NEVER AGAIN! ... 40 YEARS AFTER THE COUP THAT DERAILED AFRICA'S PROGRESS

New African, Feb 2006 by Ankomah, Baffour

Forty years ago this month (24 February 1966 to be precise), a coup d'état in Ghana disrupted the country's (and by extension, Africa's) forward march. It was a day of veritable infamy, and, arguably, one of the darkest spots in the annals of the continent. 24 February 2006 marks exactly 40 years of that dishonourable event, and we at New African would want to concentrate the minds of the people of Africa - both at home and in the diaspora - on the lessons of that coup via this special report you are about to read.

We have assembled contributions from some eminent Africans and Africanists, including former presidents Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, the late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania (from his 1997 speech delivered in Accra at Ghana's 40th independence anniversary), June Milne, Nkrumah's former research and editorial assistant and later literary executrix, K. Addai-Sebo, the Ghanaian founder of Black History Month UK, Carina Ray (our Tales from the Archives columnist), Antonio de Figueiredo (our Lest we forget columnist) and last but not the least, an abridged version of Nkrumah's greatest speech ever delivered, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the founding conference of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in May 1965. Last month, the British chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, writing in The Guardian about the need for the G8 to "deliver the resources to prove that Making Poverty History was not a passing fashion", made a telling comment: "A century ago," he said, "people talked of 'what we could do to Africa'. Last century, it was 'what can we do for Africa'. Now in 2006, we must ask what the developing world, empowered, can do for itself."

Forty years ago, Africa, newly empowered by the wave of independence then sweeping the continent, was doing something for itself. That campaign was led by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, a man who, in 2000, was voted by the BBC's African listeners as "The African of the century", and in 2004 by New Africans worldwide readers as the "Second Greatest African" that ever lived.

Sadly, on 24 February 1966, the work of this African hero, the work that had inspired a continental drive for political liberation and economic empowerment, was cut short in a military coup organised (according to declassified documents released in recent years by the Americans and the British) by the CIA (with support from London) and delivered by local collaborators in Ghana. It was a serious setback for Africa! Nkrumah had his faults as every human being and leader has! His declaration of one-party state and sweeping use of the Prevention Detention Act in Ghana was a grave mistake. In hindsight, one could perhaps find some mitigating circumstances for him as the "psychological warfare" waged against him by the Americans and their allies (their own admission from their declassified documents), which included five assassination attempts on his life via bombs and bullets, made him lose focus and part ] of his democratic credentials. But the true measure of the man should be seen in what he was able to achieve for Ghana and Africa in the face of the massive forces arraigned against him, from within Ghana, Africa and outside.

Interestingly, he had set up Ghana as a model and guide for the whole continent of Africa. He knew that political independence without economic empowerment was valueless.

"Under colonial rule," he wrote in his 1963 book, Africa Must Unite, "a country has very restricted economic links with other countries. Its natural resources are developed only insofar as they serve the interests of the colonial power... In planning national development, the constant, fundamental guide, is the need for economic independence."

Nkrumah was not only a thinker, visionary and orator, but also a doer! He knew that Africa's future and prosperity lay with rapid industrialisation, to create the goods and jobs that would economically empower the people of the continent. As such, he set out to industrialise Ghana in one generation as a guide for the continent. By the time his government was overthrown in that dreadful coup of February 1966, he had established 68 sprawling state-owned factories producing every need of the Ghanaian people. And this in the space of nine short years! That, in itself, deserved an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

As he wrote m Africa Must Unite: "In the industrial sphere, our aim has been to encourage the establishment of factories where we have a natural advantage in local resources and labour, or where we can produce essential commodities required for development or for domestic consumption. During 1961, over 60 new factories were opened in the country. Among them were a distillery, a coconut oil factory, a brewery, a milk-processing plant, and a lorry and bicycle plant. In addition, agreements were signed for a large modern oil refinery, an iron and steel works, a flour mill, sugar, textile and cement factories. For unless we attain economic freedom, our struggle for independence would have been in vain, and our plans for social and cultural advancement frustrated."