The Republic of Ghana celebrated its 50th year of independence from colonial rule on March 6, 2007. This former British colony gained its independence on March 6, 1957, as newly elected President Osageyfo Kwame Nkrumah announced before the world, “ Today, we are free” as millions of his countryman spilled into the streets to celebrate this West African nation becoming the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence from colonial rule. In 1950, Nkrumah was jailed for his political organizing as head of the radical Convention People’s Party. However, when the colonial government was pressured to hold democratic elections, the C.P.P. swept into power. Kwame Nkrumah went from prisoner to Head of State and was escorted to C.P.P. headquarters directly from jail as thousands lined the streets.
On the eve of Independence in 1957, many crowded into Black Star Square Arena in Accra, Ghana, to witness this historic ceremony marking the end of colonial rule. It was exactly 12 midnight on March 6, 1957, when the British flag was taken down and one minute later, the new flag of Ghana was raised in its place. The colors on the new flag of Ghana were the Pan Africanist colors of red, yellow and green in horizontal formation with a Black Star in the middle which represents the respect Kwame Nkrumah had for Pan Africanist Marcus Garvey and his Black Star Ship line to carry Blacks in the Diaspora back home to Africa. As head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Garvey created this steamship line for that specific task (One week before departure of this ship, it was sabotaged and sank in New York harbor where it rest today). President Nkrumah, a Pan Africanist himself, was always quoted as saying the “Black Star in the flag is a guiding light for those Africans in the Diaspora to come home,” fulfilling the Pan African vision of Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Sekou Ture’ and W.E.B. Du Bois. In the spirit of this vision, Nkrumah asked W.E.B. DuBois to come live in Ghana after being railroaded by racist America. DuBois, in a final act of refute, renounced his American citizenship to settle permanently in Ghana where he died on Aug. 28, 1963, the same day as the March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The body of W.E.B. DuBois was laid to rest at his residence in Accra, Ghana which is now the W.E.B. DuBois Center for Pan African Culture.
Kwame Nkrumah had a “revolutionary vision” of not just Ghana becoming a great nation but a greater vision of the United States of Africa being established, which was not a popular idea with Africa’s colonial masters at the time. Despite Nkrumah’s vision, he would be overthrown by a military coup while on a diplomatic trip to China and would live the remainder of his remarkable life with his friend Guinea President Sekou Ture’ who would name Nkrumah co-president of Guinea, West Africa despite his reluctance to accept a gracious act from his lifelong friend. Democratic rule has proven to be better than coup after coup, which robbed Africa of brilliant minds that could have found common political ground through democracy. The year 1997 marked a new day in African politics when Flight Lt. Jerry John Rawlings was re-elected to his second term in widely held democratic elections and after fulfilling his term, paved way for a succession of democratically elected leaders John Kufuor, John Atta Mills and current President John Dramani Mahama. Un-acknowledged in Europe and the U.S., Ghana has proven to be the most politically stable sub-Saharan African country to this very day. Blessed with a stable and peaceful government, Ghana’s economy is steadily expanding, wonderful host attractions, excellent hotels and new convention facilities such as the Accra International Conference Center — plus Africa’s friendliest, most hospitable people means that tourism and “repatriation” is set to grow significantly in the 21st century.
Geographically, this tropical West African nation, formerly called the Gold Coast, is bound on the north and northwest by Burkina Faso, on the east by Togo, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by Cote’ d’Ivoire. The name Ghana was taken from the highly developed and sophisticated Ghana Empire which flourished in West Africa between the 4th and 10th century A.D. Ghana is about the same size of the United Kingdom, with a population of over 17 million. The economy is founded in agriculture, producing cocoa, high quality indigenous shea butter, mining (gold, diamonds, manganese, timber) and hydroelectric power from the Akosombo Dam providing diversification. Even TV host Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations did a show from Ghana and learned that Ghana and African Americans share a special relationship as described by then Ghana’s Minister of Tourism and Diaspora Affairs Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, with the largest concentration of African Americans settling in Ghana more than anywhere else on the African continent — among the famous are, of course, W.E.B. DuBois and Maya Angelou who lived there for awhile. In 1994, The Nation of Islam hosted an International Saviors Day Convention that drew 2,000 blacks from the diaspora in one of the largest “pilgrimages” in the 20th century, and this writer was among the participants. This convention culminated with Minister Louis Farrakhan addressing 30,000 at Black Star Arena.
“AKWABAA,” means welcome and it is the word Ghanians use to greet visitors arriving in Ghana. For blacks in the diaspora, this “pilgrimage” is not complete until they visit the “slave dungeons” along the coastal region of Ghana, Cape Coast and Elmina specifically. Visitors light candles inside these dark fortresses as they make their way to the in-famous “Door of No Return,” where many would depart Africa never to return and have generations of their descendants to live and die in foreign lands either in Europe, South America, the Caribbean or America. Men and women were separated by sex and they waited sometimes months in sweltering castle heat, before leaving their homeland forever. At the Cape Coast Dungeon, there is a large courtyard and cannons situated on each end to protect the “human cargo” that colonial countries benefited by free forced labor. Many scenes from the underground hit movie, Sankofa, were shot at the Cape Coast Dungeon.
Former President Rawlings presented a bill proposal to grant Dual Citizenship to those African-Americans and other Blacks in the diaspora which was designed to make them citizens of Ghana and wherever they are currently living requiring no visa for entry. President Barack Obama’s first trip to Africa as American Head of State was in Ghana, where he took his family to visit the slave dungeons on the coast along with other diplomatic responsibilities he wanted to accomplished there. President Obama’s father was a native of Kenya where many of his relatives still live, including his paternal grandmother at the time of his visit. Ghana’s shining black star is a guiding light for all people of African descent in the Diaspora to come back home. –malik ismail
Malik Ismail is an international traveler and activist. He’s explored many cultures in Africa including Ghana, South Africa and Egypt. He’s traveled to Cuba and South America. Recently he visited Rio de Janeiro and Salvador Bahia, Brazil including the favelas of Rocinha and Cidade de Deus (City of God) in Rio. His writings have been featured in the L.A. Watt’s Times, It’s About Time BPP Newsletter, rolling out Magazine and The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service.
