Exactly sixty years ago, a dark cloud eclipsed a Black Star.
Africa woke up to the sad and somber news of the overthrow of one of the continent’s greatest leaders, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who was the first Prime Minister of Ghana.
Popularly known as the OSAGYEFO, Nkrumah was prime in the pantheon of Africa’s post-colonial young leaders who literally showed Europe the door. Out of the continent.
For those who may not already know, Osagyefo is an Akan (a Ghanaian ethnic group) word for ‘Victorious Leader’. The title is traditionally reserved for leaders in pre-colonial Ghana who excelled in warfare.
He was in the same political class of the early freedom fighters who read the colonizers the riot act: Africa has come of age. We can run our own show. Hit the road Jack.
Nkrumah’s contemporaries at the time were Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Tanzania), Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea-Conakry), Modibo Keita (Mali), and Milton Obote of Uganda.
These young men formed the bulwark of anti-colonialism in the emerging continent. In actuality, they influenced a whole generation of leaders who followed in their footsteps.
Unlike his counterparts, Osagyefo who was American trained drew the hostile attention of the colonialists more than his peers because of his international appeal.
While his fiery rhetorics and charisma were loathed by the colonialists and the West, he made friends with the East. The former Soviet Union to be exact.
In America and the Caribbean, his charm netted him the friendship of proponents of global emancipation - W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Maya Angelou, Malcom X, and of course Dr. Martin Luther King.
But all that came to a screeching halt when his government was ousted by a band of soldiers led by Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka.
However in a failed coup attempt, Kotoka himself was killed one year after.
And for a military ruler who was portrayed as a ‘liberator’, it was no surprise that in 1969, his colleagues renamed the country’s gateway airport in the capital of Accra after him.
For a country that gave Africa and the Black race so much - a place of pride in the world - because of Kwame Nkrumah’s bodacious stance when it was potentially dangerous to do so, he deserves a much more prominent place in Ghana.
Many of us believe that it should not have to take a parliamentary debate and vote to know that the name of Accra International Airport belongs to Nkrumah.
There is no disrespect intended in this article to dishonor the memory of Emmanuel Kotoka and his kinsmen exemplified by the minority leader of the Ghanaian parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.
The minority leader who represents Kotoka’s homestead - the Volta Region - had argued that it was a betrayal of his constituents by the removing the name of their son from the airport.
I have no attitude either way.
For Ghana. For Africa. For the Black World. The name: Nkrumah simply means deity. Period.
What baffles me in this whole name-removing saga is that Nkrumah’s name was not mentioned. Not once.
Is this a case of a prophet not getting his due honor from his own people? Perhaps. But sad.
I am aware that there are other public places in Ghana named for the country’s first prime minister.
But what a better way to immortalize this mythical son of Africa if every visitor that arrives Ghana is greeted by the Osagyefo.
To the best of my knowledge, there exists no greater personality in the modern history of Ghana than Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
If properly positioned, his name, like the name of Madiba Nelson Mandela should drive up tourism numbers.
Ghana is of significant importance to Africa. And to the Black World.
I hope, my friend, President John Dramani Mahama is listening.