Racial discrimination and the Akosombo Dam

Kofi Bentum Quantson Opinion May - 14 - 2014 , 08:57

“Then why don’t you get on with the damn thing?” - Dwight D. Eisenhower, United States President - 1953-1961

All through the years, I have found William Cowper’s thoughts recorded in Methodist Hymn Book 503 so very pertinent.

He says “God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform.” The reason, in my view, is simple and clear. Oftentimes, things happen about which you can find no human sense or logic. In particular, the last stanza which says, “God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.”

Otherwise, how on God’s earth could a senseless display of racial discrimination against Ghana’s Finance Minister in the Nkrumah era, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, provide that wonderful catalyst for the financing of the Volta river Project?

There were huge problems that had to be confronted and surmounted. There was the colossal amount of £300,000,000 pounds required. There was the cold war ideological politics in play. The West as jittery about Kwame Nkrumah’s perceived “communist” leanings. Then, very crucially, there was the determined subversive strategies of Nkrumah’s internal detractors to sabotage the project. Don’t ask me for the reasons.

Criminal activity?

Indeed, at some point, the issue of the huge external loan needed was so overplayed that it almost looked like a criminal activity. Kwame Nkrumah’s response is still germane. Hear him, “The belief that borrowing money on the international market is shameful is associated with fear of exploitation. I can understand both concepts, but subscribe to neither. Such concepts arise from suspicion bred in ignorance and we have no room for ignorance in our country.”

After a protracted ding-dong period of uncertainty and anxiety, even real fears about the project, finally the joyful announcement came. The official records state this. 17 December 1961. Accra. “In a dramatic move that will make all Ghanaians happy, President John F. Kennedy of the United States has decided to back the Volta River Project.

The decision makes it clear that in the mature judgement of the people of the United States, Africa has the right to better its lot in terms of the twentieth century development and that this is an honourable cause to support.”

But wait a minute. How does obnoxious racial discrimination fit in here? It does and does so beautifully. It had to do with the incident at the Howard Johnson restaurant outside Dover in Delaware. The restaurant had refused to let Mr K. A. Gbedemah, then Ghana’s Minister for Finance, and his African-American secretary, to sit down there and enjoy a cup of iced orange juice they had bought. Why? Because they were black. Yes, black.

I must recognise, of course, that because of the way our nation’s history has been bastardised by inward-looking academicians and intellectuals, not too many people know about K. A. Gbedemah. He was one of Kwame Nkrumah’s right-hand men whose immense contribution kept Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) afloat when Kwame Nkrumah was jailed at the Usher Fort prison, and the party faced collapse. At the time he was humiliated at that Howard Johnson restaurant, he had been invited to lecture at the Maryland State College in Baltimore. Gbedemah’s acid reaction to that humiliation was demonstrated to the audience after that lecture.

Nasty treatment

Annor Nimako’s book, “The River’s Power” captures the subject incisively. “Ladies and gentlemen, before I leave, I have a few home truths about Americans I want you to know about. You Americans have a savage law which says that because of the colour of man’s skin, he cannot sit down and be served a drink or food”.

Gbedemah then told them about the nasty treatment meted out to him and his secretary at the restaurant.

Recounting his positive social encounters Gbedemah related, “At my country’s independence celebration last March, I was privileged to have the Second Citizen of your country, Vice-President Richard Nixon, at my residence in Accra. Here in the United States, many very important government officials, dignitaries and businessmen have invited me to their homes. It is, therefore, inconceivable that I should be refused iced orange juice at a restaurant just because I am black.”

That ovation that greeted this bold pronouncement was thunderous. So was the worldwide condemnation of that reprehensible racial bigotry. The United States government of course did not miss that global outrage.

The unexpected outcome was that the United States President invited Mr Gbedemah for breakfast at the White House.

Here is part of the story as recorded in Annor Nimako’s “The River’s Power.

Over breakfast, the President looked admiringly at him and asked (Gbedemah was resplendent in a gorgeous kente), “were you dressed like this when you called at the Howard Johnson restaurant to be served?” “I wasn’t, Mr President, he answered simply.”

Subsequently, the President looked admiringly at him and asked, “What were you doing here in the States?” “I was a member of the Ghana delegation that attended the United Nations General Assembly ... Before then, I had attended the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Conference in Ottawa. I had also discussed some reports of the Volta River Project with Alcan Limited.”

The mention of the project must have triggered off a pertinent question the President asked. “By the way, what has happened to the Volta River Project?” the President asked unexpectedly.

“It’s been put on ice, Mr President because of the colossal amount of 300,000,000 pounds sterling required for it.”

“Have you talked to the State Department about it?”

“No, we haven’t.”

The President looked at his Vice President and said, “Dick, will you take it up?”

Racial discrimination

This is the intriguing story of iced orange juice, racial discrimination, Gbedemah’s outrage, the White House, the President’s tea and Akosombo. Where would Ghana be if Akosombo had failed? Very very regrettably, some sons and daughters of the motherland buried their patriotism and crucified the national interest to campaign viciously against our dear Akosombo.

William Cowper keeps singing in my ears. “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”.

Komla Agbeli Gbedemah’s iced orange juice was, maybe, part of His mysterious ways to trigger the question that President Eisenhower asked, “Then why don’t you get on with the thing going?”

The damn thing was Akosombo. I wonder whether we can find a piece of roundabout, triangle, trapezium somewhere to honour Komla Agbeli Gbedemah. After all, all manner of persons, some of them annoyingly undeserving, have been decorated with landmarks as part of our national heritage.

— The writer is a former National Security Co-ordinator.