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Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure archive photo
The events in Guinea relating to the coup d’état that toppled President Alpha Condé brought Ghanaian-country relations to the forefront.
The immediate link was the reported use of a quote from former President Jerry John Rawlings in Colonel Mamady Doumbouya’s speech in the speech announcing Condé’s ouster.
But relations between Accra and Conakry date back to the immediate post-independence era, in particular between the two respective first presidents – Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Touré.
The duo and Malian Modibo Keita formed a pan-African tripartite alliance with which Nkrumah was building a united African dream according to analysts.
As it turned out, the relationship between the three went beyond the brotherhood and diplomacy of its presidents and people, but at one point Ghana advanced $ 10 million to the Guinean nation.
The circumstances under which this payment was made were explained by Professor Baffuor Agyemang-Duah, former senior United Nations governance adviser.
The payment was supposed to support Sékou Touré’s government after independence from France, as the departing French took virtually everything they brought as a colonial administration, from pens to tables and railroad tracks.
“Sékou Touré belongs to what we call the first generation of African leaders. Those who arrived in the late 1950s to 1960s, the first presidents when these African countries gained independence. He was one of the radicals, a very close friend of Kwame Nkrumah… so Sekou was a leftist of sorts and he was for true independence.
France under Charles de Gaulle, at the height of the push for independence, gave all of its colonies two options – either they wanted full independence or they wanted independence with some sort of limitations, i.e. maintain links with France.
“All the colonies chose the latter, that is to say to maintain their links with France. It was only Guinea under Sékou Touré who said no. And do you know the punishment the French inflicted on Guinea? They took everything away, tables, desks, railroads, everything they used in Guinea as colonial administrators has been taken away.
“Everything has been deleted. This is why Nkrumah hastened to give Sékou Touré 10 million dollars to help him start his administration, ”he added.
He explained the possible motive for Nkrumah to advance such financial aid to a sister nation.
“At the time in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, we even gave a similar amount to Mali at the time… we were not that rich but the spirit of Pan-Africanism was very strong and a united Africa meant that Nkrumah was doing all he could to put these countries back on their feet. Especially if you look at how the French treated Sékou Touré and the Guineans, ”he concluded.
After his overthrow in 1966, the only African country where Nkrumah lived was in Guinea with his friend Sekou Touré until his remains were repatriated to Ghana under the Rawlings regime for burial.
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