Rev Left Radio - Kwame Nkrumah: The Great Pan-African Revolutionary Leader of Ghana

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Nicholas Richard-Thompson and Tunde Osazua from the Black Alliance for Peace join Breht to discuss the life and legacy of Kwame Nkrumah. Together, they discuss the Ghanaian Marxist and Pan-Africanist politician, political theorist, and revolutionary, his upbringing, his entrance into Ghanaian and African politics, his political ideology, the many assassination attempts on his life, the coup that overthrew him and who backed it (just take a guess...), his life in exile, his continuing legacy on the continent and beyond, and much more!    Learn more and support Black Alliance for Peace    Follow Nicholas on Twitter    Follow Tunde on Twitter   BAP Chicago's Twitter     IMPORTANT: As the PAIGC/A-APRP is an active member of BAP's U.S Out of Africa Network (USOAN), and As the PAIGC is facing dire political repression within Guinea Bissau due to its substantial revolutionary gains against neo-colonialism in that country,   We therefore call on BAP and the USOAN to mobilize immediate support for the PAIGC/A-APRP.   Please read the following for background information: The A-APRP Condemns the Attack on the PAIGC and the PAI Terra Ranka Coalition, 4 December 2023 By A-APRP African Party for The Independence Of Guinea and Cape Verde,  PRESS RELEASE: December 10, 2023   By National Secretariat     ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support Rev Left Radio 

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 Nakruma'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-imperial 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.

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So if you're not already a listener of guerrilla history, you can find Gorilla History on any of your preferred podcast apps. And, you know, it's a part of the Rev Left family. And it's really important. We do proletarian history. We have on academic experts quite often. So it's really a deep dive. into history over there. Check that out. And they themselves have a really cool sort of not well known yet, unfortunately, but people should know about it, spinoff show called Gorilla Radio, where we have a

rotating sort of cast of different hosts covering different topics, a lot of time centered on organizing in real time. So check out guerrilla history, check out guerrilla radio, both of which are spelled G-U-E-R-R-I-L-L-A. That's how you spell gorilla in this context. So yeah, check out Virilla history, check out Guerrilla Radio if you haven't already subscribed to them, show them some love as well. They are connected to the Revleft family and we do important work over there. So check those 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 Kwame Nakrumah. 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, 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. And we just think we can learn a great deal from his work around scientific socialism. So, you know, we are really going to be talking about, you know, the 20th century because he was born towards the beginning of the 1900s and, you know, he dies around 1972. So that's kind of the

period that we'll be addressing today. Definitely. Yeah, thank you. And I just wanted to say, 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 Crowfell in what was known at the time is 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 sea just growing up and at 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, in, uh, uh, across, uh, 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, uh, in, in a crowd, in 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, and W.B. Du Bois, who were, who were also, you know, giants in Pan-African and his history and 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 Enkriman 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, Ghana, 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 are influencing his ideological development,

in his political development. And then, you know, after he finished his studies, he went to the UK 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, you know, 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, you know, 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 is pulling from. You mentioned also De 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. DeBois. We've already had on Gerald Horn for one installment, Dr. CBS, Cherise Burden Stelly, for a second installment,

and we're working on a third and a fourth right now. So that series is ongoing. People should definitely check out De Bois 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 Nekruma's influences. The next question I want to move into is talking about Nekruma's political organizing. So we understand where he comes from. We understand sort of his major influences, his basic education.

But Nekruma 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 195, 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 Crumma's. vision and further submits his ideas of pan-Africanism and internationalism and unity, right? So the 1945-fifth Pan-African Congress happened 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 Cadamore as like the main organizers. The Congress is discussing difference 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. Du Bois, who was also present and part of that, and Mark 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 U.K. 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 colonial, 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, their attention to that eventual split. This party, the UGCC, 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. That phrase, that slogan will be important later. But as they're, like, advocating for this, a lot of things are going on, right? You have Joseph Bocay and J.B. Daqua, who are, like, some of the leaders of the party, there's like this big six that they call of the debate

organizing, which is 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 the two parties wanted to go forward right and the disagreements arise out of these these differences in 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 Kruber just sorts it to independent or self-governance 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-Afrikanism, which we'll talk a lot later. He says, we don't, we can't leave it to the next five, six generations. We have to unify now. And, and. And. And. And. And. And. And. And 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 view with class with the conservative leadership of the UGCC, who are essentially, you know, in my estimation, from, you know, 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 criminal forms what's called the Convention's People's Party or the CPP. And the 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 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 in the gold post had primarily focused on like the urban intelligentsia while in criminal had a large focus on the youth

while his state and the 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 Krumah's slogan of self-government. And with that, you're seeing Kruma trying, he's actually galvanizing a large base of youths 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 the different outbreaks all over the country and they call for a state of emergency and Akruma 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 are banned of the CPP, and there are the organs, and, like, a lot of their work is suspended.

What will come 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, and we're going to talk about this later, but they had had eyes on the crew of from the onset, kind of of the independent struggle. and fall ahead 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 ties with the USSR and China. But during his day and 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 percent, the party emerged victorious, right? in all the municipal and general elections with Crimea 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 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 destabilization 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 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 um 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 you know how exactly does that work as as prime minister in that system yes so 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 he gave him a lot more power than he previously he had. So after Gallagher gains 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 underfide in many ways because he was backing and funding other independence movements. But so when the CPP wins in 1952, the crew was 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 Gidea 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 at you know political economy 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 i tire to a lot of other leaders. And, like, he's nicknamed, like, the Deliverer of Ghana, the star of Africa, the father

in Pan-Apranism 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 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 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 and dialogue with those who were dissatisfied with him at the time, but then he was able to soothe 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 can come to your home and have that much accessibility to you and there isn't a concern 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, pet and African unity, and much more. Yeah, wonderful. And we'll definitely get to that in detail. But that's very clarifying. So he basically becomes like this titular role as prime minister under 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 he uses that lesser role to push for a more robust independent. dependence 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 Nekrumah 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 de-legitimize 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, etc. So with that in mind, was Nekrumah's 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, you know, 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. 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 for us to take the ideas of African people and African theorists as seriously as, well, just to take them seriously as philosophy, take them seriously as ideas. There's a philosopher named Lewis 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 social. list 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 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 Conscienceism that there really is a heavily philosophical text. And, you know, even Phelan, 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

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 what incrument's work was doing. So, you know, we can, we can call his political ideology incrumatism 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 accruement, 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 Imcrumah, you know, all black people 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 primacy 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 Increment 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 a nonviolent protest. But then, you know, he starts going into, you know, his experience and his learnings from the independent struggle with the Ghanaian process through his autobiography, Ghana, which is a great book to read Ghana, the autobiography of. probably in Krumba. And then, you know, after, you know, the independence struggle that, you know, he ascended to president through is completed.

He published African-Must unite that kind of crystallized his pan-Afghanist dream for a politically united Africa, you know, 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 scientism or conscientism which expounds the socialist political philosophy for harnessing

traditional African economic and social practices alongside like that modernization process that rejects Western capitalist development models he also wrote a seminal text

neo-colonialism 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 166. 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 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 are 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 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 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, the core of Marxism. 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 Nekrumah, 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 Lennon 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 before we get into Nekrumah as Ghana's 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, 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 independence. 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 of things are, 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 national, 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 language is 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 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 Appeals. 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're talking 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 jurei from tonsia you has a bobway patrice mumba and a bunch of other african leaders who are striving for independence again as mentioned earlier in cruma 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, 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 name 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 a Kiribati, 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 old colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, or the final stage, like, come to force 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 speedy in which we go about. He was always very audacious in how he wanted to achieve these things and that short time. But I think that, you know, during that, you know, from the 1950s and

the former independence and, 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 as 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 he's, well, at the moment, he's paranoid about it, but later we have to be classified 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've become a one-party state. And he also institutes what's called a detention policy. And they see this at the pressant. This is my issue with this. One, the United States is the largest mass incarceration. We have institutions such as ICE, old national. security, CIA, SBI, and these other intelligence apparatuses, that do these same things on a wider scale. What Krimba 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 of 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 as a leader of a newly independent nation, still fighting off the clause of imperialism and colonialism. So I would say, you know, Incrum was a leading voice of Panaspernezo and anti-colonialism. And his master movement secured that self-rule and culminating 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, you know, are so alienated from the masses and actually, you know, function and are built to be sort of alienated from the masses. You know, whether it's the Democrats or the Republicans, we know neither of them, you know, represent our actual interests whatsoever. They're two faces of capital. And so, you know, 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 these two-party or multi-party Western, you know, forces of capital that put on different masks. So, yeah, just worth saying that. Right. Sorry to interrupt, and I agree with you. But you may be something, if I may. Sure. I want to read a quote by Julius Neri and, you know, Tanzania had its 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, uh, is coming from a place that it is inherently better. Uh, due to its, uh, it's origins where it emerges out of. And really what that, uh, uh, uh, 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 ally to, you know, global solidarity, internationalism, you know, we don't need your criticisms

of that. What we need is support in 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 support it. 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 you aren't Democratic, not 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-purellus,

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 and what your government's policies are as somebody in these scary authoritarian regimes like Russia or China. And in fact, ironically, both Xi 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 at, 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 Eurochauvinism 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 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 1957 to 1966, this is when Kwame and Krumah 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 Nekrumma. So you can talk about that as well. Yeah, sure. I'll take this part. And I think I'll let Tundi take the assassinations. 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, Mark Slandon, and Mao. You know, during his overthrow, he's actually visiting a whole team in, right? And some of the policies he sees implementing are, again, Marxism is a methodology. I think you excellently said it earlier. In Krumah, I think produces scientific socialism and utilizes it 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 this time, just metrics that are important to look at, you know, the cocoa production produced doubled.

We saw about a 5 to 7 percent GDP increased 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 gone with 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 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 the the external forces on his his government but those 68 state-owned factories were producing steel meat vestibals fruit, TVs, radios, 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 people. A part of this, though, was a very long-term vision to be a superpower on par with the United States and 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 reason is that, but you know, 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 has overseen and maybe not largest scale but I think in terms of how integral 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 and Volta 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 of, 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, sovereignty, and just goods as personal developments. What ends up happening, you know,

with this is everything is also tied to, like I said, self-sufficiency, decolonization, and Pat African Union. 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 uh the revival of ghana you are a part of this revolution right so by the end of this you know ghana and it's 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 developed a long-term vision uh to become self-sufficient in a very expedient time. They had the state-owned factories. We're seeing the GDP increase, which isn't like the only metric, but we're also seeing the quality of lights 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 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, 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 Krumah 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 then also, you know, his work across the African continent and, you know, in support of the Global South more broadly, working with, 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 as independence, when Incrumah became more outspoken against U.S. interests, right? CIA agents and others really include. 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 Incuma made to Comasi, a city, in Ghana and that police officer was believed to have been put up by opposition groups who were being funded by the U.S. and the CIA but incrimin was unharmed.

It was unsuccessful. There was another incident in August 1962 when a bomb exploded near Krumah in Kuhn, Gu, 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 uh folks who were you know uh uh uh working with that um uh west or u s funded uh opposition right um and in january in 1964 there were shots fired at encrumer during a parade like a celebration um and again right like he escaped with no injury but the shooter was uh identified to be a police officer with ties to the opposition. I'll speak a little bit more about, you know, what who this opposition was, what their ties were to the U.S. to the CIA. But yeah, and 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 incremental resonance where he was living while he was present inside and members of his presidential guard managed to kill and capture the attackers who again were tied to these open position 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 57 up until the coup in 1966. Like, they were, there's deep class of CIA information that cites agents building close relations to key opposition figures like

the chief of police, JWK, Harley, and the National Liberation Movement Opposition Party members, starting from 1958 onwards, right? So the CDIA was providing them with material support, helping them to coordinate plans, 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 in Krumah from power through tactics like, you know, engineered cabinet splits or financing for the opposition, you know, false allegations in the local press, local media, and really just directly arming these folks who were, you know, bombing or shooting at or attacking Krumma or trying to carry out the, uh, the assassination attempts. Um, 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 the 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 the story is right like there are many instances like we've seen with many other of these

uh uh um i guess revolutionary leaders who have gone up uh and and and you know been very firm in their anti imperialist stances and their stances for um socialism for national liberation um and and so i think you know it's uh it's almost by luck or not by by by by planning right like They had a very strong security apparatus that helped Incrumma 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. 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, a cigar that explodes. I mean, this is what the U.S. does. The U.S.-led imperialist block does, and they'll use 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 Mosadek 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 Nekrumah'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-Afrikanism, 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, Akon Duvue, Seik Ture and Guinea, Mendebo, Keita. and Mali and others, right? And under Uncrumas 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 pushing 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 is 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 aparthe 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 the goal was to make Ghana a base of operation 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 to off 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 Incruman was. And so I think it's important to mention, like you said, that Incruman played a leading role

in the non-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 area, 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 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 in 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 Nasser 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 coup Ghana 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 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 his connections with with you know these movements throughout throughout the global south and beyond

yeah and these these international connections are so beautiful because they're they really show a sharp contrast to the way that you 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 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 connections, these decolonial connections, these socialist connections. Of course, they're not perfect. that 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 very cool to see. It's like it's cool to see in Akhruma in this in this Mao style suit. I think it's fucking awesome. 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 and Krumah. So I think there's lots of fascinating connections for people that want to learn more. Now, going forward, forward, something we've touched on or sort of alluded to throughout this conversation is, of course, ultimately, Nakrumah 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 Khrman'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 should. 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, their 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, essentially due to the socialist leanings and the line with the Soviet Union and China. But a lot of things that will 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 today 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 a response 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 works. 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, support it, but brilliantly orchestrated because Akirma is in North Vietnam at this time.

He is on a diplomatic mission of what character is unknown, but at this time, they see 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. 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 try. to mend things with Incurba by sending a black face. Incurma 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, 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 misinformed. 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 threatened to bomb the Krumas Hall where his family was. And the only reason they didn't is because of Krimba's wife tells the soldiers to lay their arms down and say, okay, like this is like stop this. this violence. But throughout this, the records show that parts of Increba'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 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 conspire 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 like look back a cursory view of history what they'll say is well his economy wasn't doing well this isn't true uh you know people were dissatisfied with the lack of 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 the military uh leaders but like for the masses they're still enjoying a relatively very stable economy democracy's not really 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. this. It was then, you know, bounced upon the moment

with the, with Krumah'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 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 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 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. It's the only reason why we know about these operations because for all other intensive purposes

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 in 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 was 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 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 quickly In terms of You know, the athlete, speaking to what y'all Raised, right?

Like, there was a lot of outrage Like, mass outrage 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-Kibraub that kind of encapsulates some of the feelings. right uh uh cabral gave a speech titled the cancel of the cancer rather of gratu uh that uh you know was

delivered uh in crumman's funeral in 1972 and and basically you know uh uh cabral speaks about how you know incrimin was was so important to um uh pan africanism and you know that this philosophy was so popular 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 blow for the Pan-African movement for incumet to be deposed to go through this coup. and, you know, basically he, uh, 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, um, 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. Um, I don't know that it's, it is, it's, it's, it's 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 knows. longer directly involved himself in Ghanaian politics and never went back to Ghana. And the coup leaders, the national liberation council, that they 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 course. 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 Nekrumah's 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, et cetera. 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 sense 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, Basel of Amalcarcabraal. But yeah, his time in Guinea Connacry 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 and 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 in 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 by the leader 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 conicry and you know his 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 you know, leaders like Castro in Cuba, Fidel Castro, and Nasser in Egypt. He was, you know, 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, in Guinea Conigree.

And so I think that is very significant in the sense that he was, you know, still building. I think, you know, during this time, he was working with Ahmed Sekuturei from Guinea-Kadakri to develop the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, which is still an act. formation to this day. You know, Kwameh 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 getting economy to work with in Krumah and Safegu Turei, 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 Gini Connoctuary to, you know, build with Incrumah and others in the country, folks like Du Bois and, you know, many, many major figures

in revolutionary history were visiting just to interact and, you know, work within Krumah while they were in Guinea chronic Greece. So I think, you know, though he was in exile, Um, uh, he was still, you know, working to propagate revolutionary pan-Afriness thought and, like, uh, the critique of Western colonialism, Western neo-colonialism through his writing and, and, and, and, and organizing. Um, and, uh, even, even if, you know, he had less direct political power, um, uh, since he, he was not in, uh, in office and gone a bit. Yeah, that, that speaks to some of, some of his, uh, even after, uh, he was, um, even after, um, even after, uh, he was, um, um, um, even after. too. 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, Kerman Krumer drew his last breath in a hospital

in Bucharest, Romania. Until he met his death, Kwame and Krumah had survived five assassination attempts, and that is why the phrase Kwameh and Krumah Never Dies was coined. Earlier in the day, never die, never die, never die. 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 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 a maker Cabral who said that Khrumar died out of a cancer. 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 Nekuma died of cancer of the throat or some other disease. No, Nekrumah has been killed by the cancer of betrayal that we should have root. Kormen 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. Madhiba is gone. Krumah 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 he was a fine man. Grumann 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 Cruma never dies. Toils of the brieve and the sweat of the alibos. Toils of the brim which have brought returns. 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 succinct. 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 theories he outlined for strategies for liberation and unification of Africa under scientific socialism. them. This is still a guiding philosophy. It's what inspires Bath, you know, and some of the 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, you know, Africa is rising. There is this reinvigorated, re-emergent kind of anti-colonial movement that is, I think, in his spirit, right? The alliance of the alien states recapturing and that, that realignment of what incremental vision was. It's obviously different for today's conditions.

but to see countries coming together and saying that attack on one and an attack on all that embodies the Karuma, right, saying that we're going to integrate our politics, our economy, and we're going to deal with our problems on our own accord, develop our own partnerships, right, with Russia and 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 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 for me, as somewhat 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 Khruma. When I'm looking at these other movements throughout the continent, specifically to Sikil, that is of Krumah.

And what we can learn from in general is that his analysis was still correct. I say this about Malcolm X 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 the IMF World Bank, Afrika, 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 neolism, deal with neo-colonialism, deal with these puppets and these sellouts and these you know the the black misleadership class like

we have a role to play right and like it's 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 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 that? Yeah, I mean, I think, Nick, you spoke to a lot of what I was going to speak to. I'll just emphasize, you know, also in Krumer wrote definitively on neo-colonialism, is that, and that being, you know, one of our primary enemies, one of our primary impediments to achieving Pan-Afrianism, to, you know, building socialism, right? And so, you know, the structures, y'all

mentioned as far as africom native i'mf world bank and dollar gegemony you know that that text neocolonialism the last stage of imperialism is so uh uh enlightening like i think that there's so many applicable uh um you know lessons we can we can take from that uh i think even you know rodney's spoke about uh neocolonialism and drew a lot from uh from uh krumas um work and and i think you know Like Nick mentioned, right, like the work of Incrumma, 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 In Kruma's 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, of african african people under um scientific socialism uh and and one of his uh one of the things

they needed to be to be built to be instituted was uh a kind of all african people's revolutionary army uh a military with a uh an african high command um that that would uh kind of steer things uh 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 of these struggles through through these projects for socialism. And, you know, in criminal'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, thwart attempts at, you know, African liberation, the thwarts attempts at liberation, right? And so I think, you know, 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. and 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. towards our liberation. And so, you know, we, we see this as, is 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 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 comprehensive cooperation that kind of was moving in the direction of like a, you know, of incremental 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 interests, right, which I think 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-Clauble. And, you know, what one thing we hear often these days is like, oh, there's a genocide in Tigray, or Tigray, 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 liberation front has been utilized by imperialism, used, been a force for the West to kind of subvert the sovereignty of African people in the war.

And so, you know, we, we are understanding and recognizing these manifestations of the neocolonialism 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 increment 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,

incrimin 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 Nakruma, you can also throw those up here too. Yeah. Thanks, Brett. I appreciate you as always. I would say if you want to find 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-imperalist orientation, of course, you know, tap in. Obviously, at the Black Alliance for Peace for Instagram and Facebook and Twitter for our national to stay updated to what was 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, Tundee. Yeah. And everything Nick mentioned, just on also up with Gap Atlanta, you know, on Instagram and on Twitter, we're also trying to build, you know, anytime fearless. struggle where we are. You know, we're working, struggling against Coop 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, 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 in Krula's writings you know he wrote so much that is I guess important for folks to study

that it would be very helpful in illuminating as your 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 Revolutionary Warfare, Class Travel in Africa, Conscientism, you know, Dark Days and Gone and Beyond, right? He wrote a ton of books and has a lot of estes and speeches. And, yeah, just so much to check out.

I'll also uplift that, you know, fellow bat member, Sherees Burden Steli, Dr. Shrease Brun Selly, Dr. Lailer Brown did a talk about Incrumas Conscientism that 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 things that other folks have written about Incrumah, maybe check out June Mill, who is his, I guess, editorial assistant. She's written some really good stuff on in O'Criman's life. So I'll stop there.

Yeah, perfect. We love Dr. CBS, absolutely. A lot of Kwame Nakruma's 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 Nakruma 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. Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you.

They own everything. I've been enlightened since before 1700. Aluminati, not me. I'm from the jungle, from the sword, swinging people who could measure the sun and harness power from the land before the Spanish would come. I don't need Bavarian methods of secret societies. I can see that there's a power out suppressing the college.

Let's call the Mickey D's and Nestle and Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Call them Walmart and Rupert Murdoch. Big money holders. Fuck a triangle children, they got logos galore. No need the eye above the pyramid, just walk to the store. You are controlled by the dollar rose and pigs on patrol. So getting free is far beyond the bees. We charity go.

If I leave the earth old enough to see you spark getting it, and I can raise my family into me that I see fit shit. I don't need you, no conspiracy. The politricin politicians popping right in front of me, yeah. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets, and they own all the big media companies,

so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying. To get it what they want. Tell me what's the difference if it's the Illuminati or the Bilderberger group who put the shit up in the fruit. Instead of nitpicking the religion of the truth, just to sit and be the realist theorist in the world. Tell you what the truth is New shit the proof is a slow motion YouTube clip with scary music

Believe in these officials will be foolish but info with no action is useless Trying to open eyes organize and build power I know all about the hell I'm trying to get out of Two million dollars on sister Versaida head It's when you get it popping it they want you dead It's the information age that ain't what we're lacking It's the heart in the backbone to make it happen it happen love knowledge never patronized that but what we need to know is wish

is sacrifice at Jack well we know what they want they want more for themselves and less for everybody else but I'll tell you what they don't want they don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking they don't want well-informed well-educated people capable of critical thinking they're not interested in that that doesn't help them that's against their interests right Look, why you were zoned down on Info War Outside your kinfo got smoke, plus Popo had him in a figure four Between the rich and poor, yes, y'all at the Civil War

So imagine me let these Hitler's make me feel insecure Why would you let Coward to operate in the shadows have you Studying Skull and Bones, now you feeling vulnerable? Rewilding bullet holes in project hallways, hood service symbolism themselves From their mind vision to sail, not as in blood sale, Even though young blood fell, I'm talking about a four by four, young ends up for a sale sound like some trap shit to me all I did that recon and that's the only trap shit that y'all ever hear me speak on that's why I don't worry

about reptilians and shape-shifters we already got enough snakes and fakes who switch up the city alone look like a snake pit matrix mixed with complacency watched by CI agency that's the least of my issues though I got seats to raise plus powers that be playing a game a keep away to keep our freedom and people that pay the distant shows that crimes against us never pop by coincidence Oh, you think I'm lying it's right there on the fucking news. Read between a hundred lines. Stop back from life you fucking new.

Fucking new. Fucking new.