An interview with June Milne, the editor, and publisher of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s books which have appeared on the social media platform TikTok has received a written answer from Mr. Addai-Sebo. Mr. Addai-Sebo writes……..
…..And to think that this all-important book, NEOCOLONIALISM: The Last Stage of Imperialism, is not a required text in the national curriculum and neither in the departments of economics, politics, political science, history, social sciences, international relations, diplomacy, and business in any of the tertiary institutions in Ghana? Why this self-censorship since the CIA-sponsored state capture on 24th February 1966? Is it the fear of subsequent leaders stepping on the toes of the US and its NATO allies on whom these leaders depend to remain in power? Does the threat of regime change make these leaders comply with the wishes of the metropolis?
And to think also that the universities have had “progressive and Nkrumaist” vice-chancellors, provosts, and department heads who, when in the post, could not affect curriculum changes in order to DECOLONISE academia. Is there a pervading culture of fear in Ghana to mute the conscience of the academics?
The spectacle of Franklin Williams, the US ambassador at the time of the February 1966 coup, supervising the burning of books by Nkrumah on the Achimota School campus remains haunting. And to think that African-American Franklin Williams was a mate of Nkrumah at Lincoln University, Philadelphia?
I must say that Franklin Williams had his comeuppance with me in Washington, D.C., and New York in 1978 at a time when Alex Quaison-Sackey was the Ghana Ambassador. I designed, printed, and distributed posters and handbills with pictures of Franklin Williams and Quaison-Sackey declaring them as TRAITORS OF THE PAN-AFRICAN REVOLUTION AND NKRUMAH. The posters could be found in strategic locations in Washington, D.C., and New York. As I had access to a network of radio and TV stations, I used them effectively to denounce the traitors. I had my own radio show, American Fruit African Roots, on WPFW (Pacifica Radio). I had the nearby walls of the Ghana embassy graffitied and likewise the residence of Quaison-Sackey.
I Saturated the embassy neighborhood opposite Malcolm X Park on 16th Street, N.W. with the TRAITOR posters and also areas around the diplomatic enclave of Foggy Bottom and then Massachusetts Avenue. In New York, the concentration was at the headquarters of the Phelps Stoke Fund where Ambassador Williams worked, and also at the African American Institute. The leaflets and posters explained why Williams and Quaison-Sackey were traitors and must be treated as such.
We had a good network of revolutionary organizations that supported each other. I was then an organizer of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP). ( Bob Brown and Kwame Ture educated me well in the art of picketing and pamphleteering.)
Both Franklin Williams and Quaison-Sackey sought a truce with me through intermediaries but I rejected their approaches.
From Beijing, Nkrumah dispatched Quaison-Sackey to the UN to challenge the credentials of the Ankrah/Kotoka delegation. Quaison-Sackey landed in Accra instead and handed himself over to National Liberation Council (NLC) and the CIA operatives proclaiming “What a fresh breath of air!”
I know that the campaigns I initiated made Quaison-Sackey a non-effective ambassador and also made Franklin Williams a pariah amongst the PanAfrican community and also the Black Caucus as Representative Walter Fauntroy, Mayor Marion Barry, and Randall Robinson of Trans Africa understood the cause I had embarked on.
What is quite disturbing is the fact that in Ghana, it is the very countries who combined their intelligence and security assets to subvert and eventually overthrow the Nkrumah regime who have been rewarded with preferential terms to strip Ghana of its natural resources and exploit also the labor with impunity. The resources and wealth are being extracted mostly by the Americans, British, French, Canadians, Australians, Germans, Norwegians, Israelis, and South Africans.
They combined their interests to overthrow Nkrumah for neocolonialism to remain triumphant in Ghana and elsewhere in PanAfrica. And they have effectively banned Nkrumah or Nkrumaism from being taught and studied in depth in Ghana. And come to think of it why would the US, its NATO allies, and Israel encourage the publication and circulation of the books of Nkrumah? Why would they seek to enrich PANAF Books Ltd, and endow and empower the estate of Nkrumah? This may explain to you why no succeeding regimes since the overthrow of Nkrumah had the courage to support the printing and global circulation of books by Nkrumah and make some required national curriculum texts.
June Milne, in August 2009, sent me to President Attah Mills to put him to the test. On arrival in Accra, an appointment was fixed for me to see the President and I duly presented myself at the Castle. I was received by his Chief of Staff who went to announce me. I was asked to wait. President Attah Mills changed his mind and would not see me. I took an available flight out.
June Milne had thought that President Attah Mills would be receptive to Ghana being the natural home of and for the archives and some personal effects of Nkrumah.
©Addai-Sebo
31 March 2023, Accra
