TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR FRANCIS NKRUMAH By The Socialist Movement of Ghana (SMG)

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Professor Francis Nkrumah, a strong advocate of Pan-Africanism and socialism sadly passed away in
the morning of June 30,2024 after being unwell for some time.
For us, it is significant that Professor Nkrumah on several occasions publicly declared his support for the
SMG and participated in many of the important activities of our Movement. He was at the Pan Africa
Congress, hosted by our Movement in 2016 in the historic town of Winneba which drew participants from
trade unions, youth and students’ groups, women’s organisations and political parties from Africa. He
was also a keen participant in the First Congress of the SMG which also took place in Winneba in July,
2021.
In a statement at the Pan-African Congress in Winneba Professor Nkrumah affirmed his membership of
the SMG and warned that the path of neo-liberalism can only lead to disaster for Africa and its people,
arguing that the ownership and control of resources of the continent by the people of Africa is the key to
accelerated development.

He was a very strong advocate of African unity, a bulwark against intensified neo-liberal exploitation
which has engulfed the continent in huge debt and underdevelopment. In his view one of the surest ways
of preventing the neo-colonial domination of Africa is the formation of a continental union government
under the broad banner of scientific socialism.
In an introduction to the yet to be out-doored book, “The Revolutionary Thoughts of Kwame Nkrumah”
Professor Nkrumah wrote” The coup came when Nkrumah was on a visit to revolutionary China and
Vietnam, and significantly, the year after he published his monumental work, “Neocolonialism: The last
Stage of Imperialism.” It presented a powerful critique of the global political and economic system that
had emerged after the formal end of colonialism in Africa and other parts of the world. Robert Smith of
the US State Department said that the book was simply outrageous……………………….

“In 1989, Smith said that the book might have contributed in a material way to (Nkrumah’s) overthrow
shortly after. It was not the book itself that spurred the coup. What angered the United States, and its
allies was that the ideas in the book about state sovereignty and against neo-colonial structures, exposed
the true nature of the Western agenda towards Africa, which continue to control access to its abundant
resources, on which much of their wealth and progress was built……….
” Professor Nkrumah was a true Nkrumaist who shared the commitments of his father but significantly
he did all he could not to benefit personally from Kwame Nkrumah’s huge clout. Indeed on many occasions, he turned down offers by Pro-Nkrumah political parties to become their Presidential Candidate.

Professor Nkumah at the Founders Day Celebration 2019

His modesty was pronounced. Asked to introduce himself in an interview with New York Times, he said
“simply, I am a paediatrician and a public health specialist”. He always avoided the limelight when he
could.
He received his secondary education at St Augustine’s College in Cape Coast and went to Germany to
study medicine after secondary school.
He became a paediatric specialist after his studies at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts
in the United States of America.

He taught as a lecturer in Paediatric and Child Health at the University of Ghana and later accepted an
appointment as a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Zimbabwe where he stayed for seven
years.
Perhaps the longest appointment he held was Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical
Research at the University of Ghana, where he focused his attention on research in the area of vaccine
preventable diseases and malaria. He consulted for the World Health Organisation on immunization.
Professor Francis has fully paid his dues to Ghana, Africa and the world and the SMG pays tribute to his
memory and work. We will miss a great Comrade who was prepared to give his all for the advancement
of society.
We extend our heartfelt condolence to his family.
May his ideas for African liberation continue to flourish.

Signed.
Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.
General Secretary.