able to undeservedly step into his shoes and assume for themselves, some imaginary historical distinction and prowess which very clearly, they don’t merit and they will never achieve. For now however, even though out of ignorance and a laid-back perception of life, they still continue to deride, ridicule and scoff at the still pervading dangers of imperialism, neo-colonialism and capitalism as imaginary fears of African nationalists, they will have to meekly continue living under the shadows of the colossus of Kwame Nkrumah.

After initially attempting to beat Nkrumah at elections and failing – in the 1950’s, then trying on several other occasions to assassinate him – and again failing, then finally colluding with the imperialist plot to overthrow him, they are now, at the obvious instigation of their ever-beloved masters, trying to deny the man of what they had all along specifically berated him of doing in this country and Africa. They want to deny the man the fruits of his exceptional labor – that is, as the architect and founder of the independence of Ghana and as the inspirer, the inspiration and the éminence grise of many of the liberation struggles that brought independence, freedom and democracy to many African countries and colonies around the world.

Before the 1966 coup d’état, Kwame Nkrumah had toiled endlessly and had committed significant political and diplomatic mileage, men, material and other resources to assist the freedom fighters such as Nelson Mandela in South Africa as well as in other parts of Africa. For this, the then opposition in Ghana, led by Busia, rallied public anger against Nkrumah for being in league with and supporting communists and terrorists around Africa instead of concentrating on the development of Ghana. A classical déjà vu case of “dzi wo fie asem” in reverse order. It is therefore difficult to reconcile the current posture of Nana Akuffo Addo and his mentors in glorifying Nelson Mandela, with their diametrically opposite views of yesterday. I do not begrudge local pimps of imperialism for aping the same double standards of hypocrisy and dishonesty as their masters but they could at least be a little bit more discrete, circumspect and respectable about it.

Somehow, regardless of the fact that by his enduring patronage and compliance with the nasty second-hand neo-liberal credo and as a dedicated client of predator neocolonial powers, I have some amount of compassion for Nana Akuffo Addo as a person and I still find it hard to believe that he is the author of that devious birthday message to Mandela. Strangely, I even still think that he is in the wrong Party. His wit and aura suggest that he could have been a fabulous Nkrumaist who could have easily attained the ranks of the immortal icons of the Pan African liberation struggle. But alas! He has, by his own impropriety, condemned himself to eternal perdition in the pedestrian ranks of those who for the measly crumbs of our oppressors, have decidedly turned their backs on their own – just like the native turn-coats of yore who captured their own brothers and sisters as slaves for the Whiteman in return for rum and whiskey.

Being that as it may, Nana bears ultimate responsibility for the import of that diplomatically tactless message. Madiba, though considerably aged now, is not, tafratse, oblivious. He is a wise man who will definitely see through this vile gimmick. I can picture him cannily smiling to himself upon this message being read to him. If the NPP thinks they can bamboozle or flatter him with this double-edged second-hand imperialist ploy that is actually calculated to create discord within the ranks of true Pan Africanist nationalists, ‘they lie bad’ and they should think again and come again.

Hear Nana Akuffo Addo again in his message, “…….. Nelson Mandela used his vast personal authority to promote reconciliation between hitherto bitter enemies, and to mold South Africa’s widely diverse communities into an emerging multicultural nation. This I believe distinguishes the exemplary man as the greatest example of African leadership”. Let us ignore the substance of this opinion in relation to the persisting adverse situation on the ground in South Africa for now. So Nana appreciates the virtues of reconciliation. If that is what he now curiously purports, why did they (the NPP and their antecedents) together with foreign elements, engage in random acts of terrorism and subversion against a legitimately instituted govt of their own country in 1966? Again, why did he and his antecedents not accept - or at the very least also commend and sympathize with Kwame Nkrumah’s genuine overtures of practical reconciliation by his attempt to subdue the vicious political antagonisms of the time into a monolithic all-interests-catered-for one Party system – in spite of all the appalling acts of terrorism?

Do we also by the unusual allusion to reconciliation of bitter enemies, and reference to ‘the entire African race and indeed all Black people all over the world’, discern a distant but grudging cry of remorse, repentance or even a belated plea of endorsement of Kwame Nkrumah’s ideals hidden in this NPP birthday statement to Madiba?

Nana, you may not be aware, but your insinuation and obvious discomfiture with “decades of distorted development under the infamous Apartheid regime” gives you away as a reluctant socialist – and I am not joking. What is Apartheid? Apartheid is simply a legacy – an offspring of the slave system, colonialism and the capitalist-neocolonial system – which, divorced from all its embellishments and racist hue, is what you not only call, but you have adopted and nicknamed neo-liberalism - ostensibly to hide that evil creed from its real unsavory characteristics and criminal ancestry.

In the subjective thinking and wiles of imperialists, Mandela may be a great African, but clearly and in truth, apart from him and Nkrumah, there are also many other giants in the annals of immortal African nationalists. To name a few, we have the likes of George Padmore, Sylvester-Williams, WEB Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Chaka the Zulu, Yaa Asantewaa, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Accompong, Cheik Anta Diop, Walter Rodney, Martin Luther King and many others who in various ways, also persevered and spent their entire lives in the struggle to raise the plight of the Blackman from the doldrums - and in pursuit of that same mission, to salvage humanity from the undemocratic throes of imperialism and all that it stands for – including neo-colonialism and neo-liberalism.

Unfortunately for Nana Akuffo Addo, I hear that he attended one of those ‘brainwash’ hoity-toity institutions like La Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard or Cambridge. That may probably explain why he so sadly does not appear to be in tune and abreast with the ‘African nationalist thing’. His Black consciousness pulse rate is conspicuously low. This helps offer an explanation as to why the element of Pan Africanism and self-determination is so curiously absent in the political content of the NPP – a political organization that purports to advance the interests and development of Ghana, an African country.

All said and done, I think that a simple straightforward message to Mandela devoid of the implicit insinuations - or let’s say the glaring diplomatic snub against the distinguished merits of Kwame Nkrumah - a fellow Ghanaian and the torch-bearer of the African liberation movement, would have been sufficient and commendable. Nana’s message has only served to further cast the NPP in the bad light of a dishonest, two-timing and unrepentant antagonist of the ideals of nationalism, self-determination and Pan Africanism.

This brings to light another important aspect of this sordid matter. I ask, why would imperialists who have never ever shown any kind of respect for Black people of any kind in the past 500 years plus, continue to celebrate and idolize Nelson Mandela on such a massive glamorous scale every year. In truth, since Mandela was released from prison and he and the ANC proceeded to dismantle the Apartheid system to become President and set the tone for future governance, the plight of Black South Africans has only continued to worsen. So why do they celebrate the man on such a grand scale? Surely there must be something we haven’t yet understood in this matter. What is it that he could have so done for the imperialists – and their local toadies and gonga-dees to merit such applause?

Even Mobutu who ‘siphoned’ hundreds of billions of dollars worth of the wealth of the DR Congo which he stashed in conniving European banks and private properties most of which conveniently got lost in the imperialist financial system after his miserable death, is not so appreciatively celebrated by Switzerland, France or any of the imperialist predators. But of course we all know that South Africa, being the crown jewel of all the neocolonial ‘economic plantations’ in the imperialist fiefdom of Africa, was spared the anticipated nationalist revolution by Mandela’s refusal or inability to restructure the neocolonial socio-economic apparatus in favor of one that would have served the greater interest of the development of the indigenous Black South Africans rather than the interests of the minority imperialist settlers and their imperialist big brothers.

Somehow, some of us are not amused at the imperialist shenanigans that have patronizingly reduced the stately stature of Mandela into that of a pop icon which they set up to celebrate at opulent annual birthday concerts in the imperialist metropolises of Europe and America when Black South Africans are daily dying in their hundreds by poverty induced crime, drugs, AIDS and disease. The ANC has definitely not done well by looking on while the stature of Mandela is grossly demeaned and exploited in this pathetic manner. Have we ever stopped to think, or bothered to ask ourselves why the imperialist media and establishment are so singularly enthralled by the Nelson Mandela ‘brand’?

I must emphasize that as a Pan Africanist, it is neither here nor there whether Mandela is the greatest African or not. He exceedingly contributed his due in the liberation of South Africa from the tyranny of imperialism and he also deserves the maximum accolades for this feat. It is the vulgar ploy and neo-liberal intrigue into which the person of this outstanding and respectable African is being dragged into, that has prompted this critique and review.

I would like Nana Akuffo Addo to tell Ghanaians what it is that out of the blues has suddenly made Madiba, the greatest African? Yes, it is true that Mandela was an unrepentant member of the ANC, who was tutored and assisted by the likes of Nkrumah and Castro, not only to adopt the most suitable political options in the struggle, but to also deploy the Umkhonto we Sizwe - the paramilitary wing of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, to fight the imperialist racist Apartheid system boot for boot to achieve freedom and independence. So Nana, how can Mandela be greater than his own universally acclaimed mentor – when his continental and international credits in the universal struggle for the emancipation of the African from imperialist subjugation do not match those of many other African nationalists?

It appears that there is an on-going imperialist ploy by the mentors of Nana Akuffo Addo to exaggerate the image of Mandela so as to belittle the monumental achievements of Nkrumah and other African nationalists who did not conform to neo-colonial tutelage. As a recognized accomplice of global imperialism, the purpose of this NPP slight is obviously to make Nkrumah and by extension, other more nationalist African leaders and icons, look unappealing and insignificant. Suffice it to say, lending oneself to this kind of ineffectual neo-liberal NPP wile, will not succeed. Remember truth is irrepressible.

It is however worrying that, adherents of the NPP continue to lend themselves to the dirty intrigues and greedy interests of our oppressors. In reference to the above quoted portion of the Mandela birthday message, I do not know what Nana Akuffo Addo means by “molding South Africa’s widely diverse communities into an emerging multicultural nation” in his message. What I however do know is that 3 million settler white South Africans have continued to isolate themselves and get proportionately wealthier at the expense of 24 million native Black South Africans who have continued to suffer from discrimination and get hopelessly and shamefully poorer to the extent that that country and its heroes now suffer from an image problem.

I am informed that Nana recently returned from South Africa. If he took his glasses along with him and he had his ears well-tuned and on the ground, I am sure he will have seen, heard or felt what I mean and what my concerns as an African, are. And he should be frank about this. This is not one of those puerile NDC-NPP propaganda games. The visibly unmodified and seething socio-economic situation in South Africa grates the sensitivities of decent minds and is ethically and economically illogical and unsustainable. This festering condition of instability continues only for the benefit of global imperialism and at the expense and disadvantage of the Black majority population.

The obvious insinuation by the imperialist establishment, their media and of course the NPP is that the doubtful Nelson Mandela compromise posture of disregarding the multiple crimes against humanity, committed by the minority white settler population against the numerically overwhelming Black population who still exist in unspeakable and deplorable conditions, is the model to emulate. It is a typical posture of capitalists and imperialists that the feelings and poor position of Black people in society is not anything to worry about so long as there is plenty of money being made by a few people – preferably and ultimately by white people. If in the unlikely event you behave ‘wrongly’ like an Nkrumah, a Mugabe, a Gadhafi, an Amilcar Cabral or a Samora Machel by standing firmly in defense of our own independent national democratic rights instead of kowtowing to neocolonial diktat and continued exploitation, they will institute a cocktail of massive media vilification campaigns, assassination plots, coups d’état (sounds familiar), régime change by rebels or traitors and - if all else fails, they will concoct charges which they are more guilty of, against you to justify bombing you out of existence. Failing that, they may also resort to criminalize you for your comparably much lesser sins, at the International Criminal Court which seems to be on 24-hour emergency stand-by only for the purpose of teaching ‘intransigent and intractable’ African nationalists - who they rather describe as dictators and as tyrants, some lessons for their impetuous come-uppance against imperialist diktat.

If, as it is increasingly being made to seem, by the demands and pressures of the so-called international community, that a favorable political recognition and relationship with African leaders and other under-developed nations is contingent only on the pre-condition of subjecting oneself to the continuing undemocratic domination, tyranny and exploitation, then I am afraid, they will not have it easy. Nature itself abhors imbalances and cheating. We didn’t go through the full cycle of 500 years of harrowing pain and struggle to attain independence only to satisfy ourselves with a defeatist neocolonial state of dependency.

When Kwame Nkrumah out of frustration attempted to mold the widely fractured, antagonistic and unwieldy political terrain and ethnically charged factions into a monolithic and secure single party system to prevent the country from disintegrating into total anarchy, this same NPP neo-liberal lot, summoned the entire weight of their imperialist masters to harangue and terrorize Kwame Nkrumah out of power. Before this, Nana’s Party had actually campaigned to split the country into federal states as their way of managing the fierce tribal and political passions which they had instigated amongst the masses. Today, under the so-called multi-party western democratic system, the political atmosphere has become so putrefied and acrimonious that even state institutions including the judiciary, the police, the military, the Civil Service and believe it or not even religious and traditional institutions have been nauseously emasculated and compromised by political partisanship and antagonisms. Of course at this stage, the management of the state has thus been rendered ineffectual, inhibited and largely ungovernable by the pervading nepotism, prejudice and paranoia. To be identified as a member or even a sympathizer of a political Party that is not in govt today, is tantamount to losing ones rights, business contracts or privileges as a citizen.

When the African Union justifiably instituted a continental day in honor of Kwame Nkrumah recently, the United Nations was strangely and quickly induced the following year by ‘unknown pressures’ to also declare a UN day in honor of Nelson Mandela. The untenable implication being that Mandela’s achievements were of a more deserving, important and greater international scope. I thought it was a bit strange, since the known accomplishments of Mandela - as respectable an international figure that he is, do not radiate beyond his native South Africa and in no way comparable to that of the Osagyefo – his Master. Much as the imperialist media have gone into hyperbolic overdrive in effectively marketing Mandela way over and beyond his actual achievements, I fear that the Mandela gravy train may grind to a screeching halt as soon as the grand old man passes on. For now however, his image continues to be paradoxically and regrettably used as a convenient tool in the hands of our historical oppressors for their exclusive interests.

Nana, before we get your response, let me also in my own little way also reveal to you, just a few of the reasons why Kwame Nkrumah is not only a great African but actually the greatest African ever – at least thus far in the history of Africa. This is not in any way to demean the accomplishments of Madiba but to put the records straight.

1. He created the only dedicated ideology for Africa and all people of African descent

2. He initiated, labored for and gave Africa and the entire Black race the African Union

3. He made it possible for Ghana, the first sub-Saharan colony to gain independence and from thence, to become the most socially and politically developed and enlightened nation in Africa.

4. His achievements as President of Ghana projected our country to the highest levels of development and democracy that any Black African nation or society has ever achieved in the world.

5. He stimulated and assisted nationalists and freedom fighters from North Africa to South Africa in various ways, to fight for and gain democracy, independence and freedom for the hundreds of millions of Africans in their various countries.

6. His imposing presence and persistent political demands in international fora gave dignity, respect and unrestrained opportunity for the first time to all people of African descent all over the world – including Mandela, Nana Akuffo Addo and even ‘Uncle Tom’ Obama.

7. He made it possible for Africans - for the first time in human and world history, to achieve the highest levels of accomplishment, respect, dignity and to demand their due from people of all other races

8. In almost every country from the North to Southern Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, South and North America, his name has been assigned to major public places. Note the exclusion of Europe.

9. He has been duly and appropriately honored by the AU with a continental holiday

10. He has written several books which are considered as the most authoritative literary and political works on the subject of the liberation, unity and development of the African people and continent.

11. He is still the most quoted African, in international affairs and world politics. At the AU Conference held in 2007 in Accra, his name was mentioned many more times than any other world leader – dead or alive. Reference is still made exclusively in his honor in contemporary AU and UN meetings.

12. His phenomenal achievements in the area of development during his short spell as President have still not been matched by any other African personality or leader – dead or alive.

13. His name conjures instant respect and admiration all over the world – particularly in South Africa where Black South Africans hold him in higher esteem than Nelson Mandela.

14. It was in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana that freedom fighters from all over the continent – including many from South Africa were trained as guerilla fighters, teachers, doctors, political administrators and so on and so forth. They were then sent back home to their countries to take the destiny of their countries back from the tyrannical colonialists who for over 500 years, apparently did not – and still do not seem to know that democracy and human rights was also suitable and good for the African. As expected, the shameless imperialists and their local pimps found out that democracy and human rights were also good for Africans only after independence when they began to henpeck and badger the post-Independence African leaders for not giving their own people sufficient democratic rights.

Off-hand, these are just a few of the Osagyefo’s achievements. As for the list of his ‘first ever achievements’ in the history of Africa, the Blackman’ and the world, it will take another lengthy article to fully educate you on these, so for now, let us hear your side of the story.

In fact depending on which side one is on, the above credits may be seen as either commendable or not. If however, you are on the side of those who think that for achieving the above, Kwame Nkrumah is deemed a bad man, or does not deserve the recognition due such accomplishments, then clearly, you are on the side of those who Nkrumah had to wage a struggle and extract the independence, the liberties, democracy, self-governance and the respect due the African, from – that is our historical oppressors. If you stand on that side, then I am afraid that as an African you are on the wrong side of history – on the side of those whose accessory to the guilt of immeasurable counts of the most serious human rights violations and genocide in history - against the Blackman, stretching over many many centuries to date, has compelled them to frantically run for cover by embarking on spurious attempts to exonerate themselves by trying to obscure and downgrade Kwame Nkrumah’s epic achievements as well as that of other African nationalists.

I can appreciate the fact that for certain people – African people to stand on their own two feet and duly exonerate Nkrumah, it would amount to a tacit confession of guilt so weighty that it may shatter their egos, political career, purpose of life and their wherewithal.

Finally I wish to state categorically that this unseemly and discreet effort to bastardize history is unbecoming of a fine middle class gentleman such as Nana Akuffo Addo – even if he finds himself marooned in a historically doomed and politically incorrect political Party.

So Nana, forgive me for asking again, but whose side are you on? If the reading public and I don’t get a response within four weeks of the above date of publication of this article, I will presume that you are personally unable to offer one – in which case we will let the matter rest in favor of the immortal Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Greatest African ever, by all known and verifiable accounts.

Nana I am sure you remember the phrase “Nkrumah never dies”. Well ………..?

Whilst writing this article I overheard you, Nana Akuffo Addo being interviewed on radio about some gross, boorish and totally unacceptable comments earlier made by your obviously badly brought up communications manager on a popular radio station. In your reaction to the unfortunate event, you refused to disassociate yourself from, nor condemn the reprehensible behaviour of your side-kick. I am really so disappointed with you that as a result, I have decided to withdraw all references made to you as a gentleman in this article. You see, this is what happens when one hangs around with bad company. Bad company evolves into associating with political Parties and lesser mortals for whom, “all die be die”!

Have a good day.

Kojo Sapara