Today many of us woke up to celebrate Ghana’s Independence Day: 06.03.57. “God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong, Bold to defend forever the cause of Freedom and of Right”. However this year, so close to the next set of elections, which are bound to change the “mandems”, there was a distinct sense of a need to identify why Ghana’s independence feels so different on its 67^th birthday. A day of just celebration without reflection appeared awkward and unnatural this year.  Social media today certainly appears to support a deeper inflection.

Independence was hard fought in treachery, in prison cells, in blood and politically with Kwame Nkrumah emerging as the new Prime Minister of Ghana or as reported in the press of the time, the first “African Prime Minister of an African Colony”, after the success of his CPP at the polls. The bloodshed of 1948, when Ghanaian World War II veterans seeking compensation for their war service were gunned down by the Colonial Police force in Accra, certainly galvanized the desire to be rid of an oppressor. So too the apartheid-style policies pursued by the British in restricting the access of Africans to certain neighborhoods. Gradual “concessions” in respect of local governance (local and district councils) by the oppressor from 1951, when Kwame Nkrumah marched out of Jamestown Fort, started this “journey” towards independence.

After centuries of wrangling with disingenuous foreign parties from the Portuguese in 1482, through the Dutch, Swedes, Danes to the British - who in 1821 “established” the Gold Coast colony, before going on to conquer other groups and “purchase” lands, not from Africans, but from the Dutch and Danes - the Ghanaian African finally had a “geographical space” from which to operate, free in theory from the parliamentary reach of the UK.

The independence day that we celebrate as Ghanaians is the day that the Ghana Independence Act 1957 came into effect “to make provision for…..the attainment by Gold Coast of fully responsible status within the British Commonwealth of Nations.” This was a 5-section, 2 schedule, and 8-page Act of the British Parliament, which Act had received Queen Elizabeth II assent on 07.02.57, and sought to cobble together the formerly exploited territories of Gold Coast, Ashanti, the northern territories and British Togoland – the latter taken from the Germans after WW1 in 1918 – under the name Ghana.

In many respects, the 6^th March 1957 was not independence day, but an “onboarding day towards potential full nationhood” to the extent that a significant minority of the inhabitants of British Togoland did not want to become nationals of Ghana, and to the extent that it was possible to thrive as the only African country within the “British Commonwealth of Nations” under the British Monarch. The Notting Hill riots of 29^th August through to 5^th September 1958 were demonstrative of the prevailing attitudes of the day towards race.

It was Parliament that was to be trusted with Ghana’s development, and it was not until 01.07.60 that Ghana became a Republic – severing links to the UK - with Kwame Nkrumah as President.

That is not to say that the Ghana Independence Act 1957 was not significant. It was. Its key obsession was to establish the Ghanaian Parliament as the sole legislative authority of the land: No act of the UK Parliament passed on or after 06.03.57 could extend to Ghana, the UK Government had no responsibility for the government of Ghana, the Ghanaian Parliament had full power to make laws – even laws that were “repugnant to the law of England” – previously made unlawful by the Colonial Laws Validity Act 1865. The loss of British nationality and access to “benefits” from the “Colonial Development and welfare” fund were byproducts of independence.   

To say that Ghanaian independence was seen by many Europeans as an experiment to establish whether Africans could establish stable, democratic and independent states is an understatement. Whilst “Salute to a new nation” was its headline, the Daily Mirror of Wednesday 06.03.57,on page 7, ran a photograph of dancing ladies under the headline “This is how they do the highlife”.  

Even then in 1957 and hidden from view, the waters were not calm, despite the photographs of women in elegant white gloves twisting through the night. How long the dance continued is a matter of some debate. But Ghana’s first - off dance floor - fights were arguably with itself, through its politicians.

The promulgation of the Preventive Detention Act 1958, an act which made lawful the detention without trial for five years (later extended to 10 years in 1959 then indefinitely) and without right of appeal for conduct considered by the government to be prejudicial to the defence and security of Ghana, probably best illustrates the tense political atmosphere. The de-stooling of anti-Nkrumah chiefs soon after independence and / or Dr Busia the leader of the opposition’s exile in 1957 cannot have been a great look to any well-wishing observer of the new nation.

The lead up to the 6^th March 2024 has not been great either: Ghana’s sense of financial independence has taken a battering, its return to the IMF is yet to yield, especially juxtaposed against Ghana’s strong oratorial performances at podiums, and the “issue with the bonds” continues as a weeping wound. Further, to some, the notion of Ghana beyond aid is well and truly buried, the stone from Israel will not found a national cathedral designed by Ghana’s own world celebrated architect and economic data points remain contentious in differing from the lived experience.

It was therefore of note that it was Ghana’s Parliament, and not its government, that this week drew undoubtedly negative international attention to Ghana and has sought to test the tensile strength of Ghana’s independence. In the week of its independence, Ghana appeared to spin unnecessarily away from reason, when its usually divided Parliament passed a bipartisan bill, unusually named the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill (“PHSRGFVB” to those who take umbrage with the acronym LGBTQIA+), itself the antithesis to the defence of “the cause of freedom and of right”.  Views on the Bill amongst Ghanaians differ wildly, but there can be little doubt that Ghana’s Parliament has placed an independence bomb on the President’s desk, with the Supreme Court being called on to, hopefully, act as the bomb disposal unit. There can also be little doubt that Ghana’s independence, in the most obvious and original sense of being empowered to pass its own laws, is under enormous pressure following the strident announcement by valued foreign “partners and friends” of Ghana of the withdrawal of cold cash / investment, if the President signs the Bill into law.

Empowering Ghana’s Parliament, section 2 of the first Schedule of the Ghana Independence Act, 1957 provided, as follows:

“No law and no provision of any law made on or after the appointed day by the Parliament of Ghana shall be void or inoperative on the ground that it is repugnant to the law of England, or to the provisions of any existing or future Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.”

The PHSRGFVB is obviously “repugnant” to the UK’s Equality Act 2010, which enshrines the rights of the LGBTQ community not to suffer discrimination in employment, education, public services etc.  Post 1957 independence, the comparative exercise to the laws of England no longer matters in assessing the legality of Ghana law. This is great. However, it is through the comparative exercise to those rights that Ghana collectively values, as enshrined in the articles of its 1992 Constitution, that Ghana will best be able to demonstrate the strength of her independence in 2024.

Just as the international community looked on to see if an African Colony would be run by Africans, so Ghanaians and their well-wishers will look on to see how Ghana protects its independence. The 1992 Constitution contains express provisions on the process to be followed once Parliament presents a bill for signature by the President and what occurs if the President refuses to sign the bill (see art 106(7) to (10) of the Constitution). The Constitution also contains fundamental rights and balances between the powers of Parliament, the Executive and the judiciary. All three are scheduled to meet in the Supreme Court and a constitutional resolution will be Ghana’s best 67^th birthday present. A grab for cash dangled by foreign partners will not satisfy those interested in the continued building of the nation!

Kwame Nkrumah inspired Ghana’s / Africa’s independence movement, became a dictator and was then overthrown. Ghana has been building on its independence since and somewhere along its journey, the importance of strong institutions of state has emerged.

“Fill our hearts with true humility,

Make us cherish fearless honesty….”

We still can.

Kweku Aggrey-Orleans

06.03.24