Page Eight

Anku Presents Series of Articles
Discussing Nkrumah's Government

This is the first of a series
of articles written by Vincent
Anku, Grinnell junior, on the
problems of Ghana,

In recent months, as Ghana-
ian politics has become in-
creasingly prominent in the
American press, many unjust
and groundless statements
have been made against her
government through American
news services. My complaint is
that these statements do not
tell the whole truth. In a series
of weekly articles, I shall at-
tempt to present the other face
of Ghana government headed
by President Kwame Nkrumoh.
In the first four articles I shall
make general statements which
will be fully discussed and the
evidence for them offered in
later articles.

It is one thing to report that
Nkrumah dismissed Ghana's
Chief Justice, Sir A. Korsa, and
then to add wild comments
such as “it is a trend towards
absolute dictatorship.” But it
is another thing to give a fair-
ly comprehensive account of
what actually happened, what
the other cabinet ministers said
about it, and how Ghanaians
reacted to the Chief Justice.
Five people were tried for an
attempt to assassinate Nkru-
man. The three top cabinet
ministers who master-minded
the plan were acquitted while
one poor civil servant and an
opposition party member were
convicted,

Unbiased papers like the
New York Times pointed out
that the verdict acquitting the
alleged conspirators drew heat-
ed criticism in the press and
protests from various parts of
the country. Ghana's Attorney
General Kwan Swanzy stated
that the court's decision sav-
ored of “discrimination" and
that the two rulings were in
compatible He continued that
it would have been better to ac-
quit all five accused or to con-
vict the whole lot. The Times
also reported that thousands of
people demonstrated in Gha-
na’s capital, Accra, demanding
the dismissal of the Chief Jus-
tice. Thus, Dr. Nkrumah did
not arbitrarily fire the Chief
Justice, The National Assembly
authorized him to do so, and
elements desired the action as
well. The Times later reported
that the commission oi jurists
urgently petitioned the Presi-
dent to reinstate the Chief Jus-
(ice. Ghanaians are quite free
either to endorse or protest in
public or through the Party
about policies and actions
Nkrumah takes.

The Des Moines Register re-
ported the dismissal, but it
failed to give background and
labeled Nkrumah outright as a
"left-leaning dictator." This
kind of iallacious reporting
does not hurt Ghana much. It
certainly intensifies the Amer.
ican people's apprehension and
prevents them from taking ad
vantage of the unprecedented
investment opportunities avails
able in Ghana. in spite of num~
erous hostile remarks and
practically undeclared war on

Ghana by certain sectors of
the American press, more and
more foreign aid and private
capital irom the West is pour-
ing into the country each
month, However, I think pa-
pers like the Des Moines Reg~
ister and magazines like Time
are misinforming r e a d e r 5
about Ghana. The real harm
is to the American readers
who genuinely want to under-
stand Ghana.

Nkrumah’s party policies are
not mere propaganda slogans,
but are truly based on 'prin—
ciples of peace, prosperity, and
progress. This is very well
summarized by Nkrumah in
his recent message to the na~
tion concerning the Seven-
Year Development Plan (1963-
1970):

"The Plan provides the blue-
print for the iuture programs
and development of Ghana as
a nation. It is a program of
social and economic develop-
based on the use of science and
technology to revolutionize our
agriculture andgindustry, It is
designed to provide the basis
not only of our national pro-
gress and prosperity, but also
of our ability to contribute to
the advancement of the African
continent.

“Our aim is to establish in

Ghana a strong and progres-
sive society in which no one
will have any anxiety about
the basic needs of life, about
work, food, and shelter; where
poverty and illiteracy no long-
er exist and disease is brought
under control; and where our
educational facilities provide
all the children of Ghana with
the best possible opportunities
for the development of their po-
tentialities.” (The New York
Times, January 20, 1964, page
67.)
«Nkrumah has done a great
deal toward achieving this
goal. 1 shall deal with his ac-
complishments of the past ten
years and his plans for the next
seven in later articles. If this
is what some Americans call a
“trend toward communism,"
this brand of ”Communism” is
a great hope for Ghanaians.
For it is under this type of gov-
ernment that Ghana has to-
day achieved the highest living
standard of any of the new Alrir
can nations. But the govern—
ment and the people are not
content with this; they are de-
termined to develop fully the
human and material resources
of their country. This means
substantial economic develop-
ment, Like all newly independ-
ent nations, Ghana intends to
achieve this as quickly as pos-
sible.

6: .2. [m
dale,

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SCARLET AND BLACK '

} Public Relations

Continued from Page i

and they all turned to Grin-
hell.

The public relations staff,
Alan (Mickey) Holmes, Mrs.
Jane Renaud and Mrs. Helen
Wiesc began to act. Biographt
cal material on both Dr. and
Mrs. Bowen and their lamily
was dispensed to all news
areas, phone calls went out to
traveling Grinnell representa-
tives, plans were set for an
afternoon press conference and
press packets were prepared
for reporters.

Sophomore Ted Steele, who
happened to be working in the
office that afternoon, also got
in on the excitement. “When
the phones didn't work, his
legs did.” remarked Mrs.
Prescott.

Meanwhile, President Bowen,
whose plans had also been
pushed ahead by the early anA
nouncement, had gone into se-
clusion to finish preparing his
public statement. Original plans
had called for a meeting Fri-
day afternoon at which the
president would inform facul-
ty members of his new posi-
tion. Now the state pressmen
were clamoring to meet with
the President at that confer-
ence. Because Dr. Bowen de-
sired to keep his faculty meet-
ing just withiaculty members,
the public relations depart-
ment began making plans for
an afternoon press conference,

“We had to make ‘dozens of
calls to inform all interested
agencies that the President
would meet the press at 4:30
in Burling Basement. We even
made about 12 calls trying to
locate the 58:3 editor in a fu-
tile attempt to get the news
break in last week's Friday ed-
ition of the paper," said Mrs.
Prescott. (The SH; had al-
ready gone to press three
hours before and the editor was
sitting in an afternoon seminar
learning how to teach English
grammar to tenth graders.)

By 4:15 most of the pieces
were beginning to fall into
place. SAGA had been notified,
and had sent over donuts. cof~
fee, and ice water for the press
conference. Press kits includ-
ing pictures, biographical ma-
terial, information about the
college, and copies of the PresA

Dr. R. Maas

Optometrist

Phone 236-4002
719 59h AvenueI

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ident's statement ( mi m e o»
graphed in a hurry by his
secretary Mrs. Ni ii a Rich-
ter), were available for all vis-
iting an d local reporters,
Chairs and tables had been
gathered from neighboring ot-
fices and moved into the view-
ing room. And the phones were
still ringing off the hooks.

One of the biggest boosts
came from Wellhouse photog
raphy studios here in Grinnell.
With negatives of the Bowen
family on file they set to Work
about two that afternoon and
had dozens of prints to the col-
lege by four. They also took
pictures at the press confer-
ence.

Grinnell students working as
interns in Des Moines for the
national wire services were
also swept into the “big story."
Dave Baetz was sitting in on
the meeting of the Board of Re-
gents when the announcement
was made, Both he and Jim
Herzog were kept busy prepar<
ing material for the service and
for the college.

We’ve been tied-up time wise
like this before, when Truman
Was here and the governors,
but nothing has been quite this
impromptu,” said Hess con-
cerning the work of the public
relations department. “I am
very proud of the way the peo-
ple in this office geared them-
selves and went to work after
only a five-minute briefing."

“This event also illustrates
the efficiency of the American
press," he continued, Despite
the rush, and the short notices,
the stories were complete and
accurate and well written. The
material contained in them was
a credit to Dr. Bowen and to
Grinnell. It shows how the
media can react to an emer-
gency situation it they have
to.”

By 8:15 the last reporter had
taken his story to the printers.
That night. some of the staff
returned to the office to work
on special material for Iowa
papers, but most of the work
was leisurely.

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Home of Qualit)r

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Friday, March 20, I964

Schuman Pleased
By ‘Dnnie! Prince'

By Sam Schuman

Last week’s production of
Daniel Prince, an original play
Written and directed by Keith
Felton, was an extremely
Worthwhile experiment. Mr.
Felton gave us a work which
shows surprising promise and
an even more surprising lack
of those faults which usually
accompany the works of a be
ginning dramatist. The play
was not flawless: much of the
second scene could have been
expressed in action and not
talk; at times the major
themes of the play were pushed
at Che audience a little bit too
hard; and at times. Mr. Fel-
ton's attempts. both as a writ-
er and as a director, at symbol<
ism and theatricalism were a
bit overdone. But as these criti-
cnsms could probably be equal-
1y leveled at Arthur Miller
(After the Fall) and George
Bernard Shaw (Major Bar-
bara), Mr. Felton need not teel
that he is in bad company, Mr.
Felton seemed particularly apt
at creating the comic line, (“I
was born under the sign of
Scorpio, what about you, sir?")
"I was born under Duress,
Madame" and the dialogue was
generally quite good.

The production or this piece
was also quite interesting.
Bruce McConachie as the
young Daniel Prince Could be
charmingly naive and convinc-
ingly confused. but seemed.
once or twice, to make the
transition between the two a lit~
tie too rapidly. Sue Monto, as
Annette, gave once again a ra-
ther chilling and dramatic per—
formance, and like .McConachie
could only be criticized for a
slight unnecessary abruptness
in changing from mood to
mood. Ken Friedman demon-
strated his growing ability as

PLAY REVIEW—
Continued on page I

 

 

 

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