[#JusticeForGoldCoast3WW2Veterans]
“There has been no justice for the families of the ex-servicemen who were veterans of World War 2…They were murdered by British Colonial Head of Police Superintendent Colin Imray, as they marched unarmed and peacefully.”
Photo: ThisIsAfrica.me
Sgt. Cornelius Fredrick Adjetey, Private Odartey Lamptey and Corporal Attipoe were murdered in 1948 while peacefully marching in Ghana.
After a long period of a quiet approach, UK/Ghana pan-Africanist group Africans For has now launched a petition – www.bitly.com/FCOJusticeForGC3 – to publicly call on the British government, through the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), for justice and compensation to the families of ex-servicemen Sgt. Cornelius Fredrick Adjetey, Private Odartey Lamptey and Corporal Attipoe, who were shot and killed by the British colonial government on 28th February 1948 in Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana).
To date, there has been no justice for the families of the ex-servicemen who were veterans of World War 2 and members of the Gold Coast Regiment. They were murdered by British Colonial Head of Police Superintendent Colin Imray, as they marched unarmed and peacefully to submit a petition regarding unpaid wages and broken war service promises to Sir Gerald Creasy, then Governor of the Gold Coast.
Superintendent Imray ordered his subordinate to shoot at the protesters, but the officer shot into the air. Imray grabbed the gun and shot into the crowd, killing the three veterans. Some 60 ex-servicemen were also wounded.
The glaring Afriphobia (racism directed specifically at Africans) in the murder of George Floyd – nearly nine awful minutes captured on camera – has rightly led to worldwide condemnation and demonstrations. But the building blocks of the contempt for African lives that led to the killing of George Floyd and countless other Africans in the US, UK and other parts of the world, particularly in the West, has its roots in the past – from the trafficking and enslavement of Africans, considered as chattel by European enslavers, to colonialism.
When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson extols the virtues of Britain’s empire and colonies, one therefore wonders whether he is defending wanton killings?
In recent months, there has been a call to teach African (Black) history as a core part of a decolonised British history. As we’ve just celebrated Windrush Day, will that history not only see 1948 as a watershed moment in Britain’s multi-cultural immigration history, but also a reminder of atrocities in other parts of the then Empire, such as what happened in Gold Coast?
We cannot sweep glaring historical injustice under the carpet. There should be justice for the families of murdered veterans, who had fought alongside British troops in World War 2 and were petitioning the Governor peacefully for their entitlements.
They should not have been killed by an officer of the Crown, just as George Floyd should not have been killed by a police officer, who had sworn to serve and protect citizens.
We cannot be silent any longer.
And as we are in the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent 2015-24, we demand that urgent steps be taken by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to right this injustice, by apologizing for this wrong and compensating the families of the murdered veterans.
Getting the Foreign Secretary to take responsibility will also depend on how well this petition is supported. If you’ve shown solidarity with George Floyd’s or the families of any of the Africans murdered by state agencies in the US or UK, or supported the #BlackLivesMatter/#AfricanLivesMatter cause, then the trajectory from there to the 1948 killings of the Gold Coast war veterans is obvious.
We invite you to show your support for justice for the families of murdered veterand by signing the petition ar: www.bitly.com/FCOJusticeForGC3.
