Dear reader, this is not a brief for today's CPP. Rather, this is a brief for commonsense and perspective. This brief revisits our original essay as titled.
The other day we read that because the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) pre-dated the Convention People's Party (CPP), founded in 1947 and 1949, respectively, that Dr. J. B. Danquah co-invented the English word "Convention".
Among other definitions, "Convention" is understood as a group of people with goals they hope to achieve, typically, at scheduled events.
Respectfully, as we've said more than once, the UGCC was essentially a lobbying group. The UGCC only assumed aspects of a political party after the arrival of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and after his split from the UGCC.
Significantly, when Kwame Nkrumah split from the UGCC, he formed the Convention People's Party. That political party branded itself with the political demand and slogan, "Independence Now"; and the banner, "Forward Ever, Backward Never!".
Contrary to what Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe (see citation) would have us believe, J. B. Danquah, whose education in England was financed by taxes on peasants, did not co-invent the English word "Convention". As well, "Convention" is actually NOT the most important word in "Convention People’s Party", even in the minds of village idiots.
If we know anything, in the historical sense that Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe spoke of, the key word in "Convention People’s Party" is "Party" as in "political party". In that sense, while the CCP was aggressively agitating with politics and organizing the masses with a non-compromising political platform and the political goal of "Independence Now!, J. B . Danquah was demanding that (1) the British delay scheduled independence and (2) Ghana be divided into a confederate pool of pseudo-State actors, with Akyem-Abuakwa in the center.
It makes absolutely no sense to preach that ordinary, solitary, everyday words (i.e., Again, Work, Must) and "Ghana" are the same as “Ghana Must Work Again!". The latter, "Ghana Must Work Again!" is easily recognized as a party slogan, precisely the kind protected by law, even under the stupidest "Conventions" among fools, whether in colonial Gold Coast or independent Ghana, today.
Ironically, completely lost to Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe is the idea that "Convention" was actually the most important word in "United Gold Coast Convention", which, as we've said, was a lobbying organization.
The UGCC could never be "united" at the Ghana national level. In fact, applied to J. B. Danquah, we again meet our elementary rule: J. B. Danquah was at the core a divider, a Confederate-Federalist organizer, and a bad one at that. To the point, J. B. Danquah was a "Matemeho", properly recognized in the "larger" Ghanaian parlance, then, and now! Logically, therefore, the "United" in UGCC came with such a gigantic caveat that it was meaningless at the Ghana national level right from the "U".
Dear reader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah stood for, and fought for, a united, UNITARY-GHANA. At the center of that construct was the Convention People's Party, a political organization.
It was the first of that kind in the Gold Coast/Ghana.
Oddly, if were to entertain for a minute the bizarre idea that "Convention" belongs to J. B. Danquah (and Paa Grant), we could in turn tell Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe and the NLM-Danquah-NLC cohorts that logically, "Peoples" and "Party" actually "belong" to the CPP.
Why?
Because Kwame Nkrumah's CPP was the first to outdoor "Peoples" and "Party" in meaningful order to the task they intended under colonial rule, consistent with British colonial law of the Gold Coast of 1949.
The records are available on cloths!
The records are on parchment papers, in manuscripts, and in books!
The records are on microfiche, vinyl, tapes, and DVDs!
And increasingly, they records are now on internet-ready, digital media (on Desktops, Laptops, Servers, Computing Clouds, and smart phones)!
J. B. Danquah did not invent any of those ideas, facilities, or institutions we discussed in our original essay.
J. B. Danquah did not build or co-invent "Convention" in the Gold Coast, or Ghana.
Not Legon!
Not Akosombo Dam!
Not Tema Harbor!
Not Bank of Ghana!
Not Adomi Bridge!
Not Accra-Tema Motorway!
Not Okomfo Anokye Hospital (GEE)
Not Ghana!
Again, to say that J. B. Danquah invented or created all these things is to say that Tetteh Quashie invented cocoa beans in Ghana. Or, that your late grand-mother invented any number of your family recipes, customs and rituals simply because, well, she was the first in the world (compared to your mother and you).
That, we submit, is patently pedestrian and moronic.
So it goes, Ghana!
SOURCES:
1. Prof Lungu. J. B. Danquah The Inventor for Dummies. 16 April, 2015. (http://www.ghanahero.com/Visions/Nkrumah_Legacy_Project/Prof_Lungu/JB_Danquah_Inventor_Dummies_g.pdf).
2. Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe. Come on, the “Convention” in CPP Belongs to Danquah and Paa Willie! Ghanaweb, 5 November, 2015.
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©Prof Lungu is Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud.
Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA.
J. B. Danquah The Inventor for Dummies (5.0)
Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©6 November 15.
