Speech by the Prime Minister of Ghana at the opening
session of the All-African People's Conference, on Monday, December 8,
1958
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Fellow African Freedom Fighters, Ladies and Gentlemen. it is my considerable pleasure to welcome here today many official delegates who have come from all over this vast continent of ours to confer together in this All-African People's Conference, as well as the fraternal delegates, observers, and other visitors to Ghana. My country is once again host to a gathering of Africans speaking for Africa and Africans, and in welcoming you as Prime Minister of Ghana, I am deeply conscious of this fact. Yet my real role here today is that of the leader of a political party, and it is as the Chairman of that party that I want to address you. As I look around this hall, my pride overflows at the sight of so large a number of African comrades-inarms who, imbued with the fervent desire to see Africa free, unfettered, and united, have gathered here together on African soil for the first time in the history of our continent. This assembly marks the opening of a new epoch in our continent's history and it will be recorded in our annals in illuminations worthy of its significance as the First All-African People's Conference. We have had Pan-African Congresses before-in fact, five of them-but all of these, by force of circumstances, were carried on outside Africa and under much difficulty. Never before has it been possible for so representative a gathering of African Freedom Fighters not only to come together, but to assemble in a free independent African State for the purpose of planning for a final assault upon imperialism and colonialism. Congratulations for making this possible are due in large measure to the organizers, the sponsoring nationalist and trade union bodies; but without the ready response and determination of the participants to make their way here, in many instances against great odds, our Conference would certainly not be so fully representative of the African's aspiration to freedom and independence. This fact is in itself a wonderful achievement, and I know that it will be written into the records of Africa's checkered history when the last bastion of colonialism has been razed to the ground. Invitations were sent out to all bona fide political and trade union organizations regardless of their political complexion or the relationships which exist between them in their various countries, for if we are to attain the major objective to which we are all committed-the total liberation of Africa-then it is necessary to bury our political hatchets in the interest of Africa's supreme need. Only eight months ago I had the honor to welcome to our country political delegates on a different level-that is, the official representatives of the governments of the independent African States. That conference, unlike this one, was sponsored by, organized by, and confined in its participation
There is one point in connection with that conference which I would particularly like to elucidate for the benefit of the representatives of the nonindependent territories who are here today. That is the decision to confine the April conference to governmental level. We did so with the greatest reluctance, as we were well aware of the desire of our comrades still under the yoke of foreign imperialist domination to be present. I would like to mention here that the matter that concerned us most in connection with the convening of the April conference was the question of inviting representatives of political parties in the dependent territories to participate with the representatives of the independent countries. We were only too conscious of our commitment to helping, by all possible means, the speedy achievement of independence by colonial territories in Africa. That conference was thus sponsored collectively and organized collectively by the eight independent African States who had decided to call it. The only distinctive role which Ghana played was to act as host to the delegates. This present conference is the consummation and affirmation of that decision. You will have read the declarations and resolutions unanimously reached at the Accra conference, which pledged Ghana, in communion with her fellow African independent states, to support the struggle of the dependent peoples for the speedy termination of imperialism and colonialism and the eradication from this continent of racialism. As I have always declared-even before Ghana attained her present sovereign status-the independence of Ghana will be meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa. We have not moved from this premise nor shall we budge one jot from it until the final goal has been reached and the last vestiges of imperialism and colonialism have been wiped off this African continent. We disdain to hide these aims and objects of ours. We proclaim them freely to the world. We have pride in our determination to support every form of nonviolent action which our fellow Africans in colonial territories may find it fit to use in the struggle for their legitimate rights and aspirations. We make no apology to anyone, and we will not allow ourselves to be deflected from this Just Cause, a Cause wholly in consonance with the principles enunciated in the Charter of the United Nations. It was in this spirit that I suggested to the representatives of several African nationalist and trade union organizations who happened to be in Accra during the first anniversary celebration of Ghana's Independence in March this year, that they should take the initiative in organizing a conference at which they could air as they liked their views on colonialism, imperialism, racialism, and the other subjects on our agenda. I assured them that such a conference would have the full moral support of all the governments of the independent African States-an assurance which I am happy to say was fully endorsed by the resolutions unanimously adopted by the Accra Conference in April this year. out of this inforrnal suggestion, there was set up by the representatives of the various political parties and trade unions then present in Accra a preparatory committee charged with arranging the present conference. That your labors are well rewarded is evident by the presence of this large assembly here today, and you are to be warmly congratulated. The Cause we embrace is a noble and irresistible Cause. As long as we remain true to that Cause -the Cause of national freedom and independence-we have nothing to fear but fear itself. As the call sent out by the preparatory committee exhorts, 'Peoples of Africa unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a continent to regain We have freedom and human dignity to attainl" As I said earlier on, this Conference opens a new era in our African history, and our struggle is to wipe out imperialism and colonialism from this continent and erect in their place a union of free, independent African States. The climax of our earlier Pan-African Congresses was the Fifth, which was held in Manchester In 1945, where I had the good luck to be made a joint secretary with Mr. George Padmore, who is now my Adviser on African Affairs. That Congress was perhaps only less historic than this first All-African People's Conference, for that Conference brought together for the first time Africans directly delegated and springing directly from nationalist and trade union organizations in Africa, as well as having Africans among its organizers. All previous Pan-African Congresses had been organized and made up largely of those outside Africa who had the cause of African freedom at heart. The moving spirit in those congresses was Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, and he played no small part in our 1945 Congress, where we laid down the program of action for the various territories in Africa for-continuing the struggle against colonialism and imperialism. Now a new situation has arisen in Africa. Some of us have since 1945 thrown off the trammels of imperialism and set up independent sovereign states. Other territories are drawing near to freedom. Nationalist ferment in Africa Is gaining momentum. Therefore this Conference must make an appraisal of the position which exists In Africa today. We must here work out the new strategy and tactics for gaining our hoped for aspiration and objective, namely the freedom and independence of Africa, Our deliberations must be conducted in accord and our resolutions must flow, out of unity. For unity must be the keynote of our actions. Our enemies are many and they stand ready to pounce upon and exploit our every weakness. They play up our vanities and flatter us in every kind of way. They tell us that this particular person or that particular country has great or more favorable potentialities than the other. They do not tell us that we should unite, that we are all as good as we are able to make ourselves once we are free. Remember always that you have four stages to make: 1 . the attainment of freedom and independence; And here we must stress that the ethical and humanistic side of our people must not be ignored. We do not want a simple materialistic civilization which disregards the spiritual side of the human personality and man's need of something beyond the filling of his stomach and the satisfaction of his outward needs. We want a society in which human beings will have the opportunity of flowering and where the humanistic and creative side of our people can be fostered and their genius allowed to its full expression. Much has been said and continues to be said about the inability of the African to rise above his low material wants. Frequent reference is made to his non-contribution to civilization That this is an imperialist fiction, we all know. There have been great Empires on this African continent, and when we are all free again, our African Personality will once again add its full quota to the sum of man's knowledge culture. Today most of our people live in serfdom and helotry. For many generations they have been pushed into the limbo of forgotten men, unsuccoured mentally and spiritually. How can slaves, denied the right of free expression and free thought become savants or exponents of the arts? Culture and civilization throughout the ages have flowed from a leisured class, an aristocratic class, with the background and material endowments which have made possible the devotion to this side of human endeavor. I say that once Africa is free and independent we shall see a flowering of the human spirit on our continent second to none. -The African Personality in liberty and freedom will have the chance to find its free expression and make a particular contribution to the totality of culture and civilization. But just now our attention is upon the struggle to see our continent completely emancipated and free. This struggle must be undivided. We cannot give it half our attention. It is a heavy and manysided battle and demands everything that we are able to give it. Its complexities are manifold, and I see from our agenda that you are alive to them. The official delegates at this Conference are going to be called upon to deliberate on some of the major problems facing our continent today, problems which, while they receive the consideration of eminent associations of experts, still remain unsolved, simply because these experts dodge the simple fact that they are incapable of solution within the dividing system of imperialism and colonialism. These problems which we are about to deliberate here are of wide dimension. They mar and twist relations throughout Africa today and will, alas, with independence, leave heavy legacies of irredentism and tribalism behind to be solved. Your deliberations are to range over such problems as colonialism, imperialism, and racialism; the arbitrary
Let me say a few words to you out of my own experience as the Founder and Leader of a political party which led the struggle for independence in our country. You may not think it amiss for me to offer you some advice on the basis of our experience of the struggle against colonialism. I talk not from books but from life. Nor do I try to fit facts into theory for fear of being misinterpreted. Our whole struggle was planned to face up to the facts as we found them. My first advice to you who are struggling to be free is to aim for the attainment of the Political Kingdom-that is to say, the complete independence and self-determination of your territories. When you have achieved the Political Kingdom all else will follow. Only with the acquisition of political power-real power through the attainment of sovereign independence-will you be in a position to reshape your lives and destiny, only then will you be able to resolve the vexatious problems which harass our continent. But this power which you will achieve is not in itself the end. It is the means to an end, and that is why the use to which power is put is so important. Today Africa is convulsed with the desire to be free and independent, and coupled with this will to independence is an equal desire for some form of African union or federation. There is a searching after Africa's regeneration, politically, socially, and economically, within the milieu of a social system suited to the traditions, history, environment, and communalistic pattern of African society, which, notwithstanding the inroads made by Western influences, still remains to a large degree unchanged. In the vast rural areas of Africa, the people hold land in common and work it on the principle of selfhelp and cooperation. These are the main features predominating in African society, and we cannot do better than bend them to the requirements of a more modern socialistic pattern of society. We must rededicate ourselves to the task of organizing people and leading them in the struggle for national independence. Africa must be free. We must then use the political power which the people vest in us through freely won elections to bring about the speediest economic and social reconstruction of our countries, so as to provide a higher standard of life for all the people. And looking forward, we see that, coupled with the consuming aspiration for freedom spreading like a forest fire across Africa today, there is an equally irresistible current which is rising higher and higher as the final day of liberation advances. And that is the burning desire among all the peoples of Africa to establish a community of their own, to give political expression in some form or another to the African Personality. It is this desire which animated my government and the government of Guinea to initiate recently certain action which will constitute the nucleus of a United West Africa
It is only within this context of interdependence and cooperation, regardless of the constitutional frame work in which it will ultimately find expression, that we shall be able to solve the disastrous legacies of imperialism, especially the arbitrary divisions of peoples on our continent, done to satisfy the greed and avarice of colonial and imperialist powers. Their days are now coming to an end. Some of us, I think, need reminding that Africa is a continent on its own. It is not an extension of Europe or any other continent. We want, therefore, to develop our own community and an African Personality. Others may feel that they evolved the very best way of life, but we are not bound, slavish imitators, to accept it as our mold. If we find methods used by others are suitable to our social environments, we shall adopt or adapt them; if we find them unsuitable, we shall reject them. I hope that we shall not repeat on the African continent the petty squabbles and constant disharmonies the wars and national disasters which have dogged the history of other continents. It is our belief that with all Africa free, the peace of the world will be better guaranteed, for the elimination of imperialism and colonialism will remove those jealousies and antagonisms which have led to two world wars and are keeping us now in a constant state of tension with the threat of nuclear weapons. The liberation of Africa is the task of Africans. We Africans alone can emancipate ourselves. We welcome the expressions of support from others, for it is good to know that we are wished well in our struggle, but we alone can grapple with the monster of imperialism which has all but devoured us. Already we have made inroads into many imperialist strongholds, and we look forward to the year 1960 as the beginning of the end of colonialism in Africa. In that year our comrades in Nigeria, in Togoland, in the Cameroons, and in Somalia will join those of us who already are holding guard over free, independent Africa. With their accretion we shall gather greater inspiration and shall be able to accelerate our offensive against colonialism. Yet, while we believe that Africa belongs to the Africans, we are not racialists or chauvinists. We welcome into our midst peoples of all other races, other nations, other communities, who desire to live among us in peace and equality. But they must respect us and our rights, our right as the majority to rule. That, as our Western friends have taught ,us to understand it, is the essence of democracy. We find it rather ironical that we in Africa have to be reminding the European communities on our continent of this fundamental principle to which they give so much lip service but to which they pay so little heed in practice. They use racial doctrines as instruments of political domination. They manipulate the electoral systems to suit their convenience in a manner which makes a mockery of the whole conception of Parliamentary Democracy. Invoking the principle of democracy, we say that Africa belongs to Africans! Fighters for African Freedom, I appeal to you in the sacred name of Mother Africa to leave this Conference resolved to rededicate yourselves to the task of forming among the political parties in your respective countries a broad united front, based upon one common fundamental aim and object: the speedy liberation of your territories. Down with imperialism, let us say. Down with colonialism. Down with racialism and tribal division. Do not let the colonial powers divide us, for our division is their gain. Let us recall that our continent was conquered because there were divisions between our own people, and tribe was pitted against tribe. Do not let us also forget that colonialism and imperialism may come to us yet in a different guise-not necessarily from Europe. We must alert ourselves to be able to recognize this when it rears its head and prepare ourselves to fight against it. Friends and Comrades, I enjoin you to let us close our ranks. For the day we stand in serried line, that day colonialism in Africa is defeated. And we must bury that pernicious system with all speed. Only with the internment of imperialism will Africa be free from menace and live and breathe in liberty, where men of color shall walk with head held high in human dignity. Fellow African Freedom Fighters still carrying the burden of imperialism, pull together. We who have won our freedom stand uncompromisingly behind you in your struggle. Take heart. Unite your forces. Organization and discipline shall command your victory. All Africa shall be free in this, our lifetime. For this mid-twentieth century is Africa's. This decade is the decade of African independence. Forward then to independence. To Independence Now. Tomorrow, the United States of Africa. I salute you! |