Onsy Nkrumah reflects on Ghana@60
Happy Birthday my beloved Twin sister Ghana and many happy returns! We have made it to our 60th anniversary!
Going back in time to reflect on the exodus from our colonial bondage days and on the genesis of our earthly life for the glory of God first and for the benefit and knowledge of your Ghanaian children who were born in freedom ever since March 1957; thanks to God first and to the great vision, selfless sacrifice, fatherly leadership, good struggle and unrelenting determination of our founding father Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and of the many great qualities and contributions of all of his comrades who fought the good fight with him and all those who worked loyally and tirelessly with him and who shared his vision, his patriotic passion for Africa specially for our homeland part of Africa which bears your great name, Ghana.
May all of their names be written in the book of life and may their blessed memories remain as sweet aromatic fragrance before God and man, now and forever more. Amen.
After CPP have democratically and decisively won the polls for our independence and self rule, amicable discussions went on between London and Accra to choose a date for your orderly majestic birth.
Possible dates were shortlisted down to three dates; 6th, 16th or 26th of March 1957, with numeric values of 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Our father preferred the second date if it was practical to all concerned, otherwise he opted for the first option as he was not keen on delaying it till the 26 of March as he always claimed that independence was well overdue, SO independence NOW, he always demanded with dignity and great sense of urgency.
If his preferred choice of the 16th of March was upheld, then you too my beloved twin would have been born on Saturday like him, same Saturday as myself in fact and our people would have enjoyed celebrating the great occasion throughout the weekend till Monday morning when our politicians and civil servants would have started to work on their own without any outside interference or having to wait on or comply with orders, instructions or dictates from the Crown or the British Parliament or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London as was the sad case for many years, too many to want to remember or mention now.
But ultimately, the chosen date that was settled on was the 6th of March 1957 and you were not born on a Saturday like your founding father or like me your twin brother as the Good Lord has destined for us. But nevertheless, you were the apple of his eyes and his favourite Show Girl Ghana, he can never do or give enough for you. He celebrated your first 8 birthdays here at home with great pride and joy as any proud father would do, his spirit is still proudly watching over you and over your children, I can assure you my beloved Ghana. Your father Kwame Nkrumah Never Dies.
He lives in you, he lives in me, he lives in all the Ghanaian children of Freedom. So how can he ever die?
However, we have another significant thing in common between the three of us which was extended in part to include the CPP too. Three of us were in fact born in a year of the Rooster or Cockrell of the Lunar or Chinese Oriental Astrology. For the record, I have interest in and time to read and learn from Astrology on the contrary to Horoscope which I have no time for or interest in.
1909 and 1957 our respective years of birth were Rooster years, the first was an Earth Rooster year and the second was a Fire Rooster year whose image became the symbol of the CPP, our first ruling party in the land. Our Red Fire Rooster (or Red Cockrell) image was given by our father to become the official symbol or Trade Mark of the CPP party and it remains as its symbol to date.
Some may ask; How come the CPP was given the Red Cockrell image when it was formed back in 1949 and the Fire Rooster or Red Cockrell year was not until 1957 the year of our birth? Did the old man know that we would be born in that year to use its image years in advance? Was he a prophet? Or was it an answer to prayers that we would be born in that particular year of the Fire Rooster of 1957? By the way, Fire Rooster years only come by once every 60 years, so the following Fire Rooster year has just started few weeks ago in 2017. So how? I would dare say, that it was both a fulfillment of prophecy as well as a divine answer to many prayers of many suffering people over many years to be rid of the Bondage of the Colonial Masters' shackles and chains.
So the desired deliverance eventually came right on time as precisely predicted or prophesied in that Red year of the very Fire Rooster of 1957 as it did not come in 1897 nor in 2017, the 2 immediate Fire Rooster years just before or just after that particular one of 1957!
At midnight of the fateful 6th of March 1957 we were both christened as Freedom children when our father cried out loud; Freedom, Freedom with great many emotions and tremendous relief and tears of joy that were etched in us then and in millions after us as Freedom children of Destiny and of the Prophetic Embodiment of the African Dream. We are that living embodiment and we must live up to our full potential and the great expectations of our great founding father Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and his original five comrades better known as the Big Six and all the other loyal and patriotic comrades and all the unknown soldiers and martyrs (our cloud of witnesses) who contributed and sacrificed their lives and paid great prices for the Freedom and Independence that we are all enjoying today, we must never ever forget all these many and great contributions and we must never take any of it for granted.
Our father gave us great freedom of independence and greater value to ourselves. He gave us a head start and a great foundation for a great future, so we must continue to go forward ever and never look backward to any negatives or hardship or any reversal or retardation or challenges.
We must all come together now as one united people with love, in peace and harmony to work together, to build our brighter future together for all of our people alike with selflessness, with sincerity, with determination and unity of purpose. As the best is yet to come if we can only learn how to love each other and how to work together as our brothers and our sisters keepers, then the sky will be our limit, if it dares to limit us, as we can soar like eagles even beyond our skies if we can truly love each other enough to work and to build together, so help us God. Amen.
For my beloved Twin's 60th Birthday, I would like to recommend to our new president to give Ghana and her Ghanaian children the following as her 60th Birthday gifts:
1) Change the name of Accra international airport from Kotoka International Airport to either Kwame Nkrumah Airport or back to Accra International Airport.
2) Change the name of our founding father's celebrated birthday from Founder's Day to Kwame Nkrumah Day which would bring much more international recognition to the day and much needed tangible benefits to our economy, our tourism, our cultural heritage, our folklore and arts, our national pride ...etc. As his name would have a great magnetic pull on all who would hear of it as it has a very special place in the hearts and minds of many millions of people around the world.
3) To return the confiscated CPP properties back to CPP, Ghana's first party which brought independence and sovereignty back to Ghana as they were unlawfully taken and misappropriated by a number of successive governments who failed to return them to date as promised.
The next significant Fire Rooster year will be 2077 when I may not be around or may be too old at 120 years, if the Good Lord wanted me to be here then for the benefit of your Ghanaian children who are looking up to us for leadership and for direction to be moving forward to a better life and brighter future for every single Ghanaian life, so we better start working together now with a renewed sense of purpose and greater sense of urgency with greater unity of purpose in selflessness and sincerity, in love and mutual respect and we will surely succeed and will soar like eagles to even greater heights than our fathers dared to dream as they have taught us to dream bigger and aim higher than they did themselves. After all, they built a solid and deep foundation for us to build on, so now is our time and is our duty to build even higher on their legacy for the benefit of our future generations who depend on us to deliver a better future for them to build on and so it goes from generation to generation.
The best is yet to come, but to achieve that great potential we must continue to work tirelessly together and we will surely make our fathers proud and our children secure as we take our roles seriously.
God bless you my beloved Ghana, God bless all of your children to realise our collective potential together. Forward Ever, Backwards Never. Happy Birthday Ghana.