On every 21st September, which happens to be the birthday of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana marks Kwame Memorial Day. A day set to celebrate the Pan-Africanist, who led Ghana to independence. Upon reflection on this day, award-winning Ghanaian poet and writer, Nana Fredua-Agyeman Jnr, has penned a letter to Ghana’s first republican president.
The letter takes us through the thoughts of the poet on the state of affairs in Ghana and Africa, against Nkrumah’s vision.
READ IT BELOW
Dear Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah,
This is your grandson, Nana from your motherland, Ghana.
I never met you in time,
Nonetheless, amongst the greatest your name is prime.
You are one of the few greats in a lifetime.
Your legacy began long before I was born.
Now I am a grown man and can sing you a song.
It is true what they say; all goes bad except the tongue.
Though you are not here your message lives on.
Listening to your speeches, I appreciate what it preaches.
I have read your literature.
Which is far from miniature.
Always leaving me engulfed with rapture.
Provoking my thoughts with visionary leadership; your signature.
United States of Africa now downplayed.
All African leaders seek is to get paid.
Corruption is the prime option like first aid.
Billions of Africans die in less than a decade.
Back in Ghana, do you want to know what is happening Dr. Nkrumah?
No manna for the farmer, let alone the common man.
We seek truth yet its lies they speak.
We need assurance that our future would not be bleak.
We have the strength to be at the top, yet we are weak.
We are taken for granted due to denial of the knowledge we seek.
Most of your successors are so confused.
Appalling practices leaving state funds abused.
Receiving aids from the western world.
Believing whatever the white man tells;
Relieving whenever they ring their bells;
It is killing whatever the black man sells;
Demeaning, no water to pull from wells;
Lack of nutrients for the body; eventually the tummy swells;
We need liberation from the mental cells;
If indeed reincarnation exists, please leave the spirit land.
Osagyefo, come back and save your motherland.
Written by: Nana Fredua-Agyeman Jnr.
