There are moments in history that never make it into official archives, yet they reveal more about a leader’s soul than any speech, policy, or monument. One such moment occurred in Egypt in the early 1960s, when Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, attended a football match alongside his close friend and ally, President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
An imagined or proposed African Unity currency note labeled 100 Afri, symbolizing continental strength and unity, featuring Africa’s map, wildlife, and landmarks.
Africa’s long struggle for liberation has always been tied
to the forces that sought to control its people, its land, and its destiny.
From the earliest days of the transatlantic slave trade to the brutality of
colonization and the cruelty of apartheid, the continent has endured systems
designed to weaken it.
These systems were not accidental; they were deliberate
structures of domination that extracted Africa’s wealth while suppressing its
political and economic freedom. The scars remain visible today, shaping the
continent’s development and influencing its place in the global economy.
Kwame Nkrumah and his book, Neocolonialism.
Kwame Nkrumah, the architect of Ghana’s independence and a renowned African statesman and scholar, wrote the book titled "Neocolonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism" in 1965, eight years after Ghana gained its independence.
He described how former colonial powers continued to dominate and
take advantage of recently independent nations in this book. The terms
"neocolonialism" and "post-colonialism" gained popularity
during Africa's decolonization.
Muhammad Ali's 1964 visit to Ghana was a landmark moment in
both his personal journey and Pan-African history.
When Muhammad Ali, then newly crowned heavyweight champion
of the world, arrived in Ghana in 1964, the moment was far more than a
celebrity visit. It was a symbolic homecoming, a meeting between two of the
most influential Black figures of the 20th century.
Ali, the brash, brilliant boxer who had just stunned the
world by defeating Sonny Liston, stepped onto African soil as a global icon in
the making. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president and the leading voice of Pan‑Africanism,
welcomed him not merely as a sportsman but as a son returning to the continent.
Their encounter captured the spirit of an era defined by
liberation, pride, and the reawakening of African identity. Ali’s arrival in
Accra was electric, as thousands lined the streets, cheering as his motorcade
passed, waving flags and chanting his name.
Newspapers described the scene as one of the most
enthusiastic public receptions since Ghana’s independence celebrations. In the
VIP lounge of the airport, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Kojo Botsio greeted him on
behalf of Nkrumah and bestowed upon him a new name: Kwame Muhammad Ali, marking
him as a Sunday-born son of the Ashanti tradition.
Ali embraced the gesture with pride, calling his trip “a
return to the fatherland,” a phrase that resonated deeply with Ghanaians and
African Americans alike. When Ali finally met Nkrumah, the encounter was warm,
symbolic, and politically charged. Nkrumah saw in Ali a powerful cultural
ambassador, young, confident, unapologetically Black, and admired across the
world.
Ali, in turn, admired Nkrumah as the embodiment of African
independence and dignity. Their meeting represented a bridge between the
struggles of African Americans and the aspirations of newly independent African
nations. It was a moment when the global Black freedom movement felt united,
hopeful, and unstoppable.
The visit also carried political undertones. Ghana in the
early 1960s was a beacon of Pan‑Africanism, attracting
intellectuals, activists, and revolutionaries from across the diaspora. Figures
like W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X had already found inspiration in Nkrumah’s Ghana.
Ali’s presence added a new dimension: the
world’s most famous athlete standing shoulder to
shoulder with Africa’s most outspoken anti‑colonial
leader. For many Ghanaians, it was a validation of their country’s growing influence on the world stage. Ali’s days in Ghana were
filled with public appearances, cultural ceremonies, and interactions with
ordinary people.
He wore kente cloth, danced with crowds, and visited schools
and training centers. His charisma transcended language and borders. Even
decades later, older Ghanaians recall the joy and pride of seeing him walk
through their streets, an African American who carried himself with the
confidence of a king yet moved among them with humility and warmth.
The echoes of that visit have not faded. It remains a
defining moment in the shared history of Africa and its diaspora. Ali’s embrace
of Ghana strengthened the emotional and political ties between African
Americans and the continent. For Ghana, the visit reinforced its identity as a
home for the global Black family and a center of Pan‑African
thought.
For Ali, it marked the beginning of his transformation from
athlete to global moral figure, a journey that
would later see him stand against the Vietnam War and become a symbol of
resistance and dignity. Today, the images and stories of Ali with Nkrumah
continue to circulate, reminding new generations of a time when Black unity
felt tangible and powerful.
Their meeting stands as a testament to the enduring
connection between sport, politics, and identity, and to the profound impact
that two extraordinary men had on the world.
Nkrumah's prophesy has taken place
“If we don't approach
the problems in Africa with a common front and a common purpose, we shall be
haggling and wrangling among ourselves until we are colonized again and become tools of a far greater colonialism than we suffered hitherto.” – Kwame Nkrumah
Who in Ghana can beat
up his chest by denying that we are not experiencing a similar situation today in the country decades after Kwame
Nkrumah made this statement?
I don’t think anyone
in Ghana can challenge these words of Nkrumah that everything is fine and the system is smoothly advancing.
Indeed, Ghanaians are
suffering, yet we are not under colonialism. There have been several arguments
that Africa would have been better in the hands of the colonial masters
because, after independence, African leaders have disappointed the common
people.
What inspires people
to pursue a political career in Ghana or generally in Africa? This is the question that, if I am to interview any Ghanaian politician, will be my first question
on the list because it seems the majority of African politicians are inspired into
politics to amass wealth.
The hardships the
common people experience in Africa daily, despite its vast natural resources,
are never experienced in the developed countries. This is enough to acknowledge
the fact that, apart from corruption, the lack of good leadership is also
affecting the country.
Why so many resources,
yet African leaders can't alleviate the people from poverty? Providing good
schools, medical facilities, and drinking water and creating employment have been
some of the biggest challenges many African countries are facing today.
There is more room in
Ghana for improvement, but the rooms are shut because Ghanaians are not one. While it is in the interest of many to unite, there are others aiming to divide the
people.
Like all African
countries, politics in Ghana involved greediness. The idea that the NDC has
‘chopped’ enough; therefore, it’s the turn of the NPP to ‘chop’ is causing a
setback to the rapid development of Ghana.
In Ghana, you’ll see
the grim pictures of how many Ghanaians are suffering and struggling. On the
streets of Accra, traders carrying heavy items, including tubers of yam, are running after and dangerously maneuvering between moving vehicles.
No education and no
future; everyone is struggling to sell something to avoid being a burden on
families. Why is it that only the third-world countries often
experience such economic hardships?
Our resources are
being wasted on wrong projects that are not necessary, and the situation in
mineral-rich Africa is very bad, to the extent that some illiterates or
superstitious people think the continent is cursed.
What crime has Africa
committed to deserve a curse? Even the colonial masters that committed so many
crimes in African countries are blessed. They have work, food, good education, and medical facilities, making life worthy to live.
Until African countries have good leaders ready to fight corruption and make good use of the money after the export of their raw materials, the continent will continue to remain poor, affecting everyone, including the children.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the most feared Ghanaian leader by Western European and US governments
In Ghana, you can be a president, but not all Ghanaian leaders have equal wisdom. Some leaders used their intelligence to make Ghana a great nation, while others brought untold hardship and suffering to the common people.
Jesus once said, "A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home."
That is true; Kwame Nkrumah might be considered a hero at his birthplace, Nkroful, but his achievements as one of Ghana’s greatest political figures have caused jealousy among an empire of deceitful politicians who have tried to taint the works of this great man.
In the political history of Ghana, there hasn't been any Ghanaian leader who is loyal to his country and the entire African continent at the same time, like the former nationalist Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Even though some Ghanaians might have been inspired by Nkrumah’s ideologies and philosophy, they still lacked the heroism that made Kwame Nkrumah the kind of leader feared most by the governments of Western Europe and the United States of America.
Whereas today, there hasn't been any Ghanaian or African leader to question the colonial masters and the US government about the strange diseases, such as HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, Burkitt's lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, Lassa fever, and Ebola (apart from malaria), that suddenly or miraculously appeared on the continent of Africa. Nkrumah spoke against these issues to protect the continent because he knew what the foreign powers could do.
Since Kwame Nkrumah wasn’t ready to let Africa suffer after independence, he became a stumbling block on the paths of the governments of Western Europe and the United States of America because of their diabolical, clandestine agenda to take possession of Africa’s rich resources.
With the collaboration of America's CIA, the Nkrumah regime was overthrown. Years later, apart from malaria, many diseases came to the continent of Africa, causing a major setback to the development of the continent.
Today, African leaders accept money from foreign governments to support HIV/AIDS and Ebola projects in Africa, instead of rejecting it because all the money ends up in their pockets.
Western European and American leaders do bad things politically and economically to Africa, yet they don't want any nation on earth to do the same thing against them. After that, they turn on African leaders to call them ‘corrupt,’ and the African continent a 'shithole'.
How do you expect Ghana or any African country to progress when African leaders kowtow in front of foreign leaders after committing horrible crimes in Africa and exchange the souls of their dead citizens killed by biological weapons for money?
History has repeated itself with a new biological weapon called coronavirus. Even though, as usual, Africa is not responsible for any biological weapon, COVID-19 is gradually bringing Africa's ailing economy to a halt.
Already, it has been reported that the money given to support the coronavirus project in Ghana is completely exhausted. (Sika nu ashi, asah.) Within the shortest period, the money was given to Ghana; nobody knows what exactly it was used for.
Even though there is no Ghanaian or African leader prepared to die or face any harsh treatment from foreign governments, to this day, many Ghanaians hate Kwame Nkrumah. However, the truth is that if many African leaders were brave and powerful enough, like Nkrumah, Africa would not end up in such a disaster, despite the continent’s rich resources.
I can still hear the “Voice From Afar” of Kwame Nkrumah, a tribute to K. B. Asante, speaking, warning, and reminding Ghanaians and other African leaders with these powerful words.
“Even the cinema stories of fabulous Hollywood are loaded. One has only to listen to the cheers of an African audience as Hollywood’s heroes slaughter red Indians or Asiatics to understand the effectiveness of this weapon. For in the developing continents, where the colonialist heritage has left a vast majority still illiterate, even the smallest child gets the message contained in the blood and thunder stories emanating from California.”
“And along with murder and the Wild West goes an incessant barrage of anti-socialist propaganda, in which the trade union man, the revolutionary, or the man of dark skin is generally cast as the villain, while the policeman, the gumshoe, and the federal agent—in a word, the CIA-type spy—is ever the hero.”
“Here, truly, is the ideological underbelly of those political murders that so often use local people as their instruments. While Hollywood takes care of fiction, the enormous monopoly press, together with the outflow of slick, clever, expensive magazines, attends to what it chooses to call ‘news.”
“Within separate countries, one or two news agencies control the news handouts so that a deadly uniformity is achieved, regardless of the number of separate newspapers or magazines; while internationally, the financial preponderance of the United States is felt more and more through its foreign correspondents and offices abroad, as well as through its influence over international capitalist journalism.”
“Under this guise, a flood of anti-liberation propaganda emanates from the capital cities of the West, directed against China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Algeria, Ghana, and all countries that hack out their own independent path to freedom. Prejudice is rife. For example, wherever there is armed struggle against the forces of reaction, the nationalists are referred to as rebels, terrorists, or frequently ‘communist terrorists' ― Kwame Nkrumah.
He that has ears, let him hear. Ghana, or the entire African continent, needs strong and powerful leaders, like Nkrumah, to feed, educate, provide jobs, improve the health sectors in the country, and protect the continent from foreign subversive activities affecting the development of the continent.
If African leaders are not prepared to stand and fight for their country, the continent of Africa will always remain a 'shithole', with poor economies, malnourished children, and diseases, while Europe and America capitalise on our resources to build their economies much stronger.
Former Ethiopian Head of State, Emperor Haile Selassie
"We must look,
first, to Almighty God, who has raised man above the animals and endowed him
with intelligence and reason. We must put our faith in Him, that He will not
desert us or permit us to destroy humanity which He created in His
image."- Emperor Haile Selassie.
"Haile Selassie’s address to the United Nations on October 6, 1963, including the ‘War Speech’ which became one of Bob Marley’s hits."
An Awareness
Of Our Past Is Essential To The Establishment Of Our Personality And Identity
As Africans – Emperor Haile Selassie
The image of humans used as transport was another abuse of power in the colonial era in Africa.
During the colonial era in Africa, the masters often received the respect accorded by Black people out of fear. Based on this misconception that Black people fear them, they abused their power horrifically and inhumanly without regret or remorse.
However, the myth that a Black man fears a white man is total nonsense. Europeans scrambled over Africa with sheer brutality and aggression, subduing Africans; therefore, they were too vulnerable and powerless to react.
The same abuse and oppression of Black people exist today in many European countries and the United States of America. If not for the Black Lives Matter demonstration after George Floyd's death, there would still be statues commemorating key figures who committed horrible crimes against humanity during slavery and the colonial era.
The fathers of independence, such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Patrice Lumumba of Congo, had no fear of the British and Belgian governments.
They gained independence for their countries, but because Britain and Belgium actually feared them, Nkrumah was removed from power in a coup masterminded by the CIA, and Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in a plot conceived by the Belgian government.
In apartheid South Africa, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, and his colleagues had no fear of the minority apartheid leaders. Despite the force of brutality they unleashed, maiming and opening fire on protesting, defenseless South Africans, they murdered Steve Biko and put other ANC key members, including Nelson Mandela, behind bars for twenty-seven years because they feared them.
When it comes to crime, there are many white criminals out there, as well as Black criminals, but the Black man is always given a second look because of the color of his skin. Just being Black makes you a suspect. In the United States of America, Black drivers are more often stopped and harassed than white motorists.
In Belgium, being Africans among white workers, all eyes were on us as suspects when sandwiches had been missing every time from the dining hall. The atmosphere becomes tense when, on the fifth day of the week, one of the workers finds his food stolen again.
This time, the management decides to do something about it. They secretly started their investigations, creating an undetected hideout, aiming to catch the person responsible for this theft red-handed.
The following week, about a quarter to noonday, a mysterious man emerged into the quiet dining hall, looking for a meal to steal. After tasting some meals, he found a delicious one, and he took it. As he tried to walk out, he was intercepted.
Shockingly, out of hundreds of workers at the company, the mysterious thief appeared to be one of our colleagues from Portugal. The sandwich thief was Portuguese, not African.
The need to respect all races
It is absolutely wrong to take the respect someone gives as a reason to treat him very badly. Many enjoy being racist; some people like to discriminate against Black people, calling them degrading names, but the question is, what do racists get from hate? Nothing is more significant than violence and the destruction of property.
Who lives forever, and what makes you think your color is better than someone else's when there is a big difference between the color white and real black? If white people's color is white like white paper, I think everyone who sees them will run to hide somewhere in fear.
Respect doesn’t mean fear; therefore, those who have that sick mentality should begin to dismantle it from their brains because racial problems have caused too much death and violence, and without respect for other races, there will never be peace on earth.
Author Ama Ata Aidoo is one of the prominent Ghanaian
female writers who has created a significant impact in both Africa and
international literature, once, inspiring me to write an article captioned "The Literary World Of Ama Ata Aidoo," about her, on ModernGhana news site, on October 20, 2018.
She is a past student of the Wesley Girl's High School in Cape Coast from 1961 to 1964, and the University of Ghana in Legon, where she received a bachelor's degree in English.
Ama’s books are well defined by her style of writing and the subject she relates recounts every thought and action of a narrator in exquisite detail delightfully enjoyed by her novice readers.
I have had great respect for many Ghanaian literature writers, the fact most of them are naturally gifted, and talented writers whose books have played significant roles in Africa's education.
But recently, going deep into Ama Ata Aidoo's work, one of her old interviews on Youtube about economic and health issues in Africa, caught my attention. It opened my mind and without any doubt realized that Ama may probably be one of Africa's greatest scholars after Kwame Nkrumah.
A few years ago, after visiting the Dutch scientist and microsurgeon, Johan van Dongen in Holland, and the German medical doctor, Wolff Geisler in Cologne, Germany, I received books and documents pertaining to certain diseases which origins are from Africa.
For example, HIV-Aids, Ebola, Tuberculosis, Burkitt's lymphoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, and nodding disease were deliberately inflicted on the African population, by the US and British governments and Apartheid leaders of South Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjLRjUs8lY (For unknown reasons, I couldn't upload this video from Youtube Ama Ata Aidoo's interview in 1987)
Since every race, there are both intelligent and morons, some people either morons or with the intention to suppress information attacked me on ModernGhana news platform after posting those articles to expose the medical crimes of both Britain and American governments in Africa.
They said the publications are not true but I am being brainwashed by two European medical writers. I couldn't believe when I stumbled upon an interview of the Ghanaian writer, Ama Atta Aidoo, in 1987, talking about the same deliberate spread of diseases, including tuberculosis in Africa.
How great and intelligent is this woman? Even though she refrained from mentioning any name in regards to the subject, what she said about Aids and Tuberculosis were exactly written in the books of Scientist Dongen and Dr. Geisler, even though the two writers don't know each other.
Ama Ata Aidoo said something like this: "She is not blaming or holding anyone responsible because whatever happened in Africa, they did it for their survival but we (Africans) are not doing enough for our survival."
She is right, many times, I accused African leaders of the current chaotic and poverty state of the continent. They are those responsible for our troubles because they take bribes from foreign governments, yet they not even aware that what they steal from the continent is more than what they take.
Besides, the man-made diseases inflicted on Africans generate massive profit for the European and American pharmaceutical companies, which improves their economies, while African lick their wounds of diseases they aren't responsible for.
Until the entire African continent and its stupid leaders will wake up from their slumber to stand firm, fight and take the economic yoke put on our heads by the European and American leaders, Africa will never move forward.
They will continue celebrating independence each year without achieving anything significant on the continent of Africa.
