A Kind of Homecoming
Page 28
Let me now come back to the party. It is most important to remember that the strength of the Convention People’s Party derives from the masses of the people.
These men and women include those whom I have constantly referred to as the unknown warriors—dedicated men and women who served the party loyally and selflessly without hoping for reward.
It is therefore natural for the masses to feel some resentment when they see comrades whom they have put into power and given the mandate to serve the country on their behalf, begin to forget themselves and indulge in ostentatious living.
High party officials, ministers, ministerial secretaries, chairmen of statutory boards and corporations must for ever bear this in mind. Some of us very easily forget that we ourselves have risen from amongst the masses.
We must avoid any conduct that will breed antagonism and uneasy relations. Let us always keep in mind the fact that constant examination and correction are necessary for maintaining the solidarity of the party.
The aim of all corrections, however, must be to build and not to destroy. The central committee proposes to issue instructions shortly on the duties and rights of party members.
Finally, I wish to state that in considering remedial measures, I have found it necessary to direct that a limit be imposed on property acquisition by ministers, party officials and ministerial secretaries in order to enable them to conform to the modest and simple way of life demanded by the ideals and principles of the Convention People’s Party.
Countrymen: Our mission to Ghana and to Africa and the unique personality of our party as a vanguard of the African Liberation Movement, impose upon us an increasing responsibility, not only to set our own house in order, but also to set very high standards from which all who seek to emulate us shall draw devotion and inspiration in their own struggles.
I wish you all good luck and a good week-end.
“Well, what do you think?” Josh asked me. He had sat smoking as I read.
“In my opinion, any leader who makes statements and demands such as these, must himself be free of any taint or suggestion of complicity in similar pursuits,” I replied.
“Right. No one can point a finger of accusation at the Osagyefo.”
“Cannot or dare not?” I asked.
“Cannot! The Osagyefo has no personal fortune or financial interests, because his needs are provided for by the party. But personally, he lives very simply and neither smokes nor drinks. As you rightly said, only a man who himself leads an exemplary life would dare make such a broadcast.”
“What do you expect the reaction to be among the officials at whom this is aimed?”
“Something in the nature of a ‘thunderbolt in the great hall’. Some big heads are likely to roll. Man, I could name names. The Osagyefo has not made a single unfounded claim. Lots of officials have been blatantly misusing their position in every conceivable way, and it’s high time some action was taken. The rank-and-file of the party has begun to grumble, and the matter has been raised at several study groups recently.”
“Study groups?”
“Oh yes, it’s part of our party structure, so that activists and others can keep abreast of Socialist thought and information.”
I’d heard the same thing in Guinea.
“Let’s walk down to the market and listen to what people are saying about this broadcast,” he suggested. On our way he asked, “I wonder what the international press is going to make of it. They’re sure to see something ulterior behind it, some weakening of the Osagyefo’s personal or political influence. It’s as if they deliberately refuse to see the truth.”
“Do you mind if I ask you a straight question?”
“Of course not—go ahead.”
“Time and again in his broadcast the President made reference to Ghana’s mission in the ‘vanguard of the African Liberation Movement’. Does this not seem to be an expression of hope or ambition to leadership beyond the national scene?”
“It does not. It merely emphasizes our responsibility to the cause of freedom—beyond our own requirements. It indicates of identification with all people engaged in the struggle for freedom. We in Ghana believe that the eventual salvation of individual African States can only come from the unity of the whole African continent. Without it the imperialists would still have plenty of opportunity to perpetuate economic dependence and racial discrimination among us.”
This was familiar ground to him, and he spoke with the assurance of the believer. “But, even as Ghana has found her own way and is plotting her own course towards economic development and eventual solvency, other African States, especially the newly independent ones, may wish to engineer their own destinies, and might resent your attempts at either preaching or teaching them, not matter how plausible or acceptable your doctrines might appear to be.
“It is not a Ghanaian doctrine. It is a simple truism, obvious to any but those who wish to enslave us. Recently the Osagyefo stated that the idea of the desirability of a Union of African States, or republics, was, in principle, acceptable to all leaders and political movements in Africa. Gradually there will be a development forward to examine ways and means. It is inevitable.”
We were now among the market crowds. Here and there I caught the word “Osagyefo”, but most of the conversations were in the national language or some associated dialect. From Josh’s pleased appearance I guessed that whatever he overheard mainly pleased him.
Later he said, “The reaction will set in later, probably next week, after the big boys have had an opportunity to digest the broadcast and evaluate their own positions.”
“Suppose they got together and decide to resist?” I asked.
He seemed amused at the very idea. “Resist whom? The Osagyefo was not speaking on behalf of President Nkrumah, he was speaking on behalf of more than four and a half million people, and he was speaking on behalf of the Government and the party. They would resist at their peril.”
He left me at my hotel after we had agreed to make a big night of it, my last night in Ghana. The newsboys were doing a brisk trade among the guests in the hotel lounge and veranda, and there was undoubtedly a great deal of interest in the broadcast. I retired to my room to write, as I wanted to make some verbatim extracts from the broadcast.
That night I’ll long remember. First we went to a small party, where I ate large helpings of local food and met several Guianese, who were now working in Ghana. Some of them were boyhood friends of mine, and it was wonderful to have a reunion so far from home, but in such pleasant circumstances.
Afterwards we again did the rounds. I drank very little, but something deep within me seemed to have opened up to absorb all it could of the people, the sounds, the colour, of Ghana. In just a week I had seen very little, yet enough to convince me of the enormous potential which can emerge from a willingness to work and a belief in one’s destiny. There was much I did not understand, but judging on the evidence of things seen and heard, there was a great deal I could and did admire. Before parting, Josh and I drank a small toast to what had been for me a wonderful, wonderful experience—a kind of homecoming.
Illustrations
The author
House building in Conakry, Guinea
Sierra Leone’s oldest woman Paramount Chief, with her staff bearer
On trek in Sierra Leone with the Paramount Chief of Kenema
Young wives in a chief’s compound in Boajibo
Dancing girls of the Bundu secret society
A village girl at Kabala, Sierra Leone
Living quarters in Kabala village
Freetown: the Labour Bureau and a roadside tailor and customers
Village women of the Kenema district washing in a stream
Bundu novitiates give a dancing display
Ghanaian market mammies
The Co-operative Hall, Accra, Ghana
&
nbsp; The Ducor Palace Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia
About the Author
E. R. Braithwaite was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1912. Educated at the City College of New York and the University of Cambridge, he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Braithwaite spent 1950 to 1960 in London, first as a schoolteacher and then as a welfare worker—experiences he described in To Sir, With Love and Paid Servant, respectively. In 1966 he was appointed Guyana’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. He also held positions at the World Veterans Federation and UNESCO, was a professor of English at New York University’s Institute for Afro-American Affairs, taught creative writing at Howard University, and was the author of five nonfiction books and two novels. He passed away in 2016 at the age of 104.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 1962 by E. R. Braithwaite
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN 978-1-4804-5738-6
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
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E. R. BRAITHWAITE
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