Dr. J B Danquah died at Nsawam Prison on 4th February—and this year marks the 50th anniversary of this sad event.
If you are wondering why he died in a prison, Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah was arrested and detained by his former good friend-Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was then the president of Ghana under his Preventive Detention Act (PDA).
J. B Danquah died after 13 months of being kept in prison—but before that and on his 4th month in prison, he wrote a letter to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah begging for a release.
Today, excerpts of this letter has been released by Danquah Institute (DI), a think tank founded by Gabby Asare Otchere Darko in J. B Danquah’s name and to keep his vision alive.
Read the letter below….
His Excellency,
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, P.C., LL.D., etc.,
President of the Republic of Ghana,
Flagstaff House, Accra.
Dear Dr. Nkrumah,
I am tired of being in prison on preventive detention with no opportunity to make an original or any contribution to the progress and development of the country, and I therefore respectfully write to beg, and appeal to you to make an order for my release and return home.
I am anxious to resume my contribution to the progress and development of Ghana in the field of Ghanaian literature (Twi and English), and in Ghana Research (History and Culture), and I am anxious also to establish my wife and children in a home, to develop the education of my children (ten of them) and to restore my parental home at Kibi (Yiadom House) to a respectable dignity, worthy of my late father’s own contribution to the progress of our country.
You will recall that when in 1948 we were arrested by the British Government and sent to the North for detention they treated us as gentlemen, not as galley slaves, and provided each of us with a furnished bungalow (two or three rooms) with a garden, together with opportunity for reading and writing. In fact, I took with me my typewriter and papers for the purpose, and Ako Adjei also did the same, and there was ample opportunity for correspondence.
Here at Nsawam, for the four months of my detention up to date (8th January to 9th May 1964), I have not been allowed access to my books and papers, except the Bible, and although I was told in January that my application to write to my wife, Mrs Elizabeth Danquah, could be considered if I addressed a letter to the Minister of the Interior, through the Director of Prisons, I have not, for over three months, since I wrote to the Minister as directed on the 31st January 1964, received any reply, not even a common acknowledgment from the Minister as to whether I should be allowed to write to my wife or not. As I had no opportunity to make any financial provision for my wife and children at the time of my arrest, this delay in the Minister’s reply has made it impossible for me to contribute to the progress and maintenance of my wife and also for the education of my children as is my duty to the nation.
Secondly, you will recall that barely a month after our detention in the North in 1948 we were brought down to Accra and released to appear before a Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the justice or otherwise of our arrest of our arrest and detention. We duly appeared before the Watson Commission and made history for Gold Coast and Ghana. It resulted in the finding that the Burns Constitution was outmoded at birth, with a recommendation that our country should attain its independence within ten years, and that a Constitutional Committee (the Coussey Committee) should be set up to lay down the foundations of such independence and the steps to be taken towards its attainment.
In the present case, since I was arrested four months ago, I have not been asked to appear before any Judge, or Committee, or Commission, and, up to now, all I have been told is contained in a sheet of paper entitled “Grounds for Detention” in which I am accused that “in recent months” I have been actively engaged in a plan “to overthrow the Government of Ghana by unlawful means” and that I have planned thereby “to endanger the security of the State” (the Police and Armed Forces).
As no particulars of any kind were provided in the grounds for detention to indicate how the Government of Ghana came to formulate such a disgraceful charge against me, I spent in the prison here the greater part of January and February 1964 to write a review of the whole of my activities in “recent months” (roughly, from June 1962 [last release from detention] to January 1964). This writing was done by way of “Representations” in answer to the charge…
I confidently assure you, Sir, that when my representations reach you, it will be realised that my contribution in the said period of “recent months” to the intellectual and cultural achievement of the country was such that what should have been sent to me on January 8, 1964, was not a hostile invasion of my home and family, like enemy territory, together with my arrest and detention, but rather a delegation of Ghanaian civil officials and other dignitaries to offer me the congratulations of the nation and the thanks of the Government…
This, however was not to be, and I find myself locked up at Nsawam Prison in a cell of about six by nine feet, without a writing or reading desk, without a dining table, without a bed, or a chair or any form of seat, and compelled to eat my food squatting on the same floor where two blankets and a cover are spread for me on the hard cement to sleep on, and where a latrine pan (piss pot) without a closet, and a water jug and a cup without a locker, are all assembled in that narrow space for my use like a galley slave…
I am required to sleep or keep lying down on the blankets and a small pillow for the whole 24 hours of the day and night except for a short period of about five minutes in the morning to empty and wash out my latrine pan, and of about ten to fifteen minutes at noon to go for a bath. I am occasionally allowed to do a short exercise in the sun say once a week for about half an hour. That is all I have been engaged on in four months with my talents, such as I possess, going waste and my health being undermined and my life endangered by various diseases without being allowed to be taken to the Prison Hospital for continuous observation and treatment…
I am now left in a prison cell at the Special Block at the Nsawam Prison reserved for “dangerous criminals”, and I am being thereby effectively prevented from making any original contribution to the intellectual and cultural progress of our country…
I end as I began. I am tired of being kept in prison kicking my heels, and doing nothing worth while for the country of my birth and love, and for the great continent of Africa which was the first to give the entire world a real taste of civilisation… I trust you will accept this appeal for my release from detention in the spirit of utmost confidence and cordiality in which it is written, and I look forward to my early release from prison with the greatest possible faith, expectation and confidence.
Believe me to be,
Yours Very Sincerely and Respectfully
(Sgd.) J. B. Danquah
This is a sad letter of a man that was broken. He died like a nobody but well the bible says those who come by the sword died by the sword and posterity witnessed the judgement.
Hmm I think it’s good as a country to once a while reflect on our past since it helps influence our future goals and aspirations.I think most political scientist would agree that Nkrumah in his latter days went overboard and made certain mistakes like this.Why people should be cautious when analyzing this whole Nkrumah-Danquah situation is because he was just trying to consolidate his power and he felt JB was more of a threat,most leaders in other places did similar or if turned the other way around I carefully use probably JB would have done likewise.Its through they were friends and all that but if read other histories you will find out that Nkrumah wasn’t the first to have done that.It was a terrible mistake he made,he made a wrong call and posterity will always judge him,like am assessing him and others will do that for a life time.In politics we have a saying “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.Nkrumah and JB s story should be a lesson for up and coming politicians,politics should be about opinions,ideologies and tolerance.just my candid opinion
You can only judge a man based on his actions not his inactions. You can judge Nkrumah for his actions as president n try to understand him not withstanding however u can not assume JB DANQUAH would have done the same wen the poor man did not have a chance as president and died miserably in prison custody. Let’s not play God here and read people’s mind or assume the kind Of action they would take wen they are dead n gone.
Wow. This letter should put in history books. Its surprising how little is said about the founding fathers. It’s always only nkrumah we keep talking about. Can someone from the Danquah iinstitute tell us what exactly was JB’s position under Nkrumah’s administration. Maybe chris u can help. A history lover here.
You can tell the love he had for his country in his letter. Am sure they are all weeping in graves now. To have gone through all this only for Ghana to be in a state that’s in today.
This doesn’t capture the whole history. Yes sad but it doesn’t show jb danguahs hand in the attempts on nkrumahs life and his seditious actions against the country. Anyone interested in danquahs shenanigans should look for the books written by black Americans around in the country in 1950 to 1966. He’s lucky he didn’t suffer the fate of Benedict arnold in the American war of independence. The irony is he claims he wants to serve the country in this letter but worked hard to undermine the independence of the country. He and his followers did everything to cripple the new found state. Anyone who know anything about newly found state is you can’t have traitors who are stil servile to the colonial power in your midst. This man’s hatred for the will of the people led him to the cia and the British intelligence. He visited the colonial masters asking them not to grant independence to ghana. It’s no wonder his followers did the same. Busia gave one of the most vilest speech to the U.S. congress causing a lot of black American leaders of the time to turn their back on him. The danquah busia tradition has been the bane of the country. One can say the first curse of the nation was the coup by the danquah busia group in 1966. It was started by a goat sacrifice in Kumasi. That curse instill in the silly heads of the military that they can take over power. Leading the country down this destructive path. The first cut was the deepest and the country hasn’t recovered since. The traitors and their scions attempts to revise history won’t fly. We know who cause the downfall of the nation. Look at the Chinese. Malaysians etc. What is the difference? They all had a strong and visionary leader at the birth of the nation. Traitors and seditionists were removed and weeded out. Ghanaians would have been better off had Nkrumah not been toppled. I have visited Cuba many times and one thing that impresses me is the discipline of the people. Despite the stifling embargo that nation has thrived by using its resources wisely. When DuPont took away fertilizer from their farmers they mastered the art of using green resources to grow their food. Their beaches earn them millions of dollars from tourists worldwide. Try taking a shit at the beach in Cuba and see what happens. Why? Their strong leadership has put in place strong institutions that work and ensures that there is discipline. Ghana with its grants, loans and aid cant be half a nation Cuba is. Their health care and education makes even United states look backward. Danquah and busia tradition calcified tribalism, indiscipline and abortive coups. They were no democrats. Rather egotistical prima Donnas who believed the country belonged to them and that the other Ghanaians without the benefit of British scholastics were inferior and unwashed and don’t deserve to be considered. The guy who posted this letter is gabby otchere a kin of danquah who thinks people are stupid and ignorant of history. I say tweeeaaaaa.
I agree with all your above points but it’s important we know certain important parts of history.Its true Gabby may be related to JB but the truth is Nkrumah had his own issues.You can take time to visit political scientist like Dr.Amponsah my lecturer in Legon to know their opinions and assessments.I remember we had a whole debate on this topic in Level 200 and with facts we were all astonished with certain things Nkrumah did that he could have handled better.I am not going to lay out all the weaknesses of JB and Nkrumah here,but I advise you read extensively not only from history books but from other sources.I met R.R Amponsah and Gen.Awhaitey all this names are important figures in history and also had similar problems with Nkrumah to hear their sides of the story.I don’t know how old and how much research you’ve done into this whole Nkrumah saga but most Ghanaians always revere Nkrumah so much that they often ignore to talk about his weaknesses.How many people died and suffered under Nkrumah? During his latter days as a leader what policies and things did he do? In my opinion I wouldn’t blame him for everything,their certain decisions if you put me in similar context I would have done.60 years down the lane it’s important we grow in our kind of politics and learn the positives and not the negatives.
Nana, I will appreciate it if we can have this discussion. Please list the issues and lets go over them. I have a bookshelf full those people present at the time. I chose the black americans because they had a better vantage point than the Ghanaian writers who were biased and naïve about what it take to build a nation. Ghanaians didn’t know who was pulling their strings and weren’t well versed in the trickery of the west. For that reason, I have discounted their particular version of history. Because its is flawed and biased. Some of the so called historians also considered themselves elite and were more receptive to Danquah/Busia camp than the ordinary people’s camp. All the same please list the issues with Nkrumah and lets go through them.
Cheers
RR Amponsah was a traitor and a subversive. He went as far as to buy fake police uniforms in London for his plot to kill a duly elected leader of Ghana. RR Amponsah, Apaloo and Whaitey were all subversives. In fact they will be called terrorists in today’s language. But lets have this chat. looking forward to it.
Manasseh it wouldn’t be fair to the people you mentioned above and the kind of accolades you according them,all what you said was what Nkrumah made us to believe and what Nkrumah wanted us to read through his puppet boot lickers.I don’t know what books you talked about considering I read if I will say more extensively like hand written letters..I told you to find time to visit a famous lecturer who devoted his whole life collecting pieces on pre and post colonial Ghana.About writing Nkrumahs weaknesses here,I guess it’s like asking me to write a long essay on this blog.I hope the families of the above people you childishly discredit will forgive you for been a young man who naively say things in a biased way,which I guess isn’t your fault.Its interesting how you think those who knew about this saga were all friends to the danquah-busia camp in your words receptive.Why I wouldn’t even waste time doing all what you want me to do is because you even doubt the facts then what else is left for you to believe since you seem to already have hour conclusions before the commencement of a debate.If you really want to learn you shouldn’t take sides but be open to whatever sources,at the end of the day it’s your conclusions.
Well, u two just made realized I don’t know a shoot about ghanaian history. So for starters, which books would u recommend for me. Nana, please don’t ask me to see a lecturer cos I don’t live in Gh. This u both please. I mean nana and Manassehatsu. Thank u!
Madam I will get you a list but you can start with Geoffrey Bing’s “reap a whirlwind”. and the “The quills of the porcupine” to give you a background of the players. Look for the Granville Sharp hearings report on the assassination attempts. You can also look for R.J. Vile writings on the NLM(the opposition and coup plotters). I will post a list here for you.
Thank u very much
There is no significant intimate study of Nkrumah. A balanced account of his regime, written by T. Peter Omari, a Ghanaian sociologist on the United Nations staff, is Kwame Nkrumah: The Anatomy of an African Dictatorship (1971). A brief study of Nkrumah is in Dankwart A. Rustow, ed., Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership (1970). A slender, important specialized work, written by a European who was chief of the defense staff of the Ghanaian army, reveals much about Nkrumah’s ambitions: H. T. Alexander, African Tightrope: My Two Years as Nkrumah’s Chief of Staff (1966).
Nkrumah is best studied in the context of the forces of his time. Dennis Austin, Politics in Ghana: 1946-1960 (1964), is the standard work. An essential study is George Padmore, Pan-Africanism or Communism (1956); and David E. Apter, The Gold Coast in Transition (1955; rev. ed. entitled Ghana in Transition, 1963), is excellent for the domestic politics of Ghana and the transfer of institutions to the new nationalism. Nkrumah as pan-Africanist and diplomatist is examined in W. Scott Thompson, Ghana’s Foreign Policy, 1957-1966: Diplomacy, Ideology, and the New State (1969).apart from all this sources whenever you visit Ghana try visit the Universiy of Ghana Political Science Dept and ask for Dr.Amponsah,he is probably one of the best on this topic apart from the late Adu Boahen.
Nana. I asked you to provide the list of issues you claim Nkrumah had so we can discuss. The seditious acts of those I mentioned are in the public records for all to see. Private letters of these collaborators are self serving and doesn’t prove that they didn’t buy grenades and uniforms to try and overthrow a legitimate government. I have read extensively on the history of Ghana and the various movements. If you want to believe people who were sympathizers to the collaborators, that’s your prerogative. But I won’t. I have read enough to know what happened to the country before and after independence. I know the roles cia played with Danquah and the rest of the traitors. That’s why I suggested you read external authors not the Ghanaian historians who were and continue to hold water for the UGCC/NLM/NPP.
It is not a youthful gaffe on my part because I am not what you consider a youth. Also Nkrumah never told me anything. But there is a lot of information out there including declassified reports of the CIA which tells us who were the players, what was their motivation and how the went about it.
GUYANA UNDER SIEGE
KWAME NKRUMAH: HIS RISE AND FALL
Page 3 of 3 (7 March 1957 – 24 February 1966)
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The political wave that swept Kwame Nkrumah into office as Prime Minister of Ghana was a true expression of her population. The nation was enjoying prosperity; foreign and domestic reserves were healthy; cocoa prices were excellent and stable and, in general, the prospects for the country’s future were outstanding.
Nkrumah’s government immediately embarked upon a very costly nationwide infrastructure improvement scheme. Roads were built and/or improved, in most cases, to all weather standards. The Accra to Tema Motorway was built to near Autobahn proportions. Medical services were greatly improved and expanded. Positive steps were taken towards implementation of the vast and extraordinarily costly Volta River hydro-electric dam at Akosombo. Tema township and world class harbor were built.
Nkrumah focused enormous resources on improving Ghana’s export agricultural base which, traditionally, was heavily dependent upon cocoa. The Agricultural Development Board was established to regulate cocoa production, purchasing and marketing and to identify, subsidize and promote the production of other cash crops to alleviate the tenuous cocoa dependency.
The Industrial Development Corporation was formed to plan and undertake a full range of industrial projects. The Management Development and Productivity Institute was chartered along with its principal division, The Ghanaian Business Bureau, designed to develop and nurture small to medium size Ghanaian-owned businesses.
Government was determined to reduce Ghana’s dependence on foreign manufacturers and bring an end to the nations’ vulnerable position as a supplier of raw materials.
When Nkrumah took office as Prime Minister on 6 March, 1957, there was every indication that the above very noble activities could be successfully undertaken on a sustained basis. Cocoa prices were stable and at a near high, providing a steady and seemingly reliable source of foreign exchange.
In addition, and most importantly, Ghana was united behind her leader, succumbing to his extraordinary oratory, glib rhetoric and zeal. There was a vibrant national passion for development and self-reliance. Throughout the nation, in every region, in every Chiefdom, the population was enthusiastically and earnestly engaged in Nkrumah sponsored and supported self-help schemes; building schools, clinics, village and town centers, roads, drains and irrigation systems. Ghana of 1957-1959 experienced a massive outpouring of productive energy and was being keenly observed by the international community as the development model for emerging African nations.
So what went wrong? How and why did the brilliant, charismatic Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the outspoken Marxist/Communist, Pan-African Founding Father of Ghana, begin his political slide and ultimate ignominious fall from power?
The list of reasons is lengthy and complex but it is safe to say, that Nkrumah’s decline began in early 1960. Until then, the population, because he had lead them to Independence from Britain, was generally willing to overlook Nkrumah’s Marxist/Communist ideological pronouncements, his costly demands for pomp and splendor and his assumption of more and more power, in many cases, usurping elected and Traditional Authority.
However, beginning in mid-1960, at about the time that he assumed the Presidency and approved the new Republican Constitution, the economic fallibility of Ghana clearly manifested itself and materially effected the lives of all Ghanaians. From 1960 to 1965, world cocoa prices plummeted, and the enormous development spending begun by Nkrumah four years earlier, severely impacted the country’s economy. Foreign exchange and government’s reserves shrank and disappeared. Unemployment rose dramatically. Food prices skyrocketed up over 250% from 1957 levels and up a phenomenal 66% in 1965. Eventually, there were massive food and essentials shortages effecting every area, sector and individual in Ghana. Econmic growth, which had ranged from 9% to 12% per annum until 1960, dropped to 2% to 3%, insufficient to sustain a population expanding at almost 3% per year.
Nkrumah’s response was an austere socialist budget which imposed flawed Marxist concepts of economic resuscitation on the population, primarily through harsh and unrealistic taxation. Financial mismanagement and economic chaos increased and the country was eventually poised at the brink of national bankruptcy and international disgrace.
In the meantime, to shore up his eroding political strength, Nkrumah assumed more and more power which he exercised capriciously. Obsessed with personal safety after two failed assassination attempts, he established a very well and heavily armed Secret Security Service and Presidential Guard recruited from abroad and under his direct control. Resentment by the ill-equipped Army and Police followed.
In 1964, Nkrumah declared himself President for Life and summarily banned all opposition political parties. His enemies, real and imagined, were detained. In the process, innocent people from all over Ghana were swept up and imprisoned in complete abuse of their individual rights and liberties. Laws were suspended and/or manipulated to prop up Nkrumah’s faltering regime.
The power of traditional Chiefs was diminished and, in some cases, removed. This in a country where traditional authority through the great Akan chiefs had existed for a thousand years.
In the meantime, the Cult of Nkrumahism continued to develop and propound preposterous quasi-marxist theory and dogma hatched in the name of Nkrumah, at the Ideological Institute at Winebba. The Nkrumah cult, created by Nkrumah himself to perpetuate and mythicize himself, forced acquiescence by all, to what was called “the Nkrumahist Gospel”.
To those of us who watched these events unfold during the years of Nkrumah’s leadership, it was not a matter of if the bubble would burst, rather, when. On 21 February, 1966, President Kwame Nkrumah flew out of Accra bound for Hanoi, Democratic Republic of North Vietnam at the invitation of President Ho Chi Minh. Nkrumah was journeying to Hanoi prepared to offer his Vietnam War solution. Ghana was left in the control of a three-man Presidential Commission, consisting of a traditional Chief and two politicians.
On 24 February, 1966, the bubble did not merely burst, it exploded! In the early morning hours, Ghana’s armed forces, with the cooperation of the National Police, took over government in “Operation Cold Chop”, a well organized coup d’etat. The first announcement made from Radio Ghana said that the coup was led by Colonel Emmanual Kwasi Kotoka of the 2nd Infantry Brigade. Kotoka, an outstanding soldier, was a national hero, honored for valor and bravery while serving as part of Ghana’s United Nations 1960 and 1961 Congo contingent. A National Liberation Council was formed to run the affairs of state. Parliament was dissolved. Nkrumah’s ruling political organization, the Convention People’s Party (C.P.P.), was banned and Nkrumah himself was dismissed as President of Ghana’s First Republic. The reign of the Osegyefo, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was over.
The great Ghanaian statesman, scholar, lawyer, philosopher, author and patriot, Dr. J. B. Danquah, wrote that “The true role of leadership must be support of individual freedom and personal worth. Human beings, not things make a nation great. Kwame Nkrumah forgot that and condemned his nation to many years of political and economic agony”.
Nkrumah was a very complicated man. The times were turbulent and unpredictable and his undertaking was of extraordinary complexity. His successes, his Pan-African enthusiasm, the political galvanization of a very diverse, multi-faceted society, the attainment of independence for Ghana and his early economic achievements have earned him an important place in history. His failures emphasize the extreme fragility of the developing world. It is a world with little or no tolerance for political, economic, social or natural shortcomings.
But over the next few years, Nkrumah was increasingly regarded as an authoritarian and remote leader. In 1964 he declared himself president for life and banned opposition parties. Justifying his actions he wrote:
‘Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of a totalitarian kind.’ Am not here to judge Nkrumah or anything just trying to be objective.Madam I will give you some sources to read and it’s important to note that at the time there were eye witness like Dr.KB Asante,Dr.Addai… Am not against those CIA cables or external writers,you can’t tell me my friends father or my grand mum were all against Nkrumah or were bought by the Danquah camp.what did Nkrumah do?To every action comes a reaction.Tell me in Ghana who can tell the story best,is it the white man sitting elsewhere or e citizens who saw pregnant women killed for rituals and people vanishing day in day out.
Thanks a lot
“The great Ghanaian statesman, scholar, lawyer, philosopher, author and patriot, Dr. J. B. Danquah,”
Madam, anyone who writes an article and uses this paragraph above has no credibility. None whatsoever. For Danquah was not a statesman. He was a CIA asset. So how can he be a statesman? A statesman of which country? Ghana? He started providing his services to the british. When he lost favour and the brits found Busia as a better asset he shifted to the americans.
Here are some good books and writers o the subject;
JFK: Ordeal in Africa Mahoney
Paul Lee “Documents Expose U.S. Role in Nkrumah Overthrow”
Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah :
The Regime Change of Kwame Nkrumah: Epic Heroism in Africa and the Diaspora
Ama Biney; The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah
Rituals? Are you that naïve? Do actually believe Kwame Nkrumah drank blood and worshipped Kankan Nyame? On the issue of authoritarianism, most of the world leaders who built what we now call democracies were authoritarian. Oliver Cromwell was authoritarian. He had King beheaded. George Washington was authoritarian. He hung fellow citizens who were sympathetic to Britain. Bismark was authoritarian. And for a good reason. There are always those people in every society that will fight change because of their position of priviledge. For those people you cannot pu**y foot around them. A new leader has to be tough to navigate and lead at such times. How educated was your grandmother and friends father? Did they understand the whirlwind of change taking place? Or they were still looking the empty shelves caused by the economic squeeze put on the country by the west. My mother was of the same mindset. But that was because they didn’t understand what nation building entails. What were the opposition parties doing between 58 on? Were they not abolishing parliament and pushing the goal post on what constitutes a majority? Were they not throwing bombs and killing members of Nkrumah’s party? Madam there is a very simple video call Africa’s Black star on youtube. It is not as detail but you’ll get some info from there too.
It is in the nature of humanity to review the past, for in doing so we notonly define our own essence but also seek to learn lessons if we genuinely desire to do so.”2 Shakespeare wrote that “the evil that men do lives after them but the good is interred with their bones.” Of deceased political figures, Abdul-Raheem contends, “Politically, victims and beneficiaries remember both. It is the balance between the two [the good and the bad achievements] that determines their place in the politics of memory, which, like all memories, is prone to being selective.”3 Even General J. A. Ankrah, who headed the Supreme Military Council that took over Ghana after the February 24, 1966, coup d’état that toppled Nkrumah, confirmed that his place in African history had been assured. In short, Nkrumah has been vilified and revered for both his failures and achievements by scholars and ordinary people alike.Talking about naivety,how do we collect historical data?Whether Nkrumah was into rituals and whatsoever isn’t the issue here,it’s about people sharing light on what happened,thus me giving my friends dad and my grand mum as examples.They were learned people unlike your mum who was confused and they had insight into what happened at the time,I mean first hand information.I wouldn’t say it’s all factual but at the end of the day after collecting data,you assess it and take the facts from it.It is interesting to hear your talk about authoritarians,should we exempt them when there’s a need to scrutinize our history.The names you mentioned for your information have their assessments and no one will we say we should turn a blind eye on that part of history.In all my submissions I avoided like witch hunting Nkrumah or putting in Nkrumah in a bad spot light,all I wanted to do was to assess him,everybody reading have their own conclusions and judgements.I dare not judge Nkrumah as I stated before,since I don’t know what I would have done if I was put in his position but am happy I read every detail about his era so as to help inform me and guide me in my future endeavors.Thats what history is all about.Let me state it here,on record that I think Nkrumah was one of the finest leaders in Ghanaian history.
@mannassehatsu Ewe man, no wonde you say all these things about JB Danquah. Oh how I wish you guys weren’t part of Ghana, all out troubles will end. Evil people.
My handle never fails to catch the tribal baboons in our midst. But anyway, I didn’t make them up. Danquah did all that. It is in the public record you to read. The man felt Nkrumah stole his birthright. And that he was the ordained ruler of Ghana. He had no respect for the will of the people. After he lost the elections he decided to terrorise Ghanaians and make the country ungovernable. So he sacrificed the country to foreign interests. First the british intelligence and then the americans after the brits decided to go with Busia instead. He created Ghana’s own boko haram. One can argue that all Ghana’s problems stems from the asante/akyems. It started with their coup in 1966. But the again I a sure you know that.