Ghana First President Dr Kwame Nkrumah and wife with Chieftains

Comment/Ghana/Africa  /By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong

Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, a member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and third son of Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah, has further added to the agony of the NDC by telling Africa Watch magazine that the so-called NDC founder Jerry Rawlings, who ruled Ghana as both a military dictator and elected president for almost 20 years, is “Ghana’s best leader compared to ex-president John Kufour and present President John Evans Atta Mills.”

In a Mills presidency distracted by NDC internal preposterousness, Mills sacked Sekou within hours of his uncalled for denigration, as director of the crucial National Youth Council, demonstrating Mills’ strong-will and dynamism.

But at issue isn’t the sacking of Sekou. The implications are much deeper – bordering on leadership, stability and progress. The fact is Sekou is wrong. Sekou, a political novice to the complex Ghanaian political scene, also said Mills, who has ruled for just one-and-half years, has no “charisma, dynamism and strong-will to lead Ghana.” Sekou is also wrong, for democracy has a way of correcting all these inadequacies. Charisma or not, Mills was voted by Ghanaians, and democracy has to have its way till Mills ends his term. It was Mills’ “charisma, dynamism and strong-will” that saw him navigate through the rough terrain of the Ghanaian political topography to win the 2008 elections.

What got into Sekou’s head for him to add to the internal troubles of the NDC? It is sheer stupidity. In a way, Sekou is a copy cat of Rawlings, re-echoing what Rawlings has earlier poisonously said of Mills – that Mills is “mediocre,” “dull,” and “slow,” and by extension, lacks strong-will and dynamism. The fact is democracy doesn’t mix with such one-party/military junta bravado. This is the very man Rawlings virtually imposed on the NDC in the first instance and later became President. Why will today this same Rawlings say all disgraceful things about Mills?

Dr Sekou Nkrumah

As a PHD holder in African literature, Sekou is expected to show more sophistication than the high school mark off Rawlings. But, yet, as Rawlings himself will tell you, having worked with PHDs in his almost 20 years rule, not all PHDs can think properly or are emotionally and intellectually mature. Rawlings, like Sierra Leone’s Siaka Stevens, has disgraced some PHDs he worked with in public for their foolishness. Sekou is part of this low breed.

Sekou’s thinking reveals how he doesn’t know Ghana, has no deeper sense of Africa’s political history and might have forgotten how his father was overthrown in 1966 – gradually he became a tyrant and believed he was something of a “special one sent by God.” Sekou is contemptible. If Sekou says Mills is mediocre and Rawlings knowing this, especially so since Mills was his Vice President, influenced the NDC with his famed magic and bullying to elect Mills as its presidential candidate, and later Mills won elections and became the President of Ghana, then Sekou’s view that Rawlings is the “best leader” and “visionary” is farce. “Best leaders” do not play with mediocrity; they play with the first rate no matter their views, as US President Barack Obama did, drawing from President Abraham Lincoln’s experiences, by bringing first rate people into his government though some (like Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State) were his adversaries.

Rawlings imposed Mills in an apparent attempt to command-and-control Mills from behind-the-scenes. But Mills has deflated him in the power game and distanced himself from Rawlings’ poor image, which is worsening everyday. That makes Rawlings not “visionary” and not the “best leader.” Today, if Sekou says Mills is mediocre then Rawlings is as well mediocre, since in the view of Sekou, there were first rate NDCs who would have been better presidents than Mills but Rawlings run them down (that made Dr. Obed Asamoah, Rawlings’ Justice Minister, to resign from the NDC) and brutally schemed for Mills to head Ghana. Why didn’t Rawlings go for the best but the supposedly weak Mills? Because Rawlings, extremely power intoxicated and mindless, wanted to command-and-control Mills (Rawlings had attempted same on Kufour but Kufour snubbed him) but Mills out-smarted him and has maintained his independence.

The fact is Mills is first-rate leader and nature’s democrat. From continental giant Nigeria to Tanzania, Mills is part of the leaders emerging in Africa today – humble, balanced, thoughtful, sophisticated, fair-minded, democratic, calm, non-aggressive, intellectually sophisticated, morally upright/God fearing, non-imperially threatening, in tune with universal governance practices, and at home with African traditional leadership values of consensus building.

Nigeria’s late President Shehu Musa Y’Aradu, Nigeria’s current President Goodluck Jonathan, Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Koroma, Liberia’s President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, Botswana’s President Ian Khama and Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete, among others, are the faces of the best kind of leaders emerging in Africa today. And not the Rawlings type of threats, bashful, violence, demeaning people, undemocratic, circling in their minds death, deviousness, and so semi-literate that they cannot comprehend higher issues wheeling around them and in their confusion paralyze their countries.

In “Reforming Leadership in Africa,” J. William Addai argues for the Botswana type of leadership attributes in reforming Africa’s leadership challenges, where the traditional is grafted with the modern. Mills and Kufour (including Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Hilla Limann) demonstrated such best leadership attributes. And they are better leaders than Rawlings. As psychologists will explain, Rawlings transferred his personal failings, emotional disturbances and anger onto Ghana and muddled the whole leadership culture so much so that he find it difficult to differentiate between good and bad leaders as we see in his resentful dealings with Mills and Kufour, and his jaundiced opinion (as repeated by Sekou) that he is the “best leader” Ghana has ever had.

In African tradition, as the Asante and Yoruba ethnic groups reveal, tyranny is abhorred, and tyrants are quickly removed, sometimes even killed. The fact that Rawlings is a tyrant heavily disqualified him as the “best leader.” Globally, in modern governance practices, too, tyrants are bad news; they are danger to progress as we saw in Liberia under President Samuel Doe.

More seriously, Rawlings’ bad behaviour is counter to Ghanaian/African tradition and modern governance customs. Rawlings beat and disgraced his ministers and other functionaries, have been agitating the youth against personalities and inciting them to destroy property. So-called “Best leaders” do not behave like that. If in Sekou’s universe that’s the hallmark of “best leaders” with their charisma, strong-will and dynamism, in the Ghanaian/African tradition and universally, it isn’t a way of leading people anymore.

“Hard, visible circumstance defines reality,” the journalist-thinker Lance Morrow quoted John Kenneth Galbraith, the American economist, as saying. Realistically, it was the wrong perceptions of strong-willed and charismatic leader in Africa, as Sekou might have imbibed from his father and Rawlings, that brought about years of tyranny, fear, destructive dictatorships, threats to life and threats to the foundation of the state to the extent of some African states exploding, and generally very poor governance regimes. The never-ending predicaments of the Democratic Republic Congo are as a result of this.

In such an environment, as Galbraith’s hard reality indicates, the African Big Man syndrome rapidly nurtures the likes of Rawlings, who grow quickly and with the help of sycophants and tribalists, juju-marabout mediums and other twisted spiritualists (and the likes of unsophisticated elites like Sekou), believes and thinks they are God sent, extraordinary ones, or something like that. And in the long run destroy their country.

The new face of Africa’s leadership corrects all these destructive one-party and military junta type of “strong-will, dynamism and charisma” mumbo-jumbo by nurturing leadership styles of consensus–building, intellectual sophistication, better grasp of Africa, non-aggression, calmness, moral worthiness, high thoughtfulness, humility and non-imperially threatening environment.

Black history In CANADA

Anthony Reznek is a publisher at Edmond Montgomery Publications in Toronto. In collaboration with several well-known authors he has published ‘Black History: Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas,” a four colour, 376-page hardcover book. The textbook will be used to give students a panoramic view of Black Canadian experiences along with an overview of Black History from early civilizations to the 21st century – from Africa to the Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas. The authors (Sadlier, Birkett, Grant, James, Van Beinum) “were interested in creating a resource with information that had not been available to them in a textbook when they were in high school” Reznek told School Libraries in Canada, the online journal of the Canadian Association for School Libraries. “They wanted to educate students in particular, and the broader community, in general, about Black History and its deep connections to the histories of Africa and the countries of this hemisphere”, he added.

The book has several features including: Description and brief analysis of specific landmark accomplishments in the visual arts, literature, music and architecture, sketches of Black leaders in politics, economics, philosophy, technology, social reform and the arts and a Teacher’s Resource that includes assessment and evaluations tools and strategies.

Textbook of African/Canadian

(L-R) Senator Martin, Paul Mulangu, and Patricia Whittaker with Mukutano.Photo By Edward Sem.

March 27, 2010 was a big day for the Centre of Integration for African Immigrants (CIAI). On behalf of the Minister for Western Economic Diversification, Senator Yonah Martin presented CIAI with a cheque for $275,000 towards the development of a multipurpose activity centre at 811 Carnarvon Street (just next to New Westminster Skytrain station). As a key supporter of CIAI, Senator Martin has been instrumental in championing the work carried out at the Centre. Awarded under the Recreational Infrastructure Canada Program (RinC), the funds are earmarked for capital construction and renovations as part of the federal government’s Economic Action Plan. CIAI was formed in 2001 to bridge the gap between visible minority immigrant and refugee communities and mainstream society by providing job readiness training, social opportunities, and other services to facilitate integration. CIAI also showcases the contributions of people of African heritage to Canadian nation building during Black History Month and throughout the year. The grant marks an important step towards the achievement of the dream of a fully equipped resource centre. On behalf of the communities they serve, CIAI Executive Director, Paul Mulangu, and Program Manager, Patricia Whittaker expressed excitement about being part of the Action Plan and thanked Western Economic Diversification for opening the door to allow CIAI to continue its important work in the future.

By JF The Afro News New Westminster

(left to right) Speaker Noel Kinsella, Senator Mobina Jaffer, and Senator Donald Oliver

By:the Honourable Mobina S.B. Jaffer, Q.C. Senator for British Columbia

My professional career has taken me to many different parts of the world, and has exposed me to the many challenges, and at the same time, the great beauty this world has to offer. I have also had the privilege to meet many people who are doing their part to make this world an inclusive environment, where populations are not scared by the differences in each other, but instead are curious about them…and in the end, enriched through shared experiences.

Along the way, I have also had the pleasure to work with individuals who are greatly committed to the issues we face together. Perhaps a common bond between those who advocate for a cause is their desire to create opportunity in our society.

During their careers, Speaker Noel Kinsella, and Senator Donald Oliver have served all Canadians with distinction. And through our working together, I have come to know just how important creating opportunity is to both Senators.

Speaker Kinsella – who has served as Speaker of the Senate since 2006 – has had a distinguished career in humanitarian work, and has been a champion of diversity and human rights. Beginning in 1967, Speaker Kinsella served as Chairperson of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission, where he served for 22 years. As Chair of the Atlantic Humans Rights Centre, Speaker Kinsella played an integral role in expanding the resources of the Centre, helping to further its mandate to undertake, encourage and facilitate research in the fields of citizenship and human rights.

Presently, Speaker Kinsella is a member of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights – which will open its doors to the public in 2012, and makes its home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Museum – the only national museum located outside of Ottawa, Ontario – will give visitors a detailed view into the progression of human rights in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

When we think about our great country, there are many things of which Canadians can be proud. One such trait is the diversity of people we live and work amongst. For multiculturalism is Canada’s badge to wear proudly.

Throughout his life and professional career, Senator Oliver has continually promoted the importance of the study of Canadian black history and culture. Through his advocacy to fund a Chair on Canadian Black Studies at Dalhousie University, and also while serving on the Advisory Board for the Indigenous Black and Mik’Maq Program at Dalhousie Law School, Senator Oliver has spoken widely of the enduring contributions of black Canadians to our society.

In a paper delivered to the “Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora located in Canada” Conference, in Halifax, he noted that:

“For more than 400 years, Blacks have been an integral part of the warp and weave of Canadian society and Canada’s economy. For example, as an interpreter between the French and the Mik’Maq people in the early 1600s, Mathieu de Costa undoubtedly played a role in developing the fur-trade industry along the Atlantic seacoast. But, de Costa was a free man. Those who came after him, enslaved and brutally exploited during the largest shift of population that the world has ever seen, played no less an important role in shaping our country.”

Senator Oliver has also worked tirelessly to ensure that the Province of Nova Scotia play a role in officially recognizing the cultural contribution of its population. His work in this area lead to the creation of the Centre for Black Culture – an organization which opened on September 17, 1983 – which exists to promote the great history and legacy of Black Canadians in Nova Scotia.

Through its facilitation of cultural portrayals in the form of music, plays, concerts, as well as educational activities in the form of workshops, lectures and guided tours, the Centre is a window into over 400 years of black history in Nova Scotia.

However, Senator Oliver’s work on Canadian black history and culture is but one area of his interest in diversity in Canada. Senator Oliver is not only concerned with affording diversity a place in society, he also concerned with creating space for diversity in society.

Senator Oliver’s work on the issue of employment equity is a testament to this drive to create necessary space for diversity.

In 2006-2007, when the Public Service Commission’s annual report revealed that Canada’s public service was not a true reflection of our diversity, Senator Oliver challenged us in this chamber to think about whom our Public service will hire a decade from now. When those testifying before the National Finance Committee shared their concern that certain provisions of the Public Service Employment Act were not being used, Senator Oliver challenged us to think about what he called “make-it-happen” policies that would positively affect the hiring strategies of Canada’s public service.

This past February – which was also Black History Month – Senator Oliver addressed the issue of employment equity in the Federal Public Service to the Employment Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee of the Supreme Court of Canada.

During this speech, Senator Oliver pointed out that the Federal Public Service has an important role to play in setting an example for other employers, by maintaining the standards of diversity in its hiring practices. He noted that:

“The public service should and must set the standard for all employers: it is Canada’s largest employer, with 255,000 employees; it is Canada’s most national employer, with 1600 points of services across the country; and it is Canada’s most international employer with staff in more than 150 countries.”

He also noted that by 2017, members of the visible minority community could account for roughly one-fifth of the total population of Canada – echoing the necessity of the public service to make the changes needed to ensure the changing faces of Canada’s workforce are able to seek opportunities to better themselves, both professional and personally.

Where the view exists that such diversity is perhaps a threat, Senator Oliver reminds us that diversity is an extension of national wealth, and he has continually reminded us of the importance of embracing that diversity through the creation and facilitation of opportunity.

For their continuing efforts to promote cultural heritage, and for their invaluable advocacy of greater opportunities for visible minorities and humans rights, Speaker Kinsella and Senator Oliver can only be known as true champions of diversity and human rights.

"Students at Salt Spring's Central School, 1929, courtesy of Salt Spring Archives."

Evelyn C. White The Afro News Salt Spring Island

With the blockbuster success of his book Roots (1976) and the subsequent television miniseries, author Alex Haley tapped into a deep longing among the descendants of enslaved blacks to claim ties with our African forebears. It was my understanding of this history that prompted me to burst into tears when I recently accessed my e-mail and found an image of a beaming man in Lesotho holding a copy of my book, Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone: A Photo Narrative of Black Heritage on Salt Spring Island (EGAG).

The book was opened to a page featuring a photo of the man’s daughter Tankiso, age 5, shortly after she’d arrived on Salt Spring last May to begin a new life with her adoptive family. I’m not privy to the circumstances that led to the separation of birth parent and child. But it was clear from the father’s radiant smile that his bond with his daughter now in Canada would endure.

For me, the arrival of the photo from Lesotho marked the culmination of a three-year journey I’d spent documenting the historical and contemporary presence of blacks on Salt Spring. Having toiled a decade on a biography of Alice Walker (best known for her novel The Color Purple), I had not intended to begin another major writing project when I moved to Salt Spring from the San Francisco Bay area. But one day, in 2006, I was standing in my living room when a cosmic voice exhorted me to write a book about the black heritage on Salt Spring.

Over the years, I’ve learned to honour the spiritual guidance that I believe is available to all who heed its call. And so, working with local photographer Joanne Bealy, I began the task of producing the first book to focus exclusively on Salt Spring’s 150-year black heritage and to examine its unique racial history through a 21st century lens. See www.dancingcrowpress.com

The ancestral home of the Coast Salish people, Salt Spring welcomed its first black settlers in 1859. Literate and highly accomplished, the free blacks had fled Northern California after the enactment of a series of racially repressive laws that threatened their hard-won freedom. Interestingly, the disaffected blacks in California were seeking refuge at the same time that B.C. provincial governor James Douglas (himself the son of a black woman born in Barbados) was in need of skilled labourers to support the boom town frenzy after gold was discovered along the Fraser River. A core group of the blacks that had first landed in Victoria later migrated to Salt Spring.

The early blacks on Salt Spring included the community’s first teacher, John Craven Jones. A college graduate trained in Greek and Latin, Jones taught the youth on Salt Spring (without pay) for several years. As one who was educated (K-9) by a coterie of dedicated black teachers, my research on Jones was especially uplifting. And who could look at a 1929 class photo from Salt Spring and not marvel at the ethnic diversity of the students?

The force behind Salt Spring’s first public recreation site, Jim Anderson was another early black pioneer. An archival photo finds him in the company of a black youth in a canoe. Here’s a reflection I was thrilled to include in EGAG: “Most people find it tiresome to have to sweep their back porch but Jim Anderson made a hobby of keeping his beach clean and he was down there every morning [with a broom]. This was [Anderson’s] little park and he delighted in having people … come down for picnics.”

The boy in the photo was a member of the Whims family, also among the black pioneers. Born on Salt Spring, octogenarian Bobby Wood is related, on his maternal side, to the Whims clan. A dapper gentleman with a quiet demeanor, Wood enjoys fishing and the Calgary Stampede.

Long attractive to retirees, Salt Spring is also awash with children. The youthful ranks include many children of African descent such as Calla Ann Amma Adubofour-Poko whose father is Ghanaian. Like Tankiso, Ethiopia-born Selamu and Dexter Patterson were adopted by white families on Salt Spring. “The story of the early African American settlers is deeply moving for us,” said Shauna Klem, who is pictured in EGAG with her sons. “ Everyone has embraced the boys so enthusiastically.”

Given Salt Spring’s status as one of the top artist colonies in North America, it was especially rewarding for me, as an author, to profile black artists on the island. Born in Kenya, Sav Boro is an acclaimed muralist and painter of wildlife and landscapes. The daughter of a Moroccan musician father and a teacher mother of French, Egyptian and Tunisian heritage, Yasmine Amal is a skilled potter who sells her wares at Salt Spring’s renowned Saturday Market.

As the world turns to B.C. because of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, I’m elated to have “answered the call” to create a book that celebrates the compelling black history of Canada. Photographer Joanne Bealy and I will sign and discuss Every Goodbye Ain’t Gone at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 5 at the Rhizome Café, 317 East Broadway in Vancouver. We’ll also do a presentation at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24 at the central Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street. Both events are free and open to the public.