WASU’s indelible NKRUMAH

West African Students' Union honoured
With a genesis most attributable to an innocent reception of greedy tourists, evolving into enduring repressions, brutal slavery, exodus of ancestors, despoil of natural resources and a cold despotism of a colonial administration, the reminiscence of pre-independence solicits sensations of ecstasy, reverence, despondence and relief for many worldwide.

Indeed, induced in West Africa was the urgency to breed an insurmountable species of martyrs for freedom with the audacity to reclaim her dignity.

Oladipo Solanke, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, J. B. Danquah, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Taylor-Cummings, Herbert Bankole Bright and Joe Appiah amongst many more intrepid disciples emerged.

The survival and attainment of their bestowed task, demanded altruism, wits, discipline, tenacity and most importantly the need to be lettered (Africans were an educated civilization; just not lettered in the Whiteman's culture) to surmount the colonial despotism.

Many West Africans, particularly from the British colonies of the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia studied in the United Kingdom enduring segregated tuition amongst whom a few residents of the colonies were admitted to British Universities in optimism of making them British-appointed-mediators (stooges) to the indigenous people to perpetuate the despotism and the ruthless despoil of their natural resources.

By the 1920's, many West African students in London (and to a lesser extent in other large British cities) conglomerated, spawning several organizations which focused on their welfare but evolved into Africa independence academies.

The Nigerian Progress Union (NPU) led by Ladipo Solanke, a Nigerian law student, the Union of Students of African Descent (USAD), a Christian social organization dominated by students from the West Indies, the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), the African Progress Union and the Gold Coast Students Association were spawned.

On August 7, 1925, the need for a formidable united front inspired Dr. Herbert Bankole Bright, a Sierra Leonean doctor of the NCBWA to solicit an all West African Students Organization, which received a unanimous approval from twenty-one law students. Enthusiastically, the West African Students' Union was born, honouring Solanke Ladipo as her first secretary-general, J. B. Danquah as her first president and J. E. Casely Hayford as the first patron, who subsequently used his position to promote African nationalism. WASU worked and earned a reputation for Pan-Africanism and colonial independence hence, attracted many independence activists such as Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Before his arrival in London in 1945, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah studied in the United States where he formed an African Students' Organization, which relentlessly promoted Pan-Africanism, earning him a reputation, as an African Independence advocate. On arrival, and appreciating the commonalities with WASU, he quickly joined and passionately became active in study groups on key political issues and partook in many discourses with prominent Labour politicians like Prime Minister Clement Attlee. His knack for quickly forming groups propelled him to form a subgroup within WASU known as "The Circle" which was a revolutionary cell agitating for political independence.

While remaining closely connected with WASU, Nkrumah established connections with other organizations such as the Pan-African Federation and the World Federation of Trade Unions and became enthralled in the organization of the 5th Pan-African Congress, in 1945, in Manchester, England that drew him closer to many great leaders, including W. E. B. Du Bois, future president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta, and American actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson.

In 1946, Nkrumah left his academic studies to become secretary-general of the West African National Secretariat, which had been formed at the fifth Pan-African Congress to coordinate efforts to bring about West African independence. That same year, Nkrumah became vice president of the West African Students Union where he reaped numerous accomplishments which prepared him for bigger political waves.

In 1947, the fine product of WASU was whisked to join the first political party in Gold Coast, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to deliver his expertise as the General Secretary. In 1948, a UGCC-organized boycott of foreign products led to riots in Accra, and Nkrumah and several other UGCC leaders got arrested by British colonial authorities and briefly imprisoned. For being too conservative in its efforts to win independence, Nkrumah seceded from the UGCC, and formed his own political party, the Conventions People's Party (CPP).

After organizing series of colony-wide strikes in favor of independence that nearly brought the colony's economy to a standstill, Nkrumah was again imprisoned for subversion in 1950. However, the strikes had convinced the British authorities to establish a more democratic colonial government and move the colony toward independence. In 1951, after elections for the colonial legislative council, the CPP won most of the seats and Nkrumah, while still in prison, won the central Accra seat by a landslide compelling his release where he became leader of government business and subsequently the first prime minister.

Reelected in 1954 and 1956, Nkrumah guided the Gold Coast to independence in 1957 and renamed her after an ancient West African empire, GHANA. He became the first president (1960-1966) and the first black African postcolonial leader who became a powerful voice for African nationalism. Kwame Nkrumah also offered generous assistance to other African nationalists, and initially pursued a policy of nonalignment with neither the United States nor the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The illustrious product of WASU built a strong central government, unifying Ghana politically and to congregate all her resources for rapid economic development. He spearheaded ambitious and very expensive projects such as the hydroelectric project and the Tema Motorway amongst several others in the bid to industrialize Ghana.

From his unwavering sovereignty from western influence, he provoked life-threatening envy from the Western powers, worsening into antipathy in the mid-1960s when he courted development aid from the USSR and other Communist states. He was accused of fostering a personality cult, as his supporters called him Osagyefo ("the redeemer" or "warrior) and suffered induced assassination attempts in 1962 and 1964 which subsequently culminated into his overthrow while visiting China in 1966. He however earned an honorary appointment as co-president of Guinea meeting his demise in 1972 in Romania while receiving treatment for throat cancer.

The West African Students Union had indeed produced a tenacity of a true martyr for Africa, a legend of hope for independence, and an inspiration to the universe.

In present records, The West African Students' Union is credited with landmark strides in the opposition to the colour bar, influence on the British political dispensation, the pursuit of campaigns such as the prevention of the exploitative African Village exhibition in Newcastle, the breaking of the cocoa cartel of Cadbury for Gold Coast Farmers union and the campaign against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

In consonance to her pursuit of universal suffrage ,WASU gained recognition as an anti-colonial confederacy that supported the Allied powers in the World War II, earning recognition from communist groups such as the League Against Imperialism (LAI), the Negro Welfare Association and the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). WASU also earned the support of Marcus Garvey who provided WASU her original headquarters.

WASU established many branches in West Africa, encouraging the scholarly publication of the widely circulated Wasu Journals that bridged the gap between the Diaspora and the homelands.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, WASU began to lose strength and prominence, deteriorating at a fast pace as Ghana attained independence in 1957, followed by her sister West African colonies, gradually wilting into a minor foreign student's organization as many of her initial goals had been fulfilled, becoming defunct after the 1960's.

The hitherto defunct WASU was re-formed at the occasion of a NUGS-Students' Week in Accra on May 28, 2004 (coincidentally, the ECOWAS Day) by O'seun A.R. Odewale (Nigeria), Issaka Moussa (Niger), Ken Kofi Abotsi (Ghana) among other visionaries, with due representations from nine (9) national students' unions from member states – including ADEDB (Burkina Faso), FESCI (Cote d'Ivoire), FNEB (Benin), LINSU (Liberia), MONESTO (Togo), NANS (Nigeria), NUGS (Ghana), USN (Niger), and NUSS (Sierra Leone), and now boast of Daniel D. Onjeh (Nigeria) as President of the Union, Renate Dzodzomenyo (Ghana) as Director of Female Affairs, amongst others.

Today, the reformed WASU prides in the milestone chalked by the pioneers of this Martyrs Training Academy, with profound appreciation of the inherited responsibility to Africa.

"Cowardice asks; Is it safe? Expediency asks: Is it political? Vanity asks; Is it popular? But conscience asks; Is it right?,..."

--Dr. Martin L. King