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J. B. Danquah initiated Pan-Africanism
- S. K. B. Asante
Accra, March 20, GNA - Professor Samuel Kingsley Botwe
Asante, a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS),
on Monday claimed that Dr. J. B. Danquah and his colleague
nationalists of the Gold Coast employed Pan-Africanism and
regionalism long before Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah returned
to Ghana in 1947.
"Pan-Africanism and regionalism were the tools which the
articulate Gold Coast nationalists skillfully employed in
the struggle against colonialism and imperialism in the
1920s and 1930s, about 27 years before Osagyefo returned to
this country," he said.
Prof. Asante was speaking on the topic; "Ghana in Search of
Pan-Africanism and Regionalism: A Historical Overview" in
the 40th J. B. Danquah Memorial Lectures, which was under
the broad theme: “Ghana and the Promotion of Pan-Africanism
and Regionalism.”
The lecture was organized by the GAAS and the theme selected
for this year was specifically "to highlight the regrettably
neglected aspects of the impressive contributions which J.
B. Danquah and the leading nationalists groups made towards
the advancement of Ghana's independence before the advent of
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in nationalist politics."
It was also to debunk what appeared to be myths of aspects
of Ghana's political history in order to set the record
straight for younger generations.
Prof. Asante noted that against several erroneous claims by
pro-Nkrumahists that before Kwame Nkrumah, there was no Pan-Africanism
and that Dr. Nkrumah was the only prophet of Pan-Africanism,
Dr. Nkrumah himself admitted on page one of his book "I
Speak Freedom" that there was "a considerable political
awakening in the Gold Coast between 1919 and 1947" before he
returned to Ghana.
Prof. Asante noted that Dr. Nkrumah amazingly claimed in
page 53 of his book 'Dark Days in Ghana', published in 1967
after his overthrow that it was he who launched the nucleus
of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in Saltpond on
December 29, 1947, when in actual fact UGCC was launched by
J. B. Danquah and his colleagues on August 4, 1947 when Dr.
Nkrumah was still in England.
"Osagyefo perhaps unconsciously, makes the date of
confirmation of his appointment as Secretary-General of the
UGCC, which was December 29, 1947, appear to be the date on
which the organization was actually launched," he said.
Prof. Asante traced the formation of the GAAS to a letter J.
B. Danquah wrote in 1944 to one K. B. Ateko, a former
Treasurer of the Bond of 1844 insisting on the formation of
the GAAS as early as March 1954, long before Dr. Nkrumah
established the GAAS.
He said it was sad that the handbook of the GAAS made no
reference to J. B. Danquah, who actually conceived the idea.
Prof. Asante noted that even though some pro-Nkrumahists had
tried to insist that it was Kwame Nkrumah who promoted the
idea of a separate university for Ghana as against a single
West African University, "it is common knowledge that it was
J. B. Danquah, who fought relentlessly for a separate
university of Ghana when Nkrumah was in England.
"Nkrumah returned home in December 1947 and a year after the
University College of the Gold Coast was formally
established," he said.
He noted that it was necessary for due recognition to be
given to uncontestable facts about J. B. Danquah's immense
contribution to Pan-Africanism and Ghana's independence for
the sake of posterity.
GNA
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