Minneapolis spokesman., 1963-06-06
Lack Of Freedom
In Ghond Is
Called Nonsense
(Continued from PaRe ~

caIIed Nonsense
CONTINUED from Page ~
grave to mount a prancing, i'm
patient Traveller ready to lead a
lynch mob. The question which
proves how much white people like
black people: Would you want
your daughter to marry a mig
GER? In case he didn't know, I
could have told him "nigger" was
epithet for black man.
I could have told him more, but he
knew all he needed to know Yes.
Because he came to school a few
years after the reign Of Nkrumah
he had no concept Of his place. The
sky was, is his limit.
The real reason Nlrumah is
hated In this country Is not be-
cause Of what Is given In the
press, but because he Is q black
man who refused to stay In his
place, In the same way that
WEB. Dubois, Richard Wright
and Paul Robson refused to
stay put.
The rage directed at Nkrumah
stems from centuries of deep
rooted Western cultural bias to-
ward the non-Western world. This
bias consists Of rating people gen.
orally according to races. On top
always were the superior people,
white people, Gods people; on the
bottom always were the most in
ferior people on earth, Negroes,
suspect (for purposes Of economic
exploitation) Of being the DEVILS
people.
This concept Of race superiority,
because Of the ruthless exploita-
ton that followed from it, ac-
counts in some degree for the
eminence Of the West today and
anyone from the lesser breed"
(''natives" or "niggers") who gets
out Of his place" (moves up) Is
a threat to the West because he
is a threat to the essential as
sumption superiority for
maintaining the economic power
structure based on exploitation.
To destroy the essential assump-
ton behind economic exploitation
Is to doom that exploitation and
thus reduce Western man to the
(heaven commanded) equality Of
men.
What NIuumah represents Il
a threat to the West precisely
because the Western man fears
that Africa or Asia will some
day be equal to or perhaps sur
pass the West. NIrumah by no
means should be given all the
credit, for there were many Afri-
can and Asian patriots before
him and with him. Rather NIru-
nah has become q symbol Of the
blackest Of black men, once con-
sidered the most backward"
people on earth.
Nkrumah's real crime therefore
is that he has destroyed forever
by his spectacular success In
Ghana the myth that white people
are superior. He has proved that
blacks are as capable Of sef-gov-
ernment as white people. One fact:
In 1861 when Ghana (then the Gold
Coast) got self government after
over 100 years Of British, rule
there were 13 Government school.
Today there are 76! This Is en-
barassing to the former colonial
powers. Western man now can't
help but ask how could our fore
fathers" have been so wrong about
black men?
Negroes In this country could do
well If they became acquainted
with what Nkrrmah Is saying and
doing. For example, they might
become Afro-Americans as they
are called in Ghana. They also
might refuse to become complacent
with tokenism the same as In
Ghana. When Ghana became inde-
pendent, 1t was hailed as a great
victory.
Nkrumah considered the inde-
pendence Of Ghana to be, in effect,
tokenism: The independence Of
Ghana has no meaning unless 1t Is
linked up with the total liberation
of all Africa" I would like to hear
Negroes saying things about not
be satisfied until all segregation is
eliminated. Perhaps they will say
these things when they become
Afro-Americans. There must be
more unity in Negro leadership.
Here again Negroes could learn
from Nlrumah, for he Is one OF
the driving forces behind plans to
unity all Of Africa, much to the