J. B. DANQUAH A FOUNDER!

Read Time: 5 minutes

All over the world revolutionaries and founders have one thing in common: they see themselves as common men, they have what it takes to ignite the spirit of the masses, and J. B. Danquah was not such a man. If we want to be lenient with his legacy we can describe him as an elitist, condescending and a tribalist with an illusion of superiority.

There are those among the scribes who have succeeded in twisting history, with all esteem to traitorous persons they seek to besmirch the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah and project the treachery of J.B Danquah and his allies. But such success is only temporal, because history is written wrong by men who have hanged heroes, before it is right by time and knowledge.

Both Danquah and Nkrumah were two mortals far from perfect, yet they lived and by their ways of life the people have settled opinions on their legacy. While it continues to be difficult for us to be able to judge their actions because we are not exposed to the circumstances of their time, it’s not that difficult for us to be able to uncover the bigger picture when we connect the dots. Because implicit in their actions were their motivations.

Evidently, when Kwame Nkrumah dedicated his life to the struggle and liberation of Africa and the black man, J. B. Danquah through his works, correspondences and actions revealed clearly that his fidelity was with Akim-Abuakwa State and not the Gold Coast or the people as a whole.

To be fair, Danquah himself had envisioned and worked towards an independent Ghana long before Nkrumah. But his concept of a free Ghana as captured in his own works and correspondences would have been precarious and disastrous, bound by civil war. Ghana was named after an ancient empire which boasted significant power, wealth and territory. It was called the Ghana empire. The name was adopted at independence because it was believed that the people inhabiting the Gold Coast had a historical connection with the Ghana empire.

The first person to make this suggestion was Rev. J. B. Anaman in his book, The Gold Coast Guide published in 1895. Next and building on this was Lady Luggard, wife of the infamous Lord Luggard who spearheaded what came to be known as indirect rule. Luggard’s book, “A Tropical Dependency” also included the stories of the empires of Mali and Songhai and was used in Achimota in the 1920s.

At the time of his death, the legendary James Kwegir Aggrey was working on a major history thesis to establish the historical connection between the people of Gold Coast and not only Ghana empire, but Mali, Songhai, Egypt and Abyssinia. This was not published because he died before he could finish it. Rev. W. T. Balmer who used to teach at Mfantsipim also wrote about this connection to Ghana empire in 1926.

These aroused the interest of J. B. Danquah who published his book, Akim-Abuakwa Handbook in 1928, two years after Balmer’s book and 33 years after J. B. Anaman first made the suggestion. However Danquah in his book proposed that the territory should be called “AKANLAND” instead of Gold Coast. This drew sharp criticism and he then suggested “AKAN-GA” as a replacement. The newspaper, West Africa, again criticised this saying, “it appears Dr. Danquah’s view of nationhood does not extend to the non-Akan population of the Northern Territories”. Upon further deliberations, Danquah then suggested “NEW GHANA”.

J. B. Danquah’s concept of Ghana was entirely different from what Nkrumah delivered. He had no vision for a republic, his idea was to install sovereignty in the Kings of the Akan Land, as was the original agreement in the bond of 1844. When Kwame Nkrumah was arrested for declaring Positive Action (strikes and non-cooperative showdown) in January 1950, J. B. Danquah and his colleagues in the UGCC were happy. Dr J. B. Danquah came out to specifically say: “As for Kwame Nkrumah, he feels the law must do his bidding and go according to him. But whoever goes against the law of the constitutional authority of the land must expect to pay for it with his neck.” Kwame Nkrumah applied the Positive Action as a way to put pressure on the colonial government to make constitutional changes and give the Gold Coast her freedom and self-rule.

On March 14, 1956, Danquah and his brother Nana Ofori Atta II told a visiting delegation from parliament to Kyebi that PARTY POLITICS is an alien political form which had created civil strife and violent dissension between father and son. Accordingly, if the British showed no understanding, Akyem Abuakwa would secede from the country as a sovereign and independent state with the only rival of the Ashanti country. Also during the Jackson Commission hearing Danquah categorically denounced the authority of Nkrumah’s government saying that the people of Akyem are not subjects to the laws of Ghana (Jackson Commission Report, 1958).

The council for higher cocoa prices that was formed to oppose Nkrumah’s nationalization and fixation of cocoa prices did not last long. Then J. B. Danquah joined forces with the likes of Baffour Akoto (A chief linguist to Asantehene and a prominent cocoa merchant) to form the National Liberation Movement which resorted to violence and causing instability in the country to demand a federalist form of government. Indeed captured in parliamentary Hansard is Danquah’s debate that he could not understand why Nkrumah would use revenues from cocoa that are produced in predominantly Akan areas to develop the whole Ghana. In his wisdom, the development of the nation should not come at the expense of the cocoa farmer.

It is not for us to force nobility on the dead, neither can we create false reputations, every man earns his name through his deeds. And our greatest legacy is not written in monuments of stone but in the hearts of other men—the people are the true judge. History teaches us that Ghana was the first African nation to hold elections under the universal suffrage—the 1951 general elections. It is worth mentioning that while his CPP won 34 of the 38 elected seats, Kwame Nkrumah then in prison won the Accra central seat with 22,780 of the 23,122 votes cast.

J. B Danquah only entered the legislative council through the territorial council seats. And when he sought to represent his own Akim Abuakwa State in 1954 and 1956, he was rejected massively by the people of Akim-Abuakwa. Far from the intellectual that he was, Danquah was not a man who understood his society all that thorough. Reason he never won any position through popular vote. Simply put, Danquah had no touch with the common people and never saw himself as one of them. Such a man so detached from the people could never found a nation.

When history is wrongly written the world is unbalanced. For every minute that we equate J. B. Danquah and his likes to Kwame Nkrumah heavens look down upon us.

The Adopted Child of Kwame Nkrumah, Akwasi Mpanyinsem