The missing head of the vandalised bronze statue of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, has been found. The arm, however, is still missing.
Mr Kwaku Manu-Asiamah, director of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (KNMP), disclosed this to the Times in an exclusive interview on Monday.
He said following a publication in the Ghanaian Times on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 that Dr Nkrumah's missing head and arm were being kept secretly by "somebody" as a personal trophy, the acting Director of Information Services Department (ISD), Mr Samuel Amankwah, wrote to inform him that, the department was in possession of the missing head, but not the arm.
Mr Manu-Asiamah said, Mr Amankwah told him that a good citizen he would not name for now, gave out Dr Nkrumah's head in 1997 to coincide with Ghana's 40th independence anniversary celebrations.
Mr Manu-Asiamah said the ISD, had given the assurance that it was ready to assist the KNMP to locate the missing arm.
He said the head would be formally handed over to the Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture on Friday, June 5, 2009 at a ceremony after which it would be returned to the KNMP.
He said efforts would soon be made to find a good sculptor to re-fix the missing parts of the statue before the 100 years anniversary of Dr Nkrumah's birth in September this year.
Source: Times - 2 June 2009
| THE Director of the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Mr Kwaku Manu-Asiamah has disclosed that, the missing head and arm of the vandalised bronze bust of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, is being kept secretly by “somebody” in the country as a personal treasure.
Mr Asiamah, who was speaking to the Times in an exclusive interview on Thursday, said very confidential information reaching him indicates that, the former president’s vandalised head and arm appeared in public for the first time during Ghana’s 40th Independence Day anniversary celebrations, after he was overthrown in a February 24, 1966 Cout D’etat, by a military cum police insurgents, before it got “Missing” again.
Mr Asiamah, who did not assign any political motive, said the person(s) keeping the vandalised parts of President Nkrumah’s Bronze bust, may be keeping it as a treasure but urged them to return it because if is now a national property.
But an interview conducted by a cross-section of some Ghanaian political Gurus, who pleaded anonymity, said the vandalised parts were being secretly kept by Dr Nkrumah’s opponents at the time of Ghana’s independence, as a punishment for his hush treatment of the political opponents at the time of his rule.
They are of the opinion that, it was his political opponents who vandalised the bust, and were keeping the head and arm to show that, Kwame Nkrumah’s political ideals have been defeated and conquered at “war”.
“Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s political ideals, thought, and deeds can never be wished away by any group of people, for the next 1,000 years,” they said.
Mr Manu-Asiamah underscored the singular importance of the bronze bust of Dr Kwame Nkrumah at the Memorial Park, adding that, it is because of the bust in particular that the park attracts an average daily visit of about 150 people and tourist.
Asked why the bust should attract such patronage, Mr Manu-Asiamah said it was the direct handiwork of Dr Nkrumah, who supervised the sculptor on specific details and features.
Mr Manu-Asiamah said the bust was designed by an Italian sculptor, N. Catav Della in the early 1960s.
He said the original bust of Dr Nkrumah was mounted in front of Parliament house, opposite the old Polo grounds in Accra.
Mr Manu-Asiamah said the bust was attacked by a mob, and vandalized in the wake of military and police coup D’etat, on February 24, 1966.
He said the bust was recovered for the National Museum of Ghana in 1975 before being loaned to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, and mounted on 11th June, 2007.
Mr Manu-Asiamah has therefore appealed to Ghanaians to help locate and retrieve the missing head and arm of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s bronze bust.
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