Like Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Nkrumah is the founder of modern-day Ghana – Pratt revisits debate

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has revisited the debate about whether or not the modern-day state of Ghana has a founder or founders.

Pratt, an avowed Nkrumahist, is known to have serially argued for the motion that Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is the founder of modern-day Ghana.

His view has been contested by those who belong to the school of thought that a group of six nationalists have t be credited with that feat despite Nkrumah’s lead role.

In an interview on Pan African TV, the veteran journalist emphasized that the argument that an individual cannot birth a nation was moot. “As for the argument that one person cannot found a nation or cannot found a Republic, they should make that argument to the marines, not us.”

He cited the particular instance of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in the fight to liberate the South American communist nation.

“Fidel Castro led insurgents to fight and liberate Cuba from Batista regime. It included Che Guevera, Camilo etc. But Fidel Castro is the primus inter pares of that struggle. There is no doubt at all.

“Fidel Castro is the founder of modern-day Cuba. It doesn’t mean that he was the only one who fought the Batista military…The world recognizes Fidel Castro as the founder, no doubt about that.

“Who then is the founder of the modern-day state of Ghana?” he asked.

He also cited other examples like the case of Zambia with founding father Kenneth Kaunda and neighbouring Tanzania with the exploits of Julius Nyerere.

“Kaunda in Zambia, is he the only one who fought to liberate the Zambia from British colonial rule? You go to Tanzania, there is Nyerere. So let them continue to beat around the bush, there is no problem,” he added.

In 2018, the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo laid a Public Holidays Amendment Bill before parliament, which became the Public Holiday Act, 2001.

The amended act, laid by the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, quashed three public holidays and introduced two new holidays.

Among the affected holidays were the Republic Holiday, which used to be observed on July 1; African Union (AU) Day Holiday, which fell on May 25; and the Founder’s Day which was marked on September 21 - Kwame Nkrumah's birthday.

It’s been four years since the new amendments came into practice and GhanaWeb brings back to its readers 4 things you must know about this Founders Day holiday.

Here they are:

1. August 4 was made a public holiday in place of Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day because the real fight for Ghana’s independence started on August 4, 1947, when some Ghanaian patriots like George Alfred Grant, J.B. Danquah, R.A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and some chiefs formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) founded on the foundation of the Fante Confederacy of 1868 and Aboriginal Rights Protection Society of 1897 for the independence of Ghana.

2. It is in memory of the successive generations of Ghanaians who contributed to the liberation of the country from colonial rule.

3. August 4 was chosen as the date for Founders’ Day by the Akufo-Addo-led administration as it marks two important events in Ghana’s history. It is the date for the formation of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society by John Mensah Sarbah in 1897, and the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1947 by J.B. Danquah and George Alfred “Paa” Grant.

4. It is a mark of reverence for the current generation to work “to free ourselves from the economic arrangement designed by the former colonial power to serve its particular purpose at the time which continues to bind Ghanaians.