Surely no modern economy can depend on the vagaries of the weather to guarantee the consistent uninterrupted generation of electricity as written above. Kindly ask NPP what they provided for the country during the 8 years of ... read full comment
Surely no modern economy can depend on the vagaries of the weather to guarantee the consistent uninterrupted generation of electricity as written above. Kindly ask NPP what they provided for the country during the 8 years of their rule.
BOY KOFI 9 years ago
There is no need to demonstrate against Scientists in Ghana for whatever reason.It is the responsibility of government and the parliament to pass a bill that will allocate special funds for Scientific Research.On the other ha ... read full comment
There is no need to demonstrate against Scientists in Ghana for whatever reason.It is the responsibility of government and the parliament to pass a bill that will allocate special funds for Scientific Research.On the other hand,our education must also integrate Science and Technology in diverse ways.I must also admit that,I appreciate your concerns about Science and Technology,that's the only way forward.Thank you.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
BOY KOFI,
We know you've been hyping on this one, "Science and Technology Education ad Training", long before this essay!
So we are all with you!
The other point we seem also to be of similar mind relates to the role o ... read full comment
BOY KOFI,
We know you've been hyping on this one, "Science and Technology Education ad Training", long before this essay!
So we are all with you!
The other point we seem also to be of similar mind relates to the role of "Religion", and how it inhibits critical thinking and the promise and reality of "Science and Technology".
That, we submit, must be addressed in tandem, secularly, through the education and technology training curriculum!
So, in reverence and Ghana-centeredness, we must also say,
Thanks!
BOY KOFI 9 years ago
Prof Lungu,I am flattered that you have been keeping an eye on my zeal for SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT IN AFRICA.My first comment on Science and Techonology was published in the New African Magazine and West Africa Magizine repect ... read full comment
Prof Lungu,I am flattered that you have been keeping an eye on my zeal for SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT IN AFRICA.My first comment on Science and Techonology was published in the New African Magazine and West Africa Magizine repectively in 1982.The title was "Science neglected".It is said that "the essential logic of science is of religion".In other words,many scientific studies took their roots from religion.That is to say,for the betterment of humanity.That is the reason why scientists take permission from govt to advance their research.You will agree with me that,not every scientific work is permitted in the public domain.Whilst religion is canonical,science is empirical.Both of them are good for different reasons.Finally,it behoves on the parliament to pass "an act to deal with the energy crises like J.F.Kennedy did for NASA in 1965.Thank you.
BOY KOFI 9 years ago
The full title of my comment published in the African magazines is "Science neglected in Africa".Both Science and Religion take inspiration from "the law of nature".In other words both Atom and Spirit are studied by the law o ... read full comment
The full title of my comment published in the African magazines is "Science neglected in Africa".Both Science and Religion take inspiration from "the law of nature".In other words both Atom and Spirit are studied by the law of nature.Thank you.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
I see you are now occupying yourself with something of substance and giving us a break from your campaign of calumny and denigration against Nkrumah and we sensible and better informed and educated pro-Nkrumahists. But if I m ... read full comment
I see you are now occupying yourself with something of substance and giving us a break from your campaign of calumny and denigration against Nkrumah and we sensible and better informed and educated pro-Nkrumahists. But if I may ask, aren't you out of your depths on this topic too? Very little on dumsor and the failure over the years to increase electricity which is now causing it.
I didn't read anything about the foresight of spendrift and "evil" wizard Nkrumah who anticipated dumsor and not only wrote about it but put forward plans to avert it well before 1966. How nuclear energy plant for electricity and research was being built at Kwabenya, plans for solar energy when the technology was in its infancy, blah, blah, blah. But all this bad plans were aborted thanks to our liberators from a "brutal dictator", 'cos it is better to live in darkness and have our factories closed than to live under a "brutal dictator". Rather, you chose to focus attention on our supposedly clueless scientists and blame them for dumsor? B'cos they didn't re-invent the wheel?
Ah The wheel! More on that later.
Andy-K
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
A ha!
There is always a reckoning: Antecedents and context are always important, for pundits and even scientists!
A ha!
There is always a reckoning: Antecedents and context are always important, for pundits and even scientists!
Andy-K, Akan hater 9 years ago
Why do you always attack Dr. Sarfo, are you envious?
Why do you always attack Dr. Sarfo, are you envious?
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Dear Brothers,
Good day.
How are you doing?
First, I am happy Andy-K mentioned Nkrumah's vision when it comes to energy. I can understand why Andy said "blah, blah, blah."
There were a number of creative/innovati ... read full comment
Dear Brothers,
Good day.
How are you doing?
First, I am happy Andy-K mentioned Nkrumah's vision when it comes to energy. I can understand why Andy said "blah, blah, blah."
There were a number of creative/innovative ideas Nkrumah advanced about energy, science, and technology that are only beginning to get critical attention in many parts of the world. Nuclear/atomic energy and solar energy are merely two of the array of ideas on energy which Nkrumah advanced, hence Andy-K's 'blah, blah, blah."
There is a vast body of literature, etc., on this. Nkrumah's insights into science, technology, energy, and technocracy have no parallel in his contemporaries or in any leader that came after him. Danquah for one was far behind the times when it came to science, technology, technocracy, etc.
I can only say there are writers (not SAS alone) who have written about Ghana’s energy policies on Ghanaweb and elsewhere who may not have seen or read anything about Nkrumah’s innovative ideas on energy, particularly atomic/nuclear energy and solar energy and their implications for scientific research and development economics.
Now as for Ayi Kwei Armah's "The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born" and Wole Soyinka's "Kongi's Harvest," I stopped reading SAS's article when I got to the paragraph where he mentioned these two works. There are a number of radical, if astonishing, ideas about these two particular literary works which SAS may not have been privy to. I will deal with these questions later.
Until then, I wish SAS had tried to find out the entire history behind Armah's well-known work by, among other things, asking why Armah wrote the book, who (or which powerful organization) may have encouraged or recruited him to write the book, inspirational sources for his work; there are other sources he used for his this work which most readers are ignorant of), and if he had any regrets for writing the book. FOR NOW SUFFICE IT TO SAY THAT AYI KWEI ARMAH IS ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS DEFENDERS OF KWAME NKRUMAH TODAY ON THE PLANET TODAY. HIS LATER LITERARY WORKS, ESSAYS, SPEECHES, ETC., HAVE BEEN LARGELY BASED ON NKRUMAH’S IDEAS (I have all the evidence to support this idea). I have been following Armah and his work and been reading his works, essays, journalistic pieces, interviews, public presentations, and the like, since he relocated to Senegal many years ago.
More importantly, Armah opens his mouth to speak and what comes out makes him look like the radical Nkrumah! In other words, many writers don’t take it upon themselves to investigate the people whose works they rely on for their own work to see whether they still hold on to their original ideas. For instance, reading Soyinka’s later works such as his serial memoirs and essays and listening to his interviews, one clearly sees how mature he has become in terms of his political thinking, across the years.
Soyinka also puts many of his thoughts largely misconstrued by the general public in their proper contexts in his later scholarly works. When he talks about dictatorship, mistreatment of women, and human rights issues in Africa these days, for instance, he does so in a global context than he previously did when he restricted them to the African context. Armah does the same thing too these days. This is why I go to great lengths to do extensive investigations into thinkers whose ideas I rely on for my own work to see whether they have undergone any radical changes in their evolutionary thinking on “old” ideas I have associated with them. I have seen radical changes in the thinking of most scholars from around the world as they age and as their experiences of human psychology expand. This is why science and history have exonerated Nkrumah and his vision. This is why Nkrumah’s ideas continue to attract critical attention in academia, Western and non-Western. This is why Nkrumah continues to win national, continental, and international awards. And this is why the world continues to ignore Nkrumah’s peers (Gold Coast/Ghana)!
And as for Soyinka's "Kong's Harvest," there is nothing in the book to even suggest his satire was about Nkrumah and his leadership. For instance, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe (if I recall correctly) attended a presentation here in America many years where Wole Soyinka was in attendance and the issue of "Kongi Harvest" came up.
Ahoofe wanted Soyinka’s “own words” to discredit Nkrumah but did not get it. And when he did not get what he wanted he went about beating about the bush on the subject, just as he and others have been doing about the Danquah-CIA controversy as vividly described in Richard Mahoney’s authoritative book “JFK: Ordeal in Africa.”
Further, audience members wanted to know whether "Kongi Harvest" was about Nkrumah. Surprisingly Soyinka began discussing other African "dictators" instead. Nowhere did he mention Nkrumah. Then, in the mid-2000s, one of my White-American friends, a lover of literature particularly of African literature, invited me to a poetry reading in New York featuring Wole Soyinka.
This curiosity about "Kong's Harvest" came up again. Again Soyinka responded by talking about other African "dictators" instead and NEVER once mentioned Nkrumah. Moreover, I have read a number of interview transcripts involving Soyinka and his body of literary works and yet again on each occasion he NEVER mentioned Nkrumah in association with “Kongi Harvest.”
Rather, he [Soyinka] concentrated on other African leaders. The question is: Why does Soyinka refuse to identify the character Kongi with Nkrumah on each occasion he has had an opportunity to exonerate himself or to clarify his position on the character Kongi? THE POINT IS THAT SOYINKA HAS GREAT RESPECT FOR KWAME NKRUMAH AND HIS GRAND VISION FOR AFRICA (Ali Mazrui, one of Nkrumah’s harshest critics, did the same only to make a 360-degree turn and defend Nkrumah till his last breath). I have materials on ALL these and shall make them available to readers at the appropriate time.
I also want readers to know I did not attach this commentary to SAS’s article because of the insults and counter-insults the article generated. ). I did not want to get involved! I can understand some of the readers’ reaction because what they read might have been the exact opposite of the evidence in Ghana’s recorded history. Andy-K pointed some of these out (Actually I never read neither Part 1 nor Part 2; I only went through the comments. Besides, most of what SAS says is nothing new. Actually most of the things he says are the revisionist concoctions the team which Busia and the NLC put together to discredit Nkrumah came up with. NOTHING REALLY NEW).
Let us see what the future holds for us.
Have a great weekend.
ADJOA WANGARA 9 years ago
The inferiority complex foolish guy, francis kwarteng has copied and pasted another weed.
The inferiority complex foolish guy, francis kwarteng has copied and pasted another weed.
C.Y. ANDY-K 9 years ago
Soulmate Yaw,
Thanks for your elucidation.
Indeed, you are right about the blah, blah, blah. Had I not lost mails from my folder years ago and to lazy to bother, I'd have sent mail to our mutual acquaintance Michael Gy ... read full comment
Soulmate Yaw,
Thanks for your elucidation.
Indeed, you are right about the blah, blah, blah. Had I not lost mails from my folder years ago and to lazy to bother, I'd have sent mail to our mutual acquaintance Michael Gyamerah to fwd to me for posting his copy of Nkrumah's vision for energy supply in Ghana. That was one of his concern when he was active in cyberspace. Nkrumah was too much of a visionary. Imagine writing about solar energy, for instance, in the 1960s the way he did! Any wonder one of the propaganda against him was that Russians wrote his books for him?
These guys are just lightweights and it was high time we put them in their places.
Andy-K
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Nyebro Yao,
Good day!
Don't mind them. Were the Russians behind Nkrumah's writings, some of which won him prestigious awards as a student in America?
If the grossly illiterate Akwasi Afrifa could write a book, why c ... read full comment
Nyebro Yao,
Good day!
Don't mind them. Were the Russians behind Nkrumah's writings, some of which won him prestigious awards as a student in America?
If the grossly illiterate Akwasi Afrifa could write a book, why couldn't Nkrumah, one of the world's most innovative scholars and visionary leaders, write his own works?
Nkrumah, Du Bois, and others drafted resolutions for the United Nations before he [Nkrumah] left America for England and thence to the Gold Coast. Most of his bashers don't know this!
Nkrumah served as an editor for a number of papers, icluding being being a leader of a literary club in the Gold Coast (Nzema), before leaving for America.
He wrote estensively for the institutions/organizations he worked with and for both in England and the US before relocating to the Gold Coast.
Nkrumah even put some of his thoughts in writing in the US and later completed them when he returned to the Gold Coast.
And-K you know all these. Unfortunately this is not the kind of facts we read about Nkrumah on Ghanaweb. Oh ignorance! We don't read and choose to analyze historical data as though the scientific basis of comparative methodology has no use to objectivity. This is one of the greatest failures of Ghanaian education.
Yet, the educational system under Nkrumah and his innovative ideas have churned out some of the best creative scientists, writers, technologists, professors, teachers, dimplomats, politicians, mathematicians, doctors, historians, etc., in the world today.
And there is so much we can talk about Nkrumah and his views on energy. This we can't do in an article. It will take a series of articles to exhaust Nkrumah's ideas on energy!
Have a great weekend.
Keneth 9 years ago
SAS could have taken this opportunity to absolve himself from his one sided nonacademic polemics and flood of vituperation against the great Nkrumah by at least giving him some credit for his foresight in the energy sector.By ... read full comment
SAS could have taken this opportunity to absolve himself from his one sided nonacademic polemics and flood of vituperation against the great Nkrumah by at least giving him some credit for his foresight in the energy sector.By failing to recognize this singular vision of Nkrumah he further exposed himself as a mere critic just for the sake of it without the balance of criticism.
However I will agree with his take on our scientist.It does seem like science qualification is just a means to be a boss in a a white colour environment instead of researching to improve upon the infrastructure which Nkrumah establish for the take off of science and technology.Instead what we see today are these technocrats in suits and sitting in air condition offices in line with the elitism of their parents.
Until we recognize that science and technology is researched base and the rock of any countries development and therefore result orientated Nkrumah's work would have been in vain and this generation will be the losers for it.
Surely no modern economy can depend on the vagaries of the weather to guarantee the consistent uninterrupted generation of electricity as written above. Kindly ask NPP what they provided for the country during the 8 years of ...
read full comment
There is no need to demonstrate against Scientists in Ghana for whatever reason.It is the responsibility of government and the parliament to pass a bill that will allocate special funds for Scientific Research.On the other ha ...
read full comment
BOY KOFI,
We know you've been hyping on this one, "Science and Technology Education ad Training", long before this essay!
So we are all with you!
The other point we seem also to be of similar mind relates to the role o ...
read full comment
Prof Lungu,I am flattered that you have been keeping an eye on my zeal for SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT IN AFRICA.My first comment on Science and Techonology was published in the New African Magazine and West Africa Magizine repect ...
read full comment
The full title of my comment published in the African magazines is "Science neglected in Africa".Both Science and Religion take inspiration from "the law of nature".In other words both Atom and Spirit are studied by the law o ...
read full comment
I see you are now occupying yourself with something of substance and giving us a break from your campaign of calumny and denigration against Nkrumah and we sensible and better informed and educated pro-Nkrumahists. But if I m ...
read full comment
A ha!
There is always a reckoning: Antecedents and context are always important, for pundits and even scientists!
Why do you always attack Dr. Sarfo, are you envious?
Dear Brothers,
Good day.
How are you doing?
First, I am happy Andy-K mentioned Nkrumah's vision when it comes to energy. I can understand why Andy said "blah, blah, blah."
There were a number of creative/innovati ...
read full comment
The inferiority complex foolish guy, francis kwarteng has copied and pasted another weed.
Soulmate Yaw,
Thanks for your elucidation.
Indeed, you are right about the blah, blah, blah. Had I not lost mails from my folder years ago and to lazy to bother, I'd have sent mail to our mutual acquaintance Michael Gy ...
read full comment
Nyebro Yao,
Good day!
Don't mind them. Were the Russians behind Nkrumah's writings, some of which won him prestigious awards as a student in America?
If the grossly illiterate Akwasi Afrifa could write a book, why c ...
read full comment
SAS could have taken this opportunity to absolve himself from his one sided nonacademic polemics and flood of vituperation against the great Nkrumah by at least giving him some credit for his foresight in the energy sector.By ...
read full comment
who is listening