What Nkrumah said to young journalist who alerted him of Ghana Ambassador to Congo’s arrest

A veteran journalist, Cameron Duodu, has recounted the words Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, said to him when he alerted him of the arrest of Ghana’s Ambassador to the Congo in 1960.

Narrating what led to his meeting with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Cameron Duodu said that after Congo gained independence, its colonial masters didn’t want to leave because the African country was considered to be rich.

He further said the Belgians stayed back and formed allies with other countries to overthrow Patrice Lumumba, who was then the Prime Minister of Congo.

Amid the controversy and chaos that emerged in Congo after their Prime Minister was overthrown, the appointed Ghana Ambassador to Congo was arrested and told to leave the country.

“The Congo was a very rich country and one that everybody wanted to control because the first atomic bombs that were made by the Americans got the uranium from the Congo, and they wanted to continue to be there. After independence, the Belgians wanted to stay, and they made all sorts of attempts to remove Patrice Lumumba from power, and Nkrumah tried to prevent this. Lumumba was overthrown by allies comprising the United States, Belgium, and the West. At that time, Ghana had sent troops to the Congo, but they were under the United Nations. We couldn’t directly intervene to help Lumumba, but we were doing our best," he said.

Cameron Duodu, during that period, was an editor at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and had received the news of the dismissal of the ambassador.

To avoid fear and panic among Ghanaians who had relatives in the Congo, he decided not to break the news but rather share the sensitive information with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

The ace journalist said he sent the news item to the Flagstaff House and after sometime, someone was sent from the president's office to get him and he initially thought he was in trouble.

“While this was going on, I had become an editor at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. We heard directly from the radio that the Congolese government had overthrown Lumumba, arrested the Ghana Ambassador, and told him to leave the country. This news reached me on my desk, and I said no. I cannot broadcast this because if people whose relatives in Ghana are serving in the Congo hear that our ambassador has been asked to leave, they will panic.

“So, I sent the news item directly to Flagstaff House, Nkrumah’s office. Within fifteen minutes, the car was downstairs at the broadcasting house, and he asked, Who was Cameron Duodu? I thought I was finished. Kwame Nkrumah in those days, people feared him. Kwame Nkrumah asked why I sent the news to his office, and I replied that we have soldiers and artisans in the Congo, and if they hear that your ambassador, who will look after them, has been expelled, they will panic."

After giving the president this information, the latter looked at him "and what he said was, ‘Alright, but this is not a news agency, so don’t bring news here’."

Cameron Duodu also shared a lot of other memories of the early years of Ghana's independence.

Watch the full video below:





ED/AE