Nkrumah. Photo: Facebook.
Happy Uhuru to Ghana, 64 years old today.
The country was led to its independence on March 6, 1957 by Kwame Nkrumah, one of the greatest Pan-Africans who ever lived. Ghana became the first British colony south of the Sahara to win its freedom.
Nkrumah said the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was followed by the independence of all African countries and unification into a United States of Africa.
Nkrumah argued that the Western countries, the departing colonial powers, had seized control of Africa in the 19th century in order to exploit its resources—the labor, the land, the natural and mineral resources. Africa’s raw materials fueled the factories in Europe. The manufactured products were then forced upon Africans who became captive markets.
Nkrumah said the Europeans, now joined by the United States, would continue to salivate over Africa’s resources and would use any necessary means to access the continent’s wealth, including through military means, regime-change, and financial extortion through loans or foreign “aid.” The former powers would also finance other African rulers to undermine other leaders; the old divide-and-rule approach. Nkrumah called this neocolonialism. Nkrumah said unity would eliminate border disputes. “It is easy to see that the imperialists and the colonialists are determined to retain the African countries into positions of suppliers of cheap raw materials,” Nkrumah said.
Balkanized African countries would remain weak, unable to protect the resources and sovereignty of the individual countries. Only a United States of Africa would be powerful enough to stand up to the Western aggression. By securing its resources, for the benefit of Africans, the continent would be able to industrialize and create wealth and prosperity.
Nkrumah passionately advocated for African unity, a dream which did not materialize, and remains elusive. In his classic 1965 book, Neocolonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism, Nkrumah offered the blueprint for African unity and economic development.
It’s a book that every African needs to read.
A United States of Africa is the key to Africa’s prosperity.
