Dr Kobina Arthur Kennedy: The Founder's Day Debate
News Commentary admonishes Ghanaians to spend their energies discussing and doing things that will build the country for posterity instead of huggling over who founded the nation.
There is a raging debate over who founded Ghana, our motherland. Before proceeding further, it is important to establish the fact that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has been Ghana's best President by a wide margin. It is equally necessary to note that winning elections after independence does not correlate with a person or party's role in the struggle for independence. Robert Mugabe's party did not win the post-independence mandate in Zimbabwe because he led the struggle for independence. He won because he belonged to the Majority Shona tribe. The continuing questioning of Dr. J.B. Danquah's loyalty is an unproven and disloyal stain on a man who deserves better from all of us, regardless of ideology.
As to whether Nkrumah was our sole founder, how could he be? As Danquah stated eloquently on 4th August, 1947, "Love of freedom from foreign control has always been in our blood. Eight hundred and seventy years ago, we struck against the attempt of the Arabs to impose a religious slavery upon us in Ghana. We left our homes in Ghana and came down here to build a new home." Thus the struggle for our freedom started eight centuries before the founding of the UGCC, and it continued after 6th March, 1957. It has heroes, beginning with some of those buried on the journey from ancient Ghana to our current home, through the leaders of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, some brave chiefs, the founders of the UGCC, and the CPP, Sergeant Adjetey and his fellow martyrs before independence and then more people after independence.
Make no mistake about it. Our colonial masters have been gone for 60 years but we have not been free for 60 years. We lost freedom as a people under our military dictatorships-- NLC, NRC/SMC, AFRC/PNDC. Those who fought against these internal oppressors were as gallant as those who fought our colonizers. To say Nkrumah is our founder assumes that when Usain Bolt anchors Jamaica in a relay, he is the team. It presumes that when Real Madrid won the champions league this past season, Ronaldo alone deserved all the credit. How could Nkrumah alone be credited with founding Ghana when he cannot, in good conscience be credited with founding CPP alone? Where would the CPP be without the organizational genius of Gbedemah?
No great country has one founder. Most American historians list seven founding fathers. This list does not include Francis Marion of South Carolina whose exploits were described by George Washington as crucial to the success of the war of Independence. A few years ago, Tracy Lindeman of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation listed 36 founding fathers for Canada. India had founders beside Ghandi with historians ranking Ambedkar's contributions greater than Ghandi's. South Africa had many founders beside Mandela-- of all races. We should stop peddling the palpable fallacy that Nkrumah was our sole founder. When Danquah told a crowd that Nkrumah would never fail them, he was wrong. Nkrumah failed them by taking away the freedom he helped to win-- spurred by power and sycophancy. While we are pre-occupied with this farcical debate about our founders, we are losing the nation we are arguing about.
As President Akufo-Addo said on 6th March, "Sadly, the economic dividend that was meant to accompany our freedom has still not materialised. Sixty years after those heady days, too many of our people continue to wallow in unacceptable poverty". That is not all. Mobs, from streets or organized by our government can snuff out the lives of innocent citizens, as happened to the judges in 1982, the KUME PREKO martyrs in the next decade and just this year, to Major Mahama and others-- thus mocking our motto-- Freedom and Justice.
Our environment is drowning in garbage while sinister forces with the collusion of government agencies pollute our rivers and streams under galamsey. We cannot even name and shame them. Our argument should be about our future, not our past and over who will be hailed by posterity for securing that future.
Let us built Ghana for posterity.
BY DR KOBINA ARTHUR KENNEDY, A US BASED GHANAIAN PHYSICIAN.
There is a raging debate over who founded Ghana, our motherland. Before proceeding further, it is important to establish the fact that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has been Ghana's best President by a wide margin. It is equally necessary to note that winning elections after independence does not correlate with a person or party's role in the struggle for independence. Robert Mugabe's party did not win the post-independence mandate in Zimbabwe because he led the struggle for independence. He won because he belonged to the Majority Shona tribe. The continuing questioning of Dr. J.B. Danquah's loyalty is an unproven and disloyal stain on a man who deserves better from all of us, regardless of ideology.
As to whether Nkrumah was our sole founder, how could he be? As Danquah stated eloquently on 4th August, 1947, "Love of freedom from foreign control has always been in our blood. Eight hundred and seventy years ago, we struck against the attempt of the Arabs to impose a religious slavery upon us in Ghana. We left our homes in Ghana and came down here to build a new home." Thus the struggle for our freedom started eight centuries before the founding of the UGCC, and it continued after 6th March, 1957. It has heroes, beginning with some of those buried on the journey from ancient Ghana to our current home, through the leaders of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, some brave chiefs, the founders of the UGCC, and the CPP, Sergeant Adjetey and his fellow martyrs before independence and then more people after independence.
Make no mistake about it. Our colonial masters have been gone for 60 years but we have not been free for 60 years. We lost freedom as a people under our military dictatorships-- NLC, NRC/SMC, AFRC/PNDC. Those who fought against these internal oppressors were as gallant as those who fought our colonizers. To say Nkrumah is our founder assumes that when Usain Bolt anchors Jamaica in a relay, he is the team. It presumes that when Real Madrid won the champions league this past season, Ronaldo alone deserved all the credit. How could Nkrumah alone be credited with founding Ghana when he cannot, in good conscience be credited with founding CPP alone? Where would the CPP be without the organizational genius of Gbedemah?
No great country has one founder. Most American historians list seven founding fathers. This list does not include Francis Marion of South Carolina whose exploits were described by George Washington as crucial to the success of the war of Independence. A few years ago, Tracy Lindeman of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation listed 36 founding fathers for Canada. India had founders beside Ghandi with historians ranking Ambedkar's contributions greater than Ghandi's. South Africa had many founders beside Mandela-- of all races. We should stop peddling the palpable fallacy that Nkrumah was our sole founder. When Danquah told a crowd that Nkrumah would never fail them, he was wrong. Nkrumah failed them by taking away the freedom he helped to win-- spurred by power and sycophancy. While we are pre-occupied with this farcical debate about our founders, we are losing the nation we are arguing about.
As President Akufo-Addo said on 6th March, "Sadly, the economic dividend that was meant to accompany our freedom has still not materialised. Sixty years after those heady days, too many of our people continue to wallow in unacceptable poverty". That is not all. Mobs, from streets or organized by our government can snuff out the lives of innocent citizens, as happened to the judges in 1982, the KUME PREKO martyrs in the next decade and just this year, to Major Mahama and others-- thus mocking our motto-- Freedom and Justice.
Our environment is drowning in garbage while sinister forces with the collusion of government agencies pollute our rivers and streams under galamsey. We cannot even name and shame them. Our argument should be about our future, not our past and over who will be hailed by posterity for securing that future.
Let us built Ghana for posterity.
BY DR KOBINA ARTHUR KENNEDY, A US BASED GHANAIAN PHYSICIAN.
Comments
Post a Comment