Ghana observes 50 years of independence

ACCRA, Ghana - Ruth Botsio recalls with misty-eyed wonder the jubilation and triumphant cries of "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" that greeted the birth of sub-Saharan Africa‘s first nation to win independence from Europe.

The West African nation‘s Golden Jubilee on Tuesday is prompting some sober reflection on why Africa has failed to translate its dreams, and its bounty of mineral and agricultural resources, into wealth.


Kwame Nkrumah, independent Ghana‘s first leader, dreamed of pan-African power that would free blacks from reliance on whites.


Ghana was producing 10 percent of the world‘s gold when it became independent and had a similar gross domestic product per person to South Korea . Today, South Korea‘s GDP per head has soared to $16,000 a year, while Ghana‘s is about $550.


"I‘m supposed to be happy about struggling to make ends meet?" asked Kwesi Boateng, who drives a taxi because his teaching job paid less than $250 a month, not enough to support his wife and two children.


Ghana‘s seaside capital, Accra, is suffering increasing power outages — including one that plunged the airport briefly into darkness and silenced a band welcoming people to the independence celebrations. Some say it‘s because the hydroelectric dam built under Nkrumah cannot produce enough power due to poor rains; others blame an aluminum smelter that recently returned to service and is gobbling up more than its share of the limited electricity available.

Among those boycotting Tuesday‘s celebrations are members of Nkrumah‘s Convention People‘s Party, who say his legacy is not being given its due, and Flight Lt. Jerry Rawlings, a former coup leader and president whom Kufuor last year accused of plotting yet another overthrow.


Kufuor has won international acclaim for building democracy in the nation of about 20 million.


Modern Ghana was part of the Gold Coast as Portuguese and Danes set up trading posts there in the 1400s.


When Nkrumah began pressing for independence, Britain was demoralized by its loss of the Suez Canal and gave in without a fight.


In his independence declaration, Nkrumah declared, "Today, there is a new African in the world, and that new African is ready to fight his own battle and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs."

It was just the first gust in what British leader Harold MacMillan called the "wind of change" that saw dozens of African nations freed from British, French, Portuguese and Spanish colonizers in the next two decades.


Nkrumah embarked on industrialization, opening many state-owned factories. He also introduced free education and health care.


But his projects and widespread corruption nearly bankrupted the nation and, facing opposition, he became dictatorial, imprisoning opponents. He declared Ghana a one-party state, arguing political pluralism divided the populace on tribal lines.


In 1966, he was overthrown in a military coup — just the second of scores to come in Africa. The most recent were in Gambia in 1994 and Mauritania in 2005.


Ghanaians found the soldiers no better governors than the politicians. By the 1980s, savvy visitors to Ghana brought along everything they needed, including toilet paper, knowing little would be on the markets here.

Democracy was restored by Rawlings, the instigator of coups in 1979 and 1981, who organized and won elections in 1992 and again in 1996 when he defeated Kufuor. Limited by law to two terms, he handed power over to Kufuor, winner of the 2000 polls.


Rawlings liberalized the economy and a painfully slow but gradual improvement ensued.


According to the World Bank , the number of Ghanaians living below the poverty line has dropped from more than half the population in 1990 to about 37 percent.


Philippe Ayivor, a Coca-Cola executive who returned home from the United States a few years ago, has one easy measure of how the economy has changed.


In the early 1990s, Coca-Cola sold 2 million cases a year in Ghana. Today it sells more than 20 million cases. Ayivor says there‘s no reason Ghana cannot achieve the success of an Asian tiger.

"Malaysia got independence the same time as Ghana and was fortunate enough to have that focus, that drive to be very successful today," he said. "There‘s no reason why we can‘t do it. There are enough smart people around here."