``The Kennedy Era and Africa``

JOHN FITZGERALD Kennedy had one elder brother, Joseph Patrick Jr., (eldest child of the man otherwise known as the Founder of the Kennedy Clan), John F. Kennedy. Jack, or JFK had one elder sister called Eunice.

But, even in childhood, the elder brother JP Jr. was the more important rival, in a family where the “Patriarch” had told his children, that, the world was full of problems, and a Kennedy should go out there, and solve them.” When he said so, he meant, without saying it, the four boys, rather than the five girls of his nine children.

In pursuance of the Patriarch's dream, his eldest son, JP Jr. fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil war, just prior to World War II, when he was only in his early twenties. Joseph Patrick, an Irish immigrant whose parents had emigrated to Boston in 1847, had his eyes on the Presidency of the United States of America, and not for himself, (he is quoted to have said, he was too late for that), but for his children, and again, only the boys. Patrick Jr. had perished in 1942, flying a super bomber from Great Britain over Germany. That being the case, Joseph Patrick Sr., who after mourning his son deeply, suspected the 35th President of foul-play, (not withstanding their one-time close friendship), saw the time as ripe, for John F. to “ascend the throne” when the Republican Dwight Eisenhower would be finishing his second term in 1960. His father had the money, and John had youth, charm, enthusiasm, knowledge, high hopes, and the record as a World War II veteran, who saved wounded colleagues on a US Naval ship over the pacific in 1943, and was himself wounded.

John had not so long before the electioneering in 1960, married a flamboyant American lady of French origin, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, a journalist. The couple for the White House was the rhyming “Jack”, and Jackie.” Be it true or not, that there were irregularities in the US presidential elections of 1960, and JFK emerged as the winner, defeating Richard Millhouse Nixon, the Republican candidate, who had functioned as the former Army General's Vice President for eight years. John was sworn-in, in 1961, as the 37th President, young, ebullient, with the usual power, linked with the mighty nation, which could be militarily challenged, if you would like to say so, only by the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, or the USSR then.

He was well educated and highly intelligent too. John, in spite of coming from a privileged background, was observed by many as with egalitarian (socialist) inclinations. The young President was accused of, at times, taking decisions, which did not stand in favour of US-business. This did not please a lot of congressmen, who understood money, [and more money only].

John had taken office when the world's most devastating war, [WWII], started by Dictator Adolf Hitler, in 1939, had ended only sixteen years previously. The Marshall Plan, (President Truman's brain child) was in place to rebuild Europe with the objective of eradicating poverty, and with it, remove completely, breeding grounds for dictatorship-ideas such as Hitlerism. The NAZI-regime, with war efforts against the rest of the world had caused the loss of some 60 million lives, with another estimated ten million unaccounted for. Communism had overrun Russia, (only 21years previously), and re-named the 15 Republics, the Soviet Union. Mainland China had equally fallen into the hands of Communists since 1949, Korea had been invaded in 1953 by communists, and Vietnam had thrown out the French, not long after World War II. Americans had started slowly, but were surely getting more and more involved in Indo-China-affairs, in defense of Democracy. Africa, which had been compartmentalised by Europe in the last quarter of the 2nd Millennium AD, had shown signs of “acquiring” more awareness towards self-determination, and Ghana had achieved political independence in 1957, four years prior to John Kennedy's victory.

If America was keen in winning the Cold War, Africa was a good place to start, and a Kennedy saw in his father's words, “a problem for a Kennedy to go out there, (this time Africa), and solve it.” For the Peace Corps! American youth, with brains full of knowledge and know-how, with the spirit to undertake adventures, then, Africa was a good place to go, and help turn the continent around, into prosperity, and with it, Democracy. This, John Kennedy and his advisors were in agreement, would win the cold war, on the side of Capitalism. Nkrumah's gigantic efforts to revolutionalise manpower, (it was not yet called “human resources”), had seen more secondary schools in the country - 156 secondary schools, as against only 13 at the time of attaining independence in 1957, and these were the tools with which the young men and women shrouded in “stars and stripes” would go to work. It was not long thereafter, and the Soviets too would begin sending Science Teachers, most of whom could not speak English proficiently enough to be well understood. Their presence was questioned daily by the opposition, (which had gone otherwise more and more silent, for various reasons). It looked at some stage that the President of the Republic of Ghana had a soft spot for the Kremlin, and this seemed to bolster the opposition's claims that there was the danger of our Republic going communist.

Africa, and especially Ghana, had turned into a melting pot for Super-Power politicians, who had their dinner in either Washington, or Moscow. John Kennedy was at the White house when in the early sixties the gigantic land size in Africa, the Belgian Congo, attained independence under the flamboyant young man called Patrice Lumumba. This young man, leading a huge country endowed with numerous raw materials in the ground, including Uranium, would soon feel the pinch, as his country turned into a troubled spot for the United States of America, and naturally the Soviet Union. The United Nations, which had come to replace the League of Nations following World War II, would soon have her hands full. Belgian Congo, Congo Leopoldville, was naturally endowed with lots of badly needed ground-substances, which could yield nuclear weapons. Nkrumah's voice was loudly heard in what became known as the Congo Crisis. The duel was between Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet Communist Party, (Prime Minister), and the ebullient brash White House occupant, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In the debacle, Lumumba, the Congolese Prime Minister, with two of his closest aides in government, were first kidnapped, and later assassinated in a complicated type of manoeuvering, headed by a man later to dominate Congolese politics for over three decades. His name was Josef Mobutu, to be known later, as Sese Sekou Mobutu. One of the players in that dirty tripartite game, a callous political player, Moise Tsombe, was kidnapped whilst in flight to Algeria, and murdered, somewhere in Algiers. The Scandinavian UN Secretary General, Dag Hammarsholdt, had his executive plane shot down over the Congo, and on board were over dozen high-ranking UN officials, all of whom, with the Secretary General, perished. South Africa had consolidated a racist regime, in favour of a white minority. John Kennedy is believed to have made gigantic efforts to have the regime melt down in a political dialogue. No avail! Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sizuli, and many others were sent to prison on Robben Island for life. John, the US President, had the intention of dislodging America from the War in Vietnam following his re-election bid for a second term, come 1964. On a trip to Dallas Texas on 22nd of November, 1963, in what was to be a preamble for the campaign, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, then at the age of 46, was gunned down whilst in a motorcade. Many theories exist as to what exactly happened, and why. It seems more is shrouded in secrecy than the world has been told thus far. Kennedy's Presidency lasted one thousand days. He was a rich man's son, who sought justice for Africa too, it seems.