Nkrumah’s overthrow: Sékou Touré's angry response

 

Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and Guinea's first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré

“The Ghanaian traitors have been mistaken in thinking that Nkrumah is simply a Ghanaian. He is a universal man, underscoring the depth of their ideological and personal connection.” – President Ahmed Sékou Touré.

 

Ahmed Sékou Touré, the first president of Guinea and a friend of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, wasn’t an ordinary statesman whose name could easily be erased from African history. The man who played a significant role in the Organization of African Unity -OAU, now African Union, whose parents were poor, illiterate farmers. He is affectionately referred to by her mother as Sékou Touré, which means "Sheikh of the Order."

 

Like his contemporaries in Guinea, Sékou Toure grew up in a simple, culturally and spiritually rigid environment. On January 29, 1922, he was born in the city of Varana into a devout rural family. Ahmed Sékou Toure, son of Alpha Toure, was a member of the "Mendinka" ethnic group that led the resistance against French occupation.

 

He led the country's resistance to the French occupation till the end of the eighteenth century. Ahmed Sékou Touré attended the Georges Poire French education in Conakry after quitting religious education. After a year of study, he was dismissed from the school in 1936 for planning a strike to demand food for the students, but he kept up his reading to make up for the lost time.

 

After that, he worked as a clerk for the French Niger Foundation, a private organization, before leaving to take a position as a clerk at the Guinean Postal and Telecommunications Authority. He then held positions as a postal distributor and an accountant in the financial department. Touré started the first postal and telecommunications workers' union in Guinea after getting active in labor and trade union activities when at the Postal Service.

 

Shortly after this union, he led the first successful 76-day strike by Guinea's postal and telecommunications workers to raise pay and stop arbitrary layoffs. In 1945, Sekou Touré became Secretary-General of the Postal and Telecommunications Trade Unions, and then a leading member of the Federation of Guinean Trade Unions.

 

Sékou Touré's political involvement began in the middle of the 1940s. To free African nations from French rule, he formed the African Democratic Rally, a party that became active in French West Africa, with the help of Felix Houphouët-Boigny from Côte d'Ivoire and Leopold Senghor from Senegal. Additionally, he started the Guinean Democratic Party, which grew to be the biggest political organization in the nation.

 

When he arrived at the People's Palace, the 35-year-old Guinean-African hero stood on the podium to deliver a sermon that was repeated generation after generation. General de Gaulle was taken aback by the actions of those greeting him in the streets of Conakry, shouting the word "independence." The sermon fell on General de Gaulle like an ember in the wild, because of the French dream in Guinea.

 

The French president angrily replied, "Well, you can gain your independence. France will not protest, but there will definitely be consequences.” After that momentous sermon on August 25 and the referendum on September 28, Ahmed Sékou Touré became President of the Republic of Guinea on October 2, 1958, with just 200 university graduates and a 95% illiteracy rate.

 

The only French colony in Africa that refused to continue being associated with France was Guinea. France seized everything, including the state house's furniture, after Guinea gained its independence in 1958. In the end, they left Guinea empty. Today, the pain of Francophone African countries gaining independence still hurts countries such as France, Belgium, America, and Britain.

 

The unbreakable bond between Sekou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah

 

In an effort to bring the independent African states together under a single banner, Sékou Touré visited Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah. This visit had a significant influence on the founding of the Organization of African Unity, which is now the African Union. Together, they established the "Union of Guinea and Ghana," and Mali joined them in 1960 to become the Union of Independent African States.

 

On May 22, 1963, the presidents of thirty nations adopted the Organization of African Unity's charter, which led to its creation during the Addis Ababa Conference. On May 25, 1963, the organization's founding was formally announced. Its headquarters will be in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

 

Ahmed Sékou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah had a close connection, a strong political alignment, and a shared dedication to Pan-Africanism. Opposing colonial control and neocolonial influence throughout the continent, both leaders were ardent supporters of African independence and unity. Their cooperation on Pan-African projects and the OAU in 1963 demonstrated their ideological convergence.

 

When Guinea obtained independence and rejected the French Community in 1958, France abruptly withdrew its backing, which was a major testament to their relationship. According to accounts, Nkrumah's Ghana responded by giving Guinea vital financial support in the amount of either $10,000 (or £10,000) or $28 million. Mutual trust and appreciation were strengthened by this act of solidarity, and Touré is said to have never forgotten Nkrumah's assistance.

 

When Nkrumah was toppled in a military coup in 1966, the intimate aspect of their connection was brought to light. In a show of sympathy, Touré appointed him honorary co-president and granted him shelter in Guinea. Touré emphasized the strength of their intellectual and personal bond when he said, "The Ghanaian traitors have been mistaken in thinking that Nkrumah is simply a Ghanaian; he is a universal man."

 

The depth of their relationship was demonstrated even after Nkrumah passed away in 1972. Touré was first reluctant to release Nkrumah's body to Ghana because of resentment over how Nkrumah had been treated and only agreed after continuous diplomatic attempts. Their partnership continues to be a potent representation of African leaders' solidarity and support for one another.

In 1984, Ahmed Sekou Touré passed away in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, while undergoing surgery. He was the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference's Islamic Peace Committee at the time. Decades after his death, his principles, his fight against colonialism, and his pursuit of African unity are still remembered by Africans.

 

KWAME NKRUMAH ON FREEDOM AND THE UNIFICATION OF AFRICA

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah was the prime minister of the first independent state of Ghana in Tropical Africa in 1957. He was one of the most prominent ideologues of the national liberation movement in Africa.

His philosophy belongs to such works as "Autobiography", "I'm talking about freedom," "Africa must unite,"  as well as "Consensusism - Consciousness ") and" Class struggle in Africa ". His political philosophy, his vision of the past, present, and future of Africa, he detailed in the work "Africa must unite."

Speaking about the past of Africa, Nkrumah resolutely denied the colonial myth of "inferiority" of Africans, that they "did not invent the wheel or writing," that they "have no mathematics or art," and that they never had statehood. Nkrumah recalls that it was Africa that was the birthplace of man, and it was in Africa that, for several millennia, a great Egyptian civilization developed. 

Referring to written documents, he said that Ghana was already a centralized state in the 14th century. In the state of Mali, the successor of Ghana, some universities exchanged scientists with Spain and the states of the Muslim world. 

One of the most famous Islamic writers, Ibn Battuta, lived in the middle of the 14th century. The journey through Mali left an interesting testimony (Nkrumah cites him) about the Malians' character and their political life: they "are rarely unjust and have a greater disgust for injustice than any other people. 

Their Sultan is merciless to those who are even to the slightest degree guilty of this evil. In this country, there is total security. Travelers and residents do not need to be afraid of either robbers or rapists. 

They do not confiscate the property of a white man who died in their country, even if they were untold riches. On the contrary, this property is deposited for trustworthy White people, and it remains with them until the legal heir enters into possession of it."

"Is it possible to say the same thing about the European contemporaries of that era?" - asks Nkrumah and responds negatively to himself. The European conquest of Africa was accompanied by monstrous atrocities. But the most tragic consequence for the development of Africa was the slave trade, which lasted three hundred or more years. 

The number of Africans taken to slavery was from 20 million to 50 million people, and in their homeland, in Africa, everywhere it was possible to see inscriptions "Africans are not admitted" or "Only for Europeans". Nkrumah emphasizes that many Africans began to reconcile themselves with the idea of their "inferiority."

And when this theory was called into question, the whole system of colonialism was under attack. He notes with satisfaction the fact that in liberated Africa, most political leaders strongly reject racial discrimination. "We have suffered too much from racism to seek to perpetuate this evil," Nkrumah wrote.

A chapter on "How Ghana Became a Sovereign State" is very political and instructive. Nkrumah immediately emphasizes that the colonial powers do not voluntarily give up political control over any country. Before they left, they sought to cause a split and rivalry between different forces and groups in accordance with the old "divide and conquer" strategy. 

Nkrumah talks about how the British government sought to impose a "democratic" constitution on independent Ghana, many of whose provisions severely limited its sovereignty and freedom.

Speaking for the socialist path to the progress of Ghana, Nkrumah sought to translate abstract ideological formulas and appeals into a simple and understandable language. He wrote, "We are achieving full employment, the provision of well-organized homes, and equal opportunities for the entire people to receive education and develop a culture to the highest level. 

This means that the level of prices for goods must match the level of wages; apartment, the fee should be commensurate with the means of all population groups; social services should encompass all; and means of education and culture should be accessible to everyone.

Speaking about the need for industrialization, he referred to the experience of the USSR, but the most suitable model for Ghana was considered to be countries such as Japan, China, and India.

Kwame Nkrumah was an ardent supporter of the unity of Africa. "For us, Africa with its islands is a single Africa," he stressed. - We reject any partitions. From Tangier and Cairo in the north to Cape Town in the south, from Cape Guardafui in the east to the islands of Cape Verde in the west, Africa is one and indivisible.

Nkrumah was the first to put forward the idea of the formation of the Continental government for Africa. In his opinion, this government, embodying the political and economic unification of the African continent, should pursue three main goals. First, it will carry out general economic planning on the continent. 

This will require thinking and finding ways and means to create a common market for United Africa (without tempting ourselves with the dubious benefits of association with the European Common Market), to introduce a common monetary system and currency area, and to establish a central issuing bank.

Secondly, the Continental Government will ensure the establishment of a common military command by all the land, sea, and air forces of Africa, and the development of a common defensive strategy to fight against a possible imperialist aggressor.

Thirdly, the Continental Government will pursue a unified foreign policy and diplomacy. This will allow the African states not only to speak unanimously in international organizations but also to significantly alleviate the burden of a separate diplomatic mission outside Africa.

Developing his vision of the political formulation of African unity, Nkrumah also expressed the idea of creating a continental parliament consisting of two chambers. One chamber, ensuring the equality of the associated states, is formed by equal representation from each of them, regardless of the size of the territory and population.

 

It is designed to formulate a common policy on the most important issues of security, defense, and development in Africa. In another chamber, the representation of states is constructed in proportion to the size of their population, and it discusses all other problems of daily life and the development of Africa.

In concluding his book, Kwame Nkrumah wrote, "What unites us is much stronger than what is currently dividing us, and our common goal should be the dignity, progress, and prosperity of Africa." His call for the unification of Africa has found understanding in many African countries. In 1963, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) was created. 

According to the adopted charter of the OAU, the supreme body of the OAU is the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, which meets annually. The supreme executive body is the Council of Foreign Ministers. A number of committees and commissions on special issues have been created in the system of OAU bodies. 

In particular, there is a special commission on mediation, conciliation, and arbitration, which helped to resolve several conflicts in African states. Remarkably, decades after Nkrumah's idea of African Unity was realized in 1963, the European Union was formed in 1993.