The Making Of Kwame Nkrumah

By Isaac Arko Inkum

It is an experiential story of how seven young people developed an idea to do a movie on the life of a great African Personality: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The book documents the genesis of the movie project and how this young team carried out primary and secondary research to understand the personality of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first black man to win independence for his country. The book details the engagement this young team had with resourceful people who provided them with materials and information on Nkrumah and his contemporaries. More so, the challenges of filmmaking encountered by the group are highlighted in the book. Some of the interviews and interactions captured in the book are discussions with Nkrumah’s daughter, personal photographer, friends, and ministers. Also, discussions with renowned researchers, film directors, and film companies are carefully chronicled. Albeit, the intention of this young team is to do a movie on Nkrumah; however, the book reveals the backstory of how the entire project began and the difficulties that were encountered in the process of doing a movie that has never been done. It is an unusual happening for young people to dedicate six years of their life to embark on an adventure that many doubted was possible. Nonetheless, their faith and determination to realize this dream inspired them to persevere and work hard, and this book simply tells the story of these young people who abandoned everything to pursue their dream of doing a movie on the Man of the Millennium: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a great leader that Africa once had.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vike Springs Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Sep 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781999850968

Isaac Arko Inkum

Isaac Arko Inkum is a young Ghanaian writer and co-founder of RoomGreat (film and research company). He is also the co-founder of CUBICLE, a writing firm which specializes in the ghost-writing of memoirs. He is a graduate from the University of Ghana with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Philosophy. Inkum is committed to using his talent as a writer to transform minds and shape a great narrative about Africa.

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On behalf of my colleagues, I would like to appreciate Mr Baffour Kobena Senkyire, a lawyer, erstwhile Minister for Co-operatives and a Member of Parliament in President Kwame Nkrumah’s Government. He also served under President Hilla Limann as Minister for Local Government and Co-operatives. Mr Senkyire’s words of encouragement offered the morale needed to press on. Neither a written or verbal acknowledgement would suffice to reciprocate his remarkable support. I also appreciate the support of Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Appiah, founder of Martyrs of Jesus Baptist Church, who, together with lawyer Senkyire, encouraged this dream.

The man who trained me deserves the highest acknowledgement: Mr Solomon Kwamena Inkum. Thanks for being a great principal, teacher, Chief Senior Adviser and a father. I thank my mum, Rose Antoinette Andoh, for her prayers and words of encouragement. To my elder siblings, Michael, Barbara, Isaac and Solomon, I appreciate your advice and financial support.

A special appreciation goes to Mr David Tetteh, Chief Executive Officer of Fincap Securities and his lovely wife, Mrs Barbara Tetteh. Their technical and financial support helped to birth this book. My warmest appreciation goes to Cassius Kofi Torwodjor for overwhelmingly typing the manuscript. I cannot leave out these men who also supported the dream: Mr Yaw Firempong Boakye, Mr Divine Asamoah and his beautiful wife, Mr Andrew Ebo Parker, Mr Sebastian Asem, Nana Kobena Nketsia V (Chief of Esikado), Mr Kwaw Paintsil Ansah, Mr Perbi and Professor Akilakpa Sawyer.

To my colleagues, Hayford, Cassius, Kobi, Francess, Precious and Jasmine, this story is yours, and it was an honour penning your great initiative into a book. But God deserves the greatest glory. Without His lead, nothing would have happened.

I also acknowledge the immense valuable information that I obtained from various sources, which have been duly made mention of at the various relevant portions in the book.

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THE MAKING OF KWAME NKRUMAH

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PREFACE

It is often said that A people who do not know where they are coming from, will not be able to decipher where they are going. It is for this singular statement that history as a subject is very important for the development of any society. History affords us the opportunity to assess what our forebears have been able to do and offer us an opportunity to build upon it. It shows us our valutes and the reference point of those values to help us navigate our way forward. Such knowledge is even more necessary when personalities whose views, works and actions have significantly shaped the direction of societies that they came from.

It is for this reason that THE MAKING OF KWAME NKRUMAH is very important, not only for Ghana and Ghanaians but also Africa and the world as a whole. Kwame Nkrumah’s contribution has been recognised by both kith and kin as well as foreigners in every corner of the world. Yet, it seems as if Ghanaians, who can really claim ownership of such an illustrious person, have been deliberately denied that knowledge. In spite of Nkrumah being such a colossal person in global politics, his name has been shrouded in one controversy or another. While political opponents at the global level seem to vilify him because of his unapologetic means of seeking real freedom and liberation for the African people, back home he is equally attacked by people who seem to believe that he had usurped their glory and contribution.

THE MAKING OF KWAME NKRUMAH is a book that should be read by any school-going person and indeed every citizen of Ghana. This book is a collection of the various activities and processes that a group of young people have undertaken in an attempt to do a film on Kwame Nkrumah. The film tells the life story of Nkrumah and attempts to chronicle the humble beginnings of this influential figure. It tells how events and incidents in his life through the Gold Coast, America and Europe helped shape his beliefs, thoughts and principles, which would become the bedrock for which he influenced the actions of top political figures of the world and the course that he took for the development of his country.

Though significant amounts of information were taken from Nkrumah’s own biography, it is worthy to note that even more information in this film and book were sourced from other independent and individual private sources, even from writers who openly opposed Nkrumah’s ideas. Therefore, the content of the book, and especially the film, which is yet to be produced, can easily be authenticated and can possibly be seen as an unbiased representation of reality, even as it also pursues the technical approach of storytelling and filmmaking. The young men and women who put this information together as a source material for the film have spared no effort in seeking authentic information from every possible source to establish the truth and veracity of events in Kwame Nkrumah’s life, even to the point of seeking out the unpublished memoir of the late Arko Adjei, who was Nkrumah’s bosom friend.

It is for this reason that I urge all peoples of the world and, more importantly, people from Ghana to first read the book, and then watch out for the film. It will certainly inform them about a person whose works are probably not taught in schools anymore. But more importantly, it will inspire them into self-belief that if their land can produce such a significant global figure as Kwame Nkrumah, then as people of this country, they should have confidence in themselves and strive to not only achieve what Nkrumah worked and stood for but build upon it for the development of Ghana, Africa and the world as a whole.

Yaw Firempong Boakye

Film Producer, Writer, Director and Teacher

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1,910 DAYS

Two great things that life offers us: a chance to dream and a chance to realise the dream. Dreams cannot be achieved in the grave or heaven or hell. Dead people don’t dream; those who will never come to this earth have no chance to either dream or to realise a dream. The only people who are qualified to dream and realise a dream are the living. It is part of the reason why we are here, to have a dream and working to realise the dream.

It has been 1,910 days since we began the dream of staging the first ever movie on Kwame Nkrumah. We have scaled the first hurdle: to have a dream. And for 1,910 days, we worked on the second: realising the dream. One thing that people kept telling us whenever we told them about our project was the fact that they also dreamt of doing something that they were passionate about. It was palpable to hear people share their dreams with us, both young and old people. Martin Luther’s speech reflects what is in the hearts of not just African Americans but every human being. Except that Luther personalised it, I have a dream. But we all have dreams as human beings. Our dreams may differ; however, the significant point is we all have dreams. The problem is not about whether we have dreams. The problem is working to realise the dreams we have. And that is where it gets slippery and tough, and we give up. We never imagined that come 1,910 days, we would still be working on this dream. Yet, each day brings the help we need to realise the dream.

It was the dawn of a new year. Francess had married; Prof. Ocquaye had become the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, had been sworn in as the President of Ghana. The world was in its 2017th year, and we were still on the mission. Our dream was on course, despite the enormous difficulties we encountered. It seemed that the things that discouraged us made sense. Within 1,910 days, one could have found a job, earned a salary and lived a cool life without the burden of doing a movie that had never been done. More so, one could have pursued some kind of professional training and climbed the corporate ladder. All these made sense, as much as they discouraged us from carrying on with the dream. For 1,910 days, we bonded as a young team. We had never worked together for so long a time as young people. Through the process, we couched our own experiences, realised our weaknesses and disagreed without fear. We appreciated the strength in working with young minds. Nobody lorded it over another or acted bossy. We knew each member believed in the dream. And having joined ourselves to something bigger than our individual potential, we fused our best capabilities together and worked on the dream, even when nothing indicated that we were going to achieve it.

In 1,910 days, we made some mistakes. Usually, a screenplay should have a synopsis and a treatment. We reversed the sequence. Our script had no synopsis or treatment. When we met the screenplay writer, Mr Yaw Firempong Boakye, to review the script, he asked if we had developed a synopsis and a treatment for the film. He quipped that the only way to develop a good script is to carefully draft a synopsis and treatment. He wondered how we had written a script without these two important things. And that was when we started restructuring the script for the film; this time, drafting a synopsis and treatment.

We also recall the chance we had to meet the then presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo Addo. We had mistakenly spelt his name as Akuffo in lieu of Akufo. He corrected us and advised us to keep that in mind for future reference. More so, the reason why we wanted to meet Nana Akufo Addo was to research about his father, Edward Akufo Addo. The letter we had written to him stated:

...we would like to know more about your father to aid our research in producing a film. But when we sat in his office and he enquired of what our project was about, we told him it was about Kwame Nkrumah. His focus changed. He wondered if we had come to his office to learn about his father or Kwame Nkrumah. We couldn’t get the information we needed on Edward Akufo Addo, who was a staunch member of the United Gold Coast Convention and the BIG SIX. He also became a ceremonial president in 1970. When we left Nana’s office, we blamed ourselves for not framing our question right. We reasoned that when Nana enquired of what the project was about, we should have precisely stated that the reason why we had come to see him was that his father had been featured in our script, and we wanted to understand who his father was, even though the project was about Kwame Nkrumah. We criticised ourselves for making that mistake, having had such a good opportunity to meet Nana Akufo Addo. We wondered when again we would be able to meet him, so we properly phrased our research question right, expecting a good enough response from him.

And then there was the Ahmad Abdallah goof. Ahmad, the Egyptian film director, was willing to help produce the film. But we made a volte-face and terminated the contract with Ahmad when Kings Crown showed up. Meanwhile, nothing much happened between Kings Crown and RoomGreat. They left us in the middle of the journey. We decided to pick up the relationship with Ahmad again. This time, he was very frank, You guys decided to move on. So, I also did same. Better luck next time, Ahmad replied. It was a painful mistake.

The most embarrassing blunder was when we sent a copy of our first production estimates to one investor in France who had shown interest in the project. Philippe noticed that the figures we had sent him weren’t adding up. Doing a meticulous calculation, we saw the error. We were embarrassed about it and apologised. There is a saying that first impressions stick. This potential investor in his reply acknowledged our effort in drafting a pretty good project document. However, he was particular about the error in calculation. That was a painful mistake too. But thanks to Nana Okyir Baidoo and his colleagues at Fincap Securities, who helped us restructure our estimated budget and clean up the mess.

In an American series titled The Last Ship, there is a scene in one of the episodes where the Captain, Thomas Chandler, addresses his shipmates, It is easy to believe in people when they are succeeding, but that’s not what we are about. We have to believe in each other even when we are failing. That’s a powerful statement. We had to believe in each other, even when we failed and made mistakes. We believed in each other because we were willing to recognise our mistakes and find out what we didn’t do right. So, we corrected these mistakes and did them right. If it demanded that we had to do it again, we were ready to. It was the only way we were going to make progress and overcome our failures and mistakes. For 1,910 days, that’s what we did. We analysed our mistakes and worked on correcting them, without the fear of making unintentional, repetitive mistakes. It helped us to couch our own experiences and learn lessons in a practical way, waxing the confidence in what we were doing. It wasn’t all about making mistakes anyway. Some things were done right.

In 1,910 days, we had managed to meet these great people, purposely, for primary information and support. For some, we spoke to them on the phone.

1. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo – Then presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party. President of Ghana in 2017.

2. Mr Quartey – Personal Secretary of Former President John Dramani Mahama.

3. Honourable Professor Aaron Mike Ocquaye – Then member of the New Patriotic Party. Speaker of Parliament of Ghana in 2017.

4. Mr Baffour Kobena Senkyire – Former Minister for Cooperatives in President. Nkrumah’s Government/Project Patron.

5. Reverend Dr Chris Hesse – Personal Cameraman of President Nkrumah.

6. Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa – Pathologist/Member of Convention People’s Party.

7. Dr Johnny Osei Kofi – Former Deputy Chief of Staff.

8. Professor Horace Campbell – Third Occupant of Kwame Nkrumah Foundation.

9. Professor Jacob U. Gordon – Former Head of Kwame Nkrumah Foundation.

10. Professor Anyidoho – Former Head of Kwame Nkrumah Foundation.

11. Opanyin Takyi – Personal Driver of J. B Danquah.

12. Alhaji Abdul Malik Kweku Baako – Editor-In-Chief of The New Crusading Guide Newspaper.

13. Mr Kwesi Pratt – Editor-in-Chief of The Insight Newspaper.

14. Madam Mary Osei – First female District Commissioner.

15. Madam Lucy Annin – First female Member of Parliament.

16. Mrs Linda Brocke – Daughter of Dr Arko Adjei.

17. Madam Irene – Daughter of Dr Arko Adjei.

18. Professor Akilakpa Sawyer – President of Ghana Academy of Arts and Science.

19. Marika Sherwood – Historian and Researcher.

20. Mr Kwaw Ansah- Renowned Film Director.

21. Mr Firempong Boakye – Screenplay Writer, Lecturer at National Film and Television Institute.

22. Mr Dennis Hunter – Netflix Company, U.S.A.

23. Mr Bright Botwe – Head of Search Room/Repository Unit, Public Records and Archives Department.

24. Dr Onsy Nkrumah – Son of President Nkrumah.

25. Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso – Director of Academic Affairs, Ghana Armed Forces and Staff College/International Relations Expert.

26. Musa Mousse – CEO of Kings Crown.

27. Ambassador Adu Poku – Former Ambassador to Germany.

28. Mr Sebastian Asem – CEO of Vihama Energy.

29. Mr Ebo Parker – Nkrumah Enthusiast.

30. Mr Richard Ahamadzie Haudson – Member of Convention People’s Party.

31. Hajia Fati – Wife of Salifu Dagarti (Nkrumah’s personal bodyguard).

32. Dr Prince Adeka – Lecturer at the University of Ghana.

33. Mr Adu Mantey – Lawyer.

34. Mr Edward Akufo Addo – Son of the late Edward Akufo Addo.

35. Mr Austin Garmey – Labour Expert.

36. Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Appiah – Founder of Martyrs Baptist Church.

37. Mr Charles Heyman – Statesman.

38. Mr K.B. Asante (late) – Statesman.

39. Mr Divine Asamoah – Personal Friend of President Nkrumah/Project Patron.

40. Mr David Tetteh – Financial Adviser/ CEO of Fincap Securities Limited.

41. Mrs Barbara Tetteh – Project Patron.

42. Mr Peter Amponsah – Executive Chairman, Centre For World Scientific Information Ltd.

43. Samia Nkrumah – Daughter of President Nkrumah.

44. Claude Grunitzky – Founder of TrueAfrica.

45. Prof. Tsamenyi – Lecturer, Chinese European Business School.

46. Kofi Laine – Co-partner of Kings Crown.

47. Nana Kwame Ababio Amansan- Nkrumah videos and audio speeches vendor.

48. Dr Nyantekyi- CEO of Inter-Afrique Capital.

49. Ahmad Abdallah – Egyptian Film Director.

50. Julius Amedume – Ghanaian Film Director, London.

51. Dr Owusu Afriye Akoto – Member of the New Patriotic Party. Minister of Agriculture in 2017.

Dr Akoto’s contact was given to us by a gentleman called Eugene. Nana Akufo Addo, the then-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, had instructed him to give us the contact of the Honourable Minister. Dr Akoto is one of the two party members that Nana Addo advised that we meet. Dr Akoto is the son of the founder of the National Liberation Movement, Baffour Akoto. A quick flip into the history books tells us that this political party was formed sometime in 1954. The colony was becoming ethnocentric and divisive because political groups had been formed on the basis of ethnicity. Nkrumah as the Prime Minister decided to pass an act called the Avoidance Discrimination Act to ban these political factions that had been formed on the lines of tribal identity. Nkrumah’s vision of unity was going to be hampered by these ethnic-oriented parties. And the enactment of the Avoidance Discrimination Act led to the banning of the National Liberation Movement, which was a populous Ashanti Group. Its base was in Kumasi, and the leader of the movement was a linguist called Baffour Osei Akoto.

While conversing with Dr Akoto, he recalled how his father abhorred some of the comments made by Nkrumah. ...and so, at a rally in Kumasi, Nkrumah was daring the Chiefs that if they do not co-operate, they would run away and leave their sandals behind. According to him, his father, being a linguist, respected the tradition and wasn’t going to tolerate whoever attempted to demean the status of the Chiefs, especially Ashanti Chiefs. Having been able to organise the people and gaining support from the Asantehene, Baffour Osei Akoto formed the National Liberation Movement.

Another thing Dr Akoto talked about was the Djibowu Commission. After the meeting with him in his office at Job 600, we bothered to research on it. The Djibowu Commission was set up to look into issues of corruption in the cocoa sector during Nkrumah’s tenure. The man who chaired the commission was Djibowu, a nimble Nigerian Jurist. But the Member of Parliament for Kwadaso in the Ashanti Region of Ghana had more to say. He made mention of the famous Re Akoto and seven others case in Ghana. According to him, this legal issue was on the minds and lips of Ghanaian citizens and lawyers. Just like the Djibowu Commission, the Re Akoto and Seven Other’s case was something we never knew about. But having heard about it for the first time, we spent time reading more about it on Google.

On the 28th day of August 1961, the Supreme Court of Ghana was confronted with legal interpretation of Article 13(1) of the 1960 Republican Constitution and here, in relation to its consistency with the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) (1958 (NO.17 of 1958) under which the Senior Linguist of the Asantehene-Baffour Osei Akoto, and seven others, namely: Peter Alen Danso (alias Kwaku Danso), Osei Assibey, Nana Antwi Boasiako (alias John Mensah), Joseph Kojo Antwi-kusi (alias Anane Antwi-Kusi), HaliduKramo, were summarily detained without trial on an offence ‘prejudicial to the security of the state’. The grounds for the detention were that they encouraged the commission of acts of violence in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo and associated themselves with persons who have adopted a policy of violence as a means of achieving political aims in those regions. Baffour Akoto was a ‘founding member’ of the National Liberation Movement (NLM), a political movement set up that advocated for a federated Ghana.

Dr Akoto Owusu Afriye Akoto, the son of Baffour Akoto, who became the Minister for Agriculture in 2017, spoke passionately about this legal case. Perhaps, the fact that his father was a victim made him recall the case with a personal feeling.

Look, these are some of the things which happened in Ghana, and you, the young, need to know about them, he said.

It was a good conversation after all. Hearing from both sides of the political parties balanced the information we were gleaning. Living with his father as a young boy, he saw the events historians wrote down later on as a piece of history. He experienced the history we read in books. In the tenure of President Kuffour, Dr Akoto was the Minister for Agriculture. He acceded to that position again when Nana Addo became the 5th President of the 4th Republic. Was it due to his expertise in agriculture? Having enquired about that, he was happy and responded that he is a farmer who believes agriculture can be the greatest opportunity to grow the economy of the nation.

I have a farm, and I encourage people to invest in agriculture, Dr Akoto remarked. We thanked him for the opportunity.