Ghana: Jujitsu at the Palace

His High Dedication, Kwame Nkrumah, is often called "The Aweful" by Ghana's rapturous, government-controlled press. To many of his nation's 7,000,000 people, however, The Aweful is just plain awful. Since 1956 Nkrumah has survived four assassination attempts by political foes angered by his dictatorial ways. But though 16 innocent bystanders were killed in the various efforts. Osagyefo (The Redeemer) always escaped unharmed.

In constant fear, Nkrumah never ventures out of Flagstaff House, his official residence in Accra, without a heavy police guard. Wearing bright red tunics and carrying submachine guns and automatic rifles, guards from Osagyefo's own Nzima tribe—the only tribe he really trusts—constantly patrol the presidential palace. But Nkrumah's recent highhanded dismissal of the Supreme Court's chief justice, for acquitting three suspects charged with a previous assassination attempt, only strengthened the determination of his enemies. Last week an assassin struck again—or so Nkrumah's p.r. men claimed.

Breathlessly, they announced that as Nkrumah was leaving Flagstaff House, an assailant in a police uniform fired five shots from a .303 rifle at close range, mortally wounding one of Osagyefo's guards. In Accra these days, it is difficult to sift fact from propaganda, but according to the official version of the incident, Nkrumah himself grappled with the would be killer and finally disarmed him. "Don't hurt him," Nkrumah was quoted as yelling to the guards. "Don't kill him. Put your guns down." All the while, proclaimed the official party newspaper admiringly, Osagyefo held the assailant in a jujitsu grip—"a demonstration of the Leader's moral, spiritual and physical strength over his enemies." But an official photograph purporting to show Nkrumah in the act of subduing the culprit started a wave of rumors that the whole incident was rigged to boost Aweful's popularity at home. To skeptics the scene looked too placid to be plausible.

With the "assassin" safely in jail, thanksgiving vigils were scheduled to celebrate the sparing once more of Nkrumah's life. At many of them, no doubt, the official anthem of the Ghana Young Pioneers would be sung: "Nkrumah never dies, never dies, never dies. He forever lives."