Kwame Nkrumah Is In The Pantheon of 20th Century Greats - Because He Was On The Right Side Of History

The late President Mills will always be remembered for making 21st September -   the birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah -  Founder's Day in Ghana.


No politician in the Ghana of today,   worth his or her salt,   ought either to encourage  or  countenance   the  intellectually dishonest attempt,  to make it appear that Nkrumah's conservative opponents,   during  the struggle to free our nation from its  occupation by British colonialists,   were somehow his equal.


Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah towered above all of them and deserves his place in the Pantheon of 20th century greats.


Unlike his conservative opponents -  such as Dr. J. B. Danquah who sought narrow elite class interest -  Nkrumah always sought what was in the overall interest of his nation and all its people - and above all fought  hard to build a modern and  egalitarian African society:  in which there was equality of opportunity for all.


It is unfortunate  that so many of those engaged in the shabby attempt to denigrate Nkrumah,  and turn Danquah the quisling  into a hero, lack the intellectual depth to understand that the verdict of history   cannot be secured  by endless spin;  cynical  propaganda;  revisionist sophistry and  pure fantasy.


No amount of dissimulation by today's progeny of yesteryear's colonial-era tribal-supremacist and elitist politicians, can belittle Nkrumah's achievements.


And neither will they succeed in  turning  Danquah - who incidentally despised ordinary people: and was tribalistic on top of all that  - into a nationalist hero and icon of  20th century Africa.


Nationalist heroes do not collaborate with foreign powers that seek to subjugate Africa and its peoples.

And for good measure,  dear reader, let those who say Nkrumah was a dictator  also tell us what exactly  President Kufuor,  for example,   would have done,   had there been as many assassination attempts on him as there were on Nkrumah,  during his tenure.


Let them also ponder why  since September 11th  2001,   the established democracies of the West,  such as the U.S.A., the U.K. and Australia,  have all passed laws to deal with acts of terrorism and terrorist suspects, which  are even more draconian than Nkrumah's Preventive Detention Act (PDA) ever was.


No amount of PR mendacity  today,  will make heroes of those clever  and tribalistic self-seekers,  who opposed Nkrumah during the struggle for Ghana's  independence.


The plain truth, dear reader,  is that many of them only  sought to replace the British colonialists - then subjugating  our people -   with what effectively would have been a system, which  was in effect a   plutocracy in which they,  a privileged elite, would    hold permanent sway.


They most certainly were not Nkrumah's equals. In the dark recesses of their minds,  imperialism and neocolonialism  had  conditioned  them to believe the big lie that Africans were somehow inferior to white people.


It is instructive that they chose to  work hand in glove with the British colonialists who had occupied our country - and that they felt it somehow   made them a class apart:  superior beings born to lord it over the ordinary people of the Gold Coast,   whom they held in utter contempt.


Nkrumah   on the other hand was steadfast in standing  with the ordinary people of the Gold Coast against the British occupiers of their country.


And it was not for nothing that Nkrumah's  conservative opponents worked incredibly  hard to accommodate   the colonial regime -  whiles Nkrumah fought  them with mass boycotts and nationwide strikes, for example.


The pay-off for the collaboration of Nkrumah's conservative opponents  with the British colonialists,   was  a deal that would have enabled them replace the departing British  colonialists as our rulers upon Ghana  gaining its independence.


The quid pro quo for the  UK, was that in return for the Gold Coast's conservative politicians  being handed the Gold Coast to rule till the very end of time after it became independent,  they would    continue keeping  our nation in Britain's   sphere of influence permanently.


And best of all, British commercial  entities  would continue to have  unfettered access to our natural resources, and monopolise  our local markets for their nation's  manufactured goods.


In spite of the unrelenting propaganda to foist Danquah on Ghanaians as a national hero,  Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah  will continue being an icon for the black race till the very end of time.


It is his reward for being on the right side of history - all the time  voicing,  in articulate fashion,  the aspirations of  ordinary people during the struggle to  free the Gold Coast,  and the rest of  black Africa,  from colonial  rule.


Osagyefo Dr. Kwame  Nkrumah's equal has not yet been born - and he will forever remain  a hero to the entire black race.


Put simply, dear reader, Kwame Nkrumah is in the Pantheon of 20th century greats - because he was on the right side of history.


Tel: 027 745 3109.


Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com