Kwame Nkrumah
The Insight of February 6th 2013 carries a message,
dated January 27, 2013, from President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela
addressed to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
(CELAC) that met in Santiago de Chile toward the end of January, 2013.
Phrases like ‘a nation of republics’, ‘the entire Great Nation’ and ‘the
Che Guevara/ Hugo Chavez
perpetuity of each of our nations’ as well as ‘Dear Heads of State
and Government’ occur in the message. Such occurrences ring bells in the
Pan-African ear with respect to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s speeches and
writings between the 1950s and 1970s. Respectively, these phrases raise
questions about the nation and the structure as well as the strategy for
its unity. We address these questions here.
Just as Dr. Nkrumah speaks of ‘the African Nation’, so does President
Hugo Chávez speak of ‘the Great Nation’ of Latin America and the
Caribbean. Just as Dr. Nkrumah speaks of ‘the Union of African
Republics’, so does President Chávez speak of ‘a nation of republics’ of
Latin America and the Caribbean. Just as Dr. Nkrumah speaks of ‘the
United States of Africa’, so does President Chávez speak of ‘the
perpetuity of each of our nations’. Just as Dr. Nkrumah initially
addresses ‘Heads of State and Government’, so does President Chávez
address ‘Heads of State and Government’ now. And, just as Dr. Nkrumah
initially supports the Organization of African Unity, after a
compromise, so does President Chávez support the CELAC – all clubs of
Heads of State.
The singular theme of the above is the apparent acceptance of the two
generational leaders to hold each State in the union as an inviolable unit.
There is an assumption by the two that there are inviolable unit States
or Republics within a bigger whole – the Nation. And yet on their
respective continents they talk about ‘nations’ that are living in a
state of ‘perpetuity’ – that is in permanence. So that what are said to
be ‘republics’ and ‘states’ are actually nations within a Super Nation.
This is very clear in the Latin Caribbean Americas’ concept of the
‘Great Nation’. In Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s May 23 1963 Addis Ababa speech
this whole idea is captured in the phrase ‘Union of Independent African
States’ in place of Great Nation.
In President Hugo Chávez’s message he does not mince words about this
reality in the following words when he makes the issue of inviolability
fairly clear thus: ‘The sacred purposes, the fraternal relations and
the common interests that unite the republics of Latin America and the
Caribbean, have in the CELAC a fundamental instrument not only to guarantee the
stability of the governments that our people have given themselves, but
also their sovereignty and, let us say with Jorge Luis Borges, the
perpetuity of each of our nations’. That is, the stability and
sovereignty of each government (State) are guaranteed. And what does the pronoun ‘our’ represent other than the ‘Heads of State and government’?
One criticism levelled against the Organization of African Unity
(OAU) stems from the perception that it is a club of Heads of State to
protect themselves in power. The scenario thus far painted of the Latin
America Caribbean CELAC can immediately be seen in that light. There is
not yet such an alteration of the structure of the State institution as
would place power in the people’s own hands – a People’s Power set-up –
even in their separate State entities. Similarly, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s
quest for even a strong African Union to which the component States cede
part of their sovereignty falls short of a revolutionary replacement of
the existing State structures with a People’s State. A weak and
toothless OAU is rather forced down his throat to guarantee the unviable and miserable existence of the component neo-colonies.
Hence even in 1963 Dr. Nkrumah does not advocate for the proposed African Union an instant dissolution
of the neo-colonial States. He is forced to accept their retention in
their present state in the manner that CELAC, by the words of President
Chávez, appears to be doing now. Nevertheless, Dr. Nkrumah harbours no
concept of the inviolability of an African State’s so-called
sovereignty. In fact, in the Ghanaian constitution he ensures the
insertion of a clause that assures the surrender of Ghana’s sovereignty
for the purposes of the establishment of a Union Government of Africa.
So that in the deepest recesses of his mind stands majestically the
ultimate dissolution of all the neo-colonial States of Africa into not a
nation of republics but a ‘People’s Republic of Africa’.
President Hugo Chávez does not hide similar intentions for Latin
Caribbean Americas. Like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, he lives with the vision of a
single nation in pursuit of the two centuries old ambitions of Simon
Bolivar. He is here better quoted than paraphrased: ‘Our common path has
been long and difficult since we faced the Spanish Empire in the 19th century.
The fight for independence, the fight that continues today, was linked,
indissolubly linked, to the thoughts and actions of our liberators, to
the fight for unity, for the construction of a Great Nation based on the
most solid foundation.’ This may not be clear yet as he appeals to
Simon Bolivar on the idea of a single nation and then calls on Jose Marti of Cuba for support.
In his effort, he quotes Bolivar in these words: ‘There should be one
single nation for the Americas, given that we have had perfect unity in
everything’. He then brings in Jose Marti, a Bolivarian, to explain
further that ‘we intentionally say people and not peoples so as not to
think there is more than one from the Rio Grande to Patagonia. It should
be one because it is one. The Americas, even when it does not want to,
and brothers fight, will be together in the end of a colossal spiritual
nation, they will love each other then’. Thus if in the deepest recesses
of Dr. Nkrumah’s mind the ultimate is the dissolution of the States
into a single State of a single African Nation, so does President Chávez
project such an ultimate.
Currently, however, President Chávez explains the divisions in Latin
Caribbean Americas as the cause of its underdevelopment rather than its
underdevelopment being the cause of its divisions. He asserts that
‘Underdevelopment is the child of division, and that is exactly why it
is imperative to resolve the question of a national Americas in the
coming years. Today we meet all the objective and subjective conditions
to do so.’ In African terms, before the publication of Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism,
Dr. Nkrumah partially puts it this way: ‘No independent African state
today by itself has a chance to follow an independent course of economic
development, and many of us who have tried to do this have been almost
ruined or have had to return to the fold of the former colonial rulers.
This position will not change unless we have a unified policy working at
the continental level.’
Regarding the obstacles in the path of unity in the Americas,
President Chávez asserts that ‘the oligarchy closed the door to a
historical project of unity …’ just as Dr. Nkrumah sees internal forces
of counter revolution as the brake on the anti-imperialist unification
project in Africa. Thus far the similarities between the thoughts and
actions of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and President Hugo Chávez cannot escape the
observer. And this extends to their common passion for their individual
unity projects. In this respect, they share great optimism in the
ultimate triumph over imperialism and neo-colonialism. In fact, with
President Chávez, he sees the objective and subjective conditions for
unity having been met. Similarly, Dr. Nkrumah leaves nobody in doubt
about his belief in the ripeness of the situation in 1963 for the
creation of a Union of Independent African States.
Yes, optimism is the word. If there is a mood that is crystal clear
in President Chávez’s message it is his optimism for the CELAC. In
Africa, Pan-African students and activists could be surprised by it in
the light of the OAU’s failure and its apparent similarity to the CELAC.
In fact, he will be surprised to hear this; because for him ‘Everything
we do for unity will not only be justified by history, it will also
become the enlightened legacy we can leave to future generations. We
will also be actively honouring the memory of our liberators. In CELAC,
as Bolivar wanted, we have become one nation’. (Bold prints added.)
He says additionally that ‘CELAC is the most important project of
political, economic, social and cultural unity in our contemporary
history. We all have the right to feel proud: the nation of republics,
as the liberator Simon Bolivar called it, has begun to emerge as a
beautiful and happy reality’. He then opines that ‘If we are a nation of
republics, our sovereignty is that of the entire Great Nation, and we
must enforce it’. He also adds the claim that ‘Today, we are an example
of unity in diversity, of justice, welfare and happiness to the world’.
Before this he proclaims that ‘While US and Europe … are committing
collective suicide, we are weathering the storm …’ and with them cutting
social and investment spending CELAC can maintain growth. For Africa,
Dr. Nkrumah projects that scenario in terms of theimmediate future – seeing the situation as riddled with difficulties yet to be overcome.
President Hugo Chávez, with a vision of the Great Nation’s light
burning brightly at the Summit, hugs all in attendance and cries out
‘Long live the union of ourpeoples’ who, we might say, are not yet a people,
not yet a nation but certainly ‘a spiritual nation’ living in the
patriotic ambitions of great thinkers and doers. A few decades ago, Dr.
Kwame Nkrumah could say about Africa: ‘We have already reached the stage
where we must unite or sink into that condition which has made Latin
America the unwilling and distressed prey of imperialism after
one-and-a-half centuries of political independence.’
Well, Africa is not united yet. It is a definite prey of imperialism,
refusing to hear Dr. Nkrumah telling it that ‘African unity is, above
all, a political kingdom which can only be gained by political means.
The social and economic development of Africa will come only within the
political kingdom, not the other way round.’
Today, as we put finishing touches to this article, President Hugo
Chávez lays still awaiting his commital to Mother Earth. May he rest in
perfect peace with the assurance that he has made his faithful
contribution to the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution and that the thousands
he brings to consciousness of the emerging Great Nation shall surely
continue from where he leaves us. Yes, us.
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