Stop Glorifying Colonialism In Our Education Text Books!—Positive Education Coalition (PEC)
The Positive Education Coalition (PEC), a group comprising of the University of Ghana SRC, the Convention People's Party Youth League, the Pan African Improvement Organisation and other civil society groups and individuals have drawn the attention of the Minister of Education to what they described as poisonous seeds of destruction burried in the GES syllabus for consumption by students. They cited the topics like "the benefits of Colonialism"in the GES syllabus as an aberration.
In a petition to the GES , the Public Affairs Director of the Ministry Mr. Krampah took the petition on behalf of the Minister. The SRC President of University of Ghana, Mr. Eric Edem Agbana led the Positive Education coalition by reading the content of the petition to the press. 75 year old Madam Lucy Annin, one of Ghana's first female parliamentarians was there to show solidarity with the group. The full petition follows below:
Positive Action for Positive Education
“The material development – railways, roads, bridges, schools, hospitals – which are noticeable in the colonies have been merely accidental adjuncts to facilitate economic exploitation of the colonies. The colonial powers built hospitals because if the health of the colonial subjects is not taken care of it will not only jeopardize their own health but will diminish the productive power of the colonial labourer. They built schools in order to satisfy the demand for clerical activities and occupations for foreign commercial and mercantile concerns. The roads they built lead only to the mining and plantation centres. In short, any humanitarian act of any colonial power towards the 'ward' is merely to enhance its primary objective: economic exploitation” Kwame Nkrumah, Towards Colonial Freedom, pg. 27
Fellow Ghanaians, today on the 9th of January, 2013, we mark the 64th anniversary profundity of Positive Action. On this historic day the Convention People's Party, the Pan African Improvement Organization and the University of Ghana SRC are demanding an immediate end to colonial education and an end to the promotion of colonialism in the national education system of the Republic of Ghana.
We are also demanding an end to the vilification of Kwame Nkrumah, the nation's Founder, architect of Positive Action, first President, and African hero, in the formal education system and the removal of all praise for criminal colonial Governors such as Sir Alan Burns and Sir Gordon Guggisburg. This demand will be met by removing all content promoting colonialism, removing all content vilifying Kwame Nkrumah, removing all content praising colonial Governors and administrators, and infusing Kwame Nkrumah's books into the curriculum as primary source material for the official Ghana education system.
HISTORY OF POSITIVE ACTION
On 8th January, 1950 Kwame Nkrumah gave a speech in the Accra Arena at a mass rally and called for Positive Action to end British colonial rule with “self government now” and he demanded the right of the Ghanaian people to elect a Constituent Assembly to accept or reject the Coussey Report which was being imposed. By demanding an elected Constituent Assembly, Kwame Nkrumah, ultimately was setting Ghana on a path to independence and full sovereignty.
At midnight Kwame Nkrumah called for a general strike because the British colonial government refused to adhere to the people's demands. The call for Positive Action sent shock waves throughout Africa, which helped spark the national independence movements continentally. It also cracked the foundation of British foreign colonial rule and this was caused by the power of the organized Ghanaian masses, and from that point onward, the colonial government never recovered.
The unjust character of the exploitative system was exposed; its inherent weaknesses were realized and the first steps of its destruction had been demonstrated. Thus, the Ghanaian masses were on the road to freedom as a result of direct confrontation with imperialism, aimed at bringing down the colonial administration. Kwame Nkrumah defined Positive Action as:
The adoption of all legitimate and constitutional means by which we can cripple the forces of imperialism in this country. The weapons of Positive Action are:
1. Legitimate political agitation. 2. Newspaper and educational campaigns and 3. As a last resort, the constitutional application of strikes, boycotts and non-co-operation based on the principle of absolute non-violence.
APPRECIATION FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY
We are of the firm opinion that education in Ghana must develop in the youth and citizens a strong appreciation, attitude and value for the independence and sovereignty of Ghana and its Founder Kwame Nkrumah, and a commitment to serve and defend that hard fought for, and won, independence and sovereignty, as a victory over the criminal system of colonial imperialism, based on Ghana's founding principles and values as demonstrated by Kwame Nkrumah. This means that colonialism and all its construct must be projected negatively throughout the education system in Ghana. The criteria for this opinion are:
The Government of Ghana formally and officially commemorates Independence Day on 6th March 1957 as a national public holiday to mark the defeat of British colonialism and the achievement of national self determination and the government officially commemorates Republic Day which highlights the enactment and coming into operation of the 1960 Constitution on 1st July 1960 to mark the attainment of the full sovereignty of Ghana from British colonial rule. Both of these days represent victories over British colonialism by the citizens of Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, and there are no days commemorating colonialism. Empire Day, the British Queens birthday, was eliminated from the Ghanaian calendar and today we recognize Founders Day, the birthday of Kwame Nkrumah on 21st September.
The citizens of Ghana consistently voted for Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People's Party to lead Ghana to independence and sovereignty with Positive Action, in 1951 with 32 out of 34 seats in the National Assembly, in 1954 with 71 out of 104 seats, and in 1956 with 71 out of 104 seats. Upon obtaining independence, Ghanaians continued to elect Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP to apply Positive Action against colonialism in 1960 with Kwame Nkrumah winning the Presidential election over his opponent JB Danquah with over 89% of the vote for Nkrumah and less than 11% for Danquah.
Ghanaians responded to Kwame Nkrumah's demand and voted for a Constituent Assembly to draft the 1960 Republican Constitution and then approved it in a national plebiscite, with a yes vote of more than 88%, to replace the British Order in Council (Constitution) of 1957 which was imposed on Ghana by British colonialism. This eliminated the British Queen from executive power over Ghana, through the Order in Council, and established the Ghanaian President as having executive power through the sovereign will of Ghanaians expressed in the 1960 Republican Constitution through Powers of the People, Pan-Africanism, and socialism.
The red for the “blood of our freedom fighters” in our national flag and the words asking God to “help us to resist oppressors rule” in our national anthem represent the national disdain of Ghanaians for Colonialism. Founders Day, The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum, the effigy of Kwame Nkrumah on the national currency, and Kwame Nkrumah's statue being unveiled with the presence of Ghana's President at the African Union Headquarters all point the youth to upholding the heritage of independence, sovereignty, and Pan-Africanism; while at the same time opposing colonialism and imperialism. Further, United Nation resolution 2326 declares Colonialism as a “threat to international peace and security… reaffirms its recognition of the legitimacy of the struggle of the colonial peoples to exercise their right to self-determination and independence…” and that “all forms of racial discrimination,” such as British colonialism, constitute a “crime against humanity,” which makes Britain, the British Queen, Sir Alan Burns, and Sir Gordon Guggisburg, all criminals undeserving of praise for so-called achievements in the Ghana education system.
Because of these reasons we are compelled to demand the elimination the promotion of colonialism and vilification of Kwame Nkrumah from Ghana's education system.
ABOMINATION: COLONIAL INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT IN GHANA
In extreme contrast to the history, heritage, and struggle of Ghanaians to achieve, maintain, and defend independence and sovereignty, we find pro-colonialism and anti-Nkrumah content in Junior High School social studies text books and Senior High School government text books and also in national examinations such as the Basic Education Certificate Examination social studies subject and the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination government subject. Here are some examples from AKI-OLA SERIES SOCIAL STUDIES for Junior High School (Forms 1, 2, & 3) Questions and Answers (1990 to Date) by Anthony Demao-Quao Dangbey “The book contains the B.E.C.E. questions and answers from 1990 to Date”:
1990 – BECE Part II Question 4 “Write an essay on one of the following…b) The achievement of Sir Gordon Guggisburg” 1996 – BECE Objective Test #39 “The struggle for Ghana's independence from 1951-1957 was led by…C. Dr. K.A. Busia” 1997 – BECE Part II Question 3 “Explain any five achievements of Sir Alan Burns in the Gold Coast” 1999 – BECE Part II Question 3 b) “What are the four reasons that led to the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah? Answer i) He introduced one party state…Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was abusing power, that he had a dictatorship government, delegating powers and posts to only members of his Convention People's Party (CPP)…he was mismanaging the nations finances…His government suffered bribery, corruption and mismanagement…introduction of Preventative Detention Act, he maltreated and seduced people who opposed him…his foreign policies distanced him from international leaders…” 2004 – BECE Part I Essay Type Questions number 1 c) “State five benefits which Ghana had derived from British colonization”
This colonial education is also propagated in the textbook, “Social Studies for Junior High School 1-3” based on the GES syllabus, written by K.D. Twumasi and G. Adade in which they outlined the “Positive Effects of Colonization on Africa/Ghana”
In the Senior High School government text books, it continues with the same vilification of Kwame Nkrumah. In the book Government for Senior High Schools, third edition, “Based on WASSCE Syllabus,” by Isaac Kwesi Prah, on page 388 in the section “Reasons for the overthrow of the government of the Convention People's Party,” the author vilifies Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP without any reliable source information which leaves the many United States Central Intelligence Agency and National Liberation Council (NLC) lies and propaganda unleashed in the text unsubstantiated.
We are calling for Kwame Nkrumah's book, Ghana; The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah to be infused into the Syllabus for all Junior High School Students receive accurate information on the independence movement in Ghana and for his book, Africa Must Unite, to be infused into the Senior High School syllabus to guide Ghanaian students towards independence, sovereignty, and Pan-Africanism. The current colonial education material being used conditions the Ghanaian student to value colonialism with subservient thinking under European imperialism so they can accept neo-colonialism and even defend it against Ghanaian independence and sovereignty in any form. It is designed to condition students to hate Kwame Nkrumah and the oppose the heritage of independence, sovereignty and Pan-Africanism that our freedom fighters shed their blood to pass on for us to carry but rather to love European colonialism and value and defend its economic interest of capitalist private investment and to believe in white supremacy against the Ghanaian masses.
We end with a quote by Kwame Nkrumah.
“Without Positive Action, a colonial territory cannot be truly liberated. It is doomed to creep in its petty pace from day to day towards the attainment of a sham independence that turns to dust, independence which is shot through and through with the supreme interest of an alien power.” Kwame Nkrumah, Consciencism, pg. 104
Nii Armah Akomfrah
CPP Director of Communication
www.conventionpeoplesparty.org