Page 106 - CONSCIENCISM By Kwame Nkrumah_Neat
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100 CONSCIENCISM CONSCIENCISM 101
ofpositive and negative action are abstractions. But the ground for is better able to express and satisfY the common aspirations of a
them is in social reality. It is quite possible by means of statistical nation as a whole, than a multiple-party parliamentary system,
analysis to discover the ways in which positive action and negative which is in fact only a ruse for perpetuating, and covers up, the
action are related in any given society. The statistical analysis will inherent struggle between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'.
be of such facts as production, distribution, income, etc. Any In order that a territory should acquire the nominal attributes of
such analysis must reveal one of three possible situations. Positive independence, it is of course not necessary that positive action
action may exceed negative action, or negative action may exceed should exceed negative action. When a colonialist country sees the
positive action, or they may form an unstable equilibrium. advance of positive action, it unfailingly develops a policy of
In a colonial situation, negative action undoubtedly outweighs containment, a policy whereby it seeks to check this advance and
positive action. In order that true independence should be won, it is limit it. This policy often takes the form of conferences and
necessary that positive action should come to overwhelm negative protracted constitutional reforms.
action. Admittedly, a semblance of true independence is possible Containment is, however, accepted by the colonialist country
without this specific relation. When this happens, we say that neo only as a second best. What it would really like to do is to roll back
colonialism has set in, for neo-colonialism is a guise adopted by positive action. It is when it is assured ofthe impossibility ofrolling
negative action in order to the impression that it has been over back the billows ofhistory that it applies the policy ofcontainment,
come by positive action. Neo-colonialism is negative action that it tries to limit the achievement of progress by devising
playing possum. frivolous reforms. The colonialist country seeks to divert positive
In order to forestall this, it is necessary for positive action to action into channels which are harmless to it.
be backed by a mass party, and qualitatively to improve this To do this it resorts to diverse subtle means. Having abandoned
mass so that by education and an increase in its degree of con direct violence, the colonialist country imparts a deceptive
sciousness, its aptitude for positive action becomes heightened. We orientation to the negative forces in its subject territory. These
can therefore say that in a colonial territory, positive action must be negative forces become the political wolfmasquerading in sheep's
backed by a mass party, complete with its instruments ofeducation. clothing, tlley join the clamour for independence, and are accepted
This was why the Convention People's Party ofGhana developed in goodfaith by the people. It is then that like a wasting disease they
from an early stage its education wing, workers' wing, farmers' seek from the inside to infest, corrupt, pervert and thwart the
wing, youth wing, women's wing, etc. In this way, the people aspirations ofthe people.
received constant political education, their self-awareness was The people, the body and the soul ofthe nation, the final sanction
increased and such a self-image was formed as ruthlessly excluded ofpolitical decisions, and the inheritors of sovereignty, cannot be
colonialism in all its guises. It is also in the backing of millions of fooled for long. Quick on the scent, they ferret out these Janus
members and supporters, united by a common radical purpose, that faced politicians who run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
the revolutionary character of the Convention People's Party They tum away from them. Once this colonialist subterfuge is
consists, and not merely in the piquancy of its programmes. Its exposed, and the minion accomplices discredited, the colonial
mass and national support made it possible to think in realistic terms power has no option but to acknowledge the independence of the
ofinstituting changes ofa fundamental nature in the social hotch people. By its very next act, however, it seeks without grace to
potch bequeathed by colonialism. neutralize this same independence by fomenting discontent and
A people's parliamentary democracy with a one-party system disunity; and, fmally, by arrant ingratiation and wheedling it
