J.B. Danquah’s ‘love’ letter to Nkrumah while he was in prison

Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, made some enemies for himself after leaving the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1949, a little over a year after accepting an invitation by one of the leaders of the UGCC, J.B. Danquah, to become the General Secretary of the party.

J.B. Danquah and the other leaders of UGCC, including its founder, George Alfred Grant (Paa Grant), were bitter over Nkrumah’s decision to leave the party to form the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

Details of what transpired during that time, captured in Kabral Blay-Amihere’s book, ‘1947–1957: The Story of Ghana’s Independence’, indicate that Paa Grant, who fostered Nkrumah’s return to Ghana to join the UGCC and had a close relationship with him, could not forgive him.

Paa Grant, in the foreword of the UGCC Manifesto for the 1951 election, expressed the anger many in the party harboured towards Ghana’s first president.

He accused Nkrumah of stealing the party’s name, its policy, its colours, and its branches.

"By June 1949, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, expatriated by the Convention in 1947 to take up the secretaryship, had, for reasons that are now obvious to all, so sabotaged the effort of the principal leaders of the Convention and so discredited me and all my principal colleagues that he was able to mislead the masses to follow him. He filched our name, our 'SG' policy, our branches, and even our colours to establish a separatist group, the Convention People’s Party,” the UGCC founder is quoted to have written in the manifesto.

J.B. Danquah, however, seemed to have buried the hatchet and made attempts to restore his relationship with Nkrumah.

Excerpts from Blay-Amihere’s book show that while Nkrumah was imprisoned for instigating a general strike action by the unions, J.B. Danquah penned a “gracious letter” to Ghana’s first president, hoping to work with him again.

After praising Nkrumah for resisting the rule of the British and fighting for the complete liberation of Ghana, Danquah told Nkrumah that they should forget about the things that transpired in the past.

“We started with a United Gold Coast. Let us complete the work for a united motherland. Since October last, the course of events had been clear to me, and your election and release had been my desire.” Parts of the letter are quoted:

Read the full letter as captured in ‘1947–1957: The Story of Ghana’s Independence:

"My Dear Kwame,

This is a glad occasion. You have fought the good fight and triumphed for the justice of our cause. Your imprisonment and your release are symbolic of the conquest over imperialism.

You have made many mistakes as even the greatest do, but you have passed through a baptism of fire, a spiritual fire, and you have suffered bodily for the justice of our cause.

I feel certain you see the light ahead as our opportunity to make this Ghana the land of promise of our dreams.

May the Gods of Ghana help and guide you, and may the baseless misrepresentations and misunderstandings of the past that engendered disunity in our struggle be buried with their own past.

We started with a United Gold Coast. Let us complete the work for a united motherland. Since October last, the course of events had been clear to me, and your election and release had been my desire."

BAI/OGB

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