KOFI BENTUM QUATSON WRITES:
“BY BREAKING AWAY FROM THE ELITIST LEADERSHIP OF THE UNITED GOLD COAST CONVENTION (UGCC), TO FORM THE CONVENTION PEOPLE’S PARTY (CPP), KWAME NKRUMAH HAD CAPTURED THE POLITICAL INTIATIVE TO LEAD THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE INDEPENDENCE…
OF COURSE, THE IMPERIALISTS PREFERRED THE ELITIST POLITICIANS OF THE UGCC TO KWAME NKRUMAH. BY THEIR EDUCATION, PROFESSION, AND BORROWED EUROPEANIZED LIFESTYLES, THE POLITICAL ELITISTS OF THE UGCC WERE MORE AT HOME WITH THE COLONIAL MASTERS THAN THE ‘COMMON MASSES’…
BUT NO MATTER WHY AND HOW YOU WANT TO CONDEMN KWAME NKRUMAH, THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN IGNORE THE MASSIVE INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND HIS MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE AREAS OF EDUCATION AND HEALTHCARE. THERE ARE HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS IN GHANA WHO BUT FOR HIS PROGRESSIVE POLICIES WOULD HAVE ENDED UP ‘HEWERS OF WOOD AND DRWAERS OF WATER.’ THEY INCLUDE ACADEMCIANS, INTELLECTUALS AND PROFESSIONALS.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO OBSERVE THAT THE MASSIVE EFFORT TO DESTROY KWAME NKRUMAH HAD AN INTELLECTUAL COMPONENT. ACADEMICS AND INTELLECTUALS WHO WERE OPPOSED TO NKRUMAH WERE COMMISSIONED TO FALSIFY AND DISTORT THE NATION’S HISTORY TO DEPICT KWAME NKRUMAH AS A ‘THIEF,’ ILLITERATE,’ ‘IMMORAL’ EVEN SATANIC. THAT WAS A POISONOUS STRATEGY TO MIS-EDUCATE AND MISLEAD SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS ABOUT THE TRUE STATURE OF KWAME NKRUMAH, THE FOUNDER OF THE STATE OF GHANA.
INDEED MANY OF OUR PEOPLE WHO WERE TOO YOUNG BEFORE THE COUP OR BORN AFTER THAT HAVE BEEN POISONED WITH THE FALSIFIED VERSIONS OF OUR NATION’S HISTORY BY NKRUMAH’S DETRACTORS…KWAME NKRUMAH IS A NATIONAL ICON AND SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO REMAIN ON THAT PEDESTAL
ON APRIL 22, 1962 KWAME NKRUMAH MADE A PROFOUND STATEMENT TO A CPP STUDY GROUP. HEAR HIM: ‘FRIENDS AND COMRADES, AFRICA NEEDS A NEW TYPE OF MAN. A DEDICATED, MODEST, HONEST AND DEVOTED MAN. A MAN WHO SUBMERGES SELF IN THE SERVICE OF HIS NATION AND MANKIND. A MAN WHO ABHORS GREED AND DETERS VANITY. A NEW TYPE OF MAN WHOSE MEEKNESS IN HIS STRENTH AND WHOSE INTEGRITY IS HIS GREATNESS. AFRICA’S NEW MAN MUST BE A MAN INDEED.’”
Here is a list of some of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s global accolades:
1) WORLD PEACE PRIZE (World Veterans Federation, 1954)
2) AFRICA’S MAN OF THE MILLENNIUM (BBC, 1999)
3) DOCTOR OF LAWS DEGREE (Honoris Causa, 1951).
Comment: Lincoln University also conferred honorary degrees on ALBERT EINSTEIN (D.Sc., 1946), NNAMDI AZIKIWE (LL.D, 1946, 1994), THURGOOD MARSHALL (LL.D, 1947), ROSA PARKS (LL.D., 1992), BOOKER T. WASHINGTON (LL.D., 1909), ), JESSE JACKSON (D.D., 1969), RALPH J. BUNCHE (LL.D., 1947), MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr., (LL.D., 1961), DESMOND TUTU (L.H.D., 1990), HORACE M. BOND (LL.D., 1941), JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN (LL.D., 1961, and on.
IN FACT, THURGOOD MARSHALL, AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK SUPREME COURT JUSTICE AND NKRUMAH’S CLASSMATE, MADE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF GHANA’S 1960 NATIONAL CONSTITUTION.
What is more, Nkrumah received honorary doctorates from universities in Poland, East Germany, Egypt, and so on.
4) KWAME NKRUMAH ACADEMY (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
Comment: School’s vision comes in two parts: 1) To be a global model of African-centered teaching and learning; 2) To be a center and community of academic excellence and uncompromised expression.
5) GOLD MEDAL AWARD (United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid, 1978)
Comment: For his contributions to the decolonization of Southern Africa (Apartheid South Africa)
6) AFRICA’S BEST BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Comment: International compilation executed by the African Publishers Network (APNET), Book Development Councils, the Pan-African Booksellers Association (PABA), Library Associations, and African Writers Association; Nkrumah’s “GHANA: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF KWAME NKRUMAH” appears on the list. No book by J.B. Danquah or K.A. Busia appears on this list).
7) MILLENNIUM EXCELLENCE AWARD RECIPIENT: PERSONALITY OF THE CENTURY (Excellent Award Foundation, Ghana, 2000)
Comment: “The Millennium Excellent Awards is the most prestigious international Awards event that celebrates Achievement and Excellence by Ghanaians, Africans, and Citizens of the World who have sacrificed their lives, toiled tirelessly and served the Continent relentlessly thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of Africa and our Dear Nation, Ghana since 1900 AD.”
8) BIENNIAL KWAME NKRUMAH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Comment: Canada’s Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Lincoln University). The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Office of Research and Scholarship and the Sociology Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University have supported the conference.
9) AFRICAN UNION KWAME NKRUMAH SSCIENTIFIC AWARDS (African Union, 2008)
Comment: Created to push for the development of Africa via the promotion of research in all field, particularly science and technology.
10) MOORLAND-SPRINGARN RESEARCH CENTER (Howard University, Nkrumah papers)
Comment: Houses works by Nkrumah and others made available to researchers, students, professors, and the general public. Nkrumah’s correspondences with Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop, one of the world’s most prominent thinkers of the 20th century, are kept here.
11) 100 GREATEST AFRICANS OF ALL TIME (“True Son of Africa”) (New African Magazine, 2004)
12) THE INTERNATIONAL LENIN PEACE PRIZE (1962)
Comment: Paul Robeson, WEB Du Bois, Pablo Neruda (Nobel Prize in Literature), Linus Pauling (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize), Nelson Mandela (Nobel Peace Prize) all received this Prize).
13) NKRUMAH HALL (University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
14) NKRUMAH HALL OF RESIDENCE (Makerere University, Uganda)
15) THE KWAME NKRUMAH MONUMENT (STATUE) (Ethiopia, Addis Ababa)
16) GLO-CAF PLATINUM AWARD (Confederation of African Football, 2014)
Comment: Nkrumah was posthumously cited for his “contributions to the development of African football during his lifetime…Late Dr. Nkrumah believed and supported sports, not least football during his six-year reign as Ghana’s President, a period during which the Black Stars won the 1963 and 1965 African Cup of Nations tournaments. Dr. Nkrumah also donated a trophy for the organization of a club tournament for Africa’s top football clubs.”
17) KWAME NKRUMAH LEADERSHIP AWARD (West African Students’ Union)
18) THE SATMA AWARDS (South African Government, Ingwe Mabalabala Holdings, and the National Heritage Council of South Africa).
Comment 1: This award, also called “the founders award,” is given to “persons or personalities who have contributed immensely to the elevation and improvement of the living conditions of their society.”
Comment 2: Mr. Alexander Asum-Ahensen, the then Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture who received the award on behalf of the Ghanaian Government, had this to say: “The role of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the independence of most African countries could not be under-estimated.
Comment 3: Mr. Enoch Ampofo, who represented event organizers, learned this fact in South Africa and had this to say: “Gaining perspectives into how Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has affected the lives of people in South Africa, I found out that back in the days of Apartheid, the oppressed people went to school and were taught about the principles of Kwame Nkrumah or Nkrumahism.”
19) THE NON-ALIGNMENT MOVEMENT (NAM)
We shall return…