THE GOLD COAST: The Man on Trial

The booming Gold Coast, Britain's most promising experiment in African democracy, was beset with the growing pains of corruption and Communism. The corruption was homegrown.

Last week the Prime Minister himself, U.S.-educated Kwame Nkrumah, the facile Twi tribesman whom Gold Coasters revere as "The Man," was summoned before a tribunal investigating malfeasance and graft. Scandal swirled around members of his Cabinet, and Nkrumah himself was hurt by it. From all over Africa came the mutters of hostile voices: "We told you so." The Blimps saw the scandal as proof that nature never intended that black men should govern themselves. Communists were delighted, for in the Gold Coast's troubles they saw an opportunity to discredit this best example of white colonialism peaceably surrendering sovereignty to Africans.

Brown Paper Parcel. One day last November a badly scared African wearing a flappy gown and sandals slipped into the office of the Gold Coast's white British governor. He was tiny Joseph Braimah, 37, Minister of Works in Nkrumah's Cabinet. He told the governor that by accepting gifts from local businessmen, "I have abused the trust placed in me." Incredulous, the governor advised his minister to 1) tell the police, 2) have himself examined at the local hospital. Braimah resigned and last month repeated his tale before Mr. Justice Aku Korsah, C.B.E. and an all-African tribunal.

As Braimah told it, an Armenian building contractor named Askor Kassardjian had once sought his help, as Minister of Works, to get a contract to build a college. Kassardjian got the contract, and a few days later dropped into Braimah's home to pay a social call. He left a bundle under one of the cushions, and when Braimah opened it, he found 500 one-pound notes ($1,400). On another occasion, after a drive with Kassardjian, the minister found another £500 in a brown paper parcel in his car.

Braimah accused his own secretary of salting away thousands of dollars in graft money. Braimah also told the judges that a contractor had offered him £4,000 for a big road-building contract in the Northern Territories. The minister had agreed, but a fortnight later the contractor stormed into his office, complained bitterly: "A Greek has got the contract by paying the Prime Minister £40,000."

Mention of Nkrumah's name brought a gasp in the sweaty courtroom. "Did you believe this?" asked the solicitor general. "Yes," said Braimah, and accused his chief of buying a Cadillac and building a fine home on the proceeds of graft.

Nkrumah was touring the country in his Cadillac when his subordinate's charges were made. He coolly denied everything and sped back to Accra to appear before the tribunal. Nkrumah admitted that he had once accepted a bid for a road contract without consulting the Ministry of Works, but he insisted, and offered to prove, that "I have no property in any part of the Gold Coast."

"Have you had any favors from anyone?" the solicitor general asked. Said Nkrumah: "No, nothing."