Page 69 - Afrika Must Unite

54 AFRICA MUST UNITE
Generally, in territories where there is a settler problem, the
struggle has been more prolonged and sometimes violent, as in
Kenya during the M au M au period. W here there is no settler
problem, as in West Africa, the struggle has been hard, though
on the whole peaceful and constitutional. I have already told
how independence was achieved in G hana.1
Looking back, and trying to determine the reasons for the
successful outcome of our struggle for freedom, one factor stands
out above all others, namely, the strength of a well-organized
political party, representative of the broad mass of the people.
The Convention People’s Party represented the ordinary,
common folk who wanted social justice and a higher standard of
living. It kept in daily, living touch with the ordinary mass of
people it represented, unlike the opposition, which was supported
by a galaxy of lawyers and members of other conservative pro­
fessions, the self-styled ‘aristocracy5 of the Gold Coast. They did
not understand the new mood of the people, the growing
nationalism and the revolt against economic hardship. Thinking
that their lofty assertions were enough to win adherents to their
ranks, they made little effort to come into close contact with the
masses in the way that I had done in my early days as secretary of
the U.G .C.C., and continued through my years of leadership of
the C.P.P. As a m atter of fact, when the leaders of the U.G.C.C.
discovered that I had spearheaded a mass movement, they
recoiled in fright. T hat was something they had not bargained
for. They had wanted me to build up a movement whose ranks
would not question their self-assumed right to political leader­
ship, but would nevertheless provide a solid enough base for them
to pose as the national champions in pressing for constitutional
change. It was when the leaders of the U.G.C.C. demanded I
get rid of the mass following I had built up, that I withdrew from
their secretariat, and formed the Convention People's Party.
Unwilling to come down to the masses, whom they scorned as
‘flotsam and jetsam 5, it was not surprising that those leaders
failed to make headway with the ordinary people, and were
constantly rejected by them.
In the early years of the C.P.P., and frequently since, I urged
members to follow the advice of the Chinese:
1 In my autobiography, Ghana. Thomas Nelson & Sons 1957.