Rev Left Radio - [BEST OF] Kwame Nkrumah: The Great Pan-African Revolutionary Leader of Ghana

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Nicholas Richard-Thompson and Tunde Osazua from the Black Alliance for Peace join Breht to examine the life and legacy of Kwame Nkrumah—anti-colonial revolutionary, Pan-African visionary, and the first president of an independent Ghana. From leading the charge against British colonial rule to his bold attempts to unify the African continent under a socialist banner, Nkrumah’s story is one of profound courage, political brilliance, and unfinished dreams. We explore his writings, his revolutionary vision for a liberated and united Africa, and the forces—both foreign and domestic—that sought to dismantle his project. Nkrumah’s legacy still burns in the hearts of those fighting imperialism today, and this episode brings his voice back to the forefront of revolutionary memory.   Learn more and support Black Alliance for Peace    Follow Nicholas on Twitter    Follow Tunde on Twitter   BAP Chicago's Twitter   ---------------------------------------------------- Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio HERE Outro Beat Prod. by flip da hood

Hello everybody and welcome back to Rev Left Radio. On today's episode, we have back on the show Nicholas Richard Thompson and Tunday Osawa from Black Alliance for Peace. We've had them on a few times in the past to talk about Afrikaam, Uprisings in the Sahel, etc. They're back on the show this time to do a full episode on a historical figure that I've been wanting to cover for many years here on RevLeft for very, various reasons, never quite got around to it, but is a really interesting and crucial figure of 20th century socialism and Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism, and that is the one and only Kwame Nakruma. So Nick and Tunday are back on to talk about Kwame Nekhruma's life, his work as political leader of Ghana, his intellectual legacy, and it's just a

really fascinating conversation around a figure that, you know, more people on the revolutionary, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist left should absolutely know, study, and learn from today. I also wanted to let people know that if you like what we do here on RevLeft Radio, you can support us directly. We are 100% listener funded. We always will be. You will never hear us do an ad or anything like that. We come from the people and we are funded by the people.

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out all right without further ado here is my episode with nick and tunday from the black alliance for peace on the one and only quamay nakruma hello yes i'm nicholas richard thompson i am the bat midwest organizer and bat chicago organizer and i am also on the communications team Yeah. And my name is Tunday Osawa. I am the outreach and membership support co-co-coordinator for the Black Lines for Peace on the coordinating committee and also a BAP Atlanta member. Wonderful. Well, it's an honor to have both of you back on the show. I always love when both of you come on the show. We had you on very recently to talk about French colonialism in Africa, the month of action against Afrocom, et cetera, the Black Alliance for Peace puts together every year. And we had you on the year before to talk about that. as well. So I always love chatting with both of you. And today, the topic today was actually sort of picked last time when we finished our conversation. We were sort of discussing afterwards some possible other things that we could cover together. And the name of Kwame

Nakruma came up, I believe in that episode, but then afterwards as well. And then pretty quickly we decided that we were going to do an entire episode on Nakrumah. He's been a figure that I've wanted to cover for many years actually on Rev. Left and just never quite worked out. So I'm finally glad to get to Kwame Nakruma, and that's going to be the topic for today. So as an opening question, for those who might not know, can you introduce us to Kwame Nakruma as a historical figure and kind of help listeners orient themselves to the basic history and the basic timeline that we'll be covering today? Yeah. And, you know, we know that Kwame Nakruma is really a seminal figure in African independence movements, specifically. in the 20th century, but, you know, obviously passes time even to today, right?

His theory and strategy for the liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism has been a North Star, really, for freedom fighters, struggling for African liberation since his time for decades, really. He was gone his first prime minister and first president, right? And so I think, you know, his role in terms of bringing Ghana, what was known under colonialism as the Gold Coast to independence, was really gave Ghana like an icon status across Africa. His speeches, his writings, his policy positions really made him like a leading voice, defining Pan-Africanism and African anti-imperialism throughout the 20th century. And so, you know, he's just a massive figure for the national liberation movements in African throughout the third world. And for us, right, his work is very relevant to our struggles today, especially as we talk about neocolonialism and the threats that that that structure poses to African liberationist.

struggles now. Um, and we just think we can learn a great deal from, from his work around scientific socialism. So, you know, we are really going to be talking about, uh, you know, the, the, the 20th century, uh, because he was born, uh, towards the beginning of, uh, the 1900s and, uh, you know, he, he dies around, uh, 1972. So that, that's, that's kind of the period, um, that we'll, we'll be addressing today. Definitely. Yeah, thank you. And I just wanted to say up top as well that, you know, Kwameh and Krumah is obviously important for many reasons. He's important within Africa. He's important outside of Africa. Important for the black liberation struggle. And of course, important for socialist history as well because he's one of these

figures in history, like a Mao or like a Lenin, who was both a revolutionary organizer and a leader of a socialist government, as well as an active sort of theorist as he is putting in the work in real time. So you have some of these rare figures that from the sort of contingencies of history get put into this place where they can both be a theorist as well as a revolutionary leader and that dialectic between their thought and their study and their understanding and the actual concrete reality that they have to operate, organize, and survive in, that really sort of bolsters each side, right? The theory becomes better because it's informed by real world practice and the practice becomes better because it's guided by really, really sophisticated

high level theory. And so Nekrumah is a really interesting figure for that at least and much more. So let's go ahead and I think start with his biography. So where did Nekrumah come from? What was his childhood and his education like and what ultimately sort of led him into into politics? Yeah, I mean, probably Nukrum, he was born in 1909 in a small village. called in Crowfold in what was known at the time as the Gold Coast. Now we know it is Ghana to a goldsmith father and a mother who was a fishmonger and a trader. And he was really raised by his mother and extended family who lived together in a traditional way. And, you know, he had a pretty carefree childhood. It was it was humble. But, you know, he spent a lot of time in the town and on the nearby

I see just growing up. And at, you know, six years old, his mom sent him to Catholic schools that were run by missionaries, where he got a formal education. And that was kind of typical of ambitious folks from his area. They typically went to the Catholic schools, the colonial schools of the time. He finished school early and, you know, went on to train as a teacher. in Accraugh, Ghana's capital, where he, you know, learned, you know, basics of like English and the sciences before becoming like an elementary school instructor for a number of

years in Accra and rural towns. So initially he wanted to be a Catholic priest, but in a while training as a teacher, he was exposed to the ideas of Marcus Garvey and W.B. Du Bois, who were also, you know, giants in Pan-African and his history. thought, you know, obviously Du Bois is also a leading theorist in terms of scientific socialism as it applies to black folks and, you know, people more generally. But he also met the first president of Nigeria before he became president, Nambi Azekewe. While he was a teacher, while McCriman was a teacher, and Ezekiela's influence also, you know, kind of pushed him towards Pan-Afghanism.

Ezekiela, you know, had attended Lincoln University in the United States, which is a historically black college in Pennsylvania. And he was the one who initially advised in Krumah to enroll there, to study in the U.S. And so in 1935, in Krumah, when he was 25 years old for the U.S. to pursue college or higher education. And so he earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree at Lincoln. University, and then he went on to UPenn, University of Pennsylvania. And so, you know, during that time, he also

was studying the ideology of Africanism, theories of political economy, so he's studying, you know, Marx and Lenin and other, you know, political economists. And, yeah, he was studying George Padmore. And, you know, a lot of folks who were influencing his

ideological development, his political development. And then, you know, after he finished his studies, he went to the U.K. to study at the London School of Economics for doctoral studies. And there, you know, he was living alongside a number of anti-colonial activists where he sharpened his political consciousness. And so that's where he, you know, was interacting with folks like CLR. James, right, who also had a very big influence on him. And, you know, as he was studying in London, he organized a political group that was agitating for an end to British rule.

in Africa, the British were the colonial power of his home land in Ghana, right? And so he was interacting with activists from various colonies and black British intellectuals who were also fighting imperialism. So that was kind of, you know, one of his main entrances into

activism, to political work, though he'd been studying all these things for a while. So that's how I would lay out some of his early biographical developments that early period. Yeah. Yeah, that's really good. So we have, you know, already, as soon as he starts, you know, engaging with politics and engaging with his own education and his own intellectual

development, he's on, you know, Pan-Africanism, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, reading figures like Marx, like Lenin, and this is the broad sort of influence that he's pulling from. You mentioned also Du Bois, so I just have to mention to listeners who might want to learn more. We have an ongoing series on REV left here covering the work and life of W.E.B. Du Bois. We've already had on Gerald Horn for one installment. Dr. CBS. Cherise Burden Steli for a second installment and we're working on a third and a fourth right now. So that that series is ongoing. People should definitely check out DeBois if they haven't studied and researched him, especially if they live in the U.S. because he's a really crucial figure to the

Black liberation struggle in the United States of the past century or more. So a really important thinker and one of among many Nakruma's influences. The next question I want to move into is talking about Nakruma's political organizing. So we understand where he comes from. We understand sort of his major influences, his basic education. But Nakruma really made his name via his political organizing and his work building political organizations. So can you kind of talk about this organizing, the UGCC, one of his first organizations, his subsequent imprisonment, and then the formation of the CPP in 1951, which will, you know, be an important organization going forward. Yeah, I can take this one. So before we even get into talking about the UGCC, which

was a United Go Coast Convention, I want to really briefly talk about the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress, because I think out of this emerges and really develops in Krumah's vision and further submits his ideas of Pan-Africanism and internationalism and unity, right? So the, the 1945 5th Pan-African Congress happens in the UK and the Congress is essentially a series of like several meetings to address decolonization on the continent from Western

Imperialism in particular. And during this Congress, Kwamey Kru was one of the primary organizers along with George Cattimore as like the main organizers. The Congress is discussing different strategies for replacing colonialism with African socialism and having

a large amount of conversations about the decolonization and other liberation and independence movements worldwide. This Congress goes on to even impact like black internationalism, as we know today, and inspiring other minds as you've already brought up like W.E. DeBois, who was also president and part of that, and Michael Mex and Martin Luther King and all these different figures in that we know in history, this Congress is really pivotal to that. And this is what's happening prior and his kind of final big thing in the UK.

Then we get to 1947, two years later, and we get to the UGCC. And essentially, his involvement with the party came from, he is an incredible orator. He's shown his ability to organize, and he's named the Secretary General due to just his political acumen and fervor and organizational skills. The thing we see with this political party, though, is it's one of the first political parties of its kind in this colonel. this still colonial situation and they're advocating for self-government but the issue is and we'll see about this later as you mentioned there are tensions that at eventual split this party the uCCC is primarily looking out for the interests of the local elite and petty bourgeoisie they're demanding constitutional reforms and what they call self-governance in the shortest possible time what's

that that phrase that slogan will be important later but as they're like advocating for for this A lot of things are going on, right? You have Joseph Bocay and J.B. Daqwa, who are like some of the leaders of the party. There's like this big six that they call of the main organizing, which is a criminal as a part of. And as a secretary general, he's, you know, creating a lot of spaces for the party to succeed. And there's a lot of success for the party. But, again, due to those tensions that arise for several reasons. we see at the time there were a lot of differences in strategy and how the two parties wanted to go forward right and the disagreements arise out of these these differences and strategy how you attain independence right and cruba is advocating for a more radical and immediate action he's saying and literally the you know the slogan goes for you know independence in the shortest amount of time or self-governance in the shortest amount of time and cruba just sorts it to independent or self-governance now

now, right? And saying that, you know, if we wait longer, he didn't press the viability of that. And I think this actually correlates with his vision of pan-Africanism, which we'll talk a lot later. He says, we can't leave it to the next five, six generations. We have to unify now. And in the same way, he was correct about, I think, the UGCC, I think he was correct about pan-Africanism. But we'll get to that later. So, essentially, the views class with the with the conservative leadership of the UGCC, who are essentially, you know, in my estimation, from my reading of history are kind of like puppets for the party or are puppets for the British colonial rule and as you mentioned Incrumah is in prison and it happens a couple of times

and after the split in Crumma forms what's called the Conventions People's Party or the CPP and then CPP is engaging in something called positive action which is essentially a series of boycotts, strikes, and demonstrations. against the colonial rule and what he wants to do with the with the CPP is he said he's doing what he's trying to do is carry the masses with us party and with this positive action it's not a violent protest and these strikes against the colonial authorities and businesses these efforts were incredibly successful and mainly because previous political efforts and the gold post had primarily focused on like the urban intelligentsia while in Cribla had a large focus on the youth right

While his stay in the UNGCC, there was actually a committee formed while he was in jail the first time because he went to jail twice the first time. And it was called the Committee of Youth Organizing, which adopted in Khruma's slogan of self-government. And with that, you're seeing Khruma trying, he's actually galvanizing a large base of youth and some of the different rural areas in Ghana that had not really been reached out to before and a lot of the political strategies. So with this, though, a state of emergency is called in 1950, and it's called by the colonial authorities because I think two police officers ended up being killed during some of the different outbreaks all over the country. And they call for a state of emergency, and Krumah is incited, or he is charged with inciting an illegal strike, subversion, sedition, and some other charges. and he's given, like, at least the starting of three years of prison. This only really galvanized his base, and the masses really saw him as a political prisoner. But during this time, all meetings were banned of the CPP, and there are the organs, and, like, a lot of their work is suspended.

What comes about from this, like, right, these indictment charges on subversion and sedition, these three years, you know, there are now leaked, you know, documents by the CIA and they had had eye we're going to talk about this later but they had eyes on the crew of from the onset kind of of the independent struggle and fall had it as a pretty large threat

you know he was named as a thoroughgoing communist which I think is a very funny phrase and that he had eyes with the USSR in China but during his day in imprisonment right through a loophole that he had discovered he ran for office

while behind wide behind bars right and as expected in a landslide. I think by almost like 80, 90%, the party emerged victorious, right, in all the municipal and general elections, with Kami and Krimba as the prime minister. The situation kind of goes off for a little bit longer, but in 1951, essentially, the colonial authorities were like, look, we don't really want to deal with the backlash of keeping Khrm in prison, and they recognize him as the prime minister, right? So he kind of finested

and he just had too much popular support to continue any further. stabilization for undermining of kind of this popular party, the CPP. So this starts with, you know, the split, due to the split, they adopt new strategies and who they're targeting adopting strategies and their demands. And essentially just adopt a really explicit pan-African kind of socialist-leaning politic that I think is what is what garnered all the popularity. And again, I'll take it all the way back. I think a lot of this, you know, is inspired by from that fifth African.

Congress. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good thing to draw it back to. I do have a follow-up question. You say he becomes the prime minister. Is that still sort of a formal position keeping intact British colonial rule, but giving sort of rule to the locals, ostensible rule? And is there like a bigger break that comes later? Or how exactly does that work as prime minister in that system? Yes, that's a really good question. And what I'd like to talk about is that, yes, to what you said, I would say it's a to titular role in many ways. But it gave him a lot more power than he previously had. So after Gallagher gained the independence for British colonial rule, you know, in 1957, the country is one of the first countries in that region to have independence. So this is like a milestone for like 20th century decolonization, like the movements, and it inspires a lot. And we're going to get to why the CIA did not like in Krumah, and he was a thrown under five of many ways because he was backing and funding other independence movements. But so when the CPP wins in 1952, the Kramer is a PM. And as soon as he became the PM, he got to work immediately, pushing for self-governance. And there was a lot of tensions and strong objections, but eventually the demands of the Gideon people were met.

And a new constitution was approved in 1956 for self-government, right? And through this, you know, we see by 1960, he's elected president of Ghana. So this is the full independence kind of that we're talking to, the political independence. And later when we talk about his policies, you know, political economy, me we talk about the economic independence he strove for but it does come about later it was kind of a two-part transition becoming the prime minister reorienting a new constitution getting the constitution approved and then finally becoming the president you know during this time right like he is beloved by the masses in so many ways and i i'll bring up a little story that

i think is really funny and i tire it to a lot of other leaders and like he he's nicknamed like the deliverer of gana the star of africa the father in pan africa during his time and like so many things are written about him and he's praised a lot and one thing that's really I always found interesting is that people of of the masses would go to his home and just ask him about really like daily life disputes whether they were marital or they have financial issues and like he would talk to these people and I find that amazing because uh very similarly I know you've done stories on Sankara Sankara would go play guitar in the park with the masses right you have stories about Fidel Castro who there was a protest

and his brother walked up to the protest and had conversations in the dialogue with those who were dissatisfied with him at the time, but then he was able to thools over and alleviate the concerns. I could never imagine any Western leader trying to do something like this. It wouldn't be possible, right? So I bring this up only because

I think it's interesting, but also that a lot of these leaders are then told that they are despots, that they are hated by their people. But I don't think it's anything from the sort, right? I don't imagine you're hated by your people if these people could come to your home and have that much accessibility to you, and there isn't a concerned for your life. So back to the point of your question, though, you know, in Krumah,

after the new Constitution, after 1956, you know, we see him becoming president, and that's when a large success is done for the country, and we start seeing the implementation of the socialist policies, peck and African unity, and much more. Yeah, wonderful. And we'll definitely get to that in detail. So, but that's very clarifying. So he basically becomes like this titular role as prime minister under basic the basic structures of British colonial rule still in place, but uses that position to push for full independence that would come some years later in 1957, five some years after he gets the prime minister role. So it uses that lesser role to push for a more robust independence movement eventually

gets that. We'll get to that in a second. But just to preempt something that will probably come up in these discussions at some point, and certainly if you look into Nakruma online and look at some of these sort of liberal or both sidesy, wishy-washy resources, what you'll find is people calling him, like they did Mao, like they did Lenin, like they do everybody they don't like, you know, a dictator and trying to frame him as somebody fundamentally alienated from the Ghanian masses, somebody who, you know, was a one-party autocratic ruler, you know, with the same old game they play with all of socialist leaders who take on the West in any substantial way. But I totally agree with you that, based on my understanding as well, that this deep connection

with the masses is totally unfound anywhere in the West, you know, with capitalist rulers and societies like that. And he had much more connection with the masses than any Western leader today certainly has, or even at the time, certainly has. But, you know, this is nothing new to my listeners. We'll know how this game goes, how socialist and decolonial leaders get called. authoritarian, called dictators, et cetera, to try to delegitimize them. But we'll get to that. One thing I want to move into now is sort of Nekrumah's political ideology. We've already put on the table some of his major influences. But of course, some of those influences contrast with one another. You know, you have a Marcus Garvey, is different than a Du Bois, is different than a Marx,

is different than, you know, et cetera. So with that in mind, what was Nekrumas sort of political ideology, especially when he was in power? And how did he express that ideology in his major theoretical works because he wasn't just as I said earlier revolutionary leader he also wrote and you know articulated really important theory so yeah can you kind of talk about his ideology and how it manifests in his works yeah of course um I want to touch on something you mentioned earlier as far as you know the fact that in Krumma's work really demonstrates the need uh for us to take the ideas of African people and African theorists serious as seriously as as uh as uh well just to take them seriously as philosophy take them seriously

as ideas there's a philosopher named louis gordon who says that you know we typically or often reduce african ideas to biography or to action or to the level of embodiment and that we don't really take them seriously as knowledge producers or as people whose ideas are really worthy of thought or even as original, right? And so even if we do take them up, we see them as kind of derivative, a Western thought or Western philosophy or Western ideas. And for us, you know,

it's important to take in Kremas seriously as not only like a statesman, not only as a revolutionary and Pan-Afghanist and socialists or communist, but also as a philosopher and as a producer of knowledge. And I just wanted to touch on that because you mentioned it, I think it's really relevant.

relevant to this question of his political ideology because a lot of folks really have been taking in Krumas seriously as a philosopher. Like he has a work named Conscientism that there really is a heavily philosophical text and, you know,

even Phan, right? He talked about how when it comes to the colonial situation, Marxism needs to be stretched, right? And similar to like a Du Bois or even like an Oliver Cromwell Cox when African or black folks stretch Marxism, their works can often be disregarded as not really Marxist or is doing Marxism wrong or doing scientific socialism wrong as opposed to really understanding that these thinkers are articulating Marxism or scientific socialism to their historical and material conditions. And that's really what Incrumas' work was doing. So, you know, we can call his political ideology incriminism or conscientism.

But really it is, you can define it as the application of the principles of dialectical and historical materialism to the African crisis of class exploitation and national oppression, right? African people have experienced and continue to experience, right, throughout the world. So his ideology is like a revolutionary creation and ideological creation that's geared towards addressing the problems that Africans face. in the sense that the ultimate objective which is Pan-Africanism which is commonly defined or defined by Incrumat

is the total liberation and unification of Africa under an all-African socialist government right under the understanding that Pan-Afghanism must be the primary objective of all black or African revolutionaries throughout the world right? So according to

Incrumah, you know all black people are African or of African origin are Africans, right? And their only home is Africa. And only when African is free, meaning, you know, liberated, unified, and socialist. Only when Africa is free is when Africans throughout the world will be free. And so there's kind of like a privacy of Africa there. And so, yeah, I think, you know, we can look at that how his, how his ideology, his ideas progress over time by talking a little bit about, you know, some of his writings, right? So, you know, I'll start with towards colonial freedom, which is the first kind of major book by accruement that lays out his vision for how, you know, what was formerly known as the Gold Coast or Ghana and the rest of Africa could achieve independence from colonial rule, right?

And so that kind of talks about, like, the need for mass, you know, nationalist political action or positive action, like Nick was speaking to in nonviolent protests. But then, you know, he starts going into, you know, his experience and, and his, his learnings from the independent struggle with the Ghanaian process through his autobiography, Ghana, which is a great, a great book to read Ghana, the autobiography of Paube and Krumba. And then, you know, after, you know, the independence struggle that, you know, he ascended to president through is completed. he published Africa must unite that kind of crystallized his Pan-Afghanist dream for a politically united Africa that's capable of economic self-sufficiency

and able to oppose the ongoing Western exploitation of African resources and people. And then I mentioned earlier in scienceism or conscientism, which expounds the socialist political philosophy for hard as saying

traditional African economic and social practices. alongside like that modernization process that rejects Western capitalist development models. He also wrote a seminal text, Neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism, that kind of identifies Western economic power and institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, I could go on, right, as these international institutions, identifying them as tools for continuing control over the newly, independent African countries, and this was published kind of right after the era of direct

political rule that kind of ended. And then, you know, he goes even further, right? Like, early he was talking about nonviolence and Gandhi or whatever, but, you know, he published in 1968 the Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, which was a guide for waging guerrilla struggles against oppressive reactionary systems and governments in Africa and beyond, right? So this was, It was written after, you know, and Krumah was in exile again, right, you know, when he had left Ghana following a CIA and Western Baku. And it was kind of dreaming a sparking revolution. So, I mean, I'm just pointing all of that out to say that he expands to political progression. Like many of our, many of these leaders did, right?

And so, you know, all of this kind of speaks to his ideology with which, you know, is about, you know, scientific socialism and Pan-Afghanism and how to achieve, you know, or fulfill the promise of liberation in Africa and beyond. Yeah. Incredibly well said. And just to your, to your starting point that you made about sort of Marxism, socialism, communism, and Phenon talking about it being stretched in the colonial context, you know. And then some people sort of dogmatically or an indoctrinaire way place less value on those works or set them aside as secondary. But no, they're actually, you know, fundamentally crucial and they're actually an application of scientific socialism because scientific socialism is open-ended. It will manifest differently in different contexts, different conditions, different cultural and historical situations. And it's all about the creative application of, you know, historical materialism and dialectical materialism to the concrete conditions that you. you actually exist in. And in the case of Africa, you're existing in a very specific sort of scenario with Western European colonial rule. And figures like Phenon, like Nekrumah, and many

more, actually are some of the best products, in my opinion, of Marxism, because they're actually taking the spirit of Marxism, the core of Marxism, creatively applying it to their situation, generating new theory in the meantime. And that is much different and much more Marxist, actually much more dialectical, much more materialist than the sort of doctrinaire, you know, Europeans come first, sort of reductionist approach to Marxism, which has it as sort of this dogma that Marxine angles and maybe like Lenin contributed to and we have to continue to sort of fetishize that as it stands and these other things are secondary. That's actually in a lot of ways anti-dialectical, it's anti-materialist and anti-Marxist. So yeah,

Nekrumah totally fits in with my conception of scientific socialism and he was, you know, one of the most adept at actually applying it in his situation and generating new theory and generating revolutionary momentum and getting actually independence from it. So we actually got shit done through this theoretical articulation and using that to guide his actions. I think it's really, really wonderful. And we in the West, we have a lot to learn from figures like Nakruma. And we should be studying them with every bit of enthusiasm and excitement that we study, you know, a figure like Marx or Angles or Lenin or whatever. So I'm totally on board with you on that.

But yeah, very well said, very interesting. Now, we're kind of jumping around a little bit. We've mentioned his exile and everything, but just to kind of bring us back to the chronology here. We've talked about the formation of the CPP, his position as prime minister, using that position to push towards full independence. You've now laid out his political ideology and how he expressed that in his major works. Let's go back to 1950s Ghana when it actually got its formal independence. This is around 1957. But can you, before we get into a Nekrumah as gone as leader, 1957 onward, can you actually talk about this formal process of where they actually got their independence, discuss Nekrumma's role in it, and the sort of tactics employed

to move from this titular role as prime minister into, you know, full independence and his new role as president? Yeah, I'll take this one. So, kind of what we mentioned earlier, about Incrumah and the Lake 50s after they get the formal impendence. What we see is the CCP win, become Prime Minister, fighting for self-governance fully, becomes president. And what happens is, and you mentioned this, and I'll bring this up first, a couple things are, we have the new Constitution, but then immediately what Enkrima does is he has a very

anti-colonial, anti-imperialist stance that he, brings about, right? And during this time, he does this in several ways that I seek are overlooked. He's challenging Eurocentrism and white supremacy by promoting pan-African culture. He does this by building the Ghanian Museum, right? Having an art council really focused on developing the intellectual aspects and the, the nationalist aspects for sure of Ghana, but of all of Africa, right? He even develops a Ghanian film corp, right, focused on broadcast and being able to essentially take over your own narrative and talk about Ghanian politics for sure, but African politics in particular with this new Ghana's news agency, the Ghania Times, right? The languages that this broadcast speaks and is very deliberate, right? It does English, France, Swahili, and several other African languages.

And his goal is really, again, trying to export this ideology of Pan-African unity and African unity and a continental-wide basis of development. And this is what makes up a target for the CIA, which I know we're going to get to later, but it's very hard to get through some of this stuff without ever bringing it up. But this is a very prime target, right? And with this, he also builds new international organizations, right? The African trade union, he withdrew from colonial organizations such as the West African Currency Board, the West African Court of Pee. hills. These were kind of these like colonial sites where they had given Africans power, quote, and quote, but they were still oversawed by colonial powers. And he withdrew from these international organizations. And with this, we also see him founding one of the most important. And two D alluded to this right, part of his ideology, he found he found the OAU, the organization of African unity. And we see this is like a very pivotal movement. for pan-Africanism, right? We see it talking about a continental-wide military, a unified currency, deeper political integration

and cooperation between the states to defeat colonialism. And this is very explicit in that, and to be able to handle disputes between countries if they are to arise. And this is essentially, I think, a more audacious version of what the EU is. And if he were to complete it, I think we'd be looking at a vastly different African continent and a vastly different, like, geopolitical situation, the entirety of the global South. The next thing we talk about is kind of just like some of the work that he did as president,

and he gets criticized this, I think, by detractors, but I think the criticism is unwarranted, primarily because what he was doing was trying to actually enact Pan-Afrikanism, right, actually build it and see it as a political objective. So he holds a, uh, the African people's conference. And at this conference, people like Julius De Uri, Tanzania, U.S. Zimbabwe, Patrice Lumumba, and a bunch of other African leaders who are striving for independence. Again, as mentioned earlier in Krumah, I think his revolutionary movement that had on set and inspired like 10 other, like 10, through those 10 years, like 50 other movements to to strive for independence, right? seeing 1960s as that era of independence for a lot of

melodial situations. With this, though, with people like Julius Adiri, Patrice Obama, another thing that I think gets him a target on his back. He's funding and training African liberation fighters, right? And this is something that I think is what made him a larger target. I think, I won't have a verbatim, but I have the quote here,

in declassified CIA documents, they named him as one of the most dangerous black Africans to U.S. interests because of what he's doing internationally, right? And that is one of the biggest components of, I think, if you learned anything about Akirma, if you remember anything, it's his emphasis on unity and saying that even after independence, when he became the prime minister, he said Ghana's independence is meaningless unless it is tied to the whole of the African continent. And obviously when we see what played out, he was correct in a lot of things. I think he was correct in how he strategized to get the CPP to win. I think he was correct in his choices made for allies during his tenure. I think he was corrected his vision of saying, if we don't unify now, the consequences and we read throughout the Ocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism, or the final stage, like, come to be forced because there wasn't instant unification. And that was kind of a very difficulty, even among his parliament of people. having differences and how we get there at the speed in which we go about.

He was always very audacious in how he wanted to achieve these things in that short time. But I think that, you know, during that, you know, from the 1950s and the former independence that, you know, and Kerman played in it. Another thing that I think is important to bring up is the one party statement you brought it up. And you kind of highlighted how some of the propaganda gets put out about that. But I want to put this in context well. So first and foremost, there were numerous assassination and since on his life. He's getting information from outside sources about talks of regime change.

He knows the West wants him dead. And at the moment, he's paranoid about it. But later, we have declassified files. We know that he was correct. So when he does this, he goes through Parliament. Regardless of how these people feel about a one-party state, Parliament passed it. Right. And they become a one-party state.

and he also institutes what's called a detention policy, and they see this at the present. This is my issue with this. One, the United States is the largest mass incarceration. We have institutions such as ICE, Homeland Security, CIA, FBI, and these other intelligence apparatuses that do these same things on a wider scale. What Krivo was doing, though, was ensuring that his regime wouldn't be destroyed and undermined and ensuring that his life and the life of his family and his guard as those as Parliament were to be protected, right? And I'll get to this point later, but after the coup, you know, political detentions rise about 50% by the back, by the new military government that the United States backs.

So I think it's important to put everything in context. Everything he did, he passed through Parliament and it was popular. Everything he did was a response to the conditions, right, that he was experiencing. seeing as a leader of a newly independent nation, still fighting off the clause of imperialism and colonialism. So I would say, you know, Incurba was a leading voice of pan-Afrienezo and anti-colonialism. And his mass movement secured that self-rule and culminating an independence and the negotiation for full sovereignty, you know, as him as president. There is a lot of difficulties after that. But what I'm always so inspired by is what he did.

economically during this time of strife. And what he was able to achieve, despite some of the outside external forces on his regime, his tenure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And for what it's worse, from my position, one party revolutionary state that is actually rooted in the masses is more democratic, more, you know, sort of susceptible to mass pressure, more rooted in democracy than these two-party or multi-party parliamentary systems in the West, which are so alienated from the masses and actually function and are built to be sort of alienated from the masses. Whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans,

we know neither of them represent our actual interests whatsoever. They're two faces of capital. And so I just think that that's an interesting thing because they'll use that as a boogeyman, a one-party state. is like that's inherently authoritarian that's inherently bad but if that one party state is revolutionary it's rooted in mass support it is fighting for you know independence and pan-Africanism and these genuinely good ideals meant to uplift the masses then you know that is in every way more democratic than um these two-party or multi-party western um you know forces of capital that

they put on different masks so um yeah just worth saying that right sorry interrupt and i agree with you maybe i think if i may sure i want to read a question quote by Julius Neri and, you know, Tanzania had his independence day yesterday on December 9th. And he said this, the United States is also a one-party state, but with typical American extravagance, they have two of them, right? And he's really calling out, yeah, right, he's really calling out this contradiction that you rise. And what I want to say about this, too, for folks who are on the left but are, you know, hesitant for the, you know, and get wishy-washy with authoritarianism, whatever that means, I really want to just highlight and share this, right?

One, liberal democracy is a Western conception and oftentimes is coming from a place that it is inherently better due to its origins where it emerges out of. And really what that ends up being to me a lot of the time is saying and suggesting that these countries, generally in the global south, particularly on the African continent, don't have the intellectual capacities to govern ourselves or develop governed systems that are best for us. So if you do really like liberal democracy, I think that's fine. It is not just a justification to interfere and intervene in the politics of Africans or those in the South America or Latin America. And I think it's really important to see this as Western chauvinism, Eurocentrism. And if you are allied to global solidarity, internationalism, you know, we don't need your criticisms of that. What we need is support in a way of opposing Western imperialism wherever you find yourself. So I would say that I know that's a constant debate of this place of authoritarian. We should have supported. I really want to put in context of like, what do you mean by that? What is the alternative that you're speaking to? Because the United States, and it's Western allies, certainly aren't Democratic, not in a participatory way, which, you know, is the ideal for me. But the conditions of these countries and their immersion out of like Ghana are having to deal with a lot of different external forces. If we're serious about wanting.

some particular form of democracy or independence or your ideal of socialism, I think it starts at home. And that is being anti-peerilist, anti-colonial, and irresolute in those stances. Incredibly well said. Just really quick. One final point on this. The democracy versus authoritarian binary, that entire conceptual sort of approach is a mystification. You as an American have just as much say in what your government's policies are as somebody in the scary authoritarian regimes like Russia or China. And in fact, ironically, both Xi and Putin and Putin and Russia are certainly not in any way socialist. With Xi and China, there's definitely an argument amongst Marxists whether or not they qualify. In either case, both of those leaders have genuinely

much more mass support from the people in their countries than Biden or Trump or these two parties have in the U.S. So it's like Biden has like a 30% favorability rating. And then you go look get, you know, even somebody that they want to scare us as a scary authoritarian like Putin, he has much more popular support. Xi, for sure, has much more support. And it's not just Xi, it's the entire communist party in China and what that is done for the Chinese people. And so it's a lot of chauvinism, a Euro chauvinism that insists that this rotten, corrupt

thing that we call liberal democracy is somehow superior to these other forms of political organization. But it's also a straight up mystification to think in terms of West equals democracy equals good. And these other countries, often in the global south or in the far east, these are authoritarian, therefore bad. That's a child's way of approaching politics. And I hope, you know, most Revlev listeners will absolutely understand that. That's just worth saying. Okay, let's go ahead and move forward. I'm going to, I'm going to kind of combine these next two questions, and I'll let you take it in any direction you want. I mean, we've certainly already talked about some of this.

So I kind of wanted to combine these because we have touched on elements. But from from 1957 to 1966, this is when Kwame Nakruma was Ghana's leader. And I was hoping you've already mentioned some of his policies. You've mentioned his leadership style. But can you talk a little bit more about the policies of his government and how Pan-Africanism sort of manifested in these policies? And then, you know, you can also mention the, we mentioned these assassination attempts on Nekrum. I think there were five separate formal assassination attempts on Nekrumah. So you can talk about that as well. Yeah, sure. I'll take this part. And I think I'll let Tundi take the assassination nations. I know he's really well versed.

So let's talk about some of his policies. He's deeply influenced by folks like Martin Garvey, has mentioned, Marks, Lennon, and Mao. You know, during his his overthrow, he's actually visiting a whole team in, right? And some of the policies he's implementing are, again, Marxism

is a methodology. I think you excellently said it earlier. In Krumah, I think produces scientific social and utilized in the most correct way by addressing the historical and material objective conditions of Ghana and then proceeding from there, right? So he does promote

state ownership of key industries. He has massive like land reforms to empower the people the peasantry. And during his time just, you know, metrics that are important to look at, you know, the cocoa production produced doubled. We saw a

about a 5 to 7% GDP increase from 1955 and 962. And also during this time we see other larger increases when he institutes a very large-scale infrastructure project. So he has construction of roads, free schools, universities, hospitals, hydroelectric dams,

aimed at modernizing essentially Ghana's infrastructure and stimulating economic growth at the same time. So he's building up the country and also creating economic growth and allowing for folks to be a part of this. This is very popular with a lot of the masses being able to participate in what is seen as Ghana's upliftment. during this time specifically there are 68 state-owned factories that are he they utilize to fully staffs and keep people employed but more importantly they're becoming self-sufficient so he's talked about self-sufficiency and not being relied on external forces he did use key strategic partnerships but he never in a way to be relied upon those partnerships right he rejected the IMF he rejected the world bank again these were bad things in terms of western interest which

lead to some of the external forces on his government. But those 68 state-owned factories were producing steel, meat, vestibles, fruit, TVs, radio, shoes, textiles, furniture, tires. Brother, like everything, to be self-sufficient

as a country as a people, really, I think, embodying and instilling pride in the good being in people. A part of this, though, was a very long-term vision to be a superpower, on par with the United States the Soviet Union. He was very explicit

about this. Maybe I would have kept this secret but he's very explicit about bringing Ghana. Right, like this for strategic reasons, but you know what I'm looking at history in 2020 hindsight, right? He's wanting to galvanize his people. He's wanting to be as audacious as possible and discuss Pan-African unity

in a very serious, explicit way. So he's talking about we're going to lead in forestry. We're going to lead in fish and cattle develop these industries and he's expanding them. And again, Ghana, And I didn't mention this when I talked about the doubling of cocoa. Coco is one of the largest exports of Ghana. Still to this day, Coco, right?

One of the largest projects that I think is overseed, and maybe not largest scale, but I think in terms of how integral it was to the future that he had to be a superpower was called the Vota River. It was a dam. And this dam was going to provide water irrigation all throughout the country and for other Western African countries, electricity for the factory that they were state-owned,

and other nearby countries to utilize. This was going to be the start kind of of this continental wide unity. But Bolsa River was done through an American business partnership. Now, I think later on when I talk about, when we talk about the coup and some of the other things, this is what kind of is one of the last straws of, I think, the United States, because this isn't the government. This is a private business interest. But there was, you know, disagreements with like how they were moving with the United States government, and they wanted to help build this Volta River because this independent business saw the benefit for them, too. So we see all these priorities, right? We see education and social reforms and priorities. We see

economic development and self-sufficiency as priorities. We see the personal development of food, poverty, and just goods as personal developments. What ends up happening with this is everything is also tied to like I said self-sufficiency decolonization and pat-African unit he's always bringing that in as he's talking with the masses of you're a part of this this emergence you're a part of the revival of Ghana you are a part of this revolution right so by the end of this you know Ghana in its both flourishing period you know has double cocoa has advanced farming large reserves of gold timber and bauxite very very precious natural resources they have the developed a long-term vision to become self-sufficient in a very expedient time. They had these state-owned factories. We're seeing the GDP increase, which isn't like the only metric, but we're also seeing the quality of life increase, right? With this, there's other social things that are happening too, right?

Literacy is going up. He also advocated for gender equality and women's rights. A lot of these things are tied together, the economic, and right, he has a quote, I'm probably going to butcher it because I didn't, I didn't share it today, but it just came out to me. He says every social or cultural problem is political and every political problem is economic, basically. So he's always tying these things together and figuring out how do we socially develop our people. It starts with the base of the economic. So he's really driving economic development so he can bring literacy, bring schools, have gender equity and

equality for other people. So really focusing on that and all tied into his larger international our vision of Pan-African unity that is focused on decolonization of the entirety of the continent. Yeah, absolutely fascinating. So much interesting stuff that he actually puts into practice here. And of course, by doing all of that, it's going to create enemies. So Tunday, can you talk about the five separate, as far as my understanding goes, five separate assassination attempts on Nekrumah during this time, and maybe who was possibly behind some of those? Definitely. And I think, you know, I just want to raise something Nick mentioned earlier, you know, according to documents released by the Department of State's Office of the historian, right? And this is the quote from those documents.

And Cruma was doing more to undermine U.S. interest than any other black African, right? So he was a huge threat, right, because of, you know, his work in Ghana, but, And then also, you know, his work across the African continent and, you know, in support of the global South more broadly, working with, you know, global South, I guess, nations and peoples. And so, you know, we understand that, yeah, like, there are at least five assassination attempts. And, you know, basically from the beginning days of God is independence when Incrumah became more outspoken against U.S. interests, right? CIA agents and others really increased their efforts, their work to undermine his government through propaganda, through funding political enemies, and also plots to take his life or illegally unseat him. So the first attempt I'll speak about was in June, 1957, when a police officer, a Ghanaian police officer, fired shots at Incrumah during a visit that Incrumma made to Comasi, a city in Ghana. And that police officer was believed to have been put up by, you know, opposition groups who were being funded by the U.S. and the CIA. Enkrimma was unharmed. It was unsuccessful.

There was another incident in August 1962 when a bomb exploded near Enkrima in Kuhu while he was visiting the area. He escaped unharmed, but one guard was killed, and the perpetrators weren't identified, but, you know, it was, again, suspected to be folks who were, you know, working with that U.S. funded opposition, right? And in January, in 1964, there were shots fired in Krumah during a parade, like a celebration. And again, right, like he escapes with no injury, but the shooter was identified to be a police officer with ties to the opposition. And I'll speak a little bit more about, you know, who this opposition was, what their ties were to the U.S. to the CIA. But yeah, and the fourth, the fourth assassination attempt was a bomb blast that, you know, took place at a cross sports stadium, right, while in criminal was present.

And he was unhurt again, but the bomb killed and injured of several people nearby. And so, again, these folks were supposedly tied to the opposition. And then on at least one other occasion, so there are likely more of their, well, additional attempts, right? But this time, the attackers opened fire on Encruma's residence where he was living while he was present inside. And members of his presidential guard managed to kill and capture the attackers who, again, we're trying to these obvious positions folks. And just to speak more to like the role of the U.S., the CIA, right, they, you know, were instigating and supporting all of these assassination attempts on Krumah during his time in power from. of 57 up until the coup in 1966. Like, there were, there's deep classified CIA information that cites agents building close relations to key opposition figures like the chief of police, J.WK, Harley, and the National Liberation Movement opposition party members, starting from 1958 onwards, right?

So the CIA was providing them with material support, helping them to coordinate plans, uh, to, to, to attack. and carry out these assassination attempts. They're also operational memos, right? And these are things, you know, you can find online. I think there's a good book, White Malice, that gets into some of these documents. But they're operational memos that outlined several plots assisted by CIA assets to assassinate or forcibly remove

and Krumah from power through tactics like, you know, engineered cabinet splits or financing for the opposition, you know, false allegation. and the local press, local media, and really just directly arming these folks who were, you know, bombing or shooting at or attacking and Krumma, trying to carry out the assassination attempts. They're also alleged CIA agents who became embedded as diplomats or advisors to help kind of shape a lot of these attempts, like the throwing of bombs and platforms during presidential speeches. There are also records that show CIA informant meetings that continue discussing plans even within days of that

coup in 1966, which I know we'll talk more about soon. But, you know, that was kind of successful in toppling and crum. So I think, you know, the stories, right, like there are many instances, like we've seen with many other of these I guess revolutionary leaders who have gone up and, you know, been very firm in their anti-imperialist stances and their stances for socialism, for national liberation. And so I think, you know, it's almost by luck or not by, by, by planning, right?

Like they had a very strong security apparatus that helped in Krumma escape many of these assassination attempts. But, you know, oftentimes it was the opposition groups and disgruntled numbers of the police and military who were working with the CIA and the U.S. to be kind of empowered as threats to incrimin and, you know, this project of national liberation and the movement towards socialism and gone. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, what we know through history, you know, anywhere in the world that people try to, take control of their own resources, try to stand up against colonialism or imperialism, try to take a different route other than neoliberalized, Western-backed global capitalism. They are immediately descended upon primarily by the U.S., but also the U.S. as allies within and outside of a given country. I mean, one of the things, I mean, you could pick a million examples of this. One of the things that just comes to mind out of an infinite list is like just a few years ago when Maduro was giving a speech,

in Venezuela. Remember when the opposition, the sort of far right opposition was like shutting down the interstates, burning cars, throwing Molotov cocktails, and they did that little drone attempted attack where they tried to have an explosive on a drone over Maduro and it kind of went off in the air and Maduro ducked and went inside. And of course, Castro, you know, hundreds of attempts on his life, like trying to poison his wetsuit and have a cigar that explodes. I mean, this is what the U.S. does. the U.S. led imperialist bloc does, and they'll use any, any means necessary to undermine these attempts. You know, people in America still say something like, you know, why do Iranians hate us so much? You know, why does Iran hate us so much? Go back to 1953, the Mozadec coup, the U.K.

and the U.S. wanted to maintain control of the oil supply in Iran, and Mozadec wanted to nationalize it to better his own people, and he was overthrown in a coup. Iranians don't forget that shit. And so this is the playbook. And with every iteration, every example that we understand from it, the list grows. And we can really come to a clear understanding of just how global imperialism and works and why it's the primary contradiction globally and why it's at the forefront of our organizing and political education as Marxists. Because this is really the thing that we have to confront and dismantle if we have any hope of building the sort of world that we want to live in. so yeah fascinating fascinating history here now going on to the next question this is as everybody knows this is the 1960s this is the era of the cold war you have the non-alignment movement

you have the broader decolonization movement across the global south so with all of that in mind what were a necruma's connections with the soviet union with communist china and the broader socialist movement and can you talk more about his connections with other african countries and their struggles for decolonization and independence as well Absolutely. And Krumah played an influential role in many African countries struggle for liberation. You know, I think Nick already mentioned the All African People's Conference in 1958 that helped mobilize support, right, for African liberation and independence movements across the continent. Many leaders of these movements attended or were connected to the conference. And so, you know, there's already, you know, kind of that pan-affiriness outlook that the work towards building pan-Afrienism, towards building what in criminal was writing about, right?

And so, you know, he was also providing material and organizational support through Ghana for anti-colonial movements and leaders in places like the Ivory Coast, Akotivouro, Seik Ture and Guinea, Medebo, K. and Mali and others, right? And under Uncuma's time in the leadership of Ghana, you know, they offered training, supplies, funding, and really a safe haven to multiple forces, liberation forces. He was working closely with leaders like Patrice Lumumba from the DRC, Augustino Netto of Angola,

Kenneth Kaulda of Zambia, and Simora Michele of Mozambique. And really, you know, obviously his goal was to unite Africa under a common anti-clonial push and move towards, right, that total liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism, right? Which is so key to his ideology. And I think this was kind of the ideology that came out of that Fifth Pan-African Congress that Nick spoke about, right? Like, this is what they agreed upon as their liberation strategy. And Krimo was like maybe the chief theorist of this.

of this of this push right and so you know that's that's what they were all working under working towards um you know they allowed anti-colonial groups from from countries like rhodesia right uh in south africa uh um to open missions in ghana uh as they fought against you know apartheid and colonialism um and you know that included high profile groups like you know the leaders of the ANC and many others right And so, you know, the goal was to make Ghana a base of operations for all of these groups. He also lobbied internationally through the UN and the non-aligned movement to support, I guess, independence movements and sanctioned countries like Portugal and apartheid, South Africa, over their colonial policies. And that work helped to raise global support and backing for the anti-clonial struggles taking place throughout the continent. But we know, right, that, you know, I guess the anti-colonial push with, was, you know, went beyond the African continent, even though that's where Incrumah was.

And so I think it's important to mention, like you said, that Incruman played a leading role in the not-aligned movement, right? He represented African and other countries in the global south that sought to maintain independence from the geopolitical power blocks of both the West and the Soviet spheres during the Cold War areas. because they saw it as strategic, right? It would be a way for them to to kind of further their their ends and their goals of liberation. And so, you know, we know that in the 1960

UN General Assembly in Krumah called for non-alignment with any major power block to allow freedom in promoting each nation's interests rather than really polarizing along, like, ideological lines. And that, That helped to inspire the non-aligned movement's establishment at the 1961 Bangdong Conference of African and Asian States.

So, you know, Krimmel was advocating for the movement to go beyond neutrality and the Cold War and offer a platform for the historically colonized world to articulate, you know, share positions against Western imperialism and really for global economic equity. So he also hosted the 1965 conference of non-aligned nations. and across Ghana, and he brought together figures like Tito and Nassar and Nehru and Sikarno, right, big figures in the non-aline movement. And so he was the chair of that conference. He published a defining pamphlet on the movement's core principles, like, and really contrasted them against the exportative systems of capitalism and imperialism, which is a seminal to accent, like the non-aline movement history. And through the organization of African unity, which Nick spoke to and other African international bodies, he also tried to, you know, have more alignment with African states behind his vision for non-alignment. You know, this kind of had mixed success. It wasn't always working, but he was trying to, you know, have these folks be a third force in international relations to kind of counter dependence on Western aid and influence.

going back to that emphasis on self-reliance. So, you know, obviously he played a pivotal role in terms of being a leader in the non-line movement. And just to quickly touch on, like, the connections with the Soviet Union and Communist China, you know, he was also developing close ties with them. They were, you know, obtaining loans and technical assistance and trade deals. The USSR helped build and fund infrastructure projects. like the Akasumbo Dam Hydroelectric Project,

which is comparable, I guess, to the dam that Nick was speaking about on the Volta River. There was also, you know, the fact that in Krumer really saw, you know, communist states as models for independent development or social states as models for independent development without reliance on the West. And so, you know, in Kremlin was lobbying, you know, know, for China's reinstatement in the United Nations in the 1960s, he was also supporting

them during the Sino-Indian War in 1962. He was, he also at times wore like a Chinese supply Mao suit. Right. And so, yeah, so I mean, you know, he, he was very close to these figures, even after the coup, right? After in 1966, he stayed in Beijing for four days. and Joe and Lai treated in Krumah with courtesy. That was for like four days. You know, the post-Kugan government kind of closed the Chinese embassy in 1966 because they viewed China is like kind of still supporting in Krumah who would, you know, moved to Guinea. And so, yeah, there's there's so many connections. In 1961, you know, he went on a tour through Eastern Europe and proclaimed solidarity with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

China. And I guess in 1962, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. So yeah, that's a little bit about the, like, he has connections with, you know, these movements throughout throughout the global south and beyond. Yeah. And these international connections are so beautiful because they really show a sharp contrast to the way that, you know, know, the West deals with people, right? The West either has people subjugated and subordinated to their interests or you are an enemy, you know? It's either you, you take a subordinate position to our geopolitical interests and our economic interest. We can use you as sort of a confrador or a puppet regime if we need to. And that's basically your utility to the West. But these

connections, always these decolonial connections, these socialist connections, they, of course they're not perfect. There's plenty of flaws and stuff, but they're always this first foot forward is one of basic mutual respect and understanding of the connections of their struggles. It's not you subordinate your interest to me or I'll subordinate, you know, or vice versa. But in the best moments, it's this egalitarian internationalist solidarity that is beautiful and is obviously the spine of any real global resistance movement. If we're ever going to win, it's going to have internationalist dimensions and it does stand out in sharp contrast to the way that the west over the last century led by the u.s. in particular operates which is definitely a subordinated

sort of way of operating with other peoples and other countries so i think that's worth noticing or noting your point about the Mao suit is very funny it's it's very cool to see it's like it's cool to see in a cruma in this in this a Mao style suit i think it's fucking awesome um and then also a couple things you mentioned you mentioned the bandoom conference which we have an episode on guerrilla history covering that entire conference in the non-aligned movement for those who want to learn more. And we also have an episode called Socialist Construction in the Balkans on Rev. Left, where we talk about Yugoslavia and their interesting sort of socialist experiment sort of outside of the Soviet bloc, sort of in the non-aligned

movement, which is where Tito would meet up with Kwame Nakrumah. So I think there's lots of fascinating connections for people that want to learn more. Now, going forward, something we've touched on or sort of alluded to throughout this conversation is, of course, ultimately Nekrumah is overthrown in a coup when he is out of the country and he never gets to return to Ghana after that 1966 coup. In fact, when he originally left Ghana, it was to go to North Vietnam to speak with the Vietnamese communist under Ho Chi Minh, another internationalist connection. But while he was out, he was the victim of a coup in 1966 that violently forced Nakrumah out of power. Can you talk about this coup, the role that the U.S. and the CIA played in it,

and the reaction to it, both from inside of Ghana as well as outside the country? Yeah, I can start. This is a pretty big question. I think me and Tunio tackle this together. So I'll start with the CIA involvement. So the CIA played a major role, but it was very clandestine. The only reason we kind of have some of this information now is because it's been leaked by other CIA, the factors who have leaked the documents and shared it, but essentially what occurred from the onset, Kwame and Kermma's revolution with a CIA target, like I mentioned earlier, and there weren't official cool plans, but they were very disturbed by some of the happening and some of the relationships that have been mentioned. I won't go back into. But what ends up happening is the United States fees an

opportunity, and they actually encouraging Krumah to go to North Vietnam, and they were halting the bombing. And that's how they knew that they had. would be the moment to do it. They said, hey, that's why they stopped, right? Like, it wasn't, there's other reasons why they say they stopped. It's, that was largely the reason why, so that he could go on this diplomatic mission. Because at this time, the United States is still

feigning a concern, but in Krumah, on his end, is very, very dubious of the relationship, but in this instance, saw it as something that he could trust, and then he, he obviously goes in orbit, and during this time, that's when he's overthroth. There's a couple things that are really I think important

about this moment, that get kind of forgot. So first and foremost, the primary individual who orchestrates this, it's Howard T. Baines. And Howard T. Baines is a

he is a CIA agent focused on Ghana. He had been there for a while and been watching the developments and kind of knew all the main actors and was in conversation with the forces that would inevitably institute the coup.

So again, the CIA's player, a clandestine role. What Howard T. Baines does is he doesn't keep record of anything. This is really important. There are very few things. Part of his operation was, I don't want to keep record of any of this. So the records we do have are oftentimes we're putting a picture together of all the moments and what was known, what was not known. But the CIA found criminal as a threat, eventually due to the socialist leanings and the line with the Soviet Union and China. But a lot of things that don't be discussed is his advocacy for Pan-African unity. and his African personality that he brought about, right? This was one of the main things I argue is why the coup is initiated at this time, right? The relationships were fine. I think they could have oversaw those and interfered differently. But as soon as he was actually instituting some of these pan-African ideas, such as supporting and financing the ANC, training African liberation fighters,

like I mentioned earlier. Specifically, I said about like 40 or 50, but 35 countries gained independence after Ghana in a span of 10 years A lot of these countries have support from a crew And this is so important to me Because as he's trying to unite Africa

I think generally these Western powers Including you know United States Britain Britain being the former ruler are troubled And see this as an opportunity The United States kind of beats Britain to it It's the primary force behind it One thing about the coup is this is that

there were 600 soldiers that took place in it and they were actually essentially lied to an onset at the onset at the onset of the coup initially they were told that they were mobilizing to go to and respond to a situation in southern road asia when they reached the capital of ghana what was told was that incruble was actually meeting with hote men so that he could send soldiers to vietnam now this wasn't true at all this this had never been discussed there's no record of this this is something to rile the base then the preparation of deployment of the Indian soldiers to Vietnam later they said there'd also be a sub-deployed to southern

Rhodesia now the Bobway to fight against the white government of Ian Smith so these cool plotters are essentially trying to put fear and instill fear into the soldiers and to justify a takeover which it inevitably worked

They're saying this as an opportunity, that this is an abuse of power. The soldiers don't want to go die in another country without being told. But again, none of this is true, right? Like, this is not happening. It's not occurring. But the orchard, like, it's kind of brilliantly orchestrated, not to, like, supported, but brilliantly orchestrated because Akirma is at North Vietnam at this time. He is on a diplomatic mission of what character is unknown.

But at this time, they see this, this moment to. mobilize the soldiers make them disgruntle, dissatisfy thus they can justify the dissent, right? And this is what ends up happening, right? And it's incredibly unfortunate because one of the things that

Krumah, I think, actually did really well on is he was already kind of aware of there was this guy named Franklin Williams and he was like one of the first black ambassadors to be working for U.S. diplomatically and they send him. But it's as a way to try to mend things with

in Krulma by sending a black face. And Kermra recognizes it immediately puts out a press and say that it's an insult that you would send a black American to try to do something diplomatic when black Americans don't have equality in your country. So he sees through it. He'd actually see through some of the operations and attempts

of the United States. This moment, no one could foresee this, right? No one could foresee that you're on a diplomatic mission and that this is utilized as a moment to misinform the soldiers who then stormed the Capitol. And what was interesting about, I think, the coup that I should mention before I passed it off to the 2D is that outside news reported it as a bloodless coup, that there was no casualty. So this is far from the truth. First and foremost, the coup leaders who orchestrated it threat to bomb the Krumas Hall where his family was. And the only reason they didn't is because the criminal's wife tells the soldiers to lay their arms down and say, okay, like this is like stop this violence.

But throughout this, the records show that parts of Incurba's Royal Guard from anywhere from 12 to 1,600 were killed. But Britain and Western sources are saying no one was killed, right? They're trying to make it to look like that it was orchestrated in a way that it was popular and that there was no need for armed struggle. But it's everything from the case, right? Because if you see this armed struggle, I think there would have been more international intervention and looking at. into this at the time, which the CIA wouldn't have wanted. So a lot of media actually lying about the character of this operation, which led to a lot of deaths of civilians as well.

So those are the things that I would say the CIA played a role in. And during that time, also, they conspired to lower the world cocoa prices as like kind of pretext to destabilize the economy as what they said now was, well, now people will say if you look back a cursory view of history, what the say is, well, his economy wasn't doing well, this isn't true. You know, people were dissatisfied with the lack of democracy. This isn't true as well. There are certainly figures who were upset with it, but this, again, is the pet bourgeoisie. This is the military leaders. But, like, for the masses, they're still enjoying a relatively very stable economy. Democracy is not really, there's not a

conversation happening outside of, like, this very urban intelligentsia. and the military. So when people are looking onto this on their own, I would say just big beeper because if you just look at the, I think the cursory information for its initial, it'll say that it was destabilized economy, lack of democracy, and that's why the coupons took place, but it was orchestrated, right? It was very calculated by destabilized the economy, by conspired with other leaders and other international financial institutions to lower global prices. It was then, you know, bounced upon the moment with the, with Akuma's diplomatic mission, and they saw that as an opportunity to do this internally because him being there would have made it a lot more difficult for this to take place

because he could easily say, oh, I'm not sending you to North Vietnam, but I don't know where that came from. Right. So a lot of this was, you know, serendipitous, but it had always been in the works because this person who had orchestrated the coup had been there for several years. year that had relationships and was kind of fomenting some of the dissent and grievances and saying like you could run this you could do this like getting in their ear about these things and like really building the manufacturing the conditions of of this coup so those are the things that i think are important to note about this and just to be aware of when you're you're doing any information that it relates to kind of learning about about the coup

albertie bane is the main guy and a book that i i recommend people like go check out is in search of enemies and that is the brother who he was ahead of the CIA for the Angola Pass Force and he was overseeing that. He, the facts eventually later on and in his book he talks about all these other kind of operations on their continent

and other places by the CIA. His name is John Stockwell. I think a lot of people will know him but he has a good book about this and he's the one is the only reason why we know about these operations because for all other intensive purposes is Albert T. Baines made it imperative not to keep record. And they did not mention anything only through other communications that he had with John Stopwell and very few documents.

Yeah, really quick before Tunday adds whatever he has to say to this point. I just wanted to sort of validate what you're saying about the narrative that this was sort of mass supported overthrow and that there is a really struggling economy because that's precisely the two main things I heard when I went about trying to research this myself, of course, always being critical and always. you know cocking an eyebrow with some of these claims knowing where they're coming from but yeah that is something you will run into and at the very least you just need to engage with that stuff critically and you know learn from a broad swath of different sources and and make up your own mind about it because that will be sort of shoved down your throat if you take you know normal mainstream resources and try to pursue an understanding of this situation but tunday do you have anything to add to this coup situation oh just

just quickly um in terms of you know the athlete speaking of what y'all raised, right? Like, there was a lot of outreach, like, mass outreach from, you know, the Africans who felt optimism, right? From Ghana's really vibrant early post-colonial years, you know, and I think there's a speech from Amulkar-Kibraal that kind of encapsulates some of the feelings, right? Cabral gave a speech titled The Cancel of the Cancer, rather

of Gretrae, that was delivered in Cremont's funeral in 1972. And basically, you know, Cabral speaks about how you know, incrimin was so important to Pan-Africanism and you know that this philosophy was so popular amongst leaders, but also amongst

you know, the masses of African people, you know, musicians, intellectuals, folks in the diaspora, right, who were really championing this idea of a unified global African community. And, you know, Cabral kind of spoke to this in the speech and the fact that, you know, it was a huge glow for the Pan-African movement for incrumor to be deposed to go through this coup. And, you know, basically he, Cabral also articulated his concerns about, you know, the pattern of betrayal in African liberation movements because we know that Incru is not the only, you know, a revolutionary leader to be coup, right? And so the way Cabral put it is that it's, you know, a betrayal that really killed Encrumah by killing his vision for Africa, his vision for God when his government was overthrown in absence. I don't know that it's it is dead, right? Like there are many folks, a number of African freedom fighters that have taken up the mantle for, you know, scientific socialism for pan-Afghanism and are, you know, fighting, fighting for that.

But yeah, I think that that speech really speaks to the mass support of Incrumah amongst the African people and folks in the diaspora. And, you know, we know that Incrumah later live in exile in Guinea. he no longer directly involved himself in Ghanaian politics and never went back to Ghana and that the the coup leaders, the National Liberation Council that they were led for three years until elections were held. But, you know, as Nickana spoke to, there was a period of instability and economic decline because of the shift away from incremental socialist model. And so, you know, I think I just wanted to add those really quickly before we lived on the next question.

Yeah, important points. And you mentioned Cabral talking about the betrayal of the revolution and this becoming a sort of pattern. One of the people that jump out to mind immediately is Thomas Sankara, who could be seen as a direct political descendant of Kwame Nakruma, a lot of the same ideas, a lot of the same goals, also betrayed by at one point a very close friend and comrade to him in that coup, right? So it's like an exact parallel just a couple decades later in the case of Sankara. And to this day, Sancarra's legacy, which is in part Nekrumas' legacy, continues to live on in the new leadership of Burkina Faso, which we touched on a little bit in our last episode together. Encourage people to check that out if they want to learn more. But yeah, very important points. And, you know, one thing I'll say really quickly before we move on to exile and then wrap up this conversation is just these attempts at Pan-Africanism, at anti-colonialism, at,

socialism insofar as they are eventually toppled insofar as they are betrayed and crushed which we see time and time again what they are are the seeds of the future world we're trying to create nobody thinks looking over history that this world historic transition out of capitalism through socialism and towards communism is going to be something that is completed successfully the first try you know in a lot of ways you can think of the bolshevik revolution as like the first attempt to do this on a on a huge scale and that was immediately i mean it survived for several for generations but was immediately descended on by the world imperialist powers and they had to fight a brutal civil war after a brutal revolution um just to maintain power and and have control over their own society and where it goes so even though these um experiments are oftentimes

sadly tragically betrayed undermined toppled destroyed they plant the seeds that are carried on in the future. So yeah, Kwame Nakruma was overthrown in a coup, right? But that legacy lives on throughout Africa to this day, inspiring countless leaders since Nakruma to continue his fight. And in that way, you know, Nakruma's legacy lives on and continues to inspire and motivate people in Africa and beyond Africa, people interested in black liberation, people interested in anti-colonialism, etc. And so I think it was Fred Hampton who said, You can kill a revolutionary, but you can never kill a revolution. And we see that in this case and so many others incredibly clearly.

So that's just my two cents on that. But let's go ahead and talk about Nekrumah up into his death. So as you said, he was never allowed back into Ghana after the coup. And Nekrumah lived in exile in Guinea up until his death in 1972. Just a few short years later, tragically from what I believe is cancer. Can you talk about how he spent these years in exile? and ultimately how he died. Yeah, so, you know, like you mentioned,

he was in Guinea, Guinea Connickory, right? Not to be confused with the Guinea, the Sal of Amalcarcabraal. But yeah, his time in Guinea Connary is sometimes called the Conniquary period. And so that time lasted just over five years from March 1966 until he left for medical treatment

in Romania in August 1971 and you know, some folks regard those five years as some were the most interesting of his life even though it's maybe less significant

right than the time that he was leading Ghana and leading the independence movement there and the move towards pan aphanism but you know It was written about by kind of his secretarial assistant, June Mill, who also wrote a very strong biography of Enkrumah called Forward Ever.

And, you know, in her writings, she described, you know, that Enkrim was living in a villa in Guinea Connary that was given to him by the leader of of the of the government at the time Shafu Turing and you know he wasn't in a position of governmental power

but he did kind of have a title of co-president there was more symbolic and a show of solidarity even though you know he wasn't directly interfering in politics

and getting Conniquary and you know his time was mostly spent just reading writing corresponding with supporters working on ideological projects to promote African unity and

scientific socialism. He wrote a whole lot of essays on his political views and theories and this is what he published books like Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare and Class Struggle in Africa. He also was traveling abroad for

conferences and business with leaders like Castro and Cuba, Fidel Castro, and Nasser in Egypt. He was sponsoring pan-African friendship societies and speaking on university campuses and, you know, radio broadcasts that were heard across Africa, I think specifically on Radio Guinea. And he also, you know, tried to directly organize opposition to the government in Ghana from afar.

And so, yeah, he was, you know, very active. even, even in, uh, in, uh, in Guinea Conigree. Um, and, and so I think that is, uh, a, uh, very, um, significant into, in the sense that he, he was, you know, still so building. I think, you know, during this time, he was, uh, working with, uh, um, I'm at sake, secouture from, from, from, uh, to develop of the all African people's revolutionary party, which is still an active formation to this day, um, you know, um, um, you know, um, um, Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stopey Carmichael, was living in Guinea at the time, too, just to help build that formation. These are, like, Kwame Ture is obviously like an important figure, a major leader in the Black liberation movement here in the U.S. throughout the 60s and 70s, and he moved to Guinea economy to work with and Krumah and Safeway on that effort. And actually the All African People's Revolutionary Party is a member organization of the Black Lives of Peace. They sit on the coordinating committee and do a lot of important work. And so that's kind of a legacy that we could speak about more later.

But yeah, I think, you know, just because what we're also included just working with a number of, you know, revolutionary leaders. like we mentioned Cabral. Cabral, Cabral was visiting a lot, visiting Guineconigree to, you know, build with Incrumah and others in the country. Folks like Du Bois and, you know, many, many major figures in, in revolutionary history were visiting just to interact and, you know, work within Cruma while they were in Guinea Conradigris. So I think, you know, though he was in exile,

he was still, you know, working to propagate revolutionary pan-Afriness thought and, like, the critique of Western colonialism, Western neo-colonialism through his writing and, and organizing. And even if, you know, he had less direct political power since he was not in office and gone a bit. Yeah, that speaks to some of his work at even after he was, even after the coup. Yeah. Yeah, and what it paints is the picture of Nekrumah as a sort of tirelessly dedicated to the cause, whether he's in political power, in exile, whatever situation history places him in, he's still doing what he can in his circumstances. And that is, you know, a hallmark of a true revolutionary.

In April of 1972, Kwameh Krumer drew his last breath in a hospital in Bucharest, Romania. Until he met his death, Kualem Krumer had survived five assassination attempts, and that is why the phrase Kualem Krumer never dies was coined. Never die In Roma never die He forever is Earlier in the day We were told that our father would be coming home

Yes and of course we were excited And we all dressed in our finest clothes Yes and you're right, yes I remember our mother looking particularly good In her chiffon dress And by the end of the end of the day an envoy came with this unbelievable news that our father had passed on. So according to the records, he died of cancer.

But his, a few people who were close to him in Guinea, are also saying that he could have been poisoned. It is America Cabral who said that Incrumah died out of a cancer of betrayal, and there was a lot of betrayal in Incrumas days. The voice of Emil Cabral, 1972, let no one tell us that Nekrumma died of cancer of the throat or some other disease. No, Nekrumah has been killed by the can. answer of betrayal that we should have ruled.

Kormin Krumer went down the books of history as the firebrand in Africa's liberation struggle. His vision for a United States of Africa continues to be realized. The reality is that they didn't stay on. Madiba is gone. Nkrumah is gone Secretary is gone Samora Michelle is gone NASA of Egypt is gone

that is our reality our tax is to create a new core of leaders visionary leaders leaders who want to see Africa free leaders who want to help Africans to develop confidence in themselves

in their culture in the food they eat in the way they dress in the way they walk and the way they talk. Leaders who want to encourage Africans to take control of their own resources, we need to engineer those new leaders. That is the tax.

I've told him he was a fine man. Grumar was dedicated to politics. He loved the nation. He loved Africa. He married Africa. He lived and died in politics. The Africa we have today is the legacy he left behind and a constant reminder that indeed Guamé and Krumah never dies.

Ghana, we now have freedom. Ghana, land of freedom. Toils of the brave and the sweat of the alibos. Toils of the brave which have brought to us. But my final question to both, you know, but my final question to both, of you is ultimately what is Kwame Nakruma's legacy both in Africa as well as around the world and why should those of us on the anti-colonial anti-imperialist revolutionary left around the world continue to study and learn from him and his example?

Yeah, this is a large question and it's so much to say, but I try to be sustained. I think it's important to the anti-colonial anti-imperialist revolutionary left because he set a standard. he showed by action how to support other revolutionary movements, how to remain principled, and how to navigate external forces, right? We're thinking about the series he outlined for strategies for liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. This is still a guide philosophy. It's what inspires math, you know, and so many other organizations to this day. We're thinking about, like we talked about last time, with Burkina Faso, Gideon, Nizier, and, you know, Mali, and these uprising, Africa is rising. There is this reinvigorated, re-emerging kind of anti-colonial movement

that is, I think, in his spirit, right? The alliance of the alien states recapturing and that realignment of what incremental's vision was. It's obviously different for today's conditions, but to see countries coming together and saying that attack on one and attack on all that embodies the Khruma, right, saying that we're going to integrate our politics, our economy, and we're going to deal with our problems on our own, to develop our own partnerships, right, with rest of China, oddly enough, still today doing that, saying, you know, Africans have the intellectual capacities to pick our partners and to see where our interests align and still doing that. I think that is, you know, we wouldn't be

where we're at today without him, right? And regardless of, I think, criticisms of some of his decisions, he would make a decisions in a, it's emotionalist time, he was making decisions in an era, a new era, that it's easy to look back and say, well, we would have done. But there hadn't been too many decolonial anti-imperalist Marxist revolutionary movements in Africa like this. Right. So he sets a standard, as I said before, into what we can look at towards the future, right? I think as somebody a map, it has a pan-African perspective. when I look at our U.S. out of Africa

network steering committee, that is you know, of Akhruma. When I'm looking at these other movements throughout the continent specifically to Sihil that is of Ruma. And what we can learn from in general is that his analysis was still correct. I say this about Malcolm Mexico all the time. I was like, you read

Malcolm, you are a good shape. You probably know more than like 90% of L.A. Polyside students because their analysis is still very prevalent today. When you look at, you know, when you look at the IMF World Bank Africa, these are manifestations of neo-colonicalism that he spoke to that are undermining African unity

and ultimately like proletarian revolution globally, right? So he still was correct in that. Now the answer is how do we pick up what he left off at and for our material conditions today deal with these contradictions, deal with colonialism, deal with neo-colonialism,

deal with these puppets and these sellouts and these, you know, the black misleadership class. Like we have a role to play, right? And, like, it's, it's up to us now. So I think he plays a pivotal role today in current movements. I think he informs ethophically, politically. And for me, ultimately, just like in my action, I think about, like, you know, the larger movement that I'm part of in the legacy that we're all carrying as pan-Africans.

Yeah, Tunday, anything to add to that? Yeah, I mean, I think, Nick, you spoke to a lot of what I was going to speak to. I'll just emphasize the, you know, also in criminal relations. definitively on neo-colonialism is that and that being you know one of our primary enemies one of our primary impediments

to to achieving pan-Afghanism to you know building socialism right and so you know the the structures y'all mentioned as far as africom native IMF World Bank and dollar hegemony you know that

that text neocolonialism the last stage of imperialism is so enlightening. I think that there's so many applicable lessons we can take from that. I think even, you know, Rodney's book

about neocolonialism and drew a lot from Incrumas' work. And I think, you know, like Nick mentioned, right, like the work of Incuma, the work of Rodney is so crucial to BAP's respective. And, you know, just to get

into that a little bit more. Like in Krumas book, the handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, he outlines like a strategy, a concrete, you know, just steps that need to be taken to achieve

pan-Africanism, to achieve the total liberation and unification of African, African people under scientific socialism. And one of his, one of the things they needed to be built, to be instituted, was a kind of all African people's revolutionary army, a military with an African high command

that would kind of steer things. You know, he was writing about how, you know, obviously, I think Brett you spoke to this as far as, you know, how, you know, Africa will be liberated sooner or later, right? Like, we will, we will be victorious through all these struggles through these projects for for socialism. And, you know, and Crima's vision was for there to be kind of a high command to plan and initiate action and achieve revolution, right? And now there's kind of

a subversion of that plan, right? And I'm speaking of Africa, right? Like, there's an effort by the imperialist to create kind of a command that kind of, you know, dwarfs attempts at, you know, African liberation, authority. attempts at liberation, right? And so I think, you know, we, we understand neocolonialism is one of our primary enemies as African people. And so, you know, and criminal works are so pivotal. I think one of the projects that the AAPRP was taken on was to update the handbook of Revolutionary Warfare for

our current time. But, you know, obviously so much of what he wrote would be, is still, you know, relevant, you know, the emphasis on coordination, the emphasis on, you know, unity and liberation and really the work for all of these different struggling formations throughout the continent and the diaspora to come together and to really build together towards this liberated future is kind of what, you know, BAP is trying to build. as Nick, you mentioned, the U.S. I have the African Network steering committee. We're trying to work with, you know, forces throughout the African world to, you know,

kind of coordinate to build towards our liberation. And so, you know, we see this as crucial. And I think, you know, the point around the alliance of Sahelian states is huge. I also wanted to point to an example in this, and the horn of Africa, right? Like Eritrea, Somali, Ethiopia, they signed like a tripartite agreement, right?

Which was a kind of a formal declaration, a conference of cooperation that kind of was moving in the direction of like a you know, of incriminous vision towards like Pan-Africanism. And it was kind of

emphasizing the close ties of geography, history, culture, and religion, as well as like the common interest, right, which I think is is key. And so I think, you know, there are attempts here and there to build towards fan Africanism, but I think the, you know, they're kind of undermined by, you know, things like neo-colonialism. And, you know, what one thing we hear often these days is like, oh, there's a genocide in Tigran, or Tigris, right? And that was something that we in that we pushed back

against just because of the way that, you know, the Tigray people's Ligranian. Front has been utilized by by imperialism, been a force for the West to kind of subvert the sovereignty of African people in the war. And so, you know, we are understanding and recognizing these manifestations of the neo-colonialism that in Krumas spoke about and, you know, trying to alert folks to it. But yeah, that's something that, you know, we and BAP are really serious about. We work with groups like the AAPRP. We work with the PIGC in

Guinea-Bissau. We work with groups like the Revolutionist Socialist League in Kenya and the Economic Fighters League in Ghana. And, you know, there are a number of groups that we're trying to build with in the spirit of income.

Because we understand the necessity for us to be unified through organization to, you know, bite in a coordinated fashion towards unity as, you know, and Krumas spoke about. And so I just wanted to quickly raise those things before we move towards closure. Yeah. Incredibly important points. I'm so happy you identified yourselves and the Black Alliance for Peace as direct political descendants of Nekrumah, because that's absolutely the case. Your political education

work here today is one page in that book of Nekruma's influence and his ongoing legacy. And I deeply appreciate it. I really have so much respect for the Black Alliance for Peace. Highly encourage people to either join Black Alliance for Peace or, of course, their solidarity network. All those links will definitely be in the show notes. But as my final sort of question to you, can you let listeners know where they can find you as individuals and your organization online. And if you have any last minute recommendations for anyone who might want to learn more about Nekrumah, you can also throw those up here too. Yeah. Thanks, Brett. Appreciate you as always. I would say if you want to find And what we're doing, tap in with us with BAP Chicago, and that's just VAP Chicago.

That's the chapter that I had, and we're doing a lot of work around anti-military recruitment for youth. So if you're interested in that type of work, we have an anti-imperilist orientation, of course, you know, tap in. Obviously, at the Black Collinian Peace for Instagram and Facebook and Twitter for our national to stay updated to with everything going on. And then with me, Nicholas Sean R.T., if you want to tap it with me personally, but definitely direct you towards. Black Alliance for Peace, Chicago, and Black Alliance Peace, Tundee? Yeah, and everything Nick mentioned, just on and also up with Daph Atlanta, you know, on Instagram and on Twitter, we're also trying to build, you know, anti-careless struggle where we are. You know, we're working, struggling against Cobb City.

We're struggling against, you know, the Gilly Program, the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, And really just, you know, engaging in political education in our community, trying to do outreach and, you know, build a base of power. So I think, you know, Jeff definitely want to encourage folks to tap in with us on social media. And if you want to connect with me, I'm on Twitter at tunday.osawa. And then on Instagram at Tunea Osawa. And so, yeah, tap in. And then, yeah, just wanted to also say that, you know, we encourage folks to check out Incrua's writings. You know, he wrote so much that is, I guess, important for folks to study that it would be very helpful and illuminating as you're, you know, try to understand these processes, this history and this theory.

And so it definitely wanted to encourage folks to check out books like neocolonism, handbook of Revolutionate Warfare, Class Travel in Africa, Conscientism, you know, Dark Days and Beyond, right? He wrote a ton of books and has a lot of essays and speeches. And, yeah, just so much to check out. I'll also uplift that, you know, fellow bat member, Sheree Berenstelli, Dr. Shrease Brunselli, Dr. Dr. Lailer Brown did a talk about incrementalist consciousness. that it was hosted by the monthly review that I think is really fantastic. People should check that out too. And then if folks want to check out, you know, things that other folks have written about Akruma, maybe check out June Mill, who is his, I guess, editorial assistant.

She's written some really good stuff on, you know, Khruma's Life. So I'll stop it. Yeah, perfect. We love Dr. CBS, absolutely. a lot of Kwame Nakrumas works, including neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism, I believe is free online, some of them even on Marxist.org. So the resources are out there for people who want to go read Nakrumah directly. And I just have to again sing the praises of the Black Alliance for Peace because every member of BAP that I have ever personally met and encountered

and talked with are some of the most principled, dedicated, consistent comrades that I've ever met. And you two are perfect examples of just that. So thank you so much for coming on. today politically educating our audience about Kwame Nakruma's amazing life and legacy and this if I have anything to say about it this will certainly not be anything close to the last time all of us get together and do something like this so thank you for your time today I really appreciate it thanks for having us thank you Brett for all that you do as well much love Thank you for listening. RevLeft Radio is 100% listener funded.

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