Kwame Nkrumah

Sep 21, 1909 - (President of first Republic of Ghana) Kwame Nkrumah was
born in a village called Nkroful in the Western Region of Ghana on 21st
September, 1909. He attended the Roman Catholic Primary schools at Half-
Assini.

Kwame Nkrumah was such brilliant boy that you could think of. He complete
his basic education and taught as a pupil teacher.He then went to Achimota
college to be trained as a teacher. Nkrumah continued to study hard in the
training college and worked during his time in college….

KWAME NKRUMAH
(President of first Republic of Ghana) Kwame Nkrumah was born in a
village called Nkroful in the Western Region of Ghana on 21st September,
1909. He attended the Roman Catholic Primary schools at Half-Assini.
Kwame Nkrumah was such brilliant boy that you could think of. He
complete his basic education and taught as a pupil teacher.He then went to
Achimota college to be trained as a teacher. Nkrumah continued to study
hard in the training college and worked during the holidays for "pocket
money"

Nkrumah was a sportsman and he took a great interest in cultural activities

like drumming and dancing. What interest him most ,however, was
speechmaking, therefore he joined the college debating society to improve
his speech. Dr. Kwagyir Aggrey who was the then Assistant Principal of
Achimota College found interest in Nkrumah and thereby their friendship
began. Nkrumah loved Dr Aggrey because he was a great scholar and has
many good ideas. It was from Dr Aggrey that Nkrumah got the idea of going
to America to continue his education. After being trained as a teacher,
Nkkrumah taught in schools in Axim and the nearby villages. Then in 1935,
he went to America and later to Britain to continue his education. He stayed
in America for ten years and in Britain for two years.

Nkrumah attended two Universities in America and he completed his

courses successfully. First, he went to Lincoln University wherehe received
a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics and Sociology, and then degree of
bachelor of theology. Later he went to the university Pensylvania and there
he received the Master of ArtsDegree in Philosophy and the Master of
Science Dergree in Education in that University.

After his education America, many Universities wanted his to teach attheir
institution. He would have earned a lot of money and lived very well but he
did not want to do this. His aim was to gain independent for Ghana and
Africa as a whole. So, Nkrumah chose rather to go to Britain. This was
because there were many African Movement there. This movement were also
making plans to fight for the indenpendence of their countries. Nkrumah
then became part of this movement. He became the secretary to a group of
Africans in Britain who were making plans to have all Europeans colonies
in Africa to gain their independence. Ako Adjei, a friend of Nkrumah who
was in America, came back to Ghana and was one of the founders of United
Gold Coast Convention, which was one of the political parties which was
vying for ruling government. Nkrumah was invited to be a member of the
party and he became the first General Secetary of the party.

NKRUMAH AND INDEPENDENCE OF GHANA

Nkrumah started work as General Secretary of the U.G.C.C in January,
1948. He saw that certain things had to be done. The first thing he did was
to set up an office for the party. One important thingNkrumah did was the
formation of "Shadow Government" (this mean that they would have
secretaries for the various ministers who would be in their future
government). In this way they were preparing for self rule. Nkrumah as the
General Secretary was held at Palladium cinema Hallin in Accra (the
capital of Ghana) on 20th February 1948. It was at this rally that Dr.
Danquah made this statement " If all the leaders of the U.G.C.C fail you
Kwame Nkrumah will never fail you"

Later, Nkrumah saw that the U.G.C.C party was delaying things so he set up
another party called Convention People's Party with their slogan "Action
Now".

In 1957, Ghana achieved internal self government and Ghanaians had more
control over the affairs of the country but they still had to continue with the
struggle to regain full independence. They felt that the British our Colonial
masters were still controlling some affairs in the country which impeded the
development of the country. Aside, there were some disagreement among the
various parties. So thethen Governor ordered Nkrumah to hold another
genral election on 17th July 1956. In this general election, Ghanaians were
given the opportunity to choose either the federal system of government or
the Unitary type, and under this, there were 104 seats. Any party which won
more than half the number of seats was to form the government and lead the
country to gain indenpendence. The results of the elections showed that the
C.P.P thus Nkrumah's party won 72 seats out of 104 seats. The Governor,
therefore, asked Nkrumah to form a government based on the Unitary
system.

The date set for granting full self-governmant for Ghana was 6th March,
1957, this date was chosen because it was the date on which the Bond of
1844 was signed. On lthe 5th March , 1957 there was a General Asembly
for the people of Ghana on the Polo Ground in Accra. At the midnignht of
that day, the British flag was lowered at the National Assembly Hall and
Ghana's flag of Red, Gold and Green with a black Star in the middle was
hoisted.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who was surrounded by his minsters announced the
birth of Ghana to the nation in these words "At long last the battle is ended
and Ghana my beloved is free for ever." On that day Ghana joined the
Commonwealth of Nations and Nkrumah then became the President of the
first Republic of Ghana on 1st July 1960. Due to his good works a
musoleum has been built and named after him where his mortal remains are
kept for tourist attraction Again one of the leading universities in Ghana has
been named after him, thus Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology.

Though Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966 by a military government and

died in 1972, Ghanaians as a whole celebrate his birthday every year .

THE ORIGIN OF GHANA

Ghana is a country in West Africa which shares boundaries with La Cote
d'Ivoire the West , Burkina Faso in the North ,Togo in the East and Gulf of
Guinea in the South . The origin of Ghana can be based on its empire
system , Ghana before independence and Ghana after independence .
Taking them one after the other , the following points can be considered
under the empire system.
Firstly , nobody can tell exactly how the Ghana empire was founded.
Neither is anyone sure about who founded it and when it was founded. It is
well known , however , that the people who founded the empire were the
Soninke. It is believed that the earliest king came from a light-skinned
Soninke family. Forty-four members of this family ruled for over 300 years
before another family took over. The capital of the empire was Kumbi
-Saleh.

Secondly, before a nation can develop , the people must be able to produce
some of their needs. They must also have money to buy those things or
goods which they cannot produce from other country. Fortunately for
Ghana, the land was wet and fertile so they were able to produce all the
food they needed and because of the fertility of the land other people also
joined them and the population grew rapidly. The rulers of old Ghana were
very rich, so they formed a cordial trading with Western Sudan and North
Africa and this trade was called the Trans- Sahara trade. Salt and gold were
the most important items of that trade. The people of Ghana needed the
salt , while their countreparts also wanted the gold. Furthermore, the people
were mostly farmers . The king personally judged cases and had elders
around him and never decided on anything alone.

The capital Kumbi- Saleh was divided into two sections. There was the
Muslim section and non-Muslim section . The kings used the Muslims as
their clerk and tax collectors and life was very peaceful. Besides, the rulers
of the old Ghana ruled over a small area. In 770 A.D , the first ruling family
was overthrown . The Soninke chief of Wagadu, called Kaza- Maghan Sisso,
then became the King of Ghana. It was during his reign that Ghana became
an empire. He formed about 200,000 cavalry army who fought and
conquered ethnic groups and small states. Last but not least, the Ghana
empire did not remain as the richest but made profit from the trade which
had made her very rich . This was because another trading center grew up
in the North of Ghana and this was Audaghost . In 990 A.D, however , the
ruler of Ghana captured Audaghost and became part of Ghana and
unfortunately for Ghana , another problem arose .

By the middle of the eleventh century , a religious movement began in the

Berber region called Almorauid movement and it aims was to spread the
Muslims religion to all areas through Jihad which means Muslims holy
war . The leader of the movement was called Abdul Ibn Yacin. In 1059 ,
when Yacin was killed , Abu Bakr became the new leader. He defeated
Ghana in 1076. In 1203 also Sumanguru defeated Ghana and captured the
capital and the kingdom was controlled by Sumanguru .

In 1240, the Ghana kingdom finally collapsed . It was conqured by Sundiata

who was trying to set up the kingdom of Mali. Ghana became part of Mali
and no longer kingdom by itself. Despite the above, the following can also
be considered\ under Ghana before independence. After the empire Ghana
became one nation and they ruled themselves before the British came in . It
was in 1874 that the British decided to rule instead of trading. They ruled
the country for 83 years before Ghana had her independence through the
help of Kwame Nkrumah . Ghana decided to fight for independence in 1940.
They continued until in August, 1947, that the first political party was
formed , it was ( U.G.C.C) ie United Gold Coast Convertion. This party
tried their best until December 1947 that Kwame Nkrumah was invited to be
the General Secretary. He joined the party and later he was dismissed and
formed his own party called Convertion Peoples Party ( C.P.P.) . The motto
of the party was Self-government - Now. The party struggled very hard and
won an independence for Ghana in 6th March , 1957.

DAGOMBA - THE WARRIORS

Dagombas are the descendants of Gbewa. The state of Dagomba was
founded by a son of Gbewa called Sitobu. Sitobu led his brothers to oppose
the rule of their brother,

Tohogu ,after the death of their father. After the civil war, he moved
southwards with his followers to found the state Dagomba. Since Sitobu had
better weapons, he became the ruler of the local people. His people were
better organised and so they were disciplined and also took orders from
their leaders. They did fear to die in war because they wanted to do what
they were ordered to do.

The Dagombas were good horse riders, so they took that advantage to
defeat the local people because they feared horses. Ya--Na was then the
paramount chief of the Dagombas and the greatest of the early Ya--Na was
Nyagse who lived in Diara, their capital town. This man was the son of
Sitobu, He was a brave soldier who liked fighting and that led him to defeat
his enemies. He made the kingdom very big through wars. Whenever he
defeated any group of people, he killed the local ruler and chose his own
relatives to rule the place.
This allowed the Dagomba people to mix fully with the local people.
Because the Dagombas were the decendants of Gbewa, they regarded
Mamprusu as their home and regarded Gambaga as their spiritual home
.These two places can be found in the northern part of Ghana. The people of
Dagomba played an important role in the trade between Asante to the south
and other people to the north.

They collected taxes from Hausa and Mosi traders who passed to Asante to
buy product such as kola that made the kingdom rich. In addition to this
Dagomba town , Daboya also produced salt and traders came from the
north to buy the salt.

As Gonja became more and more powerful, which made Dagomba people
became worried. During the reign of a Ya--Na, he called Darizigo, the
Dagomba kingdom was attacked by the ruler of Gonja, called Ndewura
Jakpa, Daboya was captured from Dagomba ruler. Then the Ya -Na, had to
move his capital from Dira to Yendi to prevent the Gonjas from capturing
that place too.

During the reign of Azigeria, Dagomba gained its freedom from Gonja, but
unfortunately, for them the freedom lasted for only a short period. By 1746,
Dagomba was defeated by Asante. Yendi was captured and the Ya-Na was
forced to pay tribute to Asante every year until 1874.

This history by the Dagomba's has reflected on their present lives that is to
say, because they mixed with the people and other tribes it has made them
ver popular in the country in the following ways.

Firstly, the title of the paramount chief Ya-Na has been given to one of our
Armour cars in Ghana and this has increased the morale of the Dagombas.
Out of about 49 languages in Ghana only 7 have been considered as the
major languages in Ghana and News are read in Dagomba on radios and
some programs on the Ghana.Television, which is a great achievement
because not all the languages are used on the media.

Thirdly, they strove to achieve something which was the practice of their
ancestors who put in maximum effort to get better place to live and
presently, they have tried to acquire large area of land at the Northern
region of Ghana. They have big farms and other things and because they
were disciplined the Dagombas comport themselves in what ever they do.
Once again the Dagombas have been given high positions in the country
e.g. members of parliament, teachers, doctors just to mention a few. Despite
the fact that they are disciplined they are domineering and like fighting. If
you hear the Dagombas fighting with other tribes it is because of land just
as their early fathers were doing.

This country Ghana has so many natural forest around. Some are found in
the village and others are found in the city to attract viewers.

One of the most decorated forest is the Kakum National Park, Cape Coast.
The name Kakum was derived from a name of a village called Kakum near
the park where I come from. This park is the biggest and the most beautiful
National park with a walk way and is one of the three’s in Africa.

It was established in May 5th 1995. This virgin forest has a natural canopy
walk with summer houses. People come from outside Ghana to look at the
Canopy walk. It has a very beautiful and most decorated garden, a store
with a restaurant . From the restaurant to the forest, you first climb a small
hill to theforest. From there, there are two paths ahead of you which direct
you to places.

The path directing to the right hand side leads to Cape Coast where by the
straight path also leads to a bridge. There are small summer houses with
four (seats between every bridge. The bridges are seven having different
heights . The height start from 40m, followed by 43m continuously, till you
reach the last height 73m. When viewers want to walk on these bridges,
leaders give black necklaces each and everyone to wear for identification .
These bridges are being supported by ropes which is tightened by two big
trees.Small woods are also lied in the bridge to walk on. With this the
bridges are able to shake while walking on it so they are allowed to walk on
it one after the other to prevent any incidence on that. The interesting thing
in this forest is that leaders have time to explain to viewers why some
animals are not seen in the forest and this is due to the height of the canopy
but some animals like monkeys, snakes ,tortoise and the rest can be seen at
places near the road side..

This is the end of the brief story on the virgin forest Kakum National Park.

YAA ASANTEWAA (THE QUEENMOTHER OF EJISU)

Yaa Asantewaa was an Ashanti born in 1863 and the Queen Mother of
Ejisu. Ejisu is a town in Ashanti Region the second largest city in Ghana
.It’s population is about one million, because of the workers in Kumasi are
staying there. It is a historic town.

During the reign of Yaa Asantewaa the British were giving troubles to the
Ashantis. She decided to join the men of Ashanti to fight the British. A time
came when the British arrested the Asantehene ,Nana Prempeh1 and many
of his important chiefs. They took them to a place called the Seychelles
island. It is near East Africa on the world map. As there were no chief left to
lead the Ashantis, Yaa Asantewaa led the Ashanti army to fight the British
army. She was a brave woman. she and her army fought well, but were
defeated by the British .

After their defeat, the British arrested her to the Seychelles island where she
died in 1923. Meaning she was 40 years when she died. Yaa Asantewaa as
the Ashantis know her to be did well to stand against the British and fight
them. They therefore mention her name always. They’ve also composed a
song for her. She is also known to be the only Queen Mother, who has gone
to the battle field. Due to her bravery one of the biggest Secondary schools
in Ghana has been named after her. The school ‘s name is Yaa Asantewaa
Secondary School which also takes part in the iearn projects and it’s e mail
address is yaags@yaags.wordgh.net.

HOW THE ‘ MMOA- NNI- NKO ‘ FESTIVAL CAME

ABOUT.
The " MMOA-NNI -NKO’ festival is being celebrated by the people of
Offinso a district in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. When the first king Nana
Dwamena Akenten died, he was being succeded by Nana Wiafe Akeneten. It
was tthis king who chose land instead of gold and silverr among the booty
which was cuptured in the 2nd Dormaa War when the same was being
shared at Bechem.Nana Wiafe Akenten was sitting down quietly and
unconcerned and when he was asked what he want, his repply was "MMOA-
NNI-NKO" and when he was asked to explain it, he told them that it was
"LAND" so Nana Osie Tutu the king of Ashanti told him to take any portion
of land which had been conquered. As a result of the king’s achievement, the
stool land of Offinso is very large and so the people of the above mentioned
town celebrate this as festival to remember the king’s achievement.
 THE HISTORY OF ABOAKYERE FESTIVAL (DEER
HUNTING)
Winneba is a town in the Central Region of Ghana. It is near the coast and
has a nice beach. The population is about 1,000.000 It's Akan name is
Simpa. The people of Simpa or Winneba come from Efutu and are also
known as Guans. So they are among the first settlers in Ghana. They settled
at Simpa before Fantes came to Mankesem. Even the people of Bereku and
Ewutu came to meet them in Ghana. Moreover the people of Simpa can be
traced backwards to link the Akuapems. Aboakyere is the second important
festival in Simpa. Aboakyere festival is over 600 years which is celebrated to
pacify a god known as Penkye Otu. At first, human beings were used as
sacrifice, but because of the scarcity of human beings, leopards replace
that. As time went on, it was noticed that, in the course of catching a live
leopard, a lot of lives were lost, so they again ordered the use of stag (Deer)
in place of the leopard. At first the Deer was being caught alive hence the
animal catch ,the name Aboakyere. Some magic and rituals were performed
in the alleged habitat of the animal to weaken its strength. This has become
an important festival at Winneba and in the whole nation as well which
attracts many tourist . It is celebrated annually and this is how the festival
came about. Aboakyere festival is great because the people of Simpa
celebrate it in remembrance of their victory over their enemies As history
has it, the warriors of Simpa were returning home after a battle and
encountered a rock that was in flames. This mysterious rock started hopping
and swerving from left to right. Immediately, they made some rituals which
calmed the hopping rock down. they took it with them home and named it
"Tutu" meaning the 'eye that dispels enemies.' Later it was named "Penkye
Tutu" and this name exist presently. There are two teams of Simpa namely,
"Twafo and Dentsifo" Due to the competitive hunting of the deer each team
tries to weaken the strength of the other by performing some rituals and also
the wearing of talisman by each member. but nowadays due to something
these have ceased.. Some changes have taken place in some of the activities
the deer hunting. for instance at first the deer was caught in the wilderness
but now they are caught at any vantage point, that is, may be in the
wilderness or anywhere.