Samia to Ghanaians: Forgive Nkrumah’s family

Daughter of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Samia Yaaba Nkrumah has made an emotional appeal to Ghanaians to forgive the Nkrumah family for staying away from the country for what she described as a long period.

Speaking at the Nkrumahfest, Ms Nkrumah explained that the family’s prolonged absence was rooted in painful experiences they witnessed following attempts on their father’s life and the political upheavals that eventually forced him out of office.

“I want you to forgive us, the children of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah,” she told the gathering.She said the children had witnessed their father suffer physically and emotionally, including seeing marks on his body following an assassination attempt.
“We saw our father hurt. We saw the marks on his back from an assassination attempt.

We saw our father covered in blood walking into the house after one assassination attempt on his life,” she recounted.
According to her, those experiences left the children traumatised, frightened and confused, making it difficult for them to return home for many years.

“Forgive us if we stayed away. We were traumatised. We were scared. We were confused. But the good news is that we’ve come back,” she said.

Ms Nkrumah, however, said the family was now ready to reconnect with Ghana and contribute to the country’s progress, development and unity.

She said the return of the younger generation of Nkrumahs gave her particular joy, noting that she attended the celebration with three of Osagyefo’s grandchildren.
She introduced Kwame Nkrumah Jnr, Princess Fathaya and Yusuf Gokhe Nkrumah to the gathering, describing their presence as symbolic of the family’s renewed connection with Ghana.

“Our journey, the journey of Osagyefo, our father and your grandfather, is similar to Ghana’s journey,” she said.

Ms Nkrumah said the family had returned not merely to commemorate their father but to recognise his work, appreciate his ideas and ensure that those ideas remained relevant to Ghana and Africa.

“We are coming back to recognise our father’s work. We are coming back to appreciate his ideas and we are coming back to make sure that those ideas never die but rather they nourish us and give us the courage to make Ghana better,” she said.
Challenging the narrative
Ms Nkrumah also challenged what she described as negative propaganda surrounding her father’s overthrow in 1966, particularly the narrative that Ghanaians universally celebrated his removal from power.

She referred to a damaged statue of Nkrumah at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Museum in Accra, saying its destruction after the overthrow had become a symbol of the hostility directed towards his legacy.

She said although some people celebrated the overthrow, many others were grieving.
“That’s negative propaganda, that when he left, Ghanaians were happy. It’s not true,” she said.

Ms Nkrumah expressed gratitude to individuals and organisations working to preserve what she described as the true story of Nkrumah and his contribution to Ghana and Africa.

She said the unveiling of a new statue of her father at a roundabout in Nzema had moved her deeply, describing the occasion as symbolic of a resurgence of Nkrumah’s ideas.

“We are not worshipping symbols, but this is symbolic to the rise of the ideas that will make us confident and strong and free,” she said.

Defending Nkrumah’s ideas

Ms Nkrumah further rejected descriptions of her father as an isolationist and dogmatic leader, arguing that his nationalism and Pan-Africanism did not prevent him from building relationships with people from other countries and continents.

She cited Nkrumah’s relationship with the founder of Italian energy company ENI and his role in facilitating the establishment of Ghana’s first oil refinery as an example of his willingness to engage internationally.
She also pointed to his relationships with American entrepreneurs as evidence that his commitment to Ghanaian nationalism and Pan-Africanism was not synonymous with isolation.

The Nkrumah family, she said, would continue to support the Nkrumahfest initiative because of its role in introducing the former President’s ideas to younger generations.

“Do not believe the wrong negative propaganda against him. They say he was an isolationist; they say he was dogmatic. Hatred in his ideas. Let me tell you, this is not true,” she said.‘We choose unity’

Ms Nkrumah said the family had chosen to forgive those who had opposed their father, in keeping with what she described as Nkrumah’s philosophy of unity.

“We’ve forgiven ourselves. That’s why we are asking you to forgive us. We’ve forgiven even those who hated our father because he said we must unite. Ghana must unite and Africa must unite,” she said.

“We are choosing unity and we are choosing humanity.”She expressed confidence in the younger generation, saying many young Ghanaians continued to identify with aspects of Nkrumah’s ideas.

She urged them to revisit and adapt those ideas to contemporary circumstances in order to contribute to the country’s development.

Ms Nkrumah ended her address with a message of hope for Nzema, Ghana and Africa, invoking the Pan-African spirit of the continent’s ancestors.

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