The fate of Africa revisited
A review of the Book  by Martin Meredith “The Fate of Africa”
E. Ablorh-Odjidja

Cont'd / Page Two

Page One

As said, writers like Martin Meredith would not allow contemporary truth to stand in the way of historical lies.

For example, when there is a heroic story to tell about Nkrumah, Meredith avoids telling it, even to the detriment of his own scholarship. Imagine Meredith devoting about 24 pages in his book to tell consecutively the story of the Congo, the UN, Lumumba and the era of the crisis and not a word was said about Nkrumah's involvement with the Congo!

Nkrumah’s famous Broadcast on the Congo in 1960, which gave a clairvoyant view of what was to happen, is never highlighted . The heroic example of Ghana being the first country to send soldiers to aid this troubled country is ignored. Yet we have been invited by Meredith to focus on leaders “whose character and careers had a decisive impact” on the fate of their countries and therefore the continent.

Neither is Meredith willing to examine the impact of Nkrumah on Diasporan Africans.  In 1957, at Ghana's independence, among the invited unofficial guests for the occasion was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Who knew at that time what Dr. King was destined to be and why  Nkrumah invited him?  This could be a very informative theme, unless the intention is to suppress the positive.

The invitation of King by Nkrumah becomes essential if you were to examine the course of the Civil Rights movement in America.  It was on this occasion, in Ghana in 1957, that Dr. King got the chance to meet with then Vice President Nixon, which meeting led to an invitation by Nixon for Dr. King to visit President Eisenhower at the White House.

It was Dr. King's first visit to the White House.  And the first Civil Right Act of 1957, essentially a voting right bill, got its start on this occasion, to be followed in 1964 by the Civil Right Act by Congress that banned segregation in school and public places in America.

This is not to make the claim that Nkrumah started the Civil Rights movement in America.  Call the meeting between Nixon and Dr. King a chance encounter.  But it has to be noted that the latter was in Ghana by special invitation from Nkrumah.  There is the need to make this claim on Nkrumah's behalf, since, obviously Meredith wouldn't.

Equally profligate is Meredith’s example of assigning blame for the construction of “prestigious” buildings in state capitals, in the post colonial period, as one of the things that went wrong in Africa, to Nkrumah. The most glaring case of this act, he says, is the lavish spending on projects which occurred when African governments competed for the privilege of holding the first conference of the organization of African Unity.

Meredith says, “Nkrumah set the precedent in 1965 by building a palace containing sixty luxury suites and a banquet hall capable of seating 2000 guests” to serve the OAU.

Derisively, he states "twenty-eight out of thirty-six of the members of the OAU attended the meeting" during the opening, "but only thirteen were represented by heads of state.  No one supported his call for a union of Africa."

Meredith couldn't note that Nkrumah's dream for a continental government was an ongoing process; that by 2005 when he published his book, some 50 African states were members of the AU (OAU).  Blame should be given for failure to understand the necessity of a continental government in 1965.  But the blame should be put on the political dwarfs surrounding Nkrumah at that time.  Meredith avoids doing so to keep the tarnished image of Nkrumah he has created intact.

The building Meredith derided as the "crowning folly of Nkrumah's regime," is now the seat of Ghana National Parliament.

By the way, the magnificent cathedrals of Europe, built centuries ago with scarce resources then, are almost empty on Sundays now and Buckingham Palace still houses one family.

In conclusion Meredith writes, “After decades of mismanagement and corruption, African states have become hollowed out. They are no longer instruments capable of serving the public good.” True, but the statement sounds very reminiscent of the condition in some African states when the colonials left.

And in the case of Ghana, the statement became truer, especially after 1966, and gradually worse until very recent.

Meredith's book shows a lack of serious analysis of what went wrong in Ghana and what brought Nkrumah down when he states "Nkrumah's downfall.. came .. because of his fatal decision to interfere with the military."  This shoddy analysis is deliberate, not a product of a lack of intellectual ability on Meredith's part simply because, long before 2005, the world knew who corrupted the armed forces of Ghana in order to overthrow Nkrumah and why.

As background to understanding Nkrumah and Ghana, I will recommend the book “Reap the Whirlwind,” by Geoffrey Bing, a former member of the British Parliament who served as Attorney General and a legal advisor to Nkrumah during his years in office.

To finish off the quest, I will humbly invite Meredith and company to pay close attention to contemporary Africa. They will see the rugged existence of some of Nkrumah's positive ideas driving it all. Nkrumah, to say the obvious, is not a god. However, some of us only want the chance to see him as Meredith probably sees a Churchill, Roosevelt, Max, Mao or Lenin. Not much to ask for, I should say. Being an African should not stand in the way.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publsiher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, January 11, 2009

Permission to publish:  Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited.  If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.