745G.00/12–953
The Consul at Accra ( Cole ) to the Department of State
No. 107
Reference:
- Accra’s telegram No. 48 of December 8, 19531
Subject:
- Conference of West African Nationalists
During the conversation I had with Mr. Saloway on December 8 (reported in my despatch No. 106 of December 8)2 he referred also to the Conference of West African Nationalists which took place at Kumasi, in the Gold Coast, on December 5 and 6. Mr. Saloway said that, as he had predicted earlier, the Conference was completely innocuous. He said that Nkrumah had to call the meeting in order to sustain his position as a great leader but that it certainly had done no harm. Nkrumah had not invited nationalist figures from French possessions and that had simplified matters, since possible repercussions in the international field were avoided.
Mr. Saloway added that Nkrumah had taken a poor view of certain remarks made by Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Nigerian nationalist leader who attended the Kumasi Conference at Nkrumah’s invitation. On December 7 Nkrumah and Azikiwe spoke before a large audience in an Accra cinema. It appears that Nkrumah announced, inter alia, the proposed formation at the Conference of a West African Congress which would have its secretariat in Accra. Azikiwe spoke thereafter, and during the course of a fulsome eulogy of Gold Coast nationalists he included J. B. Danquah, the most prominent leader of any opposition to Nkrumah and his CPP, as among those worthy of especial praise. It is presumably doubtful that Azikiwe intended to give offense, and more probable that he is not entirely up to date on the nuances of Gold Coast politics.