Nkrumah Relies On The Stars

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31004, 9 March 1966, Page 20

Nkrumah Relies On The Stars

How happy the people of Ghana must be—and how unhappy one must be ... for Dr. Nkrumah is a very’ superstitious man.

Nkrumah relies a great deal on the reading of the stars, even to the extent of being —one day—advised to marry a woman from Egypt—which he did.

Recent events make one wonder whether the astrologer got his stars crossed or did Nkrumah disregard his predictions. This we may probably never know. As long as five years ago, when I first stayed with friends in Kumasi, some 75 miles north of Accra, the atmosphere was very similar to that prevailing in Hitler’s Germany just prior to the war. Opinions dared not be given freely. I remember the difficulty I had in obtaining an interview with Joe Appia, who had married Sir Stafford Cripp’s daughter, Peggy. Of short stature, and with a somewhat fanatical manner. Joe Appia always carried a walking stick which sheathed a dagger-like weapon. At that time he was* one of the leaders of the Opposition and cherished a belief that, because his wife was English, he would be one of the last to find himself in gaol. SECURED INTERVIEW Somehow I managed to get my interview with him recorded on tape. There were two very distinct sides to his outlook, on the one hand fear of being overheard, distrust of the telephone and his servants—even of his friends; on the other his strong conviction that his party would shortly overthrow Nkrumah. I knew my interview was not a wise move. People had disappeared for less than that, so I lost no time in transcribing my tape, burning it and getting my story away. Nkrumah, under the pre-

text of training boys for agricultural work, inaugurated the Boys Brigade. These youths were brought up much as Hitler’s “Brown Shirts.” Whenever Nkrumah travelled to make a speech these lads were crowded into local transport buses commandeered for the occasion, and told to make a good show of clapping and cheering. Similarly at Opposition meetings they were sent to boo, throw bottles and create general chaos. What agricultural learning they ever acquired is unknown. “FRIGHTENED MAN Like all dictators, Nkrumah was basically a frightened man. With a sense of power in his hands he lost sight and control of anything good and so began his _pra of indiscriminate killing, gaoling and suppression. It was soon an everyday event for people to disappear with no questions asked. Nkrumah was a man of contrast. One day he would be at Westminster Abbey; on another he might be bathing his feet in the blood of a freshly killed animal; sometimes he would be dressed western style, at other times he might be wearing his native cloth. He disliked his official residence, Christianbourg Castle, and much preferred his own simple residence. In spite of so much fear a few amusing things did take place. One morning the town of Accra woke up to find signs painted up around a newly-made roundabout which read: —“Kwame Nkrumah’s Circus” —This aping of London’s Piccadilly Circus had produced a ridiculous image and was quickly removed. Ghana is a country of startling contrasts. There is the outward structure of modernity in new dams and powerhouses; there is the medievalism of Nkrumah’s

government gaoling its Opposition members wholesale; there is the plain savagry and pathetic primitiveness of the outlying bush tribes. There is the juju for which every person in Ghana, Nkrumah included, has a mighty respect. There is a juju for everything—jujus to make you strong, to protect you in! war, to bring about your 1 dearest wish, and so on. These are made by the village marabout (the witchcraft expert). He sews into small pouches pieces of hair, drops of blood or mystic words on paper. While he sews he chants. The buyer of these jujus wears them tied round his arm or his waist, or they can be worn as a necklace. One now wonders what will happen next. Will the destooled King of Ashanti, now an elderly man respectfully called Nana, try to struggle back to a throne? Who knows; but whatever develops nothing could be more fearsome for the Ghanaians than was Nkrumah’s rule over them.

The article was written specially for “The Press” by Dr. Wendy Carnegie, now oj Christchurch, who recently spent nine months in West Africa.