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KK urges Africans to emulate Nkrumah

KK urges Africans to emulate Nkrumah
Written by Ernest Chanda and Kabanda Chulu
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:29:13 AM

FIRST Republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda has called on Africans to emulate first Ghanian president Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan Africanist spirit in order to face the current challenges on the continent.

Officiating on Monday at the centenary celebration of Nkruma’s life in Lusaka organised by the Press Freedom Committee of The Post, Dr Kaunda said Africa would not have been politically free without Nkrumah’s fighting spirit.

“I met Kwame Nkrumah when I was quite young, and some of you may not know that it was from Nkrumah that we got many songs. Later on these songs were meant to unite Zambia; one of them being the ‘Tiyende pamodzi ndi mtima umo’ song. And these songs helped us in our fight to help liberate fellow Africans in Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, among others,” Dr Kaunda said.

“Now is the time to use our strength to fight current challenges as Nkrumah did in his time. His fearlessness and commitment to freedom inspired many of us. Without Kwame Nkrumah, Africa’s political independence could have taken long. He saw a people of one human family. No wonder after Ghana got its independence he did not sit down, but he said ‘Ghana will not be completely free until the whole of Africa is free’. That is why the 1966 coup in Ghana was a set back to the world.”

And Ghanian Consular in Zambia Charles Baah said Nkrumah had left a bold footprint on the sands of time.

“As we celebrate his centenary anniversary today, 21st September, 2009, may I draw your attention to the fact that Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah leaves a bold footprint on the sands of time. His life is a cocktail of myth, vision, selflessness, hard work and ambition. Seven times he escaped assassination attempts; three times he is buried – once abroad and twice in Ghana; many times his effigy is burnt to ashes,” Consular Baah said.

“For many years he is mocked and scorned by the very people he liberated from oppression and colonial bondage and for a long time his books and everything about him are ordered for destruction by his detractors in an attempt to wipe out his memory, at least from Ghanian history. But he survived and remains the most celebrated person ever to grace the soils of Ghana and Africa. Ghana’s independence, according to Nkrumah, was not an end to the fight against colonialism, but the beginning of the emancipation of Africa from foreign domination.”

And former Zambian Ambassador to Libya Mbita Chitala has said Africans must unite or continue living in abject poverty.

“His dreams and vision were for Africans’ benefit through political and economic independence and Africans must unite or continue living in abject poverty and as we struggle Nkrumah’s dream is still alive and should be fulfilled since most of us we yearn for this dream and vision to come true,” Ambassador Chitala said.

“And those who hate Africans will continue fighting for the attainment of this dream but we should persevere and unite to become a single and strong block like the European Union, otherwise we shall continue being poor and underdeveloped.”

Meanwhile, Third World Network Africa Coordinator Yao Graham has challenged the current African leadership to draw lessons from the vision of the late Kwame Nkrumah.

Graham, who is based in Accra, Ghana, said there were many lessons to learn from the Nkrumah legacy.

“While many African leaders have aspired to inherit Nkrumah’s mantle as the visionary and driver of Pan Africanism and continental unity, a gaping political leadership vacuum remains at the heart of the continent’s collective expression. Nkrumah’s life and work was dominated by pan Africanism as a pro ject of political and economic freedom, unity and structural transformation linked to issues of Africa’s voice on the world stage; and this is what the African leadership should learn form from,’ Graham said.

“It is understood that Nkrumah’s leadership and rallying role in African affairs went well beyond his vision of Africa must unite. Importantly it included support for national liberation movements, hence encompassing a strong commitment to anti colonial independence sentiments.”

Labels: KENNETH KAUNDA, KWAME NKRUMAH

posted by MrK @ 3:30 AM