Why African Americans should support NDC and Prof. Mills in Elections 2008.
We as African Americans should give our support to those international leaders who are supportive of us. Dr. John Atta Mills, former Vice President of Ghana, is one such leader. The vision that “Prof” Mills has for Ghana is one that includes African Americans. The current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of Ghana has opened the door for Ghanaian-born U.S. citizens to receive dual citizenship in Ghana, but Prof Mills wants to open that door wider to allow Black Americans living in Ghana to receive Ghanaian passports without surrendering our U.S. citizenship. The NPP government of President J.A. Kufuor has refused the requests of African Americans in Ghana who want the honor of having a passport from the homeland of our ancestors. An NDC government led by Prof Mills would correct this inequity and allow us to proudly express our African identity by holding passports from the Republic of Ghana.
Dr. Mills is a leader who walks in the tradition of Kwame Nkrumah, who extended the African arms of invitation to Black Americans. That invitation was accepted by thousands, including Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, the father of Pan-Africanism in the U.S. Former President Jerry John Rawlings (of the NDC) renewed that invitation and repeatedly issued the call to Black Americans to return home to Ghana. But when Rawlings and his vice president, Dr. John Atta Mills, left office in January 2001, African Americans were left without a strong ally in Osu Castle, the residence of the president of Ghana. What we have instead is an administration whose priority seems to be developing ties with the GOP, the Church of Latter Day Saints, and with Brigham Young University, rather than with the Congressional Black Caucus and with the illustrious Historically Black Colleges and Universities of the United States.
The NDC’s priority has been and will continue to be to support the advancement of Africans both in Africa and in the American Diaspora. This was demonstrated in the 1980s and 1990s when J.J. Rawlings stood with other African leaders, as well as with Black American leaders, in opposing apartheid in South Africa. That was in stark contrast to J.A. Kufuor. When the current president was Ghana’s deputy foreign minister from 1969-1972, the government he represented attempted to defy the Organization of African Unity and establish ties with the brutal apartheid regime. We are most fortunate that Kufuor’s NPP was not in power during the 1980s and 1990s when the efforts of the international community helped bring down apartheid. The states of Africa were able to stand united against the repressive regime in Pretoria. Such unity might not have been achieved had the NPP been in office then.
Today, however, the situation is different than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Kufuor and his party are back in power, and their policies in Ghana (which are remarkably similar to those of the U.S. Republican Party, which they admire and emulate) are widening the gap between the wealthy oligarchs and the impoverished masses. It is disheartening to see the same economically devastating polices of the Republican Party--policies that have ravaged Black America--being replicated in our ancestral homeland of Ghana. But there is hope both in the U.S. and in Ghana. This hope was seen in November 2006 when African American voters helped bring the Democratic Party back into the majority in the U.S. Congress. Due to Kufuor’s refusal to allow African Americans to claim citizenship in Ghana, we cannot use the franchise to help return the NDC to power, but we can play a role in helping to make Dr. John Atta Mills the next president of the Republic of Ghana. You can contribute to our cause today by giving your assistance to Dr. Mills’ campaign (http://www.attamills2008.com), and you can contribute in the near future by visiting Ghana, that lovely and majestic country on the Atlantic coast of Africa. We are very welcome there, and we will be even more welcome when John Atta Mills becomes the next President of Ghana.
Steven Taylor, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Government
American University
Washington, D.C.
