‘A Weak Weekly look at the Week’ – Ghana

It’s that time again: A Weak Weekly Look at the Week.  Becoz yous need edookatein, innit. 

Political History

Ghana became the first country in Africa south of the Sahara to gain independence from colonial rule, in March 1957.  Previously a British crown colony know simply as the ‘Gold Coast’, the name Ghana is derived from the French ‘Guinoye’, and meaning “Warrior King”. 

Although political organisations had existed in under colonialisation, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was the first nationalist movement with the aim of self-government (“in the shortest possible time”).  Founded in August 1947, this was a predominantly middle-class movement led by a few educated Africans – J.B. Danquah, A.G. Grant, R.A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo Addo (all lawyers except for Grant, who was a wealthy businessman).  As such, the leadership of the organisation called for the replacement of chiefs on the Legislative Council with educated local persons, believing it was their responsibility to first prepare their country into a new age. Their opposition to the colonial administration notwithstanding, UGCC members were conservative, not seeking directly democratic or revolutionary change. This was most probably a result of their training in the British way of doing things: a gentlemanly manner denoted their politics.  But this was to change with Kwame Nkrumah’s creation of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in June 1949. 

Nkrumah’s previous tenure within the UGCC was a stormy one. In March 1948, he was arrested and detained with other leaders of the UGCC for political activism. Later, after the other members of the UGCC were invited to make recommendations to the Coussey Committee, which was advising the governor on the path to independence, Nkrumah broke with the UGCC and founded the CPP. Unlike the UGCC call for self- government “in the shortest possible time,” Nkrumah and the CPP asked for “self-government now.” The party leadership, made up of Nkrumah, Kojo Botsio, Komla A. Gbedemah, and a group of mostly young political professionals known as the “Verandah Boys,” identified itself more with ordinary working people than with the UGCC and its intelligentsia.

A growing number of uneducated but urbanized industrial workers were drawn to support the party. Nkrumah was able to appeal to these people on their own terms, unlike the UGCC. By June 1949, when the CPP was formed with the avowed purpose of seeking immediate self-governance, Nkrumah had a mass following.

With increasing popular backing, the CPP in early 1950 initiated a campaign of “positive action,” intended to instigate widespread strikes and nonviolent resistance. When some violent disorders occurred, Nkrumah, along with his principal lieutenants, was promptly arrested and imprisoned for sedition. But this merely increased his prestige as leader and hero of the cause and gave him the status of martyr. In February 1951, the first elections were held for the Legislative Assembly under the new constitution. Nkrumah, still in jail, won a seat, and the CPP won an impressive victory with a two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.

In 1952 the position of Prime Minister was created and the Executive Council became the cabinet. The prime minister was made responsible to the assembly, which duly elected Nkrumah prime minister. The constitution of 1954 ended the election of assembly members by the tribal councils.

The CPP pursued a policy of political centralization, which encountered serious opposition. Shortly after the 1954 election, a new party, the Asante-based National Liberation Movement (NLM), was formed. The NLM advocated a federal form of government, with increased powers for the various regions. NLM leaders criticized the CPP for perceived dictatorial tendencies. The new party worked in cooperation with another regionalist group, the Northern People’s Party. When these two regional parties walked out of discussions on a new constitution, the CPP feared that London might consider such disunity an indication that the colony was not yet ready for the next phase of self-government.

The British constitutional adviser, however, backed the CPP position. The governor dissolved the assembly in order to test popular support for the CPP demand for immediate independence. The crown agreed to grant independence if so requested by a two-thirds majority of the new legislature. New elections were held in July 1956. In keenly contested elections, the CPP won 57 percent of the votes cast, but the fragmentation of the opposition gave the CPP every seat in the south as well as enough seats in Asante, the Northern Territories, and the Trans-Volta Region to hold a two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.

NEWS

Obama Flies In:  US President Barack Obama gave the first speech of his presidency directly relating to international development to the Ghanaian Parliament in Accra last Friday.  Ghana was deliberately chosen as the site for the visit – snubbing Obama’s father’s homeland of Kenya – following the successful presidential elections of 2008 which saw the fair and peaceful transfer of power from the New Patriotic Party to current President John Atta-Mills of the NDP.  Here are a few key excerpts from speech – feel free to have at it and debate them on the thread.

“Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans.”

“As Africans reach for this promise, America will be more responsible in extending our hand. By cutting costs that go to Western consultants and administration, we will put more resources in the hands of those who need it, while training people to do more for themselves. That is why our $3.5bn food security initiative is focused on new methods and technologies for farmers – not simply sending American producers or goods to Africa. Aid is not an end in itself. The purpose of foreign assistance must be creating the conditions where it is no longer needed.”

“Now let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at war. But for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources. And it is still far too easy for those without conscience to manipulate whole communities into fighting among faiths and tribes.  These conflicts are a millstone around Africa’s neck. We all have many identities – of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st Century. Africa’s diversity should be a source of strength, not a cause for division.”

Oil:    After decades of casting jealous looks at its oil rich-neighbours, the taps of Ghana’s very own oil boom are about to open. Its offshore oil wells are set to start pumping in 2010, with predictions that they could eventually produce some 10 billions barrels of oil. GNPC (the Ghana National Petroleum Company) has already entered into a joint agreement with a number of foreign oil companies to help extract and deliver the oil. Just down the coast lies the rich oil region of the Nigerian Delta, one of the most dangerous parts of West Africa.  “There are a million lessons that Ghana can learn from Nigeria,” says Duncan Clarke, an oil expert at Global Pacific & Partners.  “From the parking of oil funds abroad, to the direct plundering of state resources and simple corruption, Ghana has plenty of things to avoid,” he says.

Off-setting:    At the other end of the scale, ambitious plans to grow 24 million trees to soak up carbon dioxide and restore the rainforest have got underway.  The first million seedlings are being planted in a pilot scheme in an area that has been heavily logged in recent years. It comes amid mounting concern about the impact of deforestation on climate change – a major theme at this December’s UN conference in Copenhagen.  Ghana has lost an estimated four-fifths of its rainforest in the past 50 years and tropical deforestation globally is estimated to contribute nearly one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions.

ArborCarb, a British firm, is behind the reforestation project. It hopes that by growing the trees, and locking up the carbon inside them, it will be able to sell carbon credits. However, ForestWatch Ghana, a coalition of more than 30 non-governmental organisations, criticises the basic principle of carbon offsetting.  The coalition’s co-ordinator, Kingsley Bekoe Ansah, said simply “it feels fundamentally wrong…  The developed world has had the benefits of industrialisation and now wants to shift the burden of responsibility onto the poor communities.”

And Finally:    Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko retained his IBF bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Armenian-born Australian Vic Darchinyan in Florida on Saturday.   Solid rights to the head eventually opened cuts above both of Darchinyan’s eyes, and two judges scored the fight 114-113, while a third had it 116-111.