Ghanaian Dr Yaw Anokye Frimpong has recounted how soldiers demolished Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s old family home and other properties linked to him after the 1966 coup.
Dr Frimpong said Nkrumah’s mother’s old home had been turned into a museum before it was demolished.
He said the museum contained old clothes belonging to Nkrumah and his mother, as well as household and cooking utensils.
“After the coup, they sent soldiers. The Fifa sent soldiers to demolish it. He made it into a museum,” Dr Frimpong shares on Joy Prime as Ghana marks Nkrumah’s posthumous birthday.
According to him, the demolition also affected an agricultural secondary school in Nkrumah’s hometown.
He said Nkrumah had worked with the Chinese government to establish model schools in parts of the country, with one of them located in his hometown.
Dr Frimpong said the school was also destroyed during the demolition exercise.
He recalled that a caretaker who was inside one of the buildings refused to come out because he believed the soldiers were joking.
“They asked him to come out and he said he will not come out and he thought it was a joke,” he said.
According to Dr Frimpong, the soldiers eventually demolished the building while the caretaker was still inside.
“The soldiers blew out the building completely,” he said.
Dr Frimpong said such details demonstrate why eyewitness accounts are important in documenting Ghana’s history.
“This one you won’t find in any book unless you have spoken to eyewitnesses because they were school people,” he said.
He added that many of the people who witnessed such events were still alive and could provide accounts of what happened.
