When is this insanity going to stop? Are we going to hear from all the people who said good things about Kwame Nkrumah?
Believe me, there were and still some people who admired Hitler.
Idi Amin had his admirers.
Pol ... read full comment
When is this insanity going to stop? Are we going to hear from all the people who said good things about Kwame Nkrumah?
Believe me, there were and still some people who admired Hitler.
Idi Amin had his admirers.
Pol Pot too had his admirers.
No matter how many cut and paste job you do, you are not going to change the minds of those people who didn't like him just because of his PDA, One Party state and President for life policies.
For the life of me I don't understand why Nkrumah preferred the life Presidency when he could have won any Presidential election as long as he wanted.
Don't forget he "won" the one party referendum with 99.7% or something like that. Even with the result, one can safely say some UP Officials even voted to ban their party, that was Nkrumah's "magic".
Somebody can also cut and paste all the bad things said about Nkrumah by other important people including President Nyerere you recently made as a friend of Nkrumah.
This is really getting stale.
Robert 8 years ago
Those misinformed,disinformed and indoctrinated Ghanaians like you who were born in 1972 and the years after are being educated to see the true picture of what Nkrumah stood for.It will never end.SARPONG,have you read Nkrumah ... read full comment
Those misinformed,disinformed and indoctrinated Ghanaians like you who were born in 1972 and the years after are being educated to see the true picture of what Nkrumah stood for.It will never end.SARPONG,have you read Nkrumah's speech of November 25,1964? Please read it a.s.a.p to free yourself from your MATEMEHO mental slavery.
SARPONG 8 years ago
I don't need any education from personality cult worshippers. Nkrumah is dead with his dictatorship. He died with his Cpp which now exist in name only.
You don't have to had been born during Nkrumah's rule to know about hi ... read full comment
I don't need any education from personality cult worshippers. Nkrumah is dead with his dictatorship. He died with his Cpp which now exist in name only.
You don't have to had been born during Nkrumah's rule to know about his cruel regime. Maybe you were born when Jesus was alive to believe in the Bible or Mohammed to believe in Koran. Fortunately history is there for all of us to make individual decisions based on facts and not on cult worship.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Sarpong,
PLEASE ALLOW THOSE WHO WANT TO WORSHIP NKRUMAH TO DO SO. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE. THUS I DON'T THINK IT IS YOUR PLACE TO SUGGEST TO ANOTHER WHO OR WHAT TO WORSHIP (HOPE I DID NOT FORCE YOU ... read full comment
Dear Sarpong,
PLEASE ALLOW THOSE WHO WANT TO WORSHIP NKRUMAH TO DO SO. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE. THUS I DON'T THINK IT IS YOUR PLACE TO SUGGEST TO ANOTHER WHO OR WHAT TO WORSHIP (HOPE I DID NOT FORCE YOU TO READ THIS ARTICLE).
Next I hardly read your comments or articles but I think I have to help you out here. I hardly read them because I don't find them insightful or educative (no insult). Now, you write:
"Somebody can also cut and paste all the bad things said about Nkrumah by other important people including President Nyerere you recently made as a friend of Nkrumah."
Let me give give you a list that can help you embark upon your project in accordance with your statement. You have a daunting task since you have no clue of the magnitude of the task you want to give yourself!
Well, you don't have to stress yourself. I have a tall list for you where you can find all you want and need. Here is it (This is a partial list. I will give you more if you so desire):
........................................................................................................................................................
Books By Kwame Nkrumah
1) Africa Must Unite
2) Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah
3) Challenge of the Congo
4) Class Struggle in Africa
5) Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization
6) Dark Days in Ghana
7) Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah
8) Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare
9) I Speak of Freedom
10) Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism
11) Revolutionary Path
12) Rhodesia Files
13) The Struggle Continues
14) Towards Colonial Freedom
15) Voice from Conakry
........................................................................................................................................................
NAG stands for "NATIONAL ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS" (National Archives of Ghana (NAG):
6. African Analysis (This and the subsequent titles are here courtesy of Dr. Ama Biney)
7. Africa At 40 News
8. Africa Confidential
9. African Concord
10. African World Review
11. Al-Ahram Weekly
12. Bulletin On African Affairs
13. Ghana Today
14. West Africa
........................................................................................................................................................
SCHOLARLY JOURNALS:
1. Journal Of African Studies
2. The Black Scholar (Journal Of Black Studies And Research)
3. The Journal Of Pan-African Studies
4. The Journal Of Modern African Studies
5. African Affairs (Oxford University Press)
6. Research Review (Institute of African Studies)
7. Africological Perspectives
8. Canadian Journal Of African Affairs
9. Journal Of African Cultural Studies
10. African Studies Quarterly
11. African Studies Review
12. The Western Journal Of Black Studies
13. Nordic Journal Of African Studies
14. Journal Of African History
15. International Journal Of African Historical Studies
16. American Historical Review
17. Souls: A Critical Journal Of Black Politics, Culture, And Society
18. Africa: The Journal Of The International African Institute
19. Journal Of Colonialism And Colonial History
20. Third World Quarterly
21. Journal Of African And Asian Studies
22. Cambridge Journals Online (Africa)
23. The Journal Of Conflict Resolution
24. Legon Observer (Journal Of The Legon Society For National Affairs, LSNA)
25. New Legon Observer (University of Ghana; same as (24))
........................................................................................................................................................
INSTITUTES & INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES & ARCHIVES & COLLEGES-UNIVERSITIES:
1. The Molefi Kete Asante Institute
2. The Institute Of African Studies (University Of Ghana)
3. Biennial Kwame Nkrumah International Conference.
4. Public Record Office (PRO), The National Archives, United Kingdom.
5. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
6. Websites of Black Studies In The United States, Canada, And Europe
7. The H.M. Basner Papers (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London)
........................................................................................................................................................
NEWSPAPERS (Courtesy of Dr. Ama Biney):
1. African Morning Post (Accra)
2. The Ashanti Pioneer (Accra)
3. Ashanti Sentinel (Accra)
4. Ashanti Times (Accra)
5. The Daily Graphic (Accra)
6. Daily Nation (Lagos)
7. Daily Nation (Uganda)
8. Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
9. The Evening Times (Accra)
10. The Ghanaian Times (Accra)
11. New Ashanti Times (Accra)
12. New Nigerian (Lagos)
13. New York Herald Tribune (America)
14. The New York Times (America)
15. People’s Daily Graphic (Accra)
16. The Times (London)
17. The West African Pilot (Lagos)
18. New York Amsterdam News (courtesy of this author)
........................................................................................................................................................
WEBSITES:
1.Kwame Nkrumah: Information And Resource (Link: www.nkrumah.net/about-data.html#primary-sources)
2.Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Infobank (Link: www.nkrumahinfobank.org)
3.100 Leaders In World History (Link: www.100leaders.org/kwame-nkrumah)
4.The Famous People: Society For Recognition Of Famous People (Link: www.thefamouspeople.com)
5.University Archives And Records Center (University of Pennsylvania)(Link: www.archives.upenn.edu)
6.John F. Kennedy: Presidential Library And Museum (Link: www.jfklibrary.org)
7.Democracy Now (Link: www.democracynow.org)
8.Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Biennial Kwame Nkrumah International Conference)(Link: www.kpu.ca/knic)
9.Pan-Africanist International (Link: www.panafricanistinternational.org)
291) The Organization Of African Unity And The Condo Crisis, 1964-1965 (C. Hoskyns)
292) West African States: Failure And Promise (A Study In Comparative Politics) (John Dunn)
293) Africans In Britain (David Killingray)
294) The African Colonial State In Comparative Perspective (Crawford Young)
295) Africa In Crisis: New Challenges And Possibilities (Edited by Tunde Zack-Williams)
296) Yurugu: An African-Centered Critique Of European Cultural Thought And Behavior (Marimba Ani)
297) African Universities And Western Tradition (Eric Ashby)
298) African Origin Of Civilization: Myth Or Reality (Cheikh Anta Diop)
299) Civilization Or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (Cheikh Anta Diop)
300) Precolonial Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)
301) Black Africa: The Economic And Cultural Basis For A Federated State (Cheikh Anta Diop)
302) The Cultural Unity Of Black Africa (Cheikh Anta Diop)
303) Akyem Abuakwa And The Politics Of The Interwar Period In Ghana (A.B. Homes)
304) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Fabrication Of Ancient Greece 1785-85; Volume 1; Martin Bernal)
305) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Archeological And Documentary Evidence; Volume 2; Martin Bernal)
306) Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots Of Classical Civilization (The Linguistic Evidence; Volume 3; Martin Bernal)
307) African Philosophy: The Phaoronic Period, 2780-330 B.C. (Theophile Obenga)
308) Stolen Legacy (George G.M. James)
309) Ghana’s First Republic, 1960-1966: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)
310) The African Personality In America: An African-centered Framework (K.K.K Kambon)
311) Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Joy D. Leary)
312) The Debt: What America Owes Black America (Randall Robinson)
313) An Unbroken Agony: Haiti, From Revolution To The Kidnapping Of A President (Randall Robinson)
314) Ethiopia Unbound: Studies In Race Emancipation (J.E. Casely-Hayford)
315) Encyclopedia Of The Harlem Renaissance (Sandra L. West & Aberjhans)
316) The Oxford Encyclopedia Of African Thought (Biodun Jeyifo & Abiola Irele)
317) Institutions And Ethnic Politics In Africa (Daniel N. Posner)
318) Staying Politics: Power And Performance In Asia And Africa (Edited by Donal C. O’Brien & Julia Strauss)
318) To Vote Or Not To Vote: The Merits And Limits Of Rational Choice (Andre Blais)
319) Ghana, 1957-1966: The Politics Of Institutional Dualism (Benjamin Amonoo)
320) The End Of The Earth (Robert D. Kaplan)
321) Economics And Elections: The Major Western Democracies (Michael S. Lewis-Beck)
332) Democratic Experiments In Africa: Regime Transitions In Comparative Perspective (Michael Bratton & Nicholas van de Wille)
332) Burkina Faso: Unsteady Statehood In West Africa (Pierre Englebert)
333) Youth And Employment In Africa: The Potential, The Problem, The Promise (The World Bank)
334) UN Millennium Development Library (Jeffrey Sachs The UN Millennium Project)
335) The End Of Politics (Jeffrey Sachs)
336) The Age Of Sustainable Development (Jeffrey Sachs)
337) The Future: Six Drivers Of Global Change (Al Gore)
338) African Americans And Political Participation: A Reference Handbook (Minion Morrison)
339) Becoming African Americans: Black Public Life In Harlem, 1919-1939 (Clare Corbould)
340) The Richard Wright Encyclopedia (Jerry Ward & Robert Butler)
341) African And American: West Africans In Post-Civil Rights America (Violet Showers & Marilyn Halter)
342) The Redemption Of Africa And Black Religion (St. Clair Drake)
343) Encyclopedia Of African American Education (Faustine Jones-Wilson Et Al.)
344) Encyclopedia Of African American History (Paul Finkelman)
345) Black World (Negro Digest) (A Johnson Publication)
346) Encyclopedia Of African-American Education (Two-volume set; Kofi Lomotey)
347) African American Lives (Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Evelyn B. Higginbotham)
348) African People In The Global Village: An Introduction To Pan-African Studies (John Marah)
349) Paul Cuffe: Black America And The African Return (Sheldon Harris)
350) African Americans In Global Affairs: Contemporary Perspectives (Michael Clemons)
351) Silenced Rivers: The Ecology And Politics Of Large Dams (Patrick McCully)
352) The Volta Resettlement Experience (Robert Chambers)
353) Effects Of Volta Lake Resettlement In Ghana: A Reappraisal After 25 Years (Kofi Diaw)
354) The Environmental Impact Of A Large Tropical Reservoir (Peter Freeman)
355) Message To The People: The Course Of African Philosophy (Marcus Garvey)
356) Encyclopedia Of The African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, And Culture (Boyce Davies & Carole Elizabeth)
357) Autobiography Of Malcolm X (Malcolm X & Alex Haley)
378) Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention (Manning Marable)
379) The John Henrik Clarke Papers (The New York Library, Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture)
380) Educational Outlook Journal (University of Pennsylvania)
381) In My Father’s House: Africa In the Philosophy Of Culture (Kwame Anthony Appiah)
382) Kwame Nkrumah Of Ghana: His Formative Years And The Beginning Of His Political Career, 1935-1948 (A.B. Assensoh)
383) The Dissolution Of The Colonial Empires (Franz Ansprenger)
384) Reconstructing The Nation In Africa: The Politics Of Nationalism In Ghana (Michael Amoah)
385) Nationalism And African Intellectuals (Toyin Falola)
386) The New Ghana: The Birth Of A New Nation (Joseph G. Amamoo)
387) The Oxford Handbook Of Modern African History (Edited by Richard Reid & John Parker)
388) Writing And Colonialism In Northern Ghana: The Encounter Between The LoDagaa And ‘The World On Paper’ “Sean Hawkins)
389) The African Journalist (Kwame Nkrumah)
390) The African Journalist (Keith Nalumango)
391) British Imperialism: Innovation And Expansion (Two-volume Set: 1688-1914, 1914-1994; A.G. Hopkins & P.J. Cain)
........................................................................................................................................................
1) Coussey Committee, "Report On Constitutional Reforms." Accra: Government Printer, 1949.
2) Ghana, "Report Of The Commission Appointed To Enquiry Into The Affairs Of The Kumasi State Council And The Asanteman Council." (By Justice Sarkodee-Addo). Accra: Government Printer, 1958a.
3) Ghana, "Report Of The Commission Of Enquiry Into The Akim Abuakwa State Affairs" (By Mr. Justice J. Jackson). Accra: Government Printer, 1958b.
4) Ghana, "Report Of The Commission Of Enquiry Into The Matters Disclosed At The Trial Of Benjamin Awhaitey Before A Court-Martial And The Surrounding Circumstances." Accra: Government Printer, 1959.
5) Ghana, "Ghana National Chamber Of Commerce. Second Annual Report." 1965.
6) Ghana, "Report Of The Commission Of Enquiry Into The Workers Brigade." Accra: Government Printer, 1969.
7) Gold Coast, "Government Of Gold Coast Departmental Report 12." Accra: Government Printer, 1913.
8) Gold Coast: "Summary Statement Of The Value Of Important Into The Colony Of The Gold Coast." "Government Of The Gold Coast, Department Report." Accra: Government Printer.
9) Gold Coast, "Regional Administration" (Report By The Sole Commissioner, Sir Sydney Phillipson), 1951.
10) Jibowu Commission, "Gold Coast Commission Of Enquiry Into The Affairs Of The Cocoa Purchasing Company." Accra: State Publishing Corporation, 1956.
11) Lewis, W.A. "Report On Industrialization In The Gold Coast." Accra: Government Printer, 1953.
12) Ollenu Commission, "Summary Of The Report Of The Commission Of Enquiry Into Alleged Malpractices In The Issue Of Impact Licenses." Accra: Ministry Of Information, 1967.
13) Watson Commission Report, "Commission Of Enquiry Into Disturbances In The Gold Coast." Accra: Government Printer, 1948.
Other Sources (Courtesy of Kwame Arhin's "The Life And Work Of Kwame Nkrumah"):
1) Acts Of The First Republic.
2) Annual Volumes Of Laws Of Ghana.
3) Bills Of The First Republic Of Ghana.
4) "Cultural Policy in Ghana," UNESCO, 1975.
5) "Daily Graphic" various issues.
6) "Evening News" various issues.
7) "Ghana Economic Surveys" (1954, 1963, 1965 issues). Published by the Central Bureau of Statistics
8) Ghana Parliamentary Debates, various issues.
9) Ghana's Seven-Year Development Plan 1963/641-1969/1970.
10) "The Ghanaian Woman," a Journal of the National Council on Women.
11) The Gold Coast Legislative Council Debates, various issues.
12) The Government Proposals for Constitutional Reforms, 1953.
13) "The Party," a Journal published by the CPP's Bureau of Information and Publicity.
........................................................................................................................................................
Other publications:
The Ghana Young Pioneers. Publication No. 437. Winneba: Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, n.d. George Padmore Research Library Collection, Accra.
........................................................................................................................................................
1) Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad, 1935-1947 (Marika Sherwood)
2) The Life And Work Of Kwame Nkrumah (Kwame Arhin)
3) History Has Vindicated Kwame Nkrumah (Rodney Worrell)
4) Third World To First World-By One Touch: Economic Repercussions Of The Overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (Robert Woode)
5) Kwame Nkrumah: A Study Of His Intellectual Development In The United States 1935-45 (Carlos Nelson)
6) Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-Cultural Thought And Policies (Kwame Botwe-Asamoah)
7) The Political And Social Thought Of Kwame Nkrumah (Ama Biney)
8) Forward Ever. Kwame Nkrumah: A Biography (June Milne)
9) Kwame Nkrumah: The Conakry Years: His Life And Letters (June Milne)
10) Nkrumah And Ghana: The Dilemma Of Post-Colonial Power (Kofi Buenor Hadjor)
11) Black Star: A View Of The Life And Times Of Kwame Nkrumah (Basil Davidson)
12) Kwame Nkrumah: Vision And Tragedy (David Rooney)
13) Nkrumah And The Chiefs: Politics Of Chieftaincy In Ghana 1951-1960 (Richard Rathbone)
14) Nkrumah: Webster's Timeline History, 1909-2007 (Philip M. Parker)
15) Kwame Nkrumah: From Cradle To Grave (Timothy Bankole)
16) Nkrumah: Makers Of The 20th Century (David Birhingham)
17) Kwame Nkrumah: World Leaders Past and Present (Douglas Keller)
18) Great Black Leaders: Ancient And Modern (Ivan Van Sertima)
19) Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study Of Religion And Politics In Ghana (Ebenezer Obiri Addo)
20) African Tightrope: My Two Years As Nkrumah's Chief Of Staff (Major-General H.T. Alexander)
21) A View Of Kwame Nkrumah 1909-1972 (Kwame Arhin)
22) Christianity, Islam And The Negro Race (Edward W. Blyden)
23) African Nationalism (Ndabaningi Sithole)
24) Pan-Africanism And South America: Emergence Of A Black Rebellion (Elisa L. Nascimento)
25) Africa And Unity: The Evolution Of Pan-Africanism (Vincent B. Thompson)
26) Tubal Uriah Butler Of Trinidad and Tobago Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana: The Road To Independence (Daurius Figueira)
27) Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah (5 Volumes; Samuel Obeng)
28) The Spark: Times Behind Me From Kwame Nkrumah To Limann (Kofi Batsa)
29) Philosophy And Opinions Of Marcus Garvey (Amy Jacques-Garvey)
30) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Last Dream: Continental Government Of Africa (Joe-Fio N. Meyer)
31) Kwame Nkrumah And The Future Of Africa (John F. V. Phillips)
32) Kwame Nkrumah (Yuri Smertin)
33) Black Power: A Record Of Reactions In A Land Of Pathos (Richard Wright)
34) Pan-Africanism In The Diaspora: An Analysis Of Modern Afrocentric Political Movement (Ronald W. Walters)
35) The Ghana Young Pioneer Movement: A Youth Organization In The Kwame Nkrumah Era
(M.N. Tetteh)
36) Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study In Intercultural Leadership (Samuel E. Taylor)
37) In Search Of Enemies: A CIA Story (John Stockwell)
38) Kwame Nkrumah: The Political Kingdom In The Third World (David Rooney)
39) Uhuru Na Ujamaa: A Selection From Writings And Speeches, 1952-1965 (Julius Nyerere)
40) Kwame Nkrumah As I Knew Him (Genoveva Marais)
41) JFK: Ordeal In Africa (Richard Mahoney)
42) Pan-Africanism: A Short Political History (Colins Legum)
43) The Pan-African Movement: Ghana's Contributions (Kwesi Krafona)
44) Uhuru Na Ujoma: A Selection From Writings And Speeches, 1952-1965 (Julius Nyerere)
45) Kwame Nkrumah's Contributions To Pan-African Agency: An Afrocentric Analysis (Zizwe Poe)
46) W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight For Equality And The American Century 1919-1963 (David Levering Lewis)
47) African Union: Pan-African Analytic Foundation (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
48) Polyrhythmicity: Foundations of African Philosophy (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
49) Nkrumah The Man: A Friend's Testimony (Genoveva Kanu)
50) Africentricity And African Nationalism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
51) The Theory Of Categorial Conversion: Rational Foundations Of Nkrumahism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
52) The Theory Of Philosophical Consciencism: Practice Foundations of Nkrumahism (Kofi Kissi Dompere)
53) Ghana's First Republic, 1960-1966: The Pursuit Of The Political Kingdom (Trevor Jones)
54) The History of Education In Ghana From The Earliest Times To The Declaration Of Independence (C.K. Graham)
55) Ghana: End Of An Illusion (Bob Fitch & Mary Oppenheimer)
56) Black Nationalism: A Search For An Identity (E.U. Essien-Udom)
57) General Histories of Africa: UNESCO (Volumes 1, 2, 7, 8)
58) Nkrumah's Consciencism: Its Relevance To Ghanaian Development (Adom C. Boateng)
59) Kwame Nkrumah: The Father Of African Nationalism (David Birmingham)
60) Politics In Ghana, 1946-1960 (Dennis Austin)
61) Volta: Man's Greatest Lake (James Moxon)
62) Volta River Project (David Hart)
63) Nkrumah's Ghana And East Africa: Pan-Africanism And African Interstate Relations (Opoku Agyeman)
64) Pan-Africanism And Its Detractors: A Response To Harvard's Race-Effacing Universalists (Opoku Agyeman)
65) By Nkrumah's Side: The Labor And The Wounds (Tawia Adamafio)
66) Reap The Whirlwind (Geoffrey Bing)
67) Pan-Africanism: The Idea And Movement, 1776-1963 (P.O. Esebebe)
68) Pan-Africanism And Nationalism In West Africa, 1900-1945 (Ayodede Langley)
69) The Pan-African Connection: From Slavery To Garvey And Beyond (Tony Martin)
70) Pan-Africanism (Edited by T.A. Raheem)
71) Pan-Africanism: An Annotated Bibliography (Michael W. Williams)
72) Black Scholar: Journal Of Black Studies And Research (The Pan-African Debate Edited By Robert Chrisman)
73) Kwame Nkrumah: The Anatomy Of An African Dictatorship (T.P. Omari)
74) The Gold Coast Revolution: The Struggle Of An African People From Slavery To Freedom (George Padmore)
Now you are not Francis anymore but Robert huh? Your IP address will continue to expose you .
Now you are not Francis anymore but Robert huh? Your IP address will continue to expose you .
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Sarpong,
You have the IP software so let us have my IP address and Robert's so readers can judge for themselves.
I AM NOT ROBERT. You should contact Nyansasem (who also has the IP software) if your IP software is ... read full comment
Dear Sarpong,
You have the IP software so let us have my IP address and Robert's so readers can judge for themselves.
I AM NOT ROBERT. You should contact Nyansasem (who also has the IP software) if your IP software is out of order.
Thanks.
Nii Teiko 8 years ago
Whoever resist change is lazy and proof Amoako Baah did not mince words when he told these old school Nkrumahist in the face that they are lazy. Recycling these chaff everyday wold not help bring the mu c he needed change Gh ... read full comment
Whoever resist change is lazy and proof Amoako Baah did not mince words when he told these old school Nkrumahist in the face that they are lazy. Recycling these chaff everyday wold not help bring the mu c he needed change Ghanaians are crying for. The earlier this dude stop this nonsense the better for the Nkrumahists.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Author" Prof. Lungu
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (I)"
Source: Ghanaweb
................................................................................................................... ... read full comment
Author" Prof. Lungu
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (I)"
Source: Ghanaweb
........................................................................................................................................................
"...Nkrumah as a 'great man by all standards' would be very disappointed in such people for being ‘lazy thinkers’ despite receiving the best of education...", (Prof. Richard Amoako Baah, Ghanaweb, 16 Dec 2014).
We were not going to bother with a critique of Prof. Amoako Baah's recent utterances about the usefulness of the principles and ideologies underpinning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's vision for the development of Ghana. Then we heard the Chief Psychiatrist of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Akwasi Osei, recommend during observance of the first anniversary of the Mental Health Board in Accra that all "Public office holders must undergo psychological screening." That was just two days ago, on 22 April .
Over the past 2 years, Prof. Richard Amoako Baah, the head of the History and Political Studies Department in the Faculty of Social Science, KNUST, has been making a lot of utterances about the history of Ghana and the state of public education in Ghana. Prof Amoako Baah has also been talking loosely about the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the man who led the fight for independence and won in 1957. So, when the head of a department at an Nkrumah-founded university makes unreflective, illogical, and counter-historical arguments against the Founder of Ghana, we must assess and respond when we have time.
This is our time!
Last year, on 16 December, in a Ghanaweb article sourced to Adomonline.com titled "Nkrumaists are lazy thinkers; bankrupt of ideas...", Prof. Amoako Baah wondered why in a world now:
"...completely different...(where)...even Russia, China, Vietnam, who were practicing socialism have all departed from it…'why people would still profess to believe in ideals which the person attributed to could not even offer a clear definition'...'Nkrumah himself was not consistent on his ideological stance as he sometimes claimed he was a socialist and another time, a communist…hence did what he thought was right for the time... the confusion among the Nkrumaist front is a clear lack of definition of their ideology'...".
In that same 16 December piece, Prof. Amoako Baah reportedly said that Nkrumah would have found it very difficult to implement some of his ideas in modern times considering the growth in the country’s population from 4.5 million as at independence to 25 million in 2010. Why political scientist Prof Amoako Baah chose to cite 4 year old data probably should have served as a warning to all about his current attitude work, education, governance, and responsibility to the students under his care and control.
Then, last month, in a 27 March report sourced to myjoyonline.com titled, "Ghana’s education is almost useless", Prof. Amoako Baah counseled Ghanaians that:
"...Ghana’s independence appears meaningless because successive leaders preoccupy themselves with building monuments instead of passing on knowledge to the next generation...Due to that wrong mindset, much was not done to improve the country’s educational system rendering it “unpractical and almost useless...Ghana has not developed like its peers after independence because its first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah ran a one-man show as he failed to mentor people who could take over from him in his absence....( Amoako-Baah)... challenged Ghanaian leaders to think into the future and provide the necessary tools that the younger generation would need to build on and better whatever they have left..."
Continued Prof. Amoako Baah:
"... “You go to America and ask Americans who is the best president the country has ever had, no doubt Abraham Lincoln; what did he build? Nothing! The greatest assets that a leader can bequeath to a country is not monuments, it is thinking properly. Because if you teach the young to think properly, they can build far greater monuments that you can ever build.”..."
Prof Amoako Baah then proposed that: "...instead of competing with Ivory Coast...whose resources are almost the same as Ghana’s...(both)...can join forces as the world’s largest and second largest cocoa producers...to sell their produce to a cartel and put value on the produce...So far as such things are concerned, no western country would come and make any suggestion of that sort when it would not be to their advantage...But a well-educated society would be able to think through in that direction..."
So, dear reader, if Nkrumah was "a great man by all standards", how come Prof. Amoako Baah, practically within the same year, opines that Nkrumah's principles of human development, national construction, international relations, and his accomplishments are "almost useless" because Nkrumah failed to create minds that "...could take over from him in his absence..."?
The fundamental challenge for Prof. Amoako Baah is how he is able to reconcile the two opposite versions about Nkrumah in his head, and explain the questions we raise in this multi-part essay series, below.
We believe that much of the illogical and counter-historical Danquah-Busia-Dombo confederate-inspired critiques from by Prof. Amoako Baah on the Kwame Nkrumah record and legacy are just carbohydrates. They are fattening like Massa Trigo corm meal. But, they are without essential substance. Like Massa Trigo, it fills the Danquah-Busia-Dombo confederates' stomach. But it ain't got no protein, vitamins, or amino acid for the body, brain, or soul! So maybe Chief Psychiatrist Dr Akwasi Osei of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) may have a point there.
.................In the language of our other Ghana-centered colleague, Francis Nkrumah, "We Shall Return!".
SOURCES:
1. HORST W. J. RITTEL and MELVIN M. WEBBER: Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences 4 (1973), 155-169
www.uctc.net/mwebber/Rittel+Webber+Dilemmas+General_Theory_of_Planning.pdf
2. Harold Dwight Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (1936).
3. Paul J. Magnarella: Assessing the Concept of Human Rights in Africa: A review of Human Rights in Africa: The Conflict of Implementation by Richard Amoako Baah, www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/volumes/2001/1-2/baah-magnarella.pdf.
4. Nonso Okereafoezeke, Africa Today, Volume 50, Number 1, Spring 2003 , 121-123, Baah, Richard Amoako. 2000. Review of Human Rights In Africa: The Conflict Of Implementation, muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/summary/v050/50.1okereafoezeke.html
5. David Amoah Boateng, Ghana the failed state, Ghanaweb, 24 April 2015, www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=355590
6. First Transcontinental Railroad, Wikipedia, //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad.
7. American Political Science Association. A Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science, Second Edition, Revised 2012.
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (II)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
.................................................................................................................. ... read full comment
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (II)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
........................................................................................................................................................
"...Nkrumah as a 'great man by all standards' would be very disappointed in such people for being ‘lazy thinkers’ despite receiving the best of education...", (Prof. Richard Amoako Baah, Ghanaweb, 16 Dec 2014).
In Part I of this series, we detailed several of Professor Amoako Baah's 2014-2015 utterances about the uselessness of the principles and ideologies underpinning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's vision for the development and consolidation of Ghana (and African). As far as the KNUST professor is concerned, (1) Nkrumah was not consistent on his ideological stance which reflects in clear lack of definition of ideology among those who believe in those ideals, (2) Nkrumah would have found it very difficult to implement some of his ideas because of the growth in population, (3) Ghana’s education is almost useless and independence is "meaningless" because Nkrumah built monuments instead of "passing on knowledge to the next generation, (4) America's " best president", Abraham Lincoln built "Nothing", (5) Ghana and Ivory Coast should join forces as a cocoa cartel to sell cocoa because "no western country would come and make any suggestion of that sort".
We continue with Part II........
The reader will agree with us that "national development and education", particularly in a new Nation suddenly free of colonial domination, will be a lot more complex and challenging than teaching "political studies", a quasi-discipline from the ivory tower academy.
Fact is, Prof. Amoako Baah who says that Nkrumah was not "consistent on his ideological stance" with respect to his principles and vision for Ghanaian national development cannot tell us there is only one definition of "political science", or, of "history" for that matter. This is the same for even the narrower concept of “Human Dignity” that Prof. Amoako Baah explores in Chapter 7 of his book, "Human Rights in Africa -The Conflict of Implementation".
In a review of that 2002 book, Prof. Paul Magnarella, University of Florida, Gainesville, agrees that "philosophers and human rights scholars do not agree on the nature of human dignity...(that)...the claimed universality of human rights is problematic..."
To cut to the chase, national construction and development vision post-colonial dictatorship, must necessarily address more complexities, "wicked problems", as described by Rittel and Webber in 1973. And whilst Prof. Amoako Baah may want all of us to know that he is a social scientist, we want to remind him that, in case he has forgotten, there is also an art to the discipline of political science itself. And to that, we must also add power relations - internal and external.
Wicked, indeed!
In that light, to argue that "Ghana would be better off if Nkrumah hadn't made enemies" is one of the craziest claims we have ever read from a university professor. Fact is, nations, as people, do not choose their enemies, nor do they specify the permanent interests of even their "best friends". Why, after all, did the British Empire treat the US differently from Ghana when they each got their independence from Britain? What kind of relations applied in each case? So, while we do not agree with the method and the "failed state" label for Ghana, we find that David Amoah Boateng understands those power and control factors (even within Ghana) when he commands Ghanaian youth in a Ghanaweb feature article thus:
"...the leaders of this nation...have taken us for granted for a long time. They steal from us and use the stolen money to school their children abroad Dubai, U.S.A and Europe because they themselves don’t trust the education system of the country they manage..." (Ghanaweb, 24 April 2015).
Dear reader, you must surely concur that Prof. Richard Amoako Baah, in his position as the Chairman of that department, is himself, a manager of education in Nkrumah's Ghana, as surely as night follows day. Our professor, a manager of education as KNUST, does not even trust what he manages.
Why, we want to know, must Prof Amoako Baah blame Kwame Nkrumah today for the failure of education when he himself concedes that "Nkrumah...(was)...a 'great man by all standards'...(who was behind)...the best of education..."his "lazy thinkers" received? And how does a scholar reconcile all of that in their head, then next, attempt to sell all of that to the people on radio and television?
We are saying that Prof. Amoako Baah ought to understand that the complexities in governance are significant for practitioners. He himself wrote about conflicts/complexities in "implementation." Therefore, a single conceptual definition of governance and development ideology is not practical, important, or even necessary. Even less so for practice. Again, Prof. Amoako Baah ought to be the first to acknowledge that fact considering he has already argued that there are significant local/Akan variations that add complexities to the western concept of "Human Dignity", a theoretical construct practiced in arm-chairs.
To govern, Nkrumah had to apply theory to practice, and practice to theory!
He did!
And Dr, Kwame Nkrumah succeeded, until the overthrow by traitors by: "...bona fide members of the Ghanaian military....(and)...rascal... civilians...(among them)...former prime minister...Busia" , a hopeless gang remotely funded and controlled by western powers external to Ghana/Africa.
What we will say here is this. As governance goes in Ghana, what is important is the development of a Ghana-centered vision and a coherent road map and plans. Then, the best qualified professionals and technicians are assembled to help build and construct the national project consistent with sound national human - development goals. You do not get to "home" using a spoils system of your political party by doling out jobs and government contracts to "foot soldiers", family members, members of your ethnic group, friends, or those with deep pockets some of it may have been stolen from the people in the first place.
For Ghana, the essential requirement for Nkrumah was a Unitary Vision for the former British colony from the get go! So, using the promise of regional planning under the rubric of National Development policy, Nkrumah accomplished a lot for Ghana within that small window of Ghanaian national life (1957-1966). After all, students and children (including those at KNUST and GIMPA, in Accra-Tema), and professors like Amoako Baah himself, must all walk or drive on public roads to school and work, They must work in public buildings that protect them against the elements, rodents, vermin, and diseases, They must use publicly-supported electricity at work and at home - to do homework and research, find their way in the dark, entertain themselves, power industry, and so forth. (Need we cite the facilities by name on these pages?)
Clearly, Nkrumah and the CPP did not achieve any of those things through laziness. Certainly not through lazy "thinking" or "doing". Rather, it is our latter day Prof. Amoako Baah who appears now to be lazy in thought, and absent-minded about major matters even as he chooses to bask in the minors.
While noting the contribution of Amoako Baah's book to the field, another reviewer of "Human Rights in Africa -The Conflict of Implementation", Nonso Okereafoezeke, note that the "book is an example of a legitimate argument somewhat carelessly presented..." Okereafoezeke observes that "...(T)he book seems to have been hurriedly put together...: the page numbers in the table of contents differ from those on the pages; some of the chapter titles are absent from the table of contents, while other chapter titles differ from what are listed there. Prof. Magnarella as well found similar confusion and laziness in the book, observing that "...the pagination of the table of contents and body of the book do not match..."
On another front, one is curious about the last time the head of the Department of History and Political Studies at KNUST got out of his "Lazy Boy" academy chair to visit his own department's website to see (1) how the site is organized, (2) what research and studies by faculty and student are posted, and (3) what is the quality of information available to those who may be interested in the programs of that department. Does he know what the average prospective student, a member of the media, a researcher, a potential sponsors/donor, etc., come away with, after visiting his department's website?
2007-2008 AD. Remarkably, as of this writing, Prof. Amoako Baah's "Research & Collaborations" webpages all have 2007-2008 era information, going back to the Ghana@50 "celebration" that was orchestrated by the NPP government. For instance, "Conferences" page has this:
"...The 2007/2008 academic year was very eventful for the Department. It continued to play an active role in the organization and delivery of the Roundtable Conferences...(on)...the Golden Jubilee Anniversary of Ghana's Independence....Dr. W.J. Donkoh, Head of the Department...presented a paper on the Progress Party (PP)...17th-18th December 2007..."
And we thought Prof Richard Amoako Baah is Chaiman, Department of History and Political Studies, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana, today!
Under the tab "News and Announcement", we found no information for "Announcements and Notices". "No events available for your search" is what you get for "Upcoming Events" and "Upcoming General". On the other hand, "Latest News" has information about a 2014 student group visit to Kakum National Forest. (In fact, we found even more alarming deficiencies with the department's "Academic" webpage, too numerous for us to care enumerating on these pages).
On a more serious note that goes to character as well attitude to work, in the review of Prof. Amoako Baah's book, Prof. Magnarella notes that:
"...Unfortunately,... (Amoako Baah)...fails to explain when or exactly how the data were gathered. The reader does not learn, for example, whether the author himself administered the questionnaires and conducted the interviews or whether he enlisted the help of others..."
We believe this is an unfortunate breach of scientific inquiry. In fact, this major point has important implications for the entire foundation of Prof Amoako Baah's thesis in "Human Rights in Africa -The Conflict of Implementation", if we must be sufficiently critical. As far as we know, this item is unsettled.
..........In the language of Francis Kwarteng, our other Ghana-centered colleague, "We Shall Return!".
SOURCES: See Part I. (Expect update in Part III):
www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=355976&comment=11612782#com.
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francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (3)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
................................................................................................................... ... read full comment
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (3)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
........................................................................................................................................................
We understand that Dr. Amoako Baah obtained his doctorate from the University of Tennessee, USA. Much of Tennessee is in the service area of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a water distribution and "electricity-dam" constructed by the US government as a development-cum-electricity-cum-industry-cum-anti-poverty program for Tennessee and surrounding States. We imagine Professor Amoako Baah used TVA electricity while he was a student in Tennessee. But now, Prof. Amoako Baah has a problem with infrastructure - electricity, buildings, dams, roads, etc., constructed by the CPP under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Further, Prof. Amoako Baah's statement that Lincoln, "...the best president the...USA...has ever had..." never built anything is startling for one who earned his Ph.D. in the US and is now in fact the head of a History Department in a university in Ghana. The statement is at once illogical. It is not based on any level-headed fact, certainly not on history.
The idea is, it is "leaders" of nations, not the "young", who provide funds by whatever means and order to be built facilities and monuments, precisely the type we call public goods, (e.g., TVA, Akosombo, Tema Harbor, etc.). We are not talking about Mobutu-size mansions for the greedy, or Boigny-cathedral-mosques, for those who fawn at foreign religions.
No!.
Public goods, in the secular sense, serve all the people but do not lend to equal individual responsibility for development, payment, upkeep, or renewal. In fact, even within this construct, there are always power relations (who will get what, how much, when, how (Lasswell, 1936). Bizarrely, in the Prof. Amoako Baah scheme of education and development, we can teach-and-talk, and talks-and-teach, and teach-and-talk some more. But, we will never get to build anything worth the public pesewa. After all, logically, in a strange twist to "Murphy's Law", our professor would have us learn that today's "young" who will be the "leaders" of tomorrow will also teach-and-talk, talk-and-teach, and teach-and-talk some more, and not have to build "Nothing"!
Further, to say that President Abraham Lincoln, US Civil War commander, who was president 5 short years (1860-1865) and was assassinated by a confederate secessionist merely 6 days after the surrender of the southern States in 1865, to say that Lincoln "built nothing" is a sign of laziness of thought, lack of historical perspective, and myopic vision.
By our count, there were 13 American presidents before Lincoln, thus Lincoln had a path already trodden, even with the attempted confederate secession. But, Lincoln re-built and repaired the Union spirit when he saved the Union. Further, because of the (1) plural character of the people, (2) institution of slavery and (3) suspicion of governmental power, etc., the Founding Fathers crafted a Constitution that severely limited the role of the "Federal Government". In that sense, and with the benefit of hindsight, the US Founding Father themselves were myopic. Even so, Lincoln taxed. Lincoln taxed to build!
The rundown has it that Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin at Sinking Springs Farm, Kentucky, in 1809. He was shot in Washington DC 14th April, 1865, and died a day later. Is Prof. Amoako Baah ready to tell us Lincoln lived in log cabins as his education and career took off and evolved in space - from Kentucky to Illinois, to Washington, DC?
Not so fast, professor!
In fact, in 1837, when Lincoln first took up residence in Springfield, IL, he reportedly moved into a "row of newly built brick buildings at Hoffman Row." Significantly, as a member of the Illinois legislature, Lincoln was a primary force, that same year, behind the relocation of the Illinois state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, the current state capital where President Obama declared his candidacy for President in 2008. Then in 1856, "the Lincolns" had their residence re-built, from One-and-Half Story to 2-Stories, in Springfield. On the state capital thing, just ask the Nigerians what they did in Abuja and Suleja when they moved their national capital from Lagos in 1976. You build buildings, roads, bridges, and lifes when you relocate capitals. That is what you do!
In 1861, after being elected President, Lincoln approved a 3% federal income tax (the first in the US) on incomes more than $800.00. The next year, Lincoln signed the "land grants" law known as the "Homestead Act" precisely for the purpose of building-up the United States, going West. Notably, President Lincoln approved the first major segment (1,087 mile (1,749 km)) of the Union Pacific rail track for the US Transcontinental Railroad, from Council Bluffs, Iowa (on the eastern side), to the Missouri River). In fact, the record shows that Lincoln himself selected the Missouri River as the "..."Transfer Depot" where up to seven railroads could transfer mail and other goods to Union Pacific trains bound for the west..."
From here, all fair minds will conclude that the idea that Lincoln built "Nothing" is a farce. In fact, the same fair minds will surmise that Lincoln would most likely have built a lot more for the US after the devastating Civil War. But, Lincoln was overthrown by murder through an assassin's bullet, at the hand of a confederate sympathizer in, 1865.
Lincoln built, and Lincoln saved the US "Union".
But Kwame Nkrumah, as a Pacesetter, was Ghana's "George Washington", right from the start when there were no roads trodden in all of Africa. Nkrumah led others and founded the Ghana Nation we know today, the same that has stood the test of time since 1957.
Let no one fool anyone!
In the 27 March article referenced in Part I about Dr. Nkrumah's "One-Man-Show" and "almost useless" education, our professor proposed that: "...instead of competing with Ivory Coast...whose resources are almost the same as Ghana’s...(both)...can join forces as the world’s largest and second largest cocoa producers...to sell their produce to a cartel...".
Here, the historical panache and critical lens of Prof. Amoako Baah are shamefully exposed: Chairman Prof. Amoako Baah has no clothes.
The professor is exposed because according to Ghanaweb commentator "United Ghana", in fact "...Nkrumah built huge silos so Gh & I. Coast could control price of cocoa but the Ivorian govt eventually backed out on the orders of their French overlords..." In fact, African history shows us the Ivory Coast, like most "Francophone" African colonies, did not sever the umbilical cord to their French colonializing power, France. As a result, the independence of the Francophone countries since Gen. Charles de Gaulle has always been a farce - "neo-colonial", as understood by Nkrumah, way back then. Indeed, France spearheaded the overthrow of Nkrumah because of their (France's) own "permanent interests" in a colony that was next door to Nkrumah's Ghana: France did not want a union of African nations that potentially could threaten French (and western interests).
So now, Ivory Coast, after suffering from civil wars in 2002-2004, then 2011-2012, and xenophobic strife, and with fewer of its hinterlands developing on account of their own choices, now sees it beneficial to take Ghana to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea over a parcel of sea at Cape Three Points that has always been within the orbit of Ghana, even as the world has been turning since 1957. Did Ghana make an enemy of the Ivory Coast, professor?
Strangely, in 2015, our professor is proposing Ghana form a cocoa cartel with the Ivory Coast.
How absurd!
Today, Prof. Amoako Baah should look at the Ivory Coast as a neighbor best separated by a Euclidean fence beginning at Cape Three Points, as a neighbor whose puppet masters still remotely control their African lands, as a neighbor with mostly unshared, incompatible, interests.
Fact is, Ghana has always been richer and safer compared to so many other African countries that were poorer without the Nkrumah vision, without the CPP development agenda, without the African-centered universal ideologies at bottom of all the physical and human development that were crowned by "the best of education" Africans could get in Africa during 1957-1966.
So go figure that one out for us, Prof. Amoako Baah!
Finally, we can state that Prof. Amoako Baah fails even basic lessons in Ghanaian history and more. Seems to us our professor may have forgotten all the lessons he took: Lessons in geography; economics; business; law;' political-economy; regional planning; etc. Those would have been on topics such as demographics, amalgamation, personal income, economies of scale, employment, market size, education, and Rural-Push/Urban-Pull. That is , assuming our professor bothered to take one or more of those courses in the first place. You see, according to our professor, "...Nkrumah would have found it very difficult to implement some of his ideas in modern times looking at the growth in the country’s population from 4.5 million as at independence to 25 million in 2010..."
Here, Prof. Amoako Baah fails our elementary data accuracy test, in addition to rigor of analysis and inference.
The historical data shows that the population of Ghana at independence in 1957 was not 4.5 million, but rather 6 million, an under-estimate of 25% by Prof. Amoako Baah. On the other hand, while his data for the population of Ghana in 2010 is bother-line accurate, we nonetheless wonder why Prof. Amoako Baah presented 2010 data while he was standing level-footed on the ground at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in Kumasi, in 2014.Shouldn't a professor of his caliber, one with many graduate assistants working under him, shouldn't the professor know Ghana's population, if he must attack the dead and others still living in a public forum?
But, all that said, we must inform the reader this: That is just half of the problem with respect to Dr. Amoako Baah's population theory!
History tells us most of the support for Nkrumah were in the urban centers, with massive support from workers, retired soldiers, and market women in those areas. The urban areas supported Nkrumah sooner, and more massively. Further, the same history, urban theory, regional geography, etc., inform us there are factors known as rural-push/urban-pull. In short, cities have been getting bigger in size, and bigger in population. The population of Ghana increased from 6 million in 1957 to 26 million in 2014 when Prof. Amoako Baah spoke. During that period, the urban areas (places with 5,000 or more people) increased their percentage of the population from about 23% in 1957 to about 55% in 2014. Consequently, how is it that we cannot expect Nkrumah to have done even better, or found the road a little bit easier, in 2014, when the "urban" areas were represented by over 50% of the people? (Or, is our professor signaling about the size of modern bombs in the hands of confederate secessionists?)
Nice try, professor!
So, as opposed to the theoretical, the fundamental "practice" question for Prof. Amoako Baah is this: When did "very difficult" become synonymous with inaction, failure, cynicism, 20/20 hindsightism?
In closing, while we strongly believe that Prof Amoako Baah has the freedom and the right to say whatever he wants consistent with law, we also know that as a public employee and the head of a major university department in Ghana, Prof Amoako Baah has moral, ethical, professional, and legal responsibility to be reflective and balanced in his public utterances. KNUST is not an NPP or PP university. The professor ought not to make one-sided critiques against other political "traditions" on the peoples' cedi. His public utterances and teachings, as detailed in this multi-part essay, are bald-faced one-sided, illogical, devoid of facts, and in some cases, mere conjecture. In fact, as the Head of the Department of History and Political Studies at KNUST, Prof Amoako Baah is gradually becoming a public agent and apologist for the Danquah-Busia-Dombo-NPP confederates some of whom do not even believe in a Unitary Ghana. From our vantage point, this is not an appropriate mode of public liaison for a professor who is funded by all the people, especially when he does not take time to to tell the people those are his own opinions, and not that of KNUST.
Again, Prof. Amoako Baah's arguments reviewed in this essay are off balance and illogical. Further, they fail the test of history on many fronts. They violate ethical standards of professional social science organizations. More important, in totality, those arguments make little theoretical or scholarly sense. To boot, leadership is not a theoretical object for arm chair prognosticians! Now in 2015, the mess on the webpages of the KNUST History and Political Studies Department, proves that, simple as it to do, even with the "lazy thinkers" nor under Professor Amoako Baah, in that department.
For an African who in the past wrote about complexities and the relevance of context in social analyses, practically little of Prof. Amoako Baah's 2014-2015 statements can be said to be founded on reflection and critical thinking. Our professor no longer recognizes the same complexities in social, economic, political, and cultural arenas, precisely the place where practice must occur.
In fact, it is bewildering that in totality, political scientist Prof Amoako Baah does not appear to even recognize or respect the significance and influence of "power" and "control" in national affairs, as well and in the affairs between Nation-States, beyond the individual who may have charisma. What, after all, is the usefulness of "not creating enemies", when your own nationals and colleagues are in cahoots with foreign agents to secede and/or subvert your Parliament-sanctioned national development and security agenda? How many bombs did the Confederate South lobe on Lincoln before that tragic event in that Washington theatre?
We think that by his serial pro-NPP-centered utterances, Prof. Amoako Baah has crossed the ethical threshold. If we may remind Prof. Baah, even if he is not a member of the American Political Science Association (APSA), their recommendation that "...Departments should adhere strictly to the rule that those faculty members who wish to endorse or sponsor a political position or activity do so in their own names...Departments as such should not endorse political positions...", is a reasonable one for any one in his position earning a paycheck through public taxes and other public means.
Again, when was the last time Prof. Amoako Baah told the media he was speaking just for himself?
MORE SIGNIFICANT, WE BELIEVE THAT STUDENTS WORKING UNDER PROF. AMOAKO BAAH ARE NOT BEING FAIRLY OR PROPERLY SERVED IN THE SPHERES OF CRITICAL THINKING, INDEPENDENCE OF THOUGHT, AND BALANCED /REFLECTIVE ANALYSES.
There is nothing challenging of students, there!
IN FACT, IT IS A MIGHTY SHORT ROAD FROM THESE ONE-SIDED UTTERANCES TO BULLYING OF NOT ONLY THE STUDENTS, BUT IN ADDITION, OF PROF. AMOAKO BAAH'S FELLOW FACULTY MEMBERS, TEACHING ASSISTANTS, AND EMPLOYEES OF KNUST AT LARGE. IN FACT, THESE CARELESS PRONOUNCEMENT MAY NOT POSITIVELY MOTIVATE PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS, POTENTIAL FACULTY MEMBERS, OR DONORS. THEY DO NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE IN THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL STUDIES AT KNUST.
Regretfully, we must submit that all these Prof. Amoako Baah "teachings" are "useless". More important for this age, there is little that is corroborative, or affirming, or theoretically-grounded!
We suggest the professor pay some attention to real scholarship and how his entire department communicates with the public and the media, to practice beyond talking in the classroom. He could start by being more reflective and by re-vamping the department's online presence to make those webpages more effective, informative, and full of "useful" details about publications, research proposals, awards, and real and effective "collaborative" initiatives. We are saying Prof. Amoako Baah ought to re-assess his public profile as a respected member of the Ghanaian university community, the academy at large, and whatever professional organizations he may now be a member. Fact is, we'd really hate to think that Chief Psychiatrist Dr Akwasi Osei of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has a point there - with a university professor in a public university!
Yes - the students, faculty, and employees at KNUST deserve better!
Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana deserves a lot better!!
SOURCES (Updated from Part I):
1. HORST W. J. RITTEL and MELVIN M. WEBBER: Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences 4 (1973), 155-169
www.uctc.net/mwebber/Rittel+Webber+Dilemmas+General_Theory_of_Planning.pdf
2. Harold Dwight Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How (1936).
3. Paul J. Magnarella: Assessing the Concept of Human Rights in Africa: A review of Human Rights in Africa: The Conflict of Implementation by Richard Amoako Baah, www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/volumes/2001/1-2/baah-magnarella.pdf.
4. Nonso Okereafoezeke, Africa Today, Volume 50, Number 1, Spring 2003 , 121-123, Baah, Richard Amoako. 2000. Review of Human Rights In Africa: The Conflict Of Implementation, muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/summary/v050/50.1okereafoezeke.html
5. Abraham Lincoln Chronology: The Papers of Abraham Lincoln,
www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/resources/abraham-lincoln-chronology
6. David Amoah Boateng, Ghana the failed state, Ghanaweb, 24 April 2015, www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=355590
7. First Transcontinental Railroad, Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad.
8. American Political Science Association. A Guide to Professional Ethics in Political Science, Second Edition, Revised 2012.
11. www.GhanaHero.com/FOIB - Are You Pickable, Mr. Politician - The Pan-African "Freedom of Information Bill" song. Listen to it! Get a FREE copy!
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James Osei 8 years ago
If you want change blame the bogus politicians who came after Nkrumah,not the writer of this article.Recycling what? Most of you are ignorant about what Nkrumah did and what he stood for.You are being educated by Francis Kwar ... read full comment
If you want change blame the bogus politicians who came after Nkrumah,not the writer of this article.Recycling what? Most of you are ignorant about what Nkrumah did and what he stood for.You are being educated by Francis Kwarteng.Come on,read Nkrumah's speeches and inhale some wisdom.
SARPONG 8 years ago
Reading Nkrumah speeches and inhaling that communist nonsense have caused your brain arrested development.
You people follow blindly. If Ghanaians were more free during colonial rule than when Nkrumah was the President. Th ... read full comment
Reading Nkrumah speeches and inhaling that communist nonsense have caused your brain arrested development.
You people follow blindly. If Ghanaians were more free during colonial rule than when Nkrumah was the President. The so called independence was nothing more than a change of slave masters. A change of benevolent white slave masters to a Negro brutal dictator.
YAW 8 years ago
Our benevolent white masters were so good that the British parliament rewarded Sir Garnet Wolseley a grant of £25,000 in 1874 for his benevolent activities in the Gold Coast. He was even promoted to the rank of Major Genera ... read full comment
Our benevolent white masters were so good that the British parliament rewarded Sir Garnet Wolseley a grant of £25,000 in 1874 for his benevolent activities in the Gold Coast. He was even promoted to the rank of Major General for doing a decent job. That said,Opinions as the Savage Legend summed up...are like arseholes..Everybody has got one.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
YAW,
Hahahahaha...I like that!
Thanks.
YAW,
Hahahahaha...I like that!
Thanks.
Kojo T 8 years ago
Tweea birds of the same feather Baah is hollow We are Talking of Solar power in 1964.What is he talking about? Has he any vision?
Tweea birds of the same feather Baah is hollow We are Talking of Solar power in 1964.What is he talking about? Has he any vision?
Kwamebeba 8 years ago
"Somebody can also cut and paste all the bad things said about Nkrumah by other important people including President Nyerere you recently made as a friend of Nkrumah."
That is exactly what we Nkrumaists expect from the an ... read full comment
"Somebody can also cut and paste all the bad things said about Nkrumah by other important people including President Nyerere you recently made as a friend of Nkrumah."
That is exactly what we Nkrumaists expect from the anti-Nkrumah liars. This will allow us to prove that there is nothing Nkrumah did that wsa maliciously done and that you haters have been doing nothing but concocting lies about the selfless man.
By the way could you please, furnish us with some of your so called "cut and paste" on J . B . Danquah and Kofi Busia so we can know their thoughts about Ghana and Africa as well as, what others perceived them to be.
Nkrumah will always be adorned with the selfless cap of Ghana and Africa because it fits him the bests.
I will be glad if you could show me through "cut and paste" evidence wher Nkrumah declared himself as President for Life in Ghana.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Kwamebeba,
Not too long ago, Attorney Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo attempted the same thing with the Daddy "Kludze" and son essays. Initially unattributed, it was us who forced SAS back to the table to confirm that it was all borr ... read full comment
Kwamebeba,
Not too long ago, Attorney Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo attempted the same thing with the Daddy "Kludze" and son essays. Initially unattributed, it was us who forced SAS back to the table to confirm that it was all borrowed, not original.
Turned out daddy Kludze was detained by Nkrumah's government for subversive activities. He was not such a neutral, fair, and balanced individual on is own subject.
Now, this one!
The Kludze "son" essay was about Power and Energy in Ghana.
Oddly, that essay begins when the NPP under Kuffour took over and re-initiated the Bui Power project. The little we know, the son is a highly regarded scientist. Looks like he forgot that even in politics, policy-making, and administration, antecedents matter.
That is, proper attribution matters!
A fair-minded person cannot talk about energy and power in Ghana, then neglect to talk about Akosombo Dam and the VRA.
Which brings us to our finale point.
The Danquah-NLM-Busia-NLC cohort are notorious for:
-- Non-attribution
-- Hiding information
-- Destroying information
-- Destroying government resources
And they want us to believe that they are the "Conservative"!
Just as the objective, fair, and balanced person knows the difference between a Hitler and a Roosevelt, they can also tell the difference between propaganda jive and fact.
Looking forward to some more "...'cut and paste' on J . B . Danquah and Kofi Busia...", etc.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
SARPONG,
We see!
Respectfully, you must have missed much of recent discussions on this forum on that subject.
Wise, balanced, objective people certainly know the difference between a Hitler and a Roosevelt!
You as ... read full comment
SARPONG,
We see!
Respectfully, you must have missed much of recent discussions on this forum on that subject.
Wise, balanced, objective people certainly know the difference between a Hitler and a Roosevelt!
You ask when it will stop!
From our vantage point of view, we addressed that in part in our recent essay: What is Ghana-Centered/Ghana-Proud, initially published as "What Ghana-Centered/Ghana Proud Means To Us".
(See Feature Article of Sunday, 20 September 2015).
Better yet, get the final copy on GhanaHero.Com/Visions. See under Prof Lungu Says.... . The copy on GhanaHero.com has all the graphics to tell the story in its proper context.
Peace!
James Arhin 8 years ago
Hey,SARPONG ! You have been advised to read Nkrumah's prophetic and thought-provoking speech of November 25,1964 and give your comments.Have you read it ? What are your comments ?
Hey,SARPONG ! You have been advised to read Nkrumah's prophetic and thought-provoking speech of November 25,1964 and give your comments.Have you read it ? What are your comments ?
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
And, if we can return to this essay and the speech by Mr. Nnamdi Azikiwe...
READ: "...Finally, may I say that I look forward eagerly to the day when Nigerians, as citizens of a fully independent and sovereign State, can jo ... read full comment
And, if we can return to this essay and the speech by Mr. Nnamdi Azikiwe...
READ: "...Finally, may I say that I look forward eagerly to the day when Nigerians, as citizens of a fully independent and sovereign State, can join our honoured guests and the people of Ghana not only in enjoying political freedom, but also in participating in the titanic struggle for the freedom of all Africa from exploitation in every form..."
WE SAY:
Lagos, we've had a problem!
Accra, we've had a problem!
Addis Ababa, we are having a problem!
To the point, "...also in participating in the titanic struggle for the freedom of all Africa from exploitation in every form..." never happened.
All of that was arrested that disgraceful day in February, 1966.
And we know by whose hands - Ankrah-Kotoka-Busia-Afrifa-Nunoo-Deku-Harlley, NLM-NLC, etc., under direction by US, UK, France!
TEE 8 years ago
MAY HE REST IN PERFECT PEACE, NKRUMAH NEVER DIES, FORWARD EVER
MAY HE REST IN PERFECT PEACE, NKRUMAH NEVER DIES, FORWARD EVER
TEE 8 years ago
THE BEST AND SUPERIOR HUMAN BEING GOD GAVE TO AFRICA NOT ONLY GHANA
THE BEST AND SUPERIOR HUMAN BEING GOD GAVE TO AFRICA NOT ONLY GHANA
When is this insanity going to stop? Are we going to hear from all the people who said good things about Kwame Nkrumah?
Believe me, there were and still some people who admired Hitler.
Idi Amin had his admirers.
Pol ...
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Those misinformed,disinformed and indoctrinated Ghanaians like you who were born in 1972 and the years after are being educated to see the true picture of what Nkrumah stood for.It will never end.SARPONG,have you read Nkrumah ...
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I don't need any education from personality cult worshippers. Nkrumah is dead with his dictatorship. He died with his Cpp which now exist in name only.
You don't have to had been born during Nkrumah's rule to know about hi ...
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Dear Sarpong,
PLEASE ALLOW THOSE WHO WANT TO WORSHIP NKRUMAH TO DO SO. I STRONGLY BELIEVE IT IS A PERSONAL CHOICE. THUS I DON'T THINK IT IS YOUR PLACE TO SUGGEST TO ANOTHER WHO OR WHAT TO WORSHIP (HOPE I DID NOT FORCE YOU ...
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Now you are not Francis anymore but Robert huh? Your IP address will continue to expose you .
Dear Sarpong,
You have the IP software so let us have my IP address and Robert's so readers can judge for themselves.
I AM NOT ROBERT. You should contact Nyansasem (who also has the IP software) if your IP software is ...
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Whoever resist change is lazy and proof Amoako Baah did not mince words when he told these old school Nkrumahist in the face that they are lazy. Recycling these chaff everyday wold not help bring the mu c he needed change Gh ...
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Author" Prof. Lungu
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (I)"
Source: Ghanaweb
................................................................................................................... ...
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Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (II)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
.................................................................................................................. ...
read full comment
Title: "KNUST Prof. Amoako Baah's Teaching is Almost Useless (3)"
Author: Prof. Lungu
Source: Ghanaweb
................................................................................................................... ...
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If you want change blame the bogus politicians who came after Nkrumah,not the writer of this article.Recycling what? Most of you are ignorant about what Nkrumah did and what he stood for.You are being educated by Francis Kwar ...
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Reading Nkrumah speeches and inhaling that communist nonsense have caused your brain arrested development.
You people follow blindly. If Ghanaians were more free during colonial rule than when Nkrumah was the President. Th ...
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Our benevolent white masters were so good that the British parliament rewarded Sir Garnet Wolseley a grant of £25,000 in 1874 for his benevolent activities in the Gold Coast. He was even promoted to the rank of Major Genera ...
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YAW,
Hahahahaha...I like that!
Thanks.
Tweea birds of the same feather Baah is hollow We are Talking of Solar power in 1964.What is he talking about? Has he any vision?
"Somebody can also cut and paste all the bad things said about Nkrumah by other important people including President Nyerere you recently made as a friend of Nkrumah."
That is exactly what we Nkrumaists expect from the an ...
read full comment
Kwamebeba,
Not too long ago, Attorney Dr. Samuel Adjei Sarfo attempted the same thing with the Daddy "Kludze" and son essays. Initially unattributed, it was us who forced SAS back to the table to confirm that it was all borr ...
read full comment
SARPONG,
We see!
Respectfully, you must have missed much of recent discussions on this forum on that subject.
Wise, balanced, objective people certainly know the difference between a Hitler and a Roosevelt!
You as ...
read full comment
Hey,SARPONG ! You have been advised to read Nkrumah's prophetic and thought-provoking speech of November 25,1964 and give your comments.Have you read it ? What are your comments ?
And, if we can return to this essay and the speech by Mr. Nnamdi Azikiwe...
READ: "...Finally, may I say that I look forward eagerly to the day when Nigerians, as citizens of a fully independent and sovereign State, can jo ...
read full comment
MAY HE REST IN PERFECT PEACE, NKRUMAH NEVER DIES, FORWARD EVER
THE BEST AND SUPERIOR HUMAN BEING GOD GAVE TO AFRICA NOT ONLY GHANA