By now most know that Samia Nkrumah has become one of Africa’s new darlings for the future of women in politics. With the polarizing Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the former first lady & founder of the 31st December Women’s Movement out of the running for the 2012 Ghana elections, many have their eyes on Samia Nkrumah to possibly be the first woman elected to Ghana’s presidency, following in the footsteps of her father & Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf & other women presidents around the world in also solidifying her place in the world record books as 1st. With the rise of Samia Nkrumah being elected as MP (member of parliament ) in her father’s hometown & then being named the chairperson for the CPP ( her father’s party ) along with the subsequent departure of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, who was the CPP’s 2008 presidential candidate as well as the foreseen flag-bearer for 2012, there is now an opening for Samia Nkrumah to surge forward toward her presidential dreams & to follow in her father’s footsteps.

“A leading member of the New Patriotic Party, (NPP) John Ndebugre has stated that the Convention People’s Party (CPP) will be destroyed if it goes ahead with plans to expel 2008 flag bearer Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. According to him, the party will poll less than 1 per cent if recent happenings between Dr. Nduom and some executives of the party are not resolved. The Chairperson of the CPP, Samia Nkrumah on Monday fired salvos at Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, for allegedly orchestrating activities to disintegrate the party. Samia stated that Dr Nduom is behind “all negative happenings” taking place in the party. “We’ll not tolerate this nonsense, enough is enough, we are fed up with this nonsense” Samia said. Samia also threatened that Dr. Nduom could face expulsion from the CPP if he is found guilty of all the accusations leveled against him. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has been accused by party officials including General Secretary Ivor Greenstreet of being behind calls for an early congress….” READ MORE

Dr. Nduom has put in the hard work to bring visibility & viability back to the fledgling party of Ghana’s first president, but with public infighting & outbursts from Samia Nkrumah threatening to dismiss Dr. Nduom from the party if he does not fall in line to the mandates of the party with her as the chairperson determining the movements of the party, it was inevitable that in a nation that holds respect for our elders at the top of all things in our culture, that Dr. Nduom would not take kindly to public disrespect by a young female novice to the political arena in a resurrected CPP, which he was a catalyst in returning as a player in what has become a two party system in Ghana, rendering all other parties irrelevant.

“The Chairperson of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Samia Yaba Nkrumah, has told Citi News that the party has no intentions of bringing Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom back into its fold. The Member of Parliament for Jomoro said the party wishes Dr Nduom well, adding that his resignation presents the CPP with a “golden opportunity” to surge forward in unity without “ambiguity” and hurdles. ‘We wish Dr. Nduom well but we knew that it was a possibility he would leave the party. It does not affect us in anyway. It rather presents us with a great opportunity to do away with the ambiguity that had been attached to this party for some time now. There is no disunity within the party,” she stated. However, Samia, daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, denied allegations that she is the main reason for Dr. Nduom’s decision to quit the party after her public outburst and threat to expel the party’s 2008 flag-bearer.…” READ MORE

On December 28th, Dr. Nduom held a press conference to officially announce his resignation from the CPP, electing to start his own independent party that will carry through on the vision he had set forth as the presidential candidate for the CPP.

“The decision by Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom to abandon the CPP ship to form his own party could at best be described as the most risky political gamble of the century. The move does not come as a surprise to most political watchers because it had been on the radar for quite sometime now. Nobody begrudges Dr. Nduom for the decision, coming at a time when the entire CPP leadership were turned on him. Over the past years, Dr. Nduom had had some brushes with the leadership of the CPP and in one of such instances under the Professor Edmund Delle administration, Dr. Nduom together with Freddie Blay and Kojo Armah, then Members of Parliament for the CPP were suspended from the party following some disagreements. The current executives find Dr. Nduom a tough nut to crack. He disagrees with them on policy direction, whilst the current executive thinks the party should hasten slowly by building its structures first, Dr. Nduom sees it differently. History our elders say, keeps repeating itself. The CPP was born in 1947 when its founder, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, then General Secretary broke away from his colleagues in the UGCC over whether to accelerate agitations for self government or go it slow. It is unimaginable how Dr. Nduom thinks he can win the Presidential election with an entirely new party when he had performed abysmally in 2008, garnering one-point-three percent of total votes cast….”READ MORE

2012 seems to be building up to be a very exciting & unpredictable election year for Ghana with many more surprises in store. There is no secret being made about the disunity between the current NDC administration & former President Rawlings & his controversial first lady, who have made it their job to cause all sorts of havoc, strife & drama in the life of current President Mills & his administration, with accusations of bad leadership, corruption & just an all around lack of confidence in what they see as his weak ineffective term as president after he had been under the tuteledge of former president J.J. Rawlings as his vice president. It seems there is no loyalty, love & frienship left amongst many of the leading parties in Ghana -which will inevitably lead the way for the NPP & Nana Akufo- Addo to easily sweep in over the dark cloud of disunity, choas & confusion of the challenging parties to win the 2012 election, if the NPP can avoid these types of public battles in showcasing any disunity that may or may not arise in their own party. It seems with speculators speaking of what led to the defeat of Nana Akufo-Addo in 2008, the once inappropriately boastful flag-bearer of the NPP who spoke of his sure fire victory, his almost entitled presidential legacy & his un-presidential verbiage on his bedroom/sexual capabilities employing a political agitator to go ask his wife about  how he is in bed -has been silently watching his competitors implode on themselves, much like the Democrats in the United States are watching the Republicans do the same in America.

Anyone in politics knows that any party that is not unified ends up splitting the vote  in favor of  electing its opposition. This public strife and disunity amongst the NDC & CPP alike maybe the best Christmas present the NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo got this year in looking forward to a guaranteed victory in 2012, unless his message somehow completely does not resonate with the majority of Ghanaians, his party falls into the same chaos or some other unforeseen surprises come up to tilt the scale away from an NPP victory.

Ghana in 2011 has been filled with political surprises in a never ending topsy turvy cycle of turncoats , judases & plain old disgruntle party members who have taken the position of my way or no way toward their own parties. First Lady Nana Kondau’s unprecedented battle to unseat a sitting president of her own party by contesting his seat for his second term along with her constant barrage of insults & challenges against President Mills, juxtaposed with her husband’s cosigns with his own barrage of no confidence rhetoric against his former VP has all but put the nail in the coffin of a guaranteed unified NDC voting pool for 2012.

“Former President Jerry John Rawlings and founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) yesterday invoked the spirit of the infamous 31st December 1981 Revolution when he stressed the urgent need for what he called a ‘house cleaning exercise’ to rid the party of corrupt officials. He said it was not too late for leadership of the party to go back to the grassroots- to the foot soldiers- and listen to them because ‘the level of despondency amongst our support base is largely due to the detachment of our leadership from the people.’ Addressing a large crowd of mainly NDC foot-soldiers at the National Theatre in Accra yesterday as part of the events to mark the 30th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution, the NDC founder decried the manner in which President Mills and members of his administration were running the country with corruption at its highest peak.’Many in the NDC leadership now believe they do not owe any explanation to the populace,’ he said. On allegations of abuse of office, corruption, malfeasance, incompetence and a host of other vices characterising the current administration, Mr Rawlings said, ‘they respond in good measure by accusing the opposition of having done worse things……’ Read More

These days it seems like Former President J.J. Rawlings & his first lady have all but signed the papers as supporters of the NPP to win the presidency in 2012. They seem to be playing a school yard game of the flamboyant popular kids bullying the nerdy sickly weak kid that once followed their every wish & command, who is now met with constant insults & public taunts because that sickly weak kid all of a sudden grew up & found strength in his own voice & became his own man & leader, much to the chagrin & angst of those who once led him. Will President Mills be able to pull his own “revenge of the nerds” style victory by silencing the raucous banter of the Rawlings family & their supporters against him? This is the question that many of President Mills‘ supporters are eagerly looking forward to be answered as the 2012 election approaches.

Will Samia Nkrumah be the Barack Obama of Ghana- a one term MP of mixed heritage, who finds herself at the right place at the right time in a fledgling party who needs the hope & change that she represents in a beautifully well cultivated package that will be pleasing to the eyes, ears & tastes of Ghanaians begging for change & newly found freedom in hope, much like her father represented as he stepped out of the shadows of the big six & became the superstar who led Ghana to victorious independence from colonial rule & gave the Convention People’s Party (CPP) global recognition? The rift in the CPP  that forced Dr. Nduom’s resignation has clearly made many wonder if either Dr. Nduom or Samia’s political ambitions have not superseded the needs of Nkrumahist loyalists. It has even gone as far as causing not only a divide in the CPP, but also in Samia’s immediate family with her younger brother Sekou. Samia’s immediate family is coming more & more into question as she becomes more of a public figure in Ghana. With Ghana’s growing population of Italians & general globalization, are Ghanaians ready for the first man of their first female president to be Italian? You rarely hear about or see Samia’s Italian/Danish husband Michele Melega & son Kwame. I have scoured the internet looking for photos of them together & I can’t seem to find any, which makes we wonder would the visual be too much for some Ghanaians to digest & stand behind when many of them can’t even see themselves voting for their fellow full blown Ghanaians just because they are from another tribe or from the North?

Perhaps the new generation of Ghanaians who have been making noise to be rid of the old brigade in order to build their future are looking for the second coming of Dr. Nkrumah , so they could write the wrongs of their fathers & mothers who many of the younger generation believe were complicit in bringing the coup against him that eventually stifled the future of not only Ghana, but of Africa as a whole to a dream deferred instead of a dream realized. Many first & second generation American & European born children of Ghanaians along with the new expats who are flooding into Ghana seeking their African dream, maybe the voting block & constituency that may change the game toward one candidate or another in the upcoming 2012 elections. There is a rapidly growing number of dual citizenship card carrying Ghanaians & their children who are becoming more & more politically involved, have learned the power of their vote from abroad & are ready to utilize that power in 2012 in Ghana. Samia Nkrumah on the surface is the face of this constituency in Ghana & abroad, but does she have the platform, know how & fire to cause a political explosion in new beginnings for Ghana like her father did?

In historical reality, Dr. Nduom’s departure from the CPP in dissatisfaction with their efforts to rebuild the party gradually instead of surging forward in full force as a true contender to take Ghana’s presidency in 2012 is more reminiscent of Dr. Nkrumah’s unflappable fortitude in breaking from the reigns of Ghana’s Big Six to surge forward in his own path to declare “forward then to Independence Now“! Dr. Nduom can easily go back to his former NPP party & bring his supporters to guarantee the type of split allegiances that will benefit a NPP victory, but he has chosen to go on his own, declare an independent new party in Ghana where he is founder & leader, much like Dr. Nkrumah did with the CPP. Dr. Nduom’s presidential packaging is also as appealing to the people of Ghana who are looking for their own Ghanaian version of President Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama. Dr. Nduom is a social media savvy,  intelligent, highly educated, well spoken statesmen with an equally intelligent, highly educated, well spoken & elegant would be first lady by his side, whose platform much like Michelle Obama is also to inform & educate Ghanaian people about healthy living, healthy eating & growing your own food. While in the vision of Dr. Nkrumah, Dr. Nduom has declared a New Independence Movement in Ghana with young men & women at the forefront, many pundits have already declared  Dr. Nduom’s decision to surge forward independently as a big mistake in a decision that is said to be self serving, much like they said about Dr. Nkrumah’s decision to do the same.

Ghana’s politicos do not belive Dr. Nduom can possibly pull in more than even a meager 1% of votes, let alone pull an upset. As Ghanaians young & old become more & more frustrated with what seems to be a two party system that just continues to give more of the same year after year without any major big leaps in progress economically or otherwise to show for it, Dr. Nduom may just be able to build an audience amongst those who want a completely diffrent alternative than the two parties of the NPP & the NDC can offer them.  Dr. Nduom much like  then senator Barack Obama has been building his constiuency amongst the youth who want to play more of an active role in politics in order to have a say in determining their future. If Dr. Nduom along with his wife continue to be the source of inspiration for the dreams & hopes of the youth for a better Ghana, then just like then Senator Barack Obama & then independent founding father of the CPP, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah- the new wind of change will be in the air with a new unprecedented precedented presidential upset!

I look forward to following & covering the 2012 Ghana elections much more than I look forward to the 2012 American elections. Where America has become a nation filled with political tomfoolery with the majority of the nation rapidly losing hope in politics/politicians, which may end up in the reverse effect of 2008 where a record number of enthusiastic Americans, particularly youth voters came out to vote, turning into a record number of dissasitied & disaffected Americans not turning out to vote in 2012; Ghanaian youth are bursting with enthusiasm of what can be & must be for the future with more & more formidable choices to choose from.

Mark my words, any presidential candidate in Ghana who goes after & attains the youth vote will more than likely win because there is a new surge of politically in the know & involved younger generation of Ghanaians from Africa to her Diaspora that are ready, willing & able to make their voices heard & their votes count by any means necessary in creating a new Ghana wrapped in the cloth of the Forward Ever , Backward Never dreams of Nkrumah that has been a dream deferred for much too long for far too many generations of Ghanaians. Future Africa & particularly Future Ghana is ready for its Close Up & Take Over, so may the best candidate who speaks to & represents Ghana’s future be the victor! As the saying goes Many Are Called but Few are Chosen!

Photo Credit: Peter Dicampo Photography (Samia & Crowd)

Today the African nation of Egypt started a new path to freedom by forcing  the resignation of the 30 year reign of yet another African despot who refused to leave & allow a democratic government for the people by the people! Today Africa’s freedom fighting angels President Nasser & President Nkrumah smiled upon Egypt’s people & allowed their spirits to lead them to reclaim the revolutionary fight for freedom that they had brought to their nations & to Africa as a whole. No matter what, Egypt is & will always be not only African, but directly linked to the greatness of Africa’s history of freedom from both pre & post colonialism. As many Africans cheered on Tunisia & Egypt’s revolutions as the new wind of change in Africa’s freedom, many others fell back to old divisions of race, religion, culture & tribalism that has been the bain of African unity between Black & Arab Africa long before & after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah called for a United States of Africa & became the physical symbol of unity between Black & Arab Africa with his marriage to Fathia Rizk of Egypt.

“Fathia Nkrumah (1932–2007; born Fathia Rizk; Arabic: فتحية رزق‎), was the Egyptian First Lady of the newly-independent Ghana as the wife of the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, its first president. Fathia Nkrumah was born and brought up in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo to a Coptic family. She was the third daughter of a civil servant who died early and Fathia was raised by her mother single-handedly after her husband’s death…Nkrumah proposed to marry her. Her mother was reluctant to see another of her children marry a foreigner and quit the country, as Fathia’s brother had left Egypt with his English wife. Fathia explained that Nkrumah was an anti-colonial hero, like Nasser, yet her mother refused to speak to her or bless the marriage. Nkrumah married Fathia the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year’s Eve, 1957-1958…Fathia Nkrumah was a very young wife and mother of three very young children when her husband was overthrown in Ghana’s first successful military coup d’état on February 24, 1966. She had to take her children to Cairo, Egypt to be raised there while her husband went to exile.”READ MORE

From facebook to twitter, to blogs & in many homes throughout the world there are heated discussions amongst Africans & African descendants on Egypt’s so called “African identity problem” that sees today’s Egyptians as Arab invaders who committed genocide  & enslaved  Egypt’s original residents, much like many Arabs & others who sympathize with the plight of Palestinians have labeled Israel & its Jewish state. Many Black Africans & their descendants including some Egyptians do not count today’s Arabs in Egypt as Africans & the media completely dismissing the fact that Egypt is in Africa as they report on the revolution shows that we still have a long way to go in recognizing the dream of what President Gamal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt & Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana not only expressed but embodied for Africa.

“Whenever Arab-African ties come into question, one cannot help remembering the days when colonialism was the threat closer to home and one Arab leader was always at hand to lend support to those Africans who wished to throw off its yoke. That was the time of solidarity, of a common Arab-African dream, of nations taking their first steps to freedom. That was Nasser’s time. The solidarity between Arab and non-Arab Africans is not a historic accident. It is rooted in a common vision, drawn from a common cause. It all started in the late 50s and early 60s, when Africa’s leaders-to-be were still freedom fighters, and Nasser was their closest ally. For Nasser and his fellow African leaders, African liberation was a historic duty. They lived and died for the cause of national liberation. Few Arab leaders of Nasser’s stature were involved as intimately as he was in the struggle to liberate Africa from colonial rule. It was this dedication to the cause of African liberation that endeared him to like-minded African leaders. What they had in common was a radical agenda of social change, a task they knew would not be easy, a mission that remains, to this day, incomplete…” READ MORE

There is no denying the long fought turmoil & hatred passed down generation after generation between Black Africans & their Arab counterparts in Africa & specifically brought to the world stage by the modern day continued enslavement & genocide in nations like Sudan- who just came to finally win their freedom just months ago through secession, which separates the Black Sudanese in South & the Arab Sudanese in the North. What has been seen as religious infighting between Christians in the South & Muslims in the North goes deeper than religious infighting & can clearly be seen in the division between color lines because there are Black Sudanese who are Muslim just as well as Christians, yet they have still been enslaved & deprived of their freedom by Arab leadership dominance in Sudan. The stupidity in color division is that many of these so called fairer & superior Arabs are darker than the so called Black Africans, a perfectly idiotic ode to the internalization of the teachings & mental enslavement passed down by European & American slave masters & colonizers.

It seems all over Africa there is always a certain hatred or division targeting Northerners as outsiders of every nation, whether it is in free democratic Ghana or war torn Sudan or Cote d’Ivoire. Africa in moving forward to true freedom, justice & unity needs to not only address its “Arab issue”, but also its northern divisions & other “isms” that separate us on our shared homeland amongst color, religion, tribe, region & class lines. Arab or Black African, non of us have clean hands in the killing, suffering & enslavement of generations of Africans through the years & even in present time in some nations. We have to deal with the wounds of our past, specifically the past & present internalized degradation of slavery that has never been properly addressed or abolished in Africa by Africans Black & Arab alike.  In order to move forward to heal for our future, we must acknowledge & make amends with our collective past from Africa to her Diaspora. Africa must unite because it has been proven time & time again that “United We Stand , Divided We Fall“.

When will Africans collectively recognize that we continue to do the bidding of our former colonizers & current neo-colonialists through our continued infighting & desire for separation instead of finding intelligent solutions for unity?  African unity by design has always been the biggest fear of demagogues, slave masters, separatist, colonizers & neo-colonialists because a continent of people with unparalleled resources  & intellectual power will surely be an unparalleled  super power if it ever unified to recognize & exert its full power & potential. Africa, since slavery was never meant to be made whole by those of the world who saw its true potential & threat because the beauty, glory, power & worth of anything made whole is worth much more than the sum of its broken pieces. Dr. Nkrumah’s vision was so simple & was perfect for his time, this time & anytime, but when one is broken even a simple vision can not be recognized until one is made whole. It is time for Africa to be made whole !

We all have a part to play in our forward movement as a continent- individually & nationally.  The young people of Africa have shown time & time again in their everyday lives that they do not want to carry the divisionism & separations of their individual nations & their collective continent’s past into shaping their future! The world has watched the young people of Egypt bring a nation together across religious, age, sex, class & color lines in hope for true freedom that will define a new Africa, where we can come together to recognize the dream that Dr. Nkrumah’s life & legacy exemplifies along with the vision in freedom that both he & President Nasser fought to see come to fruition. The younger generation live in a world made border-less through technology &  have & will continue to use it to fight the powers of demagoguery & division locally & globally.

“Repressive regimes thrive on ignorance –the ignorance of their people, and the ignorance of the outside world. For too long, the image of Africa has festered under the haze of the Western world’s ignorance and its resulting apathy. A relevant example of this is the unofficial annexation of Tunisia, Algeria and the continent’s other northern nations, for reasons of race alone, to the Middle East. (Though the majority of Egypt’s land mass is in Africa, a portion of that nation, the Sinai Peninsula, is in the Middle East, making it transcontinental.) Africa is, and has been for the past several centuries, a continent of artificial boundaries and of divisions constructed along the lines of race, class, tribal and ethnic grouping — divisions cleverly constructed for the purposes of conquering. It is an infrastructure that, by design, lends itself to dictatorship, to the powerlessness of the masses…” READ MORE

Each one teach one & let’s hold our truths in our proclaimed desire for peace, justice & freedom for not only Africa but for humanity to be self evident as we take Ghandi’s words to heart , mind, voice, action & soul by becoming “the change we want to see in the world”!

“Kwame Nkrumah inspired other leaders to break the yoke of colonialism. He had a vision of Africa linked by road, bridges, rail and air transport, just like in America. He started a transcontinental high way from Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and stopped after he was kicked out of office, in La Cote d’Ivoire. He funded a feasibility study that showed that the Congo river alone could supply all the continent’s electricity! (That is why he sent a Ghanaian Army Force to keep the peace after the democratically elected Patrice Lumumba was asassinated by the Belgians). The former colonial masters were concerned about the loss of ready markets for their goods, as these countries were now trading with Russia, China and the eastern European countries. America was interested in Africa for extension of its ideologies, markets and position as the only super power. Every African leader toppled after independence has CIA prints all over them! The Judas in the case of Nkrumah, was an African American named Brown who was his mate at Lincoln. Brown was made US Ambassador to Ghana, and he fed info back to the CIA who paid the Army officers who made the coup about $3m! (the 30 shekels was affected by inflation!:))You can check archival material that has been released 30 years after the 1966 coup in Ghana...”READ MORE

“At the age of ninety-three, Du Bois was invited to Ghana by President Kwame Nkrumah to assume editorship of the Encyclopedia Africana, a monumental project involving scholars from around the world. He assumed Ghanaian citizenship and lived in the land of his fathers until his death at the age of ninety-five on August 27, 1963– the day before the March on Washington that marked the climax of the civil rights struggle in the United States..” SOURCE

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“First Lady Fathia Nkrumah, the wife of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, with their daughter Samia reading her husband’s book, ‘Challenge of the Congo’ in 1967. If the prospective union between Ghana and Egypt was such a threat to the then dying British Empire, what more could we say of the then prospective union between all countries of Africa – the very vision Nkrumah symbolized? What can we say of the power that symbol still wields? Regardless of whether Samia Nkrumah is ‘her father’s daughter’ or ‘her own woman’ let us not forget about the symbolic power of her ‘Africa Must Unite’ becoming” READ MORE

“We must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people. I made a point that we are going to create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own own battles..We have won the battle and we again re-dedicate ourselves …Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa…Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them. We face neither East nor West: We Face Forward.Forward Ever, Backward Never“- Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

IT’S TIME FOR AFRICA!

Billions have been raised so far in charitable donations for Haiti, but more & more Haitians are dying every day after surviving being buried alive in years of poverty & the rubble of the earthquake, having only their sheer will to live to hold onto. International bureaucracy & power struggles of people with invested interest more in economy than humanity is becoming the continued cause of many Haitians being handed their final death certificates.

We need to be diligent & aware about keeping up with who is controlling the purse strings of all the humanitarian aid & the future sovereignty of Haiti. We can raise all the money we want to help Haiti, but Haiti will still be in the same condition & possibly worse, with an achieved loss of sovereignty if Haitians & Pan-Africanists at large do not come to the aid of their brothers & sisters in attaining & retaining economic empowerment & sovereignty. We have seen throughout the history of the world that a nation’s power & health rests upon its economic power & health; however for many African nations & Diasporans, genuinely fighting to attain this reality has been less & less of a priority because it has been easier & less work to collect foreign aid in return for resources, to leave the health & upliftment from poverty of their citizens to NGO’s & to just silently exist without much fight nor change within broken systems of governance, as long as the few in power continue to hold their titles as beneficiaries.

“Something in the nature of an economic revolution is required. Our development has been held back for too long by the colonial-type economy. We need to reorganize entirely, so that each country can specialize in producing the goods and crops for which it is best suited…..We have the blessing of the wealth of our vast resources, the power of our talents and the potentialities of our people. Let us grasp now the opportunities before us and meet the challenge to our survival. ” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s First President

We need to be diligent about not turning a blind eye to where all the Haitian relief funds are going when there are so many still begging & waiting for relief. Where is all that money being allocated to? Who is watching over the money & making the decisions on how it is spent? These are the questions we should never stop asking as we give of ourselves in charity because what is the point of charity when the situation of the people is never helped, but rather seems to get worse than better? This is the question we should be asking the Red Cross & the 10,000 + NGO/charities that were in Haiti prior to the quake & the numerous more that are in Haiti now.

“We shall measure our progress by the improvement in the health of our people; by the number of children in school, and by the quality of their education; by the availability of water and electricity in our towns and villages, and by the happiness which our people take in being able to manage their own affairs. The welfare of our people is our chief pride, and it is by this that my Government will ask to be judged.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

February honors Black History month in America- we should not & can not allow the history of Black people throughout Africa & her Diaspora to be written in the same way in the next decade as it has been written in the past because that only will show the lack of forward movement & the acceptance of stagnation amongst Black people globally. If this decade is going to be diffrent than the last decade for Haiti & Black people globally, then we must recognize our common struggle, the same struggle that became the catalyst for the movement of Pan-Africanism.

We need this new decade to be a revival of Pan-Africanism with new, young, intelligent, concerned, enlightened, awake, aware, unabashed,unbought, unbossed, pride filled Black people in the likeness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B Dubois, Jomo Kenyatta, Marcus Garvey,Patrice Lumumba, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Ahmed Sékou Touré ,Gamal Abd El Nasser,Haile Selassie,Bob Marley, Fela Anikulapo Kuti etc. -everyday people turned leaders who knew,understood & accepted that although they have been spread all over the world, their legacy empowerment & economic freedom is intertwined in the legacy, empowerment & economic freedom of Africa-the spiritual birthplace of home. The type of feeling of home where one always comes back to pay homage while seeking the guidance & comfort of mama Africa’s bosom -the only true mother of our blood & roots regardless of our adopted mother nations.

There are the Kimmie Weeks of Africa & the Wyclef Jean’s of the Diaspora, who need to join forces with the likes of people like Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who has decided to take on the mantle of her father by starting a new intelligent revolution toward real resolution. There needs to be a new era/new decade of Pan-Africanism with a Pan-African summit based on the original teachings & goals of empowerment & health through our collective economic freedom at the forefront.

“She is emerging as the new face of the current crop of selfless continental African leaders who think more about the development and prosperity of sub-Saharan Africa, first and foremost than looting from the continent.” Ghanaweb.com.

Sami Nkrumah & the growing crop of new thinkers & leaders are the only way to make this new decade, a decade where Africa & the Diaspora truly gets our house in order in efforts to write our own history in the manner that we would like to be recognized & heralded. We can’t rest on touting the legacy & greatness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah or Toussaint L’Ouverture when there has been little to no forward movement created by the generations after them, in terms of the level of global respect & conditions of Africans & her Diasporans.

“Achieving political and economic liberation, social justice and national and continental unity including the African Diaspora are yet to be realized.” Samia Nkrumah

Pan-African movement
“Movement dedicated to establishing independence for African nations and cultivating unity among black people throughout the world. It originated in conferences held in London (1900, 1919, 1921, 1923) and other cities. W.E.B. Du Bois was a principal early leader. The important sixth Pan-African conference (Manchester, 1945) included Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. The first truly intergovernmental conference was held in Accra, Ghana, in 1958, where Patrice Lumumba was a key speaker. The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) was founded by Robert M. Sobukwe and others in South Africa in 1959 as a political alternative to the African National Congress, which was seen as contaminated by non-African influences. The founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU; now the African Union) by Julius Nyerere and others in 1963 was a milestone, and the OAU soon became the most important Pan-Africanist organization.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60U0IV20100131

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1455459.html

http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/haiti-red-cross-donations/

http://open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto/2009/10/13/oil_in_haiti_-_economic_reasons_for_the_unus_occupation

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.” — Jomo Kenyatta, Pan-Africanist & first president of Kenya

“It is said, of course that we have no capital, no industrial skill, no communications, no internal markets, and that we cannot even agree among ourselves how best to utilize our resources for our own social needs…Yet all the stock exchanges in the world are pre-occupied with Africa’s gold, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ores. Our CAPITAL flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economy. Fifty-two per cent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the USA stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from OUR shores. Africa provides more than 60 per cent of the world’s gold. A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries – the basic economic might of the foreign Powers – comes from OUR continent.” Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

http://ghanaianoracle.wordpress.com/the-history-of-ghana/

The Achievements and Failures of President Kwame Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

Richard Helms (CIA) file on Nkrumah
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/cia_nkrumah.php

“Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge – a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve – to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life? ”
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah -Address to the National Assembly. 12 June 1965