Saturday, June 13, 2009

Ghana, Nkrumah (continued)

On 19, 23, and 27 April !960, a Presidential election and plbiscite on the constitution were held.The constitution was ratified and nkrumah was elected presidentdefeating his rivalJ.B.Danquah, a UP candidate.
Nkrumah laid the foundation stones of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute created to train Ghnaian civil servants as well as to promote Pan-Afrcanism.
In 1963 , Nkrumah was awardedthe Lenin Peace prize by the Soviet Union . Ghana became a charter member of the organisation of African Unity in 1963.
The Gold coast had been among the wealthiest and most socially advanced areas in Africa, with schools, railways, hospitals, social security and an advanced economy.
nkrumah ,generally , took a non-aligned Marxist Perspective on economics, and believed capitalism had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time.In 1967 he wrote in his essay "African Socialism Revisited,"
We postulate each man to be an end in himself, not merely a means ,and we accept the necessity of guaranteering each man equal opportunities for his development. The implication of this socio-political practicehave to be worked out scientifically, and the necessary social and economic policies pursued with resolution. Any meaningful humanismmust begin from egalitarianism and must lead to objectively chosen policies for safeguardingand sustaining egalitarianism,. Hence socialism, hence , also, scientific socialism.
Billboard in Zabia with Nkrumah's non-alignment guote. We face neither east nor West, We face forward. ( Taken inb May 2005)