Who is this Zik sef (2); by Kelechi Deca

Posted by Admin | 7 years ago | 3,036 times



When Zik returned from the United States in 1935, he went straight to Gold Coast ( Ghana). On his way from the ship, the young man who came to take his suitcase from his having heard and read of his exploits in America turned out to be Kwame Nkrumah.
He was then known as Francis Kwame Nkrumah and was a student of a Catholic Seminary studying to be a priest. He met Zik, and his life was never the same again. He got a taste of Zik's fiery speeches when Zik addressed the Ghana Teachers Union. After listening to Zik, he went to Zik and asked him to mentor him to be like him.
Zik told him to further his education and in fact convinced him to travel to the US. He gave him introductory and recommendation letters to his old school in Lincoln into which Nkrumah was enrolled in 1938.
Other great Africans whom Zik helped secure university education in the United States at the same time were  Ebenezer Ako Adjei, from Ghana, K.O. Mbadiwe, Mbonu Ojike, Nwafor Orizu, Okechukwu Ikejiani, Nwankwo Chukwuemeka, Abdulkareem. K Disu, K.A.B Quartey-Jones also from Ghana, and Okongwu. These men arrived Lincoln University  between 1938 and 1939.
 They were the foot soldiers Zik later unleashed on the British across the West African coast for his Liberation movement in West Africa. It is not by mere happenstance that Zik's first biographer was the Ghanaian, K.A.B. Quartey-Jones.
In 1959, Kwame Nkrumah who became the nation's first Prime Minister of Ghana, led the entire cabinet of the newly independent country of Ghana to Enugu to pay homage to his mentor. Zik gave a special speech on the floor of the Eastern House of Assembly at Enugu, on February 3, 1959 in honour of his protege, Prime Minister Nkrumah.
-Kelechi Deca

Readers Comments

comment(s)

No comments yet. Be the first to post comment.


You may also like...