We are going back in time to reflect on the exodus from our colonial bondage days and the genesis of our earthly life for the glory of God first and the benefit and knowledge of your Ghanaian children who were born in freedom after March 1957.
Thanks to God first and to the great vision, selfless sacrifice, fatherly leadership, good struggle and unrelenting determination of our founding father Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
We also recognise the many great qualities and contributions of all of his comrades who fought the good fight with him, all those who worked loyally and tirelessly with him and who shared his vision, patriotic passion for Africa, especially for our homeland Ghana.
May all their names be written in the book of life and may their blessed memories remain as sweet aromatic fragrance before God and man, now and forever more. Amen.
After the Convention People’s Party (CPP) had democratically and decisively won the polls for our independence and self-rule, amicable discussions went on between London and Accra to choose a date for your orderly majestic birth.
Possible dates were shortlisted down to three: 6th, 16th or 26th March, 1957, with numeric values of 6, 7 and 8, respectively. Our father preferred the second date if it was practical to all concerned, otherwise he opted for the first, as he was not keen on delaying it till 26th, as he always claimed that independence was well overdue. SO independence NOW, he always demanded with dignity and great sense of urgency.
If his preferred choice of 16th March had been upheld, then you too, my beloved twin, would have been born on Saturday like him, the same Saturday as I was born, and our people would have enjoyed celebrating the great occasion throughout the weekend till Monday morning when our politicians and civil servants would have started to work on their own without any outside interference or having to wait on or comply with orders, instructions or dictates from the Crown or the British Parliament or the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, as was the sad case for many years, too many to want to remember or mention now.
But, ultimately, the date that was settled on was March 6, 1957. But, nevertheless, you were the apple of his eyes and his favourite Show Girl Ghana. He celebrated your first eight birthdays here at home with great pride and joy as any proud father would do and his spirit is still proudly watching over you and over your children, I can assure you, my beloved Ghana. Your father Kwame Nkrumah Never Dies. He lives in you, he lives in me, he lives in all the Ghanaian children of freedom, so how can he ever die?
However, we have another significant thing in common among the three of us which was extended in part to include the CPP too. Three of us were in fact born in a year of the Rooster or Cockerel of the Lunar or Chinese Oriental Astrology.
For the record, I have interest in and time to read and learn from astrology, contrary to the horoscope, which I have no time for or interest in.
The years 1909 and 1957, our respective years of birth, were Rooster years; the first was an Earth Rooster year and the second was a Fire Rooster year whose image became the symbol of the CPP, our first ruling party in the land. Our Red Fire Rooster (or Red Cockerel) image was given by our father to become the official symbol or trademark of the CPP and it remains as its symbol to date.
Some may ask: How come the CPP was given the Red Cockerel image when it was formed back in 1949 and the Fire Rooster or Red Cockerel year was not until 1957, the year of our birth? Did the old man know that we would be born in that year to use its image years in advance? Was he a prophet? Or was it an answer to prayers that we would be born in that particular year of the Fire Rooster of 1957?
By the way, Fire Rooster years only come by once every 60 years, so we are a few weeks into the following Fire Rooster year 2017. I dare say that it was both a fulfilment of prophecy, as well as a divine answer to many prayers of many suffering people over many years to be rid of the bondage of the colonial masters' shackles and chains. So the desired deliverance eventually came right on time as precisely predicted or prophesied in that Red year of the very Fire Rooster of 1957, as it did not come in 1897 nor 2017, the two Fire Rooster years just before or just after that particular one of 1957!
At midnight of March 6, 1957, we were both christened as freedom children when our father cried out loud: “Freedom! Freedom!” with great emotion and tremendous relief and tears of joy that were etched in us then and in millions after us as freedom children of destiny and of the prophetic embodiment of the African dream.
We are that living embodiment and we must live up to our full potential and the great expectations of our great founding father Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and his original five comrades, better known as the Big Six, and all the other loyal and patriotic comrades and all the unknown soldiers and martyrs (our cloud of witnesses) who contributed and sacrificed their lives and paid great prices for the freedom and independence that we are all enjoying today.
We must all come together now as one united people with love, in peace and harmony to work together to build our brighter future together for all of our people alike with selflessness, sincerity, determination and unity of purpose.The best is yet to come if we can learn how to love one another and work together as our brother’s keeper.
For my beloved twin's 60th birthday, I would like to recommend to our new President to give Ghana and Ghanaian children the following as their birthday gifts:
1) Change the name of the Kotoka International Airport to either the Kwame Nkrumah Airport or back to the Accra International Airport.
2) Change the name of our founding father's celebrated birthday from Founder's Day to Kwame Nkrumah Day, which will bring more international recognition to the day and the much needed tangible benefits to our economy, tourism, cultural heritage, folklore and arts, national pride, etc.
3) Return the confiscated CPP properties to the CPP, Ghana's first party which brought independence and sovereignty to Ghana, as they were unlawfully taken and misappropriated by a number of successive governments who failed to return them as promised.
God bless you, my beloved Ghana. God bless all of your children to realise our collective potential together.
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