As well honouring the legacy of the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah this month, we also raise up the name of one his devoted disciples, recently passed into the Ancestral Realm – Bro. Explo Nani-Kofi. In his native Ghana he became the national leader of the Students and Youth Movement for Africa Unity (SMAU) organizing branches around the country as well as being a member the Kwame Nkrumah Revolutionary Guards. Other activties included being the first National Vice President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Coordinator of the Political Education Committee of the Volta Regional Students and Youth Task Force and Regional Coordinator of the Peoples’ Defence Committees. However, his activism brought him into conflict with Flt – Lt J.J. Rawlings’ Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and later National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime to the extent that he had to flee the country 1983 under the threat of death. (1)
He lived in exile in Togo, Czechoslovakia and eventually London where he was a mainstay of the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network), Secretary of the Afrikan United Action Front and Director of the Kilombo Centre for Civil Society and African Self-Determination and editior of the Kilombo Pan African Community Journal and a ubiquitous presence in the Afrikan liberation movement in the UK. He later returned to Ghana where he continued his liberation work, becoming involved in the Pro-Nkrumah Unity Movement and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) of which he said: “The Pro-Nkrumah Unity Movement is on a mission to rebirth the CPP and raise the spirit of the followers of because, if you look at Nkrumah’s vision and principles, it is unmatched throughout Africa.” (2)
We extend sincere condolences to Bro. Explo’s family. At the allotted time, may his spirit rise on the wings of Ma’at after a favourable judgement in the counsel of Asar.
Bro. Explo’s continused activism indicates that he would rather Ghana (and Afrika for that matter) return to the trajectory set in motion by the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah that included economic growth through nationalization and industrialisation, development of the infrastructure and social and educational expansion against the backdrop of internal and external attempts at destabilisation and even acts of terrorism. (3) These efforts to undermine the Nkrumah government came to a head in the CIA/UK aided coup of February 24th 1966. (4) The Ludicrously named National Liberation Council made up of army and police officers that ousted Nkrumah and rolled back gains of independence and prostrated itself before the USA and its allies. (5)
Successive regimes embraced to varying degrees neoliberal policies including privatization and austerity. With the eception of the short-lived administration of Dr. Hilla Limann (which suffered from extensive internal strife) the prevailing political posture was a denunciation of Nkrumah and his policies but whatever the political persuation of the government the 1970s were characterised by steady economic decline. (6)
Limann was ousted in a coup d’etat led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings the Fanon disciple whose populist pronouncements and broad left-wing support was certainly a nod to, if not a full embrace of Nkrumahism. However, his implementation of notorious Structual Adjustment Programmes and ruthless persecution of political opponents, which included the execution of some of his predecessors and then judges destroyed that notion as did his union with the Danquah Busia faction of Ghanaian politics. (7) He targeted leading activists like Akyaaba Addai-Sebo and Explo Nani-Kofi who had to flee for their lives. (8)
Yet Rawlings was able to reinvent himself. He articulated his mission as moral, rather than economic and political to the extent that some substituted his initials to “Junior Jesus.” (9) Yet, as writer Arhin Otoo explains: “Rawlings is the longest serving leader of this country without popular mandate nor a popular document defining the scope of his power.” He essentially placed himself above the law, essentially indemnifying himself from all atrocities committed under his watch. (10)
Nevertheless, Ghana school text books have its founding president presented as a dictator with Rawlings rather more favourably depicted. The evidence, however, suggest outlined above that that it is Jerry John Rawlings that better fits this description in spite of his relinquishing the reigns of power and returning to civilian life. In addition to this he essentially entrenched the neoliberal policies that both main parties the New Patriotic Party(NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) adhere to up to the present. But clearly, he has benefitted from favourable public persona and the general acceptance of these personas, particularly the warmly regarded “political gadfly and elder statesman.” (11)
With Ghana no longer the fountainhead of Pan-Afrikanism that it was under Nkrumah, Ghanaians are looking elsewhere for a flag-bearer and are demonstrably drawn to the likes of Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore who received an “electrifying reception” at the inauguration of President Mahama in January this year. (12)
1) Explo Nani-Kofi (19/06/83) How Explo Nani-Kofi Escaped From Prison. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/5-reasons-the-CIA-might-have-taken-out-Kwame-Nkrumah-1974545
2) Ibid.; Albert Kuzor (09/05/78) C.I.A. Said to Have Aided Plotters Who Overthrew Nkrumah in Ghana. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/09/archives/cia-said-to-have-aided-plotters-who-overthrew-nkrumah-in-ghana.html;
3) Rakesh Rampertab (2001) Kwame Nkrumah: Africa’s “Man of the Millenium.” http://www.guyanaundersiege.com/Leaders/Nkrumah1.htm; Arhin Otoo (05/10/20) Rawlings or Nkrumah: Who was a dictator? https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Rawlings-or-Nkrumah-Who-was-a-dictator-1078102
4) Seymour M. Hersh (08/07/24) CPP honours former Volta Regional Minister on Republic Day. https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/CPP-honours-former-Volta-Regional-Minister-on-Republic-Day-1939390; Mohamed Elmaazi (04/03/24) Top Secret Document Exposes UK Role in Ghana Coup. https://www.declassifieduk.org/top-secret-document-exposes-uk-role-in-ghana-coup/
5) Joseph Arthur Ankrah (24/03/66) Letter From Chairman of the National Liberation Council Lieutenant General Ankrah to President Johnson. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v24/d261
6) Akyaaba Addai-Sebo (11/01/16) President Hilla Limann And I. https://www.modernghana.com/news/667154/president-hilla-limann-and-i.html
7) Jennifer Hart (30/05/19) The complicated political legacy of Jerry Rawlings. https://africasacountry.com/2019/05/the-complicated-political-legacy-of-jerry-rawlings; Jesse Weaver Shipley (24/11/20) The passing of Jerry John Rawlings. https://africasacountry.com/2020/11/the-passing-of-jerry-john-rawlings; Otoo. Op. cit.
8) Noah Anthony Enahoro (27/09/23) Akyaaba Addai-Sebo: the shocking conversation that led him to start UK Black History Month. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/27/akyaaba-addai-sebo-the-shocking-conversation-that-led-him-to-start-uk-black-history-month; Nani-Kofi, Op. cit.
9) Shipley. Op. cit.
10) Otoo. Op. cit
11) Ibid.; Kojo Apeagyei & Gillian Asafu-Adjaye (24/11/20) What do different generations of Ghanaians make of Jerry Rawlings’ legacy? https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2020/11/24/what-do-different-generations-of-ghanaians-make-of-jerry-rawlings-legacy/; Sa’eed Husaini & Gyekye Tanoh (17/03/25) From Nkrumah to neoliberalism. https://africasacountry.com/2025/03/from-nkrumah-to-neoliberalism; Hart. Op. cit.
12) Abayomi Azikiwe (28/12/18) Renewal of Revolutionary Pan-Africanism needed on the continent and globally. https://www.newsghana.com.gh/renewal-of-revolutionary-pan-africanism-needed-on-the-continent-and-globally/; Taofeek Oyedokun (08/01/25) Gun-wielding Burkina Faso’s leader, Ibrahim Traoré, stole the show at Mahama’s inauguration. https://businessday.ng/news/article/gun-wielding-burkina-fasos-military-leader-stole-the-show-at-mahamas-inauguration/
we ask the question:
How has Ghana fared since Nkrumah?
1) Was Nkrumah really a dictator?
2) How do we assess Rawling’s legacy in Ghana?
3) Is neoliberalism now entrenched in Ghana?
4) Is there a new fountainhead of Pan-Afrikanism on the continent?
Our Special Guests:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and an Afrikan-Centred Education Consultant. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 40 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations and Education: An African-Centred Approach To Excellence.
Baba Akyaaba Addai-Sebo: isa long standing Pan-Afrikan activist and is one of the main inspirations of Afrikan Jubilee Year, which spawned the establishment of “Black History Month” in the UK in October 1987. He has also been an independent Consultant on Preventive Diplomacy and Conflict Transformation and Special Envoy of International Alert. He helped to broker peace negotiations between the fighting groups in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Other roles held include consultant to The Listen Charity’s (UK) advocacy and fundraising campaign in support of the exemplary work of expert children’s charities mostly in developing countries. Bro. Addai is presently in Ghana working on a reforestation project to green degraded lands. In November 2022 Baba Akyaaba was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature by School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
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