What a shame indeed and what hypocrisy.
J.Joh
-----Original Message-----
From: Kabir Njaay <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 2:31 pm
Subject: Fwd: Pan-African Postcard - THE PASSING OF NKRUMAH'S WIDOW
Pan-African PostcardÂ
Â
THE PASSING OF NKRUMAH'S WIDOWÂ
Â
Tajudeen Abdul-RaheemÂ
Â
The widow of Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Fatiha, passed away last week inÂ
Cairo, her home town, where she had been living for most of the yearsÂ
since Nkrumah's over throw in February 1966.Â
Â
As to be expected all kinds of tributes have been pouring out fromÂ
all kinds of corners including people and institutions who have neverÂ
really cared what became of her and her three children (Gamal, SekouÂ
and Samia) since Nkrumah died. Many of these conspicuous mourners didÂ
not even realize that Madam Fatiha was still alive all these years.Â
Â
The worst of these hypocrites is always government. Those in powerÂ
have the power, if the will was there to have honoured Madam Fatima,Â
recognized her and provided for her and her family. But shamelesslyÂ
successive Ghanaian governments, at best pursued a policy of benignÂ
neglect or even outright hostility or opportunistic association andÂ
gestures towards the family. This is not because Madam Fatiha hasÂ
lived outside of Ghana because the same treatment was experienced byÂ
the oldest of the children,, Dr Francis Nkrumah (the first son ofÂ
Nkrumah , from his Ghanaian first wife) or Sekou (Fatiha's secondÂ
son) who both live in Accra. This shameful conduct includedÂ
governments and regimes that claim to be political heirs of Nkrumah.Â
Â
The government of Ghana immediately announced that it will provide aÂ
state funeral befitting a former first lady of Ghana (indeed the veryÂ
first!) but of what benefit is this post humus honour when she wasÂ
neglected while she was alive? It is part of that African hypocrisyÂ
that suddenly transforms a dead person into the friend of everyoneÂ
around with no body willing to say anything negative about theÂ
departed. Some of this is actually due to guilt. We tend to overÂ
compensate by making all kinds of commitments and all manner ofÂ
gestures immediately after the death of someone close or publicÂ
figures. However the guilt soon subsides and life continues very muchÂ
as before with the loved ones left behind to pick up the pieces, asÂ
they must. Tears of some of the politically correct mourners go dryÂ
as soon as the TV cameras are turned off.Â
Â
The way we treat the family of our national and Pan Africanist heroesÂ
cannot inspire commitment and confidence that devotion to AfricaÂ
meant anything. As with all committed, genuinely committed (not theÂ
convenient foot lose opportunists that are so common these days),Â
their families suffer: absent fathers and husbands. The children growÂ
up feeling victimized by 'struggle' and after the hero have gone orÂ
is no longer in power the family might as well have been dead.Â
Â
Nkrumah, even his worst critics, will agree, was completely devotedÂ
to the cause of liberating Africa. It was not for him building ofÂ
personal mansions or having secret accounts all over the world. TheÂ
struggle was everything. Madam Fatiha was much younger than theÂ
Osagyefo when he married her in a matrimonial union that typifiedÂ
Nkrumah's refusal to accept the Saharan divide of Africa. The threeÂ
children they had together were all toddlers when Nkrumah wasÂ
overthrown, and they were only young teenagers when Nkrumah passedÂ
away in 1972. Fatiha herself was barely in her mid 30s. No husband,Â
no father and no state provisions the family had to survive on goodÂ
will sometimes of kind strangers who never met Nkrumah but treasuredÂ
his contribution to our liberation. They could not live in Ghana butÂ
thanks to President Gamal Abdul Nasser (after whom Fatiha's firstÂ
son, Gamal Gorkeh, was named) the family had been given a befittingÂ
home by the banks of the Nile. That house progressively becameÂ
damaged due to lack of maintenance support since the family could notÂ
afford to maintain such a modest stately building.Â
Â
The Ghana for which Nkrumah laboured and the Africa he toiled forÂ
simply ignored his family.Â
Â
It is an insult to now be shedding crocodile tears at the passing ofÂ
his widow. It is an insult to the family to be offering state funeralÂ
to a person that was largely ignored in her life by the same stateÂ
that is now leading the mourning. The same Ghanaian state showedÂ
similar hypocrisy when Nkrumah passed away in exile in Conakry andÂ
demanded and later brought Nkrumah's body to Ghana for StateÂ
reburial! The embalmed body was for many years left to deteriorate inÂ
his village of Nkroful before shame and political expediency andÂ
influence of Nkrumahists in his administration forced Rawlings toÂ
accept a Mausoleum for Nkrumah in central Accra. Even then most ofÂ
the money came from Gaddafi!Â
Â
The spirit of Nkrumah continues to wonder and I hope it continues toÂ
haunt all the opportunists, ideological parasites and politicalÂ
saprophytes who continue to use Nkrumah's name in vain. It shouldÂ
shame us into honouring our heroes and heroines both in life and inÂ
death especially the widow and children they leave behind. AskÂ
yourself how many more widows like Madam Fatiha are abandoned toÂ
penury across Africa? This bitter experience is even making many ofÂ
our corrupt leaders to believe that whatever the volume of our assetsÂ
they are looting now is a kind of insurance for their family againstÂ
an uncertain future.Â
Â
In this fiftieth year of Ghana's independence and the inspiration forÂ
the independence of the rest of Africa we should assuage Nkrumah'sÂ
wondering spirit by doing right by his family, not by state burial toÂ
his widow but by Ghana's government first repaying back all theÂ
entitlements due to them by way of gratuity to their father,Â
refurbishing and handing over their family home in Accra and settingÂ
up a proper trustee body to look after, maintain and supervise theÂ
Nkrumah Musoleum in Accra. Then the rest of us can honour Nkrumah theÂ
best way we can. But Ghana has to lead in atoning for these wrongs.Â
Â
* Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is the deputy director of the UN MillenniumÂ
Campaign in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He writes this articleÂ
in his personal capacity as a concerned pan-Africanist.Â
Â
* Please send comments to [log in to unmask] or comment online atÂ
http://www.pambazuka.orgÂ
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