How my parents’ marriage was a powerful symbol of Pan-Africanism – Samia Nkrumah

Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s former president, Kwame Nkrumah, has described the marriage of her parents, Kwame Nkrumah and Fathia Nkrumah, as a powerful symbol of Pan-Africanism.
Pan-Africanist ideals emerged in the late nineteenth century in response to European colonisation and exploitation of the African continent. Pan-Africanist philosophy held that slavery and colonialism depended on and encouraged negative, unfounded categorisations of the race, culture, and values of African people. This movement was championed by the renowned Ghanaian politician and leader, Kwame Nkrumah who was Ghana’s first President.

She gave this revelation while featuring on the globally-viewed Toyin Falola Interview Series where she was a guest to academics, politicians, world leaders, captains of industry, among many other policy and opinion molders.

The panel, led by foremost historian, Professor Toyin Falola, consisted of Mary Ama Bawa, who is the Communication Lead at the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) and a broadcast journalist with two decades of field experience in both commercial and community radio; Dr. Evelyn Kissi, an African tri-citizen, Black Disability, Transnational scholar of Ghana, Nigeria and Canada and has worked in North America, Africa, and Europe with not-for-profit organisations, women’s groups, education institutions, and disability advocacy groups; and Dr. Mary Owusu, a historian of ancient and modern Africa whose research interests lie in the areas of African intellectual, political, and development histories, with a focus on Ghana. The interview was streamed live on various social media platforms, radio and television stations and viewed by millions across the globe.

While interacting with Samia, Professor Falola had noted that: “Your father was Ghanaian and he married your mother who is an Egyptian. The Tunisian president made a terrible statement when he said Black people are trying to destroy the Tunisian-Arab identity. Some of us have been criticised for not talking about Arab Orientalism, that we accuse Americans, white people and the Chinese of racism but we don’t accuse Arabs of racism. How would you respond to these controversies?”

To this, Samia had stated: “It has to be dealt with. It is upsetting a lot of Africans. It is inexcusable. No conscious African from North African would say something like that. Africans are Africans all over. It is not about colour but about so many other things. I have lived all over the world and I have always been called black everywhere. But we must move away from colour; it is not about colour. It is a political project, a conscious political project to improve our situations. We must addressing racism. It is not institutionalised racism. It is on much lower level and certainly not among conscious North Africans.

“My parents’ marriage was pan-Africanist project. They didn’t know each before they met. They got married immediately they met. The then leader of Egypt, Nasir, made it possible. That marriage did so much to bring North Africa closer to the rest of the continent symbolically. It was a powerful symbol of pan-Africanism. It worked to a large extent and North Africa helped to a large extent in the liberation movements all across the continent in a very powerful way. This moved from Cairo to Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria too. Ghana helped Algeria and when Algeria gained independence, they were powerful supporters and helpers of the liberation movement in Southern Africa. When we went to Cairo after the illegal overthrow of father’s government, we found Lumumba’s children there. They were there before us after Lumumba was murdered.

They sought refuge in Cairo of all places. The independence of the whole continent rested on the fact that everybody put their hands together to work towards defeating colonialism. These are facts that we cannot forget.

It shows that when you are conscious of your identity, the question of racism will disappear. But we need to call it out whenever it presents itself. But it stems from many things such as ignorance and lack of understanding. There is no place for racism with knowledge. We just need to enforce and promote this African knowledge and history. We must talk about it and address it. When I was growing up, been black with frizzy hair was not attractive. But with the success of the Africans in America, things have changed a great deal.”

Earlier, while speaking on the place of Africa’s mineral resources in global economies and exploitation, Samia said: “There has always been a great demand for our resources: our mineral resources, our lands and our people. This has always been the case. This is because we are a rich, fertile continent. But I think we tend to forget what our father said on the eve of independence. I don’t think we have paid great attention to it except the independence of Ghana is meaningless.

This is so unless it is linked up with the total liberation and unification of Africa. By Africa, he meant the expanded nations of Africa. He said it because he knew what he was talking about. He spent many years in the United States of America, working and studying. He worked with African students, workers and intellectuals. He spent two years in Britain also studying and working. He organised the pan-African congress in Manchester that heralded our independence and unity as a people. He had been in partial sharing with the British. By the time he made that declaration, he knew what he was talking about. Our country was born as a pan-Africanist country, not to remain in isolation, struggling. We were meant to work with others to bring prosperity.

Unless we work with other African countries; unless we integrate our economies on a continental basis, it will be difficult for us to manage our economies. It will be very difficult for us to change the system that is currently oppressing us. We are not getting much from our natural wealth because we are not in complete control of our sovereignty or economy. The remedy has been given; the blueprint to implement that remedy has been given. But we have never really taken it seriously, thinking that on our own we can change things. But it is very difficult. Our annual GDP is not encouraging when you compare it to the industrialised countries such as Japan.

If as African countries, we combine our economies; our GDP would be bigger and higher. This is a reflection of the economic GDP of goods and services. We do not need to sweat and look far for the ways to tackle these problems whether it is exploitation of natural resources, our inability to fight big financial interests or multinationals, we need not look forward than working together as a bloc.”