“We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world! Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.”
Dr Nkrumah
As i remember Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, if he had been alive he would possibly be 112 years today. But your people (Ghanaians) ,
some of them in their lack of wisdom choose to remove you from power, I apologize on there behalf.
They gave you only a few years to be present in this world and during those few years that you are present in this world you shook not only Ghana but Africa so very fundamentally that although your mortal remains were interred your spirit is alive and well and is the spirit that occupies our minds and hearts today as we remind ourselves that the only way in which Africa will realize their potential is through the path of Unity.
I know as you lying you are great Osagyefo there is a sense in which in a manner so completely invisible to us, you are turning on comfortably and weeping uncontrollably because your continent is bleeding.
It is bleeding in every corner, in our heart in the Congo she bleeds, that country that is so rich is yet the poorest nation in Africa.
But it does not stop bleeding only in the Congo it also bleeds in our own in Somalia that country which could be very rich is only famous for the wrong things, man killing Man for no reason.
But is doesn’t stop bleeding there, it is also bleeding in Equatorial Guinea that country that God gives so much Oil which was captured by one family and they’re using it for their benefit to the detriment of their people and it doesn’t stop bleeding there, in Central African Republic and in Libya and in Mauritania and Mali your continent is torn asunder and we who are here today are asking ourselves the fundamental question, what must we do to save AFRICA?.
And that is why today when we are looking at Africa when remembering you on that 24th of May In Addis Ababa Ethiopia
we cannot help but remember how animated you are, We can not help but remember that what you saw 50 years ago is standing out to be as evergreen as when you spoke them.
You told us then that our unity was going to be our salvation from other civilization today Africa is said to be rising but the question we are asking, for whom is Africa rising?
Today the minerals in our belly are being exploited the uranium in Niger is being taken away to France, the manganese in Ghana your own country is being taken away even the cocoa which you must consume as a young man is taken away, in the same manner that God made it to be converted into something in Switzerland your people have not learn to add value to it.
They have an apology for a factory in Takoradi but it does very little Osagyefo .
In other words there is a lot to be done, we can hear you telling us that we need to have free movement of goods and services in this continent
I can now inform you that when they met on the 27th day July in Kigali Rwanda they created a passport.
But that passport is only known to the President the people of Africa have no idea what it is, but they are started so we must believe that going forward every African will carry what is an African passport which will allow them to move from Darka in Senegal to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt and they will be able to move without hindrance.
But we also remind ourselves that when we talk about unity, we are not saying that we should strike down our traditional institutions
we are simply saying that our traditional institution must be integrated in our modem skin of doing things and I must tell you that
today here we are agree that what others think is the Tower of Babel can be a power of Babel, and that this continent can be united
and our diversity would be a cultural and linguistic mosaic which would be our strength and the attraction to other parts of the world.
As I continued to speak to you in your grave, there is the tendency that I may speak until the cow’s come home but what is the wisdom in
doing that?
you are so clear in 1963, that is your clarity that we must use to remind ourselves that Africa can rise but as I pose a little highly for whom is it rising? is it rising for the Indians? is it rising for the Lebanese ? Is it rising for the Chinese?
is it rising for the Americans? or is rising for the whole world with Africa at the bearers of the wait for our benefit?
We want to leave in a continent where we are respected but we know that is only through unity and we believe that the Acadamics will carry their way so that our education will have value.
Those of us who are trained in the sciences will no longer allow their knowledge to sit in libraries but that knowledge will be utilized
by the political class for the sake of the transformation of the lives of the people. We hope that our unity will create an environment
where our young men and women will not be humiliated at the embassies of Australia, Canada, the United States of America and little European countries that they may acquire their passports as a way of escaping from Africa which provides no opportunity and hope for young men and women.
We can do it, we must do it, because if we don’t do it we ourselves will be done so Africa must rise because if Africa does not rise Africa will perish.
In memory of the Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah The first president of the republic of Ghana and the most renowned Pan-Africanist
It is not lost to me that Dr Kwame Nkrumah has now been fully rehabilitated in the life of Ghanaians and in the life and minds of Africans.
A writing about pan Africanism, Kenya’s every renown Ali says that when one Thinks about the unity of Africa and the pan African movement several names come to mind Name such as South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Tanzania’s Julius camera but no name is great than that of Ghana’s Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Indeed we will remember that a few years ago at the tan of the century Africans both in the continent and outside of it was to vote for the greatest African whoever lived and unanimously they said that it was Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah
Politics in Africa
We agree unanimously that the problem of Africa is simply leadership
We then asked ourselves what has been the impact of poor leadership in Africa.
indeed African economies continued to punch below their weight because our politics is wrong John soniff of liberia said that Africa is poor because she’s poorly governed.
Today we post the question. What is it that undermines African unity?
And before we begin to talk about contemporary Africa we must ask ourselves Where did the rain start beating us?
We must go deep into history and ask ourselves why this continent and her people have been the most abused throughout human history?
as early as the 15th century this continent was an attraction to other civilization, explorers came into this part of the world under
the guise of looking for resources and they did not stop there, they proceeded to invade the land of Africa and in a manner of speaking, harvested Africans and more than half the population of Africa was taken out of this continent to be enslaved.
When the project of slavery lost its shine and luster another project came Into Africa.
Africa was parceled out in 1800 and 1884 in Berlin Germany the French took their piece, the Dutch took their piece, the Germans had their share, the Portuguese had their portion and the British had their share and Africa has never been the same again.
When the colonial project lost its luster, once again another project was instituted in a much more subtle way the neo-colonial project and even now Africa is not at ease.
One need only look at Africa as it stands today to understand our continent is in shambles.
When we move from the southern part of Africa even in that land of Nelson Mandela they are not ease
they may describe themselves as the rainbow nation but there is a sense in which that country is not completely at ease the Africans are still reeling from the pain of apathy and if one moves into the neighborhood in Namibia, the Namibians are still grappling with the pervasive presence of a system of government that treats them as second-class citizens.
When one moves a little further in the north In Angola into Mozambique they are not at ease
Some of the problems were inherited from the colonial masters but some we created ourselves, so that today when we look at Africa, Africa has the infamy of being the home of the most conflicts in the world of different intensities elections have come and after every election in Africa we enter into an arena of conflict right now in Zambia after they concluded the elections they are still rising against each other
In Zimbabwe the country is falling apart, in central African Republic the countries not at ease. Africa is not at ease, in Nigeria the Igbo, the Fulani, the Yoruba are not at ease the undertone is that our continent is not united.
Which beds the question what must we then do?
Is it a new realization?
Dr kwame Nkrumah saw this ahead of time and said “If Africa don’t unite we will not be where we want to be” and as if he was a prophet so soon there after they at all been overthrown including himself.
Africa today is divide it into 54 countries with over 3000 ethnicities and over 2000 languages. European still referred to Africa as strangely in the following terms and is the only continent that is referred to as such.
Africa is some time described as ‘anglophone’ to suggest that there is a part of Africa which speaks English. Even when only 1% percent of the population speaks English we are referred to as anglophone.
Ghana , Kenya is anglophone.
The consequences that the continent continues to be divided.
Today when one looks at Africa and her 54 viable nation and 54 national anthem with her slightly over 40 useless currencies and many passports. The currency are not useless because they do not work, they are useless because they only have meaning within the boundaries of their countries but yet when you are confronted with them all mighty dollar and the all mighty euro you quake in your boots.
Africa is disunited, and This disunity is because we do not know that we are weak because we are disunited, we know in unity we can find a solution and this was so very evident in as early as 1963.
