MP wants Nkrumah's body returned to Nkroful

Nkroful (WR), Sept. 20, GNA - Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku, Member of Parliament for Evalue-Gwira, said the Government should consider returning the body of Dr Kwame Nkrumah which now lies in a mausoleum in Accra to Nkroful, his hometown.

She said while she supports the decision to honour the late President with a public holiday, she was nonetheless of the opinion that the centenary celebrations will not be complete without returning Nkrumah's body to the original burial site at Nkroful.

Speaking to the GNA at Nkroful on Saturday, Mrs Afeku said returning the body to its homestead will transform the township into a "tourist Mecca" which the Ellembele district can then harness to improve the living standards of the people of the area.

She observed that celebrations of the late President over the years failed to take into account the spiritual and cultural relevance of the late President to his people.

The late President Nkrumah was first buried in Conakry, Guinea, after his death in Romania because of the political situation in his native Ghana at the time.

It was later brought to Ghana and interred at a mausoleum at Nkroful. Former President Jerry John Rawlings later established a memorial park in Accra where his remains and that of his wife Fathia are now permanently interred.

The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park is the place the founder of Ghana declared the nation's independence from British colonial rule, and it stocks memorabilia associated with the reign of the great African nationalist.

But Mrs Afeku insisted that it should be brought back to Nkroful as receipts from expected tourist arrivals could help scale up development for his town folks who have largely remained poor. Besides, she said, the cosmology of the Nzemas like the rest of Ghanaians, should be observed.

This required that departed relatives should be re-united with their ancestors in an unbroken relationship that comprises the dead, the living and those yet unborn, she added.

Mrs Afeku does not brush aside the international prominence of Nkrumah that makes him a son of the world rather than that of only Nkroful. However, she argued forcefully in favour of the return of his remains since doing so will assuage the cultural sensibilities of the people. 20 Sept. 09