Black Star Rising « Global Fusion Productions Inc

Black Star Rising « Global Fusion Productions Inc

Why isn’t there a national holiday for Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, The First Black President?

It is now about a month or so after the much to do about nothing hoopla of President Obama’s visit to Ghana, as the first Black sitting president of the USA who chose to make Ghana his first visit in the continent of Africa (even though it was technically Egypt- but world leaders & others continue to divide the African continent for their personal gains/agendas by calling some nations sub-Saharan Africa without defining what the opposite of that is), about 8 months after the election of the NDC & a month before the 100th birthday ( September 21st) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah; Ghana is showing itself as a sad, backward ever, ignorant shell of its heyday as the first African country to not only gain Independence, but to be in the history books as being the nation who produced the first Black President in the world. Before Obama there was Nkrumah! President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was a man who was respected by all the leaders of the world during his time, with a welcoming seat at their table, where he was called upon to help resolve global conflicts amongst nations, to bring peace amongst enemies & to stand in leadership as the example for other nations to follow, similar to the way President Obama’s leadership is being looked to & heralded throughout the world. There has never been an African president so highly regarded & respected by world leaders as Dr. Nkrumah until Nelson Mandela- 37 years after Dr. Nkrumah became the very first Black President. Dr. Nkrumah paved the way for many who came after him locally/globally & it is a sad day in the history of Ghana when his birthday is still not a national holiday & his achievements are not heralded & celebrated in Ghana’s education system or culture outside of designated monuments & buildings. I am currently reading two books to better understand Ghana’s past high esteem, fall from grace & the times we are in now –“Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” by Kwame Nkrumah & “Ghana Two Years of Transformation:1982-83” published by Information Services Department , Accra , Ghana. The latter looks at Ghana the first 2 years after the 1981 revolution headed by Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, whose party & former VP, Atta Mills is currently in power as the ruling majority party & the president of Ghana. The “Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare” by Kwame Nkrumah was written in 1968 in Conakry, Guinea where Nkrumah was exiled to & became Co-president of with Sekou Toure after the coup d’état orchestrated & aided by the American CIA, while he was in Hanoi trying to work on a resolution to the Vietnam war in 1966. Much of this history is completely unknown to the average Ghanaian & even some of the so called educated ones. Dr. Nkrumah & an independent Black Star Nation was truly the example that many colonizers & capitalists in the world were afraid of & did not want to see spread throughout the continent of Africa in the formation of what would have been a powerhouse continent of the United States of Africa. This was Africa’s dream deferred which President Obama says he would like to see fulfilled for Africa by Africans, but at what cost & is the rest of the world let alone Africans truly ready to fulfill Nkrumah’s dream? If & when a nation can not even pay homage & honor the greatness of its past, how can they possibly fulfill the greatness in their potential for the future? When Ghana as a democratic governed nation along with the everyday Ghanaian can know, acknowledge, honor & celebrate the greatness of its past then we can truly fulfill & exclaim the mantra of Forward Ever, Backward Never!

I encourage & urge Ghana/Ghanaians to make September 21st a national holiday in honor of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah & in honor of what a great Black Star Nation represents! A day of national & public voluntary service & celebration of our Forward Movements as a Nation!

The Ghana Chronicles 09-Beginning the Journey from JFK 2 Accra

Let’s just say the day didn’t start off on a good foot because I had not slept at all the night before because I was overwhelmed with packing. Of course family members have to overload my luggage with stuff to give everyone back home in Ghana –many of which they can easily get in Ghana but for some reason bringing it from the US gives it more cachet or makes it somehow better. Figuring out how to pack it all without having to pay close to $300 for excess baggage, which Deltas rips off their customers for since they are the only airline with such exorbitant fees for going over 50 pounds, was no easy task. My cousin’s wonderful husband was gracious enough to drive me to the airport & surprisingly everything went smoothly at the airport, so I could just relax & await the flight.

So the journey has begun once again, back to my mama’s land, the motherland, the Black Star Nation, Ghana! This time a little wiser, a little more learned about the so called “Ghanaian mentality” & a lot more tolerant while building on the precise beautiful art of patience. In this land everyone is at their own pace with an extreme abundance of pride or “twae”, but after all what do you expect from the Black Star Nation who showed herself to be the leader of Africa 52 years ago in her independence & the call for all her brothers & sisters to join her revolutionary evolution for freedom & independence Now - for & by Africans! 52 years later the “Nkrumah like” first of Barack Obama comes to remind the world once again that Ghana/Ghanaians are the model he & the rest of the world wants to see for Africa, so you best believe that the pride is high, but we’re moving on- that is as an elder Ghanaian said to me –if we can get past some of the ignorance in behavior & thought process.

It’s happening as I write this. I am on my way to Accra on Delta, one of the worst airlines in terms of customer service, but unfortunately it’s the only airline that flies direct to Ghana from New York. Sitting next to me is a Ghanaian who did his masters & phd in the USA & decided he wanted to go back to Ghana to build on the blueprint of excellence in education, which Nkrumah had started, by building a private international school in Kumasi where excellence is not only expected from the students, but from the faculty & the infrastructure where they gather, eat, learn & excel, thru a focus on the sciences. Within a 10 year period of conceiving this idea & bringing it to fruition, Dr. Yeboah now has one of the best primary/secondary schools in Kumasi that is beautifully done to rival any day/boarding school in Ghana & abroad. I didn’t have my own private/self-contained bathroom in my room at the boarding school of the elite in the US that I was privileged enough to have gained a scholarship for, but in Today’s Ghana it’s part of the staple –Chale mek u no try- because we are coming up & the movement is being led by those of us who have been educated, lived & travelled abroad; fed up with the so called American Europe dream as we watch foreigners/foreign investors live their dreams in our homeland without much benefit to the average everyday Ghanaian. Many ex-pat Ghanaians & now even their children born & raised abroad have chosen to come back to give back to the nation that gave us our power & more vim to be able to make it anywhere with excellence as we keep the black star shining & rising-Nkrumah’s exact road & blueprint in full effect! Dr. Yeboah is on the plane with about 20 or so children from his school, who as little Pricilla AKA Serwaa ,with her innate sense of politeness that is second to none in Ghana & the sweetest of voices tells me, they were on a sponsored tour to Chicago & New York- one of the international/global educational tools that is incorporated in the curriculum of the school. Pricilla proceeds to tell me how she wanted to tell the flight attendant “Delta knows they are going to Ghana why don’t you serve us some jalof rice or something”. I laugh & shake my head knowing just how right this young lady is & recognizing that she is a powerhouse in the best ways possible & will one day perhaps be heralded amongst other great intelligent females who represent the best in country, womanhood & firsts such as Hilary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, Michelle Obama & Yaa Asantwaa . I am filled with so much joy & hope for Today’s Ghana as I watch the founder of the school, teachers & students interact in a way that is more family than pupils & as the African-American flight attendant sits next to the founder of the school & me hoping we can help her find a good school for a young 16 year old Ghanaian boy who she has taken to & is determined to help in Ghana. She tells us the story of how she met him at the art center on her travels to Ghana & he had confided in her his dream of becoming a doctor, even though his parents are pushing him to be a footballer because they believe he will make more money quickly so he can take care of them.

This woman has no known blood relation to this young man except for the fact that she sees Ghana as home as an African-American & has become the embodiment of the Ghanaian proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” by just choosing to stand up to do her part in being the change she would like to see in the world. She has dedicated herself to helping this young man live his dream of becoming a doctor & has decided to call on her village of friends to help out financially or with just something as simple as information to make sure he is in the right environment for learning, so that he becomes someone whose dream is realized instead of another one of many whose dreams are deferred because of lack of funding, access or that one person it takes to believe in a young person’s dream, so they can really go for it & believe that it is possible! Today’s Ghana is about Change & Forward Ever & I am delighted to have the privilege to be on this journey with a resurrected Black Star vim to build on this blueprint!