The Missing Head And Arm Of The Bust Of Dr Nkrumah

THE Director of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park Mr Kwaku Manu-Asiamah has disclosed that, the missing head and arm of the vandalised bronze bust of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, is being kept secretly by “somebody” in the country as a personal treasure.

Mr Asiamah, who was speaking to the Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday, said very confidential information reaching him indicates that, the former president’s vandalised head and arm appeared in public for the first time during Ghana’s 40th Independence Day anniversary celebrations, after he was overthrown in a February 24, 1966 Cout D’etat, by a military cum police insurgents, before it got “Missing” again.

Mr Asiamah, who did not assign any political motive, said the person(s) keeping the vandalised parts of President Nkrumah’s Bronze bust, may be keeping it as a treasure but urged them to return it because if is now a national property.

But an interview conducted by a cross-section of some Ghanaian political Gurus, who pleaded anonymity, said the vandalised parts were being secretly kept by Dr Nkrumah’s opponents at the time of Ghana’s independence, as a punishment for his hush treatment of the political opponents at the time of his rule.

They are of the opinion that, it was his political opponents who vandalised the bust, and were keeping the head and arm to show that, Kwame Nkrumah’s political ideals have been defeated and conquered at “war”.

“Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s political ideals, thought, and deeds can never be wished away by any group of people, for the next 1,000 years,” they said.

Mr Manu-Asiamah underscored the singular importance of the bronze bust of Dr Kwame Nkrumah at the Memorial Park, adding that, it is because of the bust in particular that the park attracts an average daily visit of about 150 people and tourist.

Asked why the bust should attract such patronage, Mr Manu-Asiamah said it was the direct handiwork of Dr Nkrumah, who supervised the sculptor on specific details and features.

Mr Manu-Asiamah said the bust was designed by an Italian sculptor, N. Catav Della in the early 1960s.

He said the original bust of Dr Nkrumah was mounted in front of Parliament house, opposite the old Polo grounds in Accra.

Mr Manu-Asiamah said the bust was attacked by a mob, and vandalized in the wake of military and police coup D’etat, on February 24, 1996.

He said the bust was recovered for the national museum in 1975 before being loaned to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, and mounted on 11th June, 2007.

Mr Manu-Asiamah has therefore appealed to Ghanaians to help locate and retrieve the missing head and arm of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s bronze bust.