Reflecting on the 24th February 1966 in Ghanaian History

I'm ashamed to admit that it was the BBC that had to be the one to remind me that today marks 43 years since one of the most dramatic events in Ghanaian history occurred. On 24th February 1966, the first President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was overthrown in what was the first in a series of coup d'états that blot the landscape of Ghanaian history.

Hindsight 20/20 makes it easy for everyone to present differing points of view of how Ghana would have turned out without the coup. Some insist that Dr. Nkrumah should have been allowed to continue with his seemingly promising socialist agenda and pursue his dream of a united Africa. Others on the other side of the debate argue that Dr. Nkrumah was already showing signs of becoming increasingly autocratic and less tolerant of dissenting voices. History also tells us that he seemed to be devoting more time to pursuing his vision of a united Africa to the detriment of Ghana.

Regardless of what our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles tell us or what some of people may even remember about this time, today provides the perfect occasion to reflect on the Butterfly Effect that I rambled on about earlier. How could Ghana's history be different if Kwame Nkrumah was never overthrown? The possibilities and scenarios are endless. Possible scenarios without the coup:

• Ghana could have emerged as a leading industrial nation in Africa under the Nkrumah-ist socialist agenda with an almost egalitarian society as well as marginal differences between rich and poor. However, is there any country out there where a rigorous socialist agenda actually stood the test of time?
  

• Falling commidity prices in the early 1970s could have hit Ghana's socialist agenda in the same way they hammered another socialist country Tanzania rendering it one of Africa's poorest nations. In this scenario, Ghana may only have been able to recover years later in the same way as Tanzania.
  

• Ghana could have become a reactionary one-party state with Dr. Nkrumah as the aging dictator unwilling to give up power in the vein of a certain "Uncle Bob" way down South.

• The authoritarian nature of a one-party state under Kwame Nkrumah could have lead to a rebellious armed opposition that would have plunged Ghana into a bitter civil war. This war would have pitted Western-backed rebels against Communist-backed Nkrumah similar to the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
  

Alas, as with the Butterfly Effect, the possibilities are endless. Regardless of how history did in fact play out, this 24th February is different. Simply because this year, Kwame Nkrumah's only daughter Samia has just taken up her seat as a member of parliament for the latest incarnation of her father's party, the Convention People's Party. There is something about coming full circle about that.