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Matthew Ehret's avatar

Excellent piece of work Nick!

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Nicholas Jones's avatar

Thank you Matt!

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Marc Shulman's avatar

This is a very interesting and hopeful essay. I learned a loot. A correction that I would have preferred to make in a private message is the repeated use of "bare" for "bear". That is, correct is "bear witness"

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Paul Snyders's avatar

Superb, Nicholas – thank you so much for this one!

I first learned about Kwame Nkrumah when I found a copy of his autobiography in a local used bookshop. I read it twice, it was so packed with clues about hidden history. A few years later, I was fortunate to work with a fellow from Ghana who had been in Black Star Square (as a sixteen year old) that day in 1956 when Nkrumah declared Ghana the first free and independent post-colonial nation – so lovely to have his personal vivid witness of that thrilling moment, to add to my reading and studies of history. Naturally, I passed on the Nkrumah biography (which he had never even seen before) so he and his amazing kids could savour it, the way I had.

But what really struck me most about our friendship, was not the wealth of clues (US Marines in Goma, when Nkrumah was forced out, for instance) and the flavour of the times which he shared so well, but his general complex of attitudes. Still haven’t met any other man so dedicated to family, in a sense so extended that it has been lost for a century here, in the alienated west. This happy surprise gave me a baseline for new questions, which is how I came to see many African cultures are far MORE civilized and advanced than us – even if just for not having been seduced into our popular debasements and degradations (using of one another coldly and cynically, foremost among these).

I have written about the western abuse of the Congo for decades, and more recently Libya and the Sahel also (the cutest way I ever put it was that in 2016, roughly half of America voted for an unapologetic mass-murdering white supremacist – and the other half voted for Donald Trump).

BRICS fills me with hope – even though, as a Canadian, I am also filled with frustration and shame – because we should be in the vanguard (or at least the cheering section), as the most natural interface between the west and the east and south (not just for our size, resources and central transport potential, but also because we have thriving well-established communities from all of the BRICS countries, who are not pressured to conform to melting-pot standards here (as they are in the ‘States), and already understand Canada and at least one other part of the world – which makes us less myopic (at least in potential) than always-narcissistic uncle Sam – though they do at least have the excuse of being “Rome”). ;o)

Sadly, we Canadians have had gutless creepy fake and toady leaders for a couple of decades. Still sincerely hoping we come to our senses and join-in with the fast rising new world. Not to claim some place of BS moral superiority (yes, we see Trudeau’s gross hypocrisy here, also, and apologize), but instead to cooperate and learn from the NEW leaders of hope in the world.

Subscribed to your ‘Stack right away. Delighted to have more information, and such fine back-up, when I go out on a limb to try to shake a little sense into my ignorant and complacent compatriots!

In the meantime, “Strength to your sword-arm” (pen), my friend! Best writer’s salute I can offer.

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Nicholas Jones's avatar

Thanks so much for your in depth reply Paul. Really inspiring me to write more on the grand topic of Africa. Nkrumah is a giant and the glow from his light only grows over time as more and more people come to learn of him and his courage. I will do an article on him one day!

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