Recalling the day Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown
February 24, 1966, will forever remain a day of infamy and treachery in the annals of the history of the African revolution.
Fifty three years ago today, traitors and agents of foreign enemies of the African revolution struck a major, but not fatal blow to the heroic struggle of Africans for freedom, development and human equality by overthrowing the flag bearer of the African revolution, president Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
The reactionary and counter-revolutionary military coup was led by Col EK Kotoka, Maj AA Afrifa and Inspector General of Police JW Harley.
These traitors formed a junta incongruously called National Liberation Council and justified their unconstitutional action by accusing Nkrumah of corruption, dictatorship, oppression and decline of Ghana’s economy.
The coup was masterminded and backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of USA which saw USSR and China as a threat to its national interests in Africa; hence Nkrumah was a dangerous example for American interests in Africa.
According to official CIA documents declassified in 1999, the US government had from 1964 been searching for Ghanaian collaborators to sponsor for the purpose of removing Nkrumah from power.
Canada, to my surprise and dismay, colluded with the USA and played a role in Nkrumah’s downfall.
Soon after the coup, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, CE McGaughey, was quoted saying, “a wonderful thing has happened for the West in Ghana and Canada played a worthy part” and added that, “all here welcome this development, except party functionaries and communist diplomatic missions.” McGaughey applauded the Ghanaian army for throwing “the Russian and Chinese rascals out”.
Having identified some lackeys or running dogs, as the Peking Review magazine called them, a golden opportunity for the CIA to strike came on February 21, 1966, the day Nkrumah left Accra for Hanoi, North Vietnam, on a peace mission initiated by the Commonwealth.
Nkrumah travelled to Hanoi via Beijing, China at the invitation of North Vietnam’s president Ho Chi Minh in an attempt to find a solution to the Vietnam War between USA and a small Third World country. The bitter and protracted war was eventually won by North Vietnam whose troops defeated hands down belligerent, callous and reactionary US forces in 1975.
Reaction to the 1966 coup in Ghana
News of Nkrumah’s overthrow was condemned by the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) and all progressive countries in Africa and the world, including Uganda.
Prime minister Apolo Milton Obote rejected the coup and announced that as far as Uganda was concerned Kwame Nkrumah remained the de jure, or lawful, head of state of Ghana which was the first African country to establish a resident diplomatic mission in Kampala in 1963.
When I joined the diplomatic service of Uganda in August 1970, I was amazed to learn that in all official correspondence originating from government of Uganda, Nkrumah was referred to as president of Ghana and the Ghana High Commission routinely complained and explained in vain that this was not the case. Uganda and Ghana did not sever diplomatic relations despite unfriendly bilateral relations which existed for five years at official level.
Nkrumah’s legacy
In his seminal work titled, Africa Must Unite published in 1963 to coincide with the first conference of African heads of state held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in May 1963, Nkrumah laid out in detail the blueprint for an African continental union and government. It was at this conference that the OAU was established on May 25, 1963. Africa Day which is celebrated annually on May 25 is a part of Nkrumah’s legacy.
Uganda was represented at the 1963 conference by a powerful delegation led by Obote who was among a few African leaders who embraced and supported unequivocally the formation of a United States of Africa, there and then, in 1963.
So when I hear some corrupt, mediocre and fraudulent African contemporary leaders, who shamelessly thrive on tribalism, claim to be pan-Africanists, I shudder at the outrage and pity all African countries which are being misruled and misled by impostors. To paraphrase the author Alan Paton, cry, the beloved continent!
Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired career diplomat.
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