KB Asante: Voice From Afar column

I feel sad when I hear learned Africans suggest that Nkrumah promoted African unity because he wanted to be President of Africa. We in Ghana know little about the heroic efforts of our diasporan brothers and sisters to regain their personal freedom and emancipate the intellect. Our education ignores that knowledge of the past which should inspire a passion for the future.

I feel guilty about this since I was once in charge of education in the country. I am relieved when I find dedicated groups in the Diaspora working hard on African History programmes which seek, among other things, to promote the historical and intellectual basis for African unity.

It was a privilege to attend a symposium on Marcus Garvey by Ghanaian History Consultant, Kwaku. The meeting was to mark the 100th anniversary of the formation of Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association /African Communities League (UNIA). The discussion was in-depth and elevating.  It adopted an initiative of African Histories Revised and TAOB (The African Or Black Question) to mark August 31 as a day to reflect on African History.

We have a Marcus Garvey Guest House at the WEB du Bois Centre in Accra, but many of the youth do not know who Marcus Garvey was. Kwame Nkrumah stated in his autobiography that of all the literature he studied, the book that did more than any other to fire his enthusiasm was the “Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.” The UNIA declared the rights of the Negro people of the world on August 12, 1920 and proposed August 31 as a day for all Africans, and not only Jamaicans or African Americans, to redouble their efforts to maintain and promote their God-given human rights.

Garvey promoted the unity of Africans both in the Diaspora and on the continent. Kwame Nkrumah gave form to the idea and sowed the beginnings of concrete African unity. It was not a parochial effort to advance self as uninformed minds think.

It is pertinent to note that Marcus Garvey founded the Negro Factories Corporation and sought to manufacture what Africa needed. He envisaged a truly liberated African not slavishly dependent upon the rest of the world.

He incorporated the Black Star Line to improve transportation and trade between the United States, the Caribbean and the African continent. Nkrumah followed Garvey’s example by establishing Ghana’s Black Star Line. Unfortunately, through incompetence, greed, corruption and more importantly, the slavish mentality of some of our intellectuals and leaders, the national shipping line collapsed and we still export our cocoa and bulky raw materials in foreign vessels.

The idea has been accepted that government should not soil its hands with the “dirty” business of production and distribution. It should not even assist national entrepreneurs to engage in economic activity as other nations have done! It should concern itself principally with the maintenance of law and order and the promotion of “democracy” on empty stomachs and subservience.

Nkrumah rejected this slavish mentality by implementing the ideas of Marcus Garvey and providing Ghanaians with the skills and support necessary for participation in the local and global economy. He made it possible for young Ghanaians to learn trades such as tailoring and laundry abroad and return to move the country forward economically and socially.

What made me particularly sad as I considered what was left of Garvey’s ideas and Nkrumah’s efforts was the collapse of Ghana Airways. At a time when Accra International Airport is busy with foreign airlines, Ghana Airways can only boast a plane turned into a restaurant, with Ghanaians involved mainly at the lower echelons of the industry. Those responsible for the collapse of Ghana Airways, especially those then in government, should feel ashamed as they receive the opprobrium of Ghanaians.

African unity is impeded by the myopia of many in high positions in Africa. African unity is not welcome by others who see it as a threat. It is of some significance that those who try to implement African unity are removed from the stage by those who feel threatened. Thus Marcus Garvey was tried and imprisoned; Nkrumah was overthrown; Patrice Lumumba was murdered, and Gaddafi was eliminated.

Africans cannot achieve true self-respect and self-confidence while they remain fragmented and manipulated. African unity is not a dream. It is a must. Although the African Union has recognised the Diaspora as the 6th region, there is still much work to be done. We can only achieve African unity if we learn from the common histories of the continent and the Diaspora. Our schools should expose our children to global African history as some of our compatriots in the Diaspora are doing.