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Books by Kwame Nkrumah
Consciencism: Philosophy and the Ideology for
Decolonization (1970) /
Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)
Africa
Must Unite (1963) /
Ghana: Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah /
Dark Days in Ghana
Class
Struggle in Africa /
The Struggle Continues
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The
Responsibility of a Pan-African Socialist
A Speech by Osagyefo
from
A
Kind of Homecoming by E.R. Braithwaite
I have stated over and over again that
members of the Convention People's Party must not use their
party membership or official position for personal gain or for
the amassing of wealth. Such tendencies directly contradict our
party constitution, which make sit clear that the aims and
objects of the party among other things are the building of a
Socialist pattern of society in which free development of each
is the condition for the free development of all--a pattern of
society consonant with African situations, circumstances, and
conditions.
I have explained very clearly this Socialist
structure and have on many occasions elaborated the Five sectors
into which our economy may be divided.
These sectors are: first, the state sector,
in which all enterprises are entirely State-owned; second, joint
State-owned private sector, which will incorporate enterprises
owned jointly by Government and foreign private capital; third,
the cooperative sector, in which all enterprises will be
undertaken by cooperative organizations affiliated with the
National Cooperative Council; fourth, the private-enterprise
sector, which will incorporate those industries which are open
freely to foreign private enterprise; and fifth, the
workers'-enterprise sector.
I have had occasions to emphasize the part
which private enterprise will continue to play in our economic
and industrial life. A different situation arises with Ghanaian
businessmen who attempt to combine business with political
life.
Being a party member of the Assembly--and
much more, being a ministerial secretary or a minister--means
that the persons who take up these positions owe a duty to those
who have elected them, or who have given them their positions
confidence.
To be able to maintain this confidence,
therefore, they should not enter into any type of industrial or
commercial undertaking. Any party member of Parliament who
wishes to be a businessman can do so, but he should give up his
seat in Parliament.
In other words, no minister, ministerial
secretary or party member of Parliament should own a business or
be involved in anyone else's business, Ghanaian or foreign
In spite of my constant clarifications and
explanations of our aims and objectives, some party members in
parliament pursue a conduct in direct contradiction of our party
aims.
They are tending, by virtue of their
functions and positions to become a social group to become a new
ruling class of self-seekers and careerists.
This tendency is working to alienate the
support of the masses and to bring the National Assembly into
isolation.
I am aware that the evil of patronage finds a
good deal of place in our society. I consider that it is
entirely wrong for persons placed in positions of eminence or
authority to use the influence of office in patronizing others,
in many cases wrong persons, for immoral favors.
I am seeing to it that this evil shall be
uprooted no matter who is gored. The same thing goes for nepotism, which is, so to speak, a twin brother of the evil of
patronage.
At this point, I would like to make a little
divergence and touch upon civil service red tape. It amazes me
that up to the present, many civil servants do not not realize
that we are living in a revolutionary era. This Ghana, which has
lost so much time serving colonial masters, cannot afford to be
tied down to archaic snail-place methods of work which obstruct
expeditious progress.
We have lost so much time that we need to do
in ten years what ahs taken others a hundred years to
accomplish.
Civil servants, therefore, must develop a new
orientation, a sense of mission and urgency to enable them to
eliminate all tendencies toward red tape-ism, bureaucracy, and
waste. Civil servants must use their initiative to make the
civil service an effective instrument in the rapid development
of Ghana.
Let me now come back to the party. It is most
important to remember that the strength of the Convention
People's Party derives from the masses of the people.
These men and women include those whom I have
constantly referred to as the unknown warriors--dedicated men
and women who served the party loyally and selflessly without
hoping for reward.
It is therefore natural for the masses to
feel some resentment when they see comrades whom they have put
into power and given the mandate to serve the country on their
behalf, begin to forget themselves and indulge in ostentatious
living.
High party officials, ministers, ministerial
secretaries, chairmen of statutory boards and corporations must
forever bear this in mind. Some of us very easily forget that we
ourselves have risen from amongst the masses.
We must avoid any conduct that will breed
antagonism and uneasy relations. Let us always keep in mind the
fact that constant examination and correction are necessary for
maintaining the solidarity of the party.
The aim of all corrections, however, must be
to build and not to destroy. The central committee proposes to
issue instructions shortly on the duties and rights of party
members.
Finally, I wish to state that in considering
remedial measures, I have found it necessary to direct that a
limit be imposed on property acquisition by ministers, party
officials, and ministerial secretaries in order to enable them
to conform to the modest and simple way of life demanded by the
ideals and principles of the Convention People's Party.
Countrymen: Our mission to Ghana and to
Africa and the unique personality of our party as a vanguard of
the African Liberation Movement, impose upon us increasing
responsibility, not only to set our own house in order, but also
to set very high standards from which all who seek to emulate us
shall draw devotion and inspiration in their own struggles.
I wish you all good luck and a good week-end.
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"Well, what do you think? Josh asked me.
He had sat
smoking as I read.
"In my opinion, any leader who makes statements and
demands such as these, must himself be free of any taint or
suggestion of complicity in similar pursuits," I replied.
"Right. No one can point a finger of accusation at the
Osagyefo."
"Cannot or dare not?" I asked.
"Cannot! The Osagyefo has no personal fortune or
financial interests, because his needs are provided for by the
party. But personally, he lives very simply and neither smokes
nor drinks. As you rightly said, only a man who himself leads an
exemplary life would dare make such a broadcast."
"What do you expect the reaction to be among the
officials at whom this is aimed?"
"Something in the nature of a 'thunderbolt in the great
hall.' Some big heads are likely to roll. Man, I could name
names. The Osagyefo has not made a single unfounded claim. Lots
of officials have been blatantly misusing their position in
every conceivable way, and its high time some action was taken.
The rank-and-file of the party has begun to grumble, and the
matter has been raised at several study groups recently."
"Study groups?"
"Oh yes it's part of our party structure, so that
activists and others can keep abreast of Socialist thought and
information."
I'd heard the same thing in Guinea. Source: E.R. Braithwaite.
A Kind
of Homecoming. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962* *
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Kwame Nkrumah (21
September 1909 - 27 April 1972) was the leader of
Ghana and its predecessor state, the
Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's
independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the
first
President of Ghana and the first
Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential 20th century
advocate of
Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the
Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the
Lenin Peace Prize in 1963. . . . Nkrumah's advocacy of
industrial development at any cost, with help of longtime friend
and Minister of Finance,
Komla Agbeli Gbedema, led to the construction of a
hydroelectric power plant, the
Akosombo Dam on the
Volta River in eastern Ghana.
Kaiser Aluminum agreed to build the dam for Nkrumah, but
restricted what could be produced using the power generated.
Nkrumah borrowed money to build the dam, and placed Ghana in
debt. To finance the debt, he raised taxes on the cocoa farmers
in the south. This accentuated regional differences and
jealousy. The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst
world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah appeared to be at
the zenith of his power, but the end of his regime was only days
away.
Nkrumah wanted Ghana to
have modern armed forces, so he acquired aircraft and ships, and
introduced conscription.He also gave military support to those
fighting the
Smith administration in
Zimbabwe, then called
Rhodesia. In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state
visit to
North Vietnam and
China, his government was overthrown in a military
coup led by
Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and the
National Liberation Council. Several commentators, such as
John Stockwell, have claimed the coup received support from
the
CIA. . . .
Nkrumah never returned to
Ghana, but he continued to push for his vision of African
unity. He lived in exile in
Conakry,
Guinea, as the guest of President
Ahmed Sékou Touré, who made him honorary co-president of the
country. He read, wrote, corresponded, gardened, and entertained
guests. Despite retirement from public office, he was still
frightened of western intelligence agencies. When his cook died,
he feared that someone would poison him, and began hoarding food
in his room. He suspected that foreign agents were going through
his mail, and lived in constant fear of abduction and
assassination. In failing health, he flew to
Bucharest,
Romania, for medical treatment in August 1971. He died of
skin cancer in April 1972 at the age of 62.—Wikipedia
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Race for
the AU Chair: Africa’s Soul Searching Moment,
Unique In History—4 February 2012—Kwame
Nkrumah wrote in his book,
Africa Must Unite!
, as far back as 1960: “We in Africa
who are pressing now for unity are deeply
conscious of the validity of our purpose. We
need the strength of our combined numbers and
resources to protect ourselves from the very
positive dangers of returning to colonialism in
disguised forms. We need it to combat the
entrenched forces dividing our continent and
still holding back millions of our brothers. We
need it to secure total African liberation. We
need it to carry forward our construction of a
socio-economic system that will support the
great mass of our steadily rising population at
levels of life which will compare with those in
the most advanced countries.”
Just a year
after that, he published another book, I
Speak of Freedom, 1961, in which he laboured
the point: “Divided we are weak; united, Africa
could become one of the greatest forces for good
in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely
that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity,
the innate respect for human lives, the intense
humanity that is our heritage, the African race,
united under one federal government, will emerge
not as just another world bloc to flaunt its
wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose
greatness is indestructible because it is built
not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the
expense of others, but founded on hope, trust,
friendship and directed to the good of all
mankind.”
For many a
doubting Thomas, all they need to do to
understand what has been going on with our
African leaders, is to read from “Declassified
National Security Council and Central
Intelligence Agency documents”, which “provide
compelling, new evidence of United States
government involvement in the 1966 overthrow of
Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah.” In one of
these declassified documents, March 12, 1966
(Document 260), Robert W. Komer, according to
Paul Lee, “first joined the White House as a
member of President Kennedy’s NSC staff,” “had
worked as a CIA analyst for 15 years”, and “now
acting special assistant for national security
affairs, wrote a congratulatory assessment to
the President on March 12, 1966 (Document 260).
His assessment of Nkrumah and his successors was
telling:
‘The coup
in Ghana,’ he crowed, ‘is another example of a
fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to
undermine our interests than any other black
African. In reaction to his strongly
pro-Communist leanings, the new military regime
is almost pathetically pro-Western.’”
“Where the
more subtle methods of economic pressure and
political subversion have failed to achieve the
desired result,” Nkrumah wrote from exile in
Guinea three years later, “there has been resort
to violence in order to promote a change of
regime and prepare the way for the establishment
of a puppet government.”
Today, what
is as stake, is not just a matter of
systematically replacing a revolutionary
anti-imperialist regime with a puppet
government, they want to swallow up the entire
continent with one full sweep. Once more,
another undeclared war between China and Africa
seems to top the priorities of those who pretend
to be our friends and stab us in the back, as
quickly as they can, in order to perpetuate and
maintain what they call “Full Spectrum
Dominance”.— PanAfricanistInternational
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Marcus Garvey "Africa For The Africans" /
Look For Me in The Whirlwind
Marcus Mosiah
Garvey /
Marucs Garvey Speech
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
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