Focus On Haiti

Commentary: Haitians: returning to Africa; blaming the US & France?!



LATEST NEWS


Haitians respond to Wade’s proposal

Thursday, 21 January 2010 23:46

When Senegalese President Abdoulie Wade unveiled his ‘‘radical’’ proposal, offering Haitians land to return ‘home’ to, his idea was bound to meet with criticism, especially so from his political opponents. Needless to say that such criticism was never in short supply here in Senegal, especially in the press. The criticism appeared even greater at the international level. But there wereSenegalese-President-Abdoulaye-Wade a few but coherent write ups in support as well. However, one very important thing that seemed to have escaped everyone was the need to give Haitians themselves the chance to say what they think about the offer. That is exactly what the Bahamas based Tribune did. It turned out that even though Haitians weren’t likely to take the offer, they are not as dismissive as many people would prefer thinking. The reasons were varying but convincing – distance, poverty, among others. "For me that is a good idea. Every black comes from black Africa. Haitians come from Africa," one Haitian-Bahamian parent whose son had been living on the streets in Port-au-Prince since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake destroyed their home, said. President Wade, in addition to a monetary donate of $1 million in emergency aid, also offered, in the words of his spokesperson, Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye "voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin. If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region." Even though Marirm Jean would want to stay Haitiput in the country she has known all her life, she told The Tribune that she was touched by the president's desire to help. Her concern, apparently, is not only about the economic prospect here in Africa but also the distance. "They have poverty over there too, and it is too far away. People might want to visit their family, but it is too expensive," she said. Quite a genuine and well put view. A Haitian businessman, who obviously doesn’t sound like anyone who would fall in for the offer, shared Marirm’s view about distance. "For me, I think that is too far away. Africa is too far.’’ But unlike Marim, this man is concerned about what will happen in the future. ‘‘They care now, but later on what is going to happen? They might feel different later on and then what will happen. I think it is better to send them closer." There is some poignant reality about that last statement. Abdoulie Wade is a personification of a typical African politician. He made a statement he knew quite well was bound to attract the media attention it got. But was he driven by that? We will never know for now. Not in a long time even if his proposal comes to pass. But one thing we can say for certain is that Senegal is home to hundreds, if not thousands of refugees from neighboring countries, who equally need the very same support the Haitians look for, yet they are no near to getting it. Already, reports are emerging that the president has began to backtrack on his offer, hinting that he is planning to put his proposals to the 53-nation African Union.


January 21, 2010


Bottled Water Supplies in Port-au-Prince Airport Being Distributed…to US Embassy
Water-airport-haiti_copy

In the airport in Port-au-Prince, huge pallets of aid, including medical supplies, food and water, sit in fields around the tarmac. Amy Goodman reports on how hundreds of cases of bottled water are being delivered to the US embassy. [includes rush transcript]


January 21, 2010



Earthquake Frees Haitian Prisoners from Port-au-Prince Jail, 80% Never Charged with a Crime
Haiti_prison_yard_copy

All the prisoners jailed at the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince escaped in the earthquake. We speak with leading Haitian human rights attorney Mario Joseph, who says 80 percent of all prisoners in Haiti were not charged with a crime. We also speak with Dr. Evan Lyon of Partners in Health about the issue of prisons. [includes rush transcript]



US Corporations, Private Mercenaries and the IMF Rush in to Profit from Haiti's Crisis

By Benjamin Dangl, Toward Freedom. Posted January 19, 2010.



In the midst of a colossal human disaster, Washington is promoting unpopular economic policies and extending military and economic control over the Haitian people.


US corporations, private mercenaries, Washington and the International Monetary Fund are using the crisis in Haiti to make a profit, promote unpopular neoliberal policies, and extend military and economic control over the Haitian people.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, with much of the infrastructure and government services destroyed, Haitians have relied on each other for the relief efforts, working together to pull their neighbors, friends and loved ones from the rubble. One report from IPS News in Haiti explained, "In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren't seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists." More...



COMMENT ON: Senegal Does Africa Proud, Even As Ghana Vacillates by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Feature Article of Wednesday, 20 January 2010


"Nonetheless, it is hardly flabbergasting that President Atta-Mills would smugly style himself as the ideological spitting image of the proverbial Nkroful Show Boy. For somewhere in one of the massive tomes authored on/by South African black liberation spearhead Nelson R. Mandela, I believe it is his The Long Walk to Freedom, the future president of a multiracial and democratic South Africa painfully details the flat refusal of President Kwame Nkrumah to meet in Accra with a wanted and underground-operating Mandela, the leader of Umkonto We Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), or the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Nkrumah, who had misguidedly chosen to back the Sobukwe-led splinter group, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) would, for good measure, even malign the awe-inspiring Madiba as traitorous reprobate to the African liberation struggle and one shamelessly ensconced in bed with the unconscionable architects and ardent promoters of apartheid."
Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame
Senegal Does Africa Proud, Even As Ghana Vacillates

COMMENT:

I wonder why this guy is all of sudden pretending to love Africans more that the true Africans themselves! These are people who opposed our own struggle for independence, who never want Africa to unite and consolidate our common front against the imperialist brutalities and exploitation.

They are happy when Nigerians are expelled from Ghana and vice versa! The love confusion among us. The conflict in the North of Ghana is like music to their ears!

The Busia-Danquah stooges of imperialism have consistently supported the imperialists as they visit havoc and mayhem on Africans. One of their greatest "achievements" was to open a policy of dialogue with Apartheid South Africa in 1969 when it appeared that they were losing the struggle to become a pariah state in the international community, after they were kicked off from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.

Yes! They got Busia to do the dirty job! Okoampa could not even quote exactly what he seeks to reproach Kwame Nkrumah with! And it must be remembered that it was not Nkrumah who organised the Positive Action Campaign in South Africa. It was organised by an organisation with the same initials. The Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania. The ANC was initially opposed to this. The oppressed people of South Africa embraced it and turned out in large numbers to burn their "passes". The ANC was compelled by the sheer magnitude of popular support to join in the campaign. Albert Luthuli, President of the ANC belatedly joined this campaign and burnt his pass.

The ANC was formed in 1912. Its method of struggle until the formation of the PAC had been letter writing and petions. The PAC campaign of boycotts, demonstrations and riots, were very similar to the kind of relationship between the CPP and the UGCC. It too the PAC eleven months after its formation to form an army, the Azanian People's Liberation Army or APLA. It was only after the formation of APLA that the ANC took steps to retain people like Mandela by creating the Umkonto wa sizwe, the "spear of the nation"!

Nkrumah was for the rapid and effective development of Africa and ready to support the forces of effective change, and if he had to make things clear to people like Mandela to get thier act together, this must certainly be considered praise-worthy by all Africa patriots including Mr. Mandela himself. I shall be quoting extensively the speech of Mr. Mandela before the parliament of Ghana, so that people can judge for themselves just how profound this nonsense from this Okoampa idiot really is!


Cheers!

--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Nana-Akyea-Mensah
Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro
E-mail: nanaakyeamensah at gmail dot com

Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Why Haitians are not going to go to Senegal
This news item certainly raised some eyebrows.

Senegal is offering free land to Haitians wishing to "return to their origins" following this week's devastating earthquake, which has destroyed the capital and buried thousands of people beneath rubble.

Senegal's octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade told a meeting of his advisers that Haitians are the sons and daughters of Africa, because the country was founded by slaves, including some believed to have come from Senegal.

"The president is offering voluntary repatriation to any Haitian that wants to return to their origin," said Wade's spokesman Mamadou Bemba Ndiaye late Saturday following the president's announcement.

"Senegal is ready to offer them parcels of land - even an entire region. It all depends on how many Haitians come. If it's just a few individuals, then we will likely offer them housing or small pieces of land. If they come en masse we are ready to give them a region," he said.

He stressed that Wade had insisted that if a region is handed over it should be in a fertile area - not in the country's parched deserts.


"The major problem with all this in terms of migration to the African continent, apart from the very salient fact that "black" identity is an exceptionally amorphous thing with potentially very little or no relevance to the people whose allegiances it claims and the reality that "African diaspora" as a catch-all term actually effaces the very real fact of multiple stronger diasporic identities under its aegi, is that there's no economic incentive for Haitians to go there. According to 2007 data, Haiti ranks 149th in the world on the Human Development Index with a rating of 0.532. Senegal, one of West Africa's most developed countries, ranks 166th with a HDI of 0.484. Notwithstanding Senegal's somewhat greater income, this will not create a significant Haitian movement to Africa, especially with much closer and richer potential destinations like the United States and Canada. Besides, this kind of sentiment tends to not amount to anything serious--pan-African sentiments certainly haven't improved the reception given to migrants from the Sahel to coastal West Africa. Waye's proposals have been generally criticized by Senegalese and so, partially retracted."
Posted by Randy at 4:52 PM
Labels: africa, caribbean, migration, senegal



ANC Today

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Volume 7, No. 8, 2-8 March 2007


LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Salute to Ghana - 50 years on!


When Nelson Mandela addressed the Summit Meeting of the Organisation of African
Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government in Tunis, in June 1994, for the first

time as our Head of State, he said:

"In the distant days of antiquity, a Roman sentenced this African city to death:
'Carthage must be destroyed (Carthago delenda est)'.

"And Carthage was destroyed. Today we wander among its ruins, only our imagination and historical records enable us to experience its magnificence. Only our African being makes it possible for us to hear the piteous cries of the victims of the vengeance of the Roman Empire...

"But the ancient pride of the peoples of our continent asserted itself and gave us hope in the form of giants such as Queen Regent Labotsibeni of Swaziland, Mohammed V of Morocco, Abdul Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Murtala Mohammed of Nigeria, Patrice Lumumba of Zaire, Amilcar Cabral of Guinea


Bissau, Aghostino Neto of Angola, Eduardo Mondlane and Samora Machel of Mozambique, Seretse Khama of Botswana, WEB Du Bois and Martin Luther King of America, Marcus Garvey of Jamaica, Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo of South Africa.

"By their deeds, by the struggles they led, these and many other patriots said to us that neither Carthage nor Africa had been destroyed. They conveyed the message that the long interregnum of humiliation was over. It is in their honour that we stand here today. It is a tribute to their heroism that, today, we are able to address this august gathering."

On 6 October 2000, I had the privilege to address the Parliament of Ghana. Then, I said: "None among us is not deeply moved by the fact that this morning we are among the elected representatives of the people of a great sister country that is very close to our hearts, Ghana, a pioneer and a pathfinder in Africa's quest for the realisation of the hopes and dreams of the children of Africa.



"None among us is not deeply moved by the knowledge that in Ghana we are in a
country which, to us, is a home away from home.

"We also feel strong today because of the knowledge that, as we stand here, we are among fellow combatants for the accomplishment of the realisable goal of the all-round and total emancipation of Africa, of the rebirth of our Continent.

"I say this because the people of Ghana, a forward echelon in that continuing struggle, elected you as their leaders and representatives because they knew that you would work to advance their cause and the cause of the peoples of Africa.

"This, after all, is the charge that that great gift of Ghana to our Continent, the late Kwame Nkrumah, bestowed on you and us and all successor generations.

"You will remember that as he looked back on that glorious day on which Ghana attained her independence, Kwame Nkrumah wrote the following inspiring lines:


"'The independence of Ghana, achieved on March 6, 1957, ushered in the decisive struggle for freedom and independence throughout Africa - freedom from colonial rule and settler domination. On that day I proclaimed to the world 'the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of the African continent'.

"'Immediately, the beating drums sent this message across rivers, mountains, forests and plains. The people heard and acted. Liberation movements gained strength, and freedom fighters began to train. One after another, new African states came into being, and above the world's horizon loomed the African Personality. African statesmen went to the United Nations; Africans proudly wore the ancient regalia of their ancestral land; Africans stood up and spoke for
Africans and the people of African descent wherever they might be.'

"The decisive struggle of which Kwame Nkrumah spoke led to our own liberation nearly four decades after you achieved your own emancipation...

"I am convinced that a generation of a progressive leadership on our continent has re-emerged, including you who sit in this august house - a generation that is moved by this plight of the people, and seeks to advance their interests...

"The new leadership that has emerged on our Continent gives hope to the millions of our people that our combined actions will free all of Africa's children from tyranny, war and poverty. We dare not and must not disappoint those hopes."

AFRICA'S AGE.

Well ahead of Harold Macmillan's "wind of change" speech, in his Presidential Address to the 46th Annual Conference of the African National Congress in Durban, December 1958, Albert Luthuli said:

"After the historic Bandung Conference in 1955, Africa, this year, has been the scene of Conference, respectively, at Cairo and Accra. These Conferences have had as their objective the strengthening of ties among independent states of Africa and Asia or, as the one now sitting in Accra, seeking plans of helping to further the cause of freedom in countries still under colonial rule. Whether any one likes it or not, the voice of Africa, claiming a place of honour for her children, will be heard with growing insistence and force in the coming days."

In his December 1961 Nobel Lecture at the University of Oslo, entitled "Africa and Freedom", Chief Albert Luthuli said:

"Our people everywhere, from north to south of the continent, are reclaiming their land, their right to participate in government, their dignity as men, their nationhood. Thus, in the turmoil of revolution, the basis for peace and brotherhood in Africa is being restored by the resurrection of national sovereignty and independence, of equality and the dignity of man...

"The African revolution has swept across three quarters of the continent in less than a decade; its final completion is within sight of our own generation...By comparison with Europe, our African revolution - to our credit, is proving to be orderly, quick and comparatively bloodless...

"In bringing my address to a close, let me invite Africa to cast her eyes beyond the past and to some extent the present with their woes and tribulations, trials and failures, and some successes, and see herself an emerging continent, bursting to freedom through the shell of centuries of serfdom. This is Africa's age - the dawn of her fulfilment, yes, the moment when she must grapple with destiny to reach the summits of sublimity saying - ours was a fight for noble values and worthy ends, and not for lands and the enslavement of man.


"Africa is a vital subject matter in the world of today, a focal point of world interest and concern. Could it not be that history has delayed her rebirth for a purpose? The situation confronts her with inescapable challenges, but more importantly with opportunities for service to herself and mankind. She evades the challenges and neglects the opportunities to her shame, if not her doom. How she sees her destiny is a more vital and rewarding quest than bemoaning her past with its humiliations and sufferings."

FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!

During the years of struggle for freedom, the Southern African liberation movements used to sing a liberation song with these lyrics:

"There is victory for us.
There is victory for us.
In the struggle for Africa,
there is victory for us.
Forward ever, backward never.
In the struggle for our freedom there is victory."

We inherited the slogan, 'Forward ever, backward never', from Kwame Nkrumah's


Convention People's Party (CPP). Our movement and the people of South Africa extend heartfelt congratulations to the sister people of Ghana on the historic occasion of the 50th anniversary of their independence. Forward ever, backward never!

Thabo Mbeki
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2007/text/at08.txt



History

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was formed on 6 April, 1959 by dissidents within the African National Congress (ANC). The events leading to the creation of the PAC were rooted in the Africanist movement that had been growing within the ANC since the early 1940s. The ANC was formed in 1912, initially as the South African Native National Congress, to provide a more permanent, organized union of Africans in the protest against the segregationist laws of the South African Union government. Initial measures taken by the ANC were ineffective on a large scale and by the 1930s the organization was virtually inactive.

In the 1940's, however, new policies were adopted by the ANC in an attempt to revitalize the 30-year-old organization and strengthen its political position. A new constitution was drafted that opened the membership to non-Africans and ties with other liberation organizations, such as the South African Communist Party, were formed. The ANC considered itself a nationalist movement and regarded unity with other resistance movements strategically as well as politically expedient.

Younger members of the ANC were increasingly involved in the reformation of the African National Congress. In 1944, Anton Lembede, Jordon Ngubane, Nelson Mandela and A.P. Mda established aYouth League. Lembede, the Youth League's first president was instrumental in the development of the League's philosophical direction. He encouraged Africans to take pride in their heritage and to build an African state independent of the white community and without the assistance of Europeans or other nationalist groups. Although Lembede died a few years after the formation of the Youth League, his African Nationalism teachings were embodied in the Youth League's basic policy, authored by his successor Mda, and served as the foundation for the Africanist movement within the ANC and the eventual formation of the Pan Africanist Congress. Lembede's teachings were also influential in the Unity Movement and the Black Consciousness Movement of later years.

Youth League members were instrumental in drafting and promoting the Programme of Action, a plan adopted by the national conference of the ANC in 1949 that committed the party to a much more aggressive strategy against the discriminatory laws of the South African government than previously employed. Additionally, the election of the Afrikaner Nationalist Party in 1948 under the slogan of apartheid brought the soon-to-be-realized threat of increasingly rigid segrationist policies. The Programme of Action called for national freedom for Africans and polictical independence from the white government. It also advocated the use of civil disobedience, strikes, stayaways and boycotts in open defiance of discriminatory laws. The tactics advocated in the Programme of Action were put into operation during the Defiance Campaign launched in 1952 to pressure the South African government for the repeal of the Pass Laws and Stock Limitation, the Group Areas Act, the Voters' Representation Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act. The Defiance Campaign was organized by the ANC in collaboration with the South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured Peoples Organization, and the Congress of Democrats in an effort to build national support. During the campaign, Youth League members from the Eastern Cape, including A.P. Mda, T. T. Letlake, Robert Sobukwe, C.J. Fazzie, and J.N. Pokela, wrote and distributed pamphlets representing the position of the "Bureau of African Nationalism." The pamphlets were an effort on the part of the Youth Leaguers to assure that the objectives and methods of the Programme of Action were not subordinated to non-African interests The Youth League's efforts were significant in determining the direction and character of the ANC's resistance strategies and policies. Yet the adherence of the Youth League members to the Africanist doctrine of self-determination for Africans prompted their growing concern over the increasingly cooperative and inclusive actions of the ANC leadership towards other liberation organizations.

The Defiance Campaign resulted in over 8000 arrests of blacks and coloureds by the end of the year but was effectively ended by the South African government's retaliation methods of banning or imprisoning many of the organizers, and passing laws making civil disobedience a criminal offense with heavy penalties. The Africanists, however, continued their activities within the ANC in an attempt to capitalize on the nationalist forces that had emerged during the Defiance Campaign.

The focus of the Africanist activities was in Orlando, the largest African residental area southwest of Johannesburg. Potlako K. Leballo was an outspoken member of the Youth League in the Transvaal region in 1952-1954 and became Chairman of the Orlando East ANCYL in 1954. He developed a following among Youth League members and openly opposed what he saw as the ANC leadership's unwillingness to be "real Africans." Robert Mangoliso Sobukwe became associated with Leballo and the Orlando Africanists in 1954 when he took a position in African languages at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Sobukwe had been an active member of the Youth League at the University College of Ft. Hare when a branch was started there in 1948. He worked with Mda on an early draft of the Programme of Action and wrote for and eventually took over the editorship of "The Africanist," the newspaper started by the Orlando Africanists in 1954 under the editorship of Selby Themba Ngendane.

The growing concern of the Africanists over the racially inclusive policies of the African National Congress blossomed into open opposition when plans were initiated for the organization of a national Congress of the People of South Africa, an alliance between the ANC, the Congess of Democrats , the Indian Congress movement and the South African Coloured People's Organisation. The goal of the alliance was to produce a Freedom Charter, a list of demands and grievances against the South African government. The Africanists denounced the ANC's participation and its subsequent adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955.

Following the issuance of the Freedom Charter, many of the organizers of the Congress of the People were arrested on treason and conspiracy charges and enmeshed in the lengthy Treason Trial. This included many of the "charterist" ANC members, providing the Africanists with a more visible position within the ANC. The divisiveness within the organization came to a head in 1958 when Nelson Mandela, the ANC Transvaal President, expelled P.K. Leballo from the party. Due to a ban on political gatherings, the issue was not brought to the membership until a conference was convened in November of that year. The conference erupted in violence and the Africanist delegates were barred from entering the meeting. The Africanists subsequently decided to form their own political group that would promote African initiatives in the struggle against apartheid and the white South African government.

The inaugural conference of the Pan Africanist Congress was held in April, 1959. Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was elected President with P.K. Leballo Secretary-General. The National Executive Committee consisted of Sobukwe, Leballo, Zephaniah Mothupeng, Peter 'Molotsi, S.T. Ngendane, Peter Raboroko, N. D. Nyaose, A.B. Ngcobo, H.S. Ngcobo, H. Hlatswayo, E.A. Mfaxa, N.N. Mahomo, C.J. Fazzie and M.G. Maboza and Z.B. Molete.

Both the ANC and PAC held national conferences in December of 1959. The ANC called for single day anti-pass marches, with March 31, 1960, declared as a national day of action. The PAC, however, favored a sustained, continuing action and decided that the time was favorable to begin a national campaign against the Pass Laws. On 4 March, 1960, Sobukwe called upon the PAC membership to begin "one campaign leading onto another in a never-ending stream of unfolding positive action." Members were instructed to leave their passes at home on 21 March, present themselves at police stations, and invite arrest. The PAC's policy in this campaign was one of non-violence, and in a letter to the Commissioner of the South African Police informing him of the scheduled campaign, Sobukwe reiterated his instructions to participants against violent action and appealed to the police to also refrain from any action that might lead to violence. On the appointed day, crowds gathered in a number of places throughout the country. A large crowd walking to the police station in Sharpeville was fired on by the police, however, killing about 70 persons and wounding over 180, many of them women. The ANC, after originally denouncing the PAC's campaign plans, joined them in declaring a national day of mourning. Strikes, stay-aways and marches continued, and nine days later the government declared a state of emergency. Both parties were banned on 8 April and large numbers of ANC and PAC members were arrested. Most of the PAC leadership, including Mothupeng, Sobukwe and Leballo, were jailed and forced into hard labor. Others, such as Peter 'Molotsi, fled the country or went underground.

Within the next few years, the PAC set up offices outside of South Africa in Maseru, Dar es Salaam, London, Cairo, Accra and many other cities around the world where members established ties with other organizations and international bodies. Sustaining a directed, positive action campaign within South Africa, however, was difficult for the exiled organization with most of its leadership in prison. The PAC did hold a second national conference in December 1960 and at that time adopted a policy of armed insurrection. Violent incidents were occurring throughout South Africa, attributed to an offshoot group of the PAC called Poqo, a shortened version of Ama-Afrika Poqo (the real owners of Africa). The PAC was unable to supply arms to these militants, however, compromising the effectiveness of their actions.

After being released from jail in 1962, Leballo fled restriction and went to Maseru. He established the external headquarters of the PAC there and worked to provide centralized leadership as acting president as designated by Sobukwe. Sobukwe was never able to fulfill his role as president-elect. A few days before he was to be released at the end of his three year sentence, the government passed a law allowing the continuing imprisonment of a person convicted under the security laws if that person was considered likely to further the objectives of communism. Sobukwe was the only person imprisoned under this law and it became known as the Sobukwe clause. He was eventually released from Robben Island in 1970, but lived under heavy restriction in Kimberly until his death in 1978.


http://www.si.umich.edu/fort-hare/pac_hist.htm

A White House memo commented on Johnson’s pleasure over the Ghana coup, describing it as “another fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. [In contrast], the new military regime is almost pathetically pro-Western.”

The preferred methods of this elite stratum were lawsuits and petitions to the king and his colonial office in London. They had shaped Gold Coast nationalism, prompting the British governor to describe Ghana as “a model colony”.

But in a matter of months this “model” was to be destroyed forever, catapultng the new general secretary of the organisation of “respectable gentlemen” to the head of a radical mass movement. Its methods were mass agitation, strikes, boycotts and riots.


Nkrumah succeeded in mobilising hitherto marginalised workers, farmers, demobilised war veterans, students, small traders, teachers and junior professionals into a decisive anti-imperialist force.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=10924

Positive Action effectively broke the back of the colonial order, launching Nkrumah and his new party into a stunning electoral victory within a year. Nkrumah contested the election from a prison cell and won an incredible 98.6 percent of the vote in central Accra.