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FREEDOMWAYS   THIRD QUARTER 1972

of "All African Peoples." It is a fact that every African who since that time has emerged as a leader of his people was in Accra that week, including Patrice Lumumba,, Julius Nyerere, Tom M'Boya, Kenneth Kaunda and masked Freedom Fighters from South Africa, Portuguese Angola and Mozambique.
The latter part of the week I was taken by an Afro-American professor to Ghana University, on the outskirts of Accra. Here I encountered open hostility to the Conference-and heard the accusation that it was just "a communist get-together"! I was amazed until I learned that most of the teachers in that University were from South Africa!
On July 1, 1960, Ghana became a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah was inaugurated the Republic's first President. My husband and I were in the country when, ten days later, all relations with South Africa were cut off--planes and ships going or coming from South Africa could not stop at Ghana and all South Africans in the country were given a certain number of days to sign an affidavit condemning apartheid or leave the country. That same week full diplomatic relations were established with the Peoples Republic of China and Ghanaian and Chinese Ambassadors were exchanged. 
The first project into which I was drawn was the remaking of schoolbooks. British colonials had little interest in schools for "natives," but there were mission schools of various creeds. All of them charged a fee, depending on how poor or how affluent the Church happened to be--all copied the British style of uniform, which had to be bought. This meant, of course, that the masses of children were not in school at all, and except for children of civil servants, affluent chiefs or traders, who found favor in the eyes of the white rulers, few continued into what were called secondary schools. (The very few university students were sons of the "elite" being trained by the British to help them rule the Colony.)
Free education of every child in Ghana was Nkrumah's idea. And immediately construction of schools began all over the country. There was the problem of finding teachers; even before that was solved came the necessity of rewriting text books. Books being used in the schools had been sent out from Great Britain and, from first to last, were for creating loyal subjects of the British crown. These books sought to instill in every "native" the desire to be as good an "Englishman" as he could! Thus the missionaries taught little Africans to sing: "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow"! (Snow never falls in Ghana.) All illustrations in the books were of 

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NKRUMAH: AFRICAN LIBERATOR  S. DU BOIS

white children, dressed for England and doing the things an English child would do. Thus, a smart little fellow in Accra might well recite the names of all the kings and queens of England beginning with King Arthur, could trace the course of the Thames and describe the landscape of Scotland, but he would know nothing about Ashanti kings, the kings of ancient Ghana or Mali, nor would he know the course of the Volta or Congo Rivers or the countries bordering on Ghana. The Black student in Ghana was taught to imitate the marching of red-coated British soldiers and to look forward to celebrating the Queen's birthday!
We set about changing all this. Two excellent Afro-American artists had arrived in the country. One was engaged to make drawings for our new school books; the other was soon teaching Ghanaians to see themselves and to draw themselves with truth and beauty. Construction of a publishing plant began; Ghanaians were sent to Germany--where books in Europe were first printed--to learn the skill of printing. When, early in 1964, Ghana's National Publishing House opened it was certainly the most modern, best equipped such plant on the continent of Africa and one of the finest to be seen anywhere. Yes, Kwame Nkrumah spent money--the people's money--to build for the people. Nor were they impoverished during these efforts. Ghana is rich in natural resources. There were those who complained when they could no longer buy South African apples, pears and grapes. But an abundance of fruit hung from the trees in Ghana--and pineapples grew almost wild along the roadsides.
In May, 1963, Nkrumah's Africa Must Unite was introduced at the First African Summit Conference which met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This book surveyed the plentiful and widespread rich resources of the continent and emphasized what combining all would mean for strength and power. Africa Must Unite was seized upon with avid interest. It increased and inspired liberation movements throughout the continent and evoked consternation among colonial powers. That book, coupled with his later Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, decided western powers that Nkrumah must go! They recognized him as their implacable and most dangerous opponent--incorruptible and magnetic. And so the coup in February, 1966--one month after the Volta River Project had been inaugurated--the project designed to bring economic independence to Ghana. And it must be noted that total economic independence of any part of Africa rings the death knell for foreign control.
In nearly thirty years of turbulent but enviable public life, Kwame

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