Ghana Independence DayAuthor(s): Donald HarringtonSource: Africa Today, Vol. 4, No. 2, From Gold Coast to Ghana: Freedom Issue (Mar. - Apr.,1957), p. 3Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183860 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 19:28

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:28:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

March 6, 1957

Ghana Independence Day

By DONALD HARRINGTON What is America's most fabulous holiday? Why, the Fourth

of July-Independence Day, of course! Perhaps our celebrations are becoming a little tepid and safety-minded, somewhat natural after one hundred and eight-one years have passed, but even in our youth this was the Day of Days, with slam-bang celebration from the stroke of midnight of the "night before" until the last glory of the fireworks drifted into the night of the Day itself. Thus have men always cherished their winning of the right to govern themselves, to share in the determination of their own destiny, to be free from the domination of other men, even those who call themselves civilizers.

March 6, 1957, will be the first "Fourth of July" for the new nation of Ghana, formerly the Gold Coast, in West Africa. It is not difficult to imagine the wild and wonderful celebration which will take place in Accra, the capital, and in every Ghana village and town, the speeches, the parades, the fireworks, the dances and the serious and solemn dedication of all of the people and their leaders to the great task of building the nation.

Other old-new nations have come to birth during the last few years, but Ghana is the first of the truly African nations. In a sense, Ghana presents the face of the new Africa to the world. Her achievement of self-government demonstrates for all to see the ability of the people born and bred in Africa and native to her ancient soil to govern themselves with efficiency and the dignity of democracy. It gives the lie to the propaganda still peddled about the world by the old imperial powers and by the white man who has settled in Africa that the Africans were a child people who could never govern themselves. It strikes great hope into the hearts of all the rest of the suppressed and ruled over of that second largest of continents that their turn for independence and an equal share in the determination of their destinies yet will come. Ghana Independence Day may well prove to be the most important date in the whole history of the African Continent.

It is fitting therefore that America should join in the celebra- tion. We who began the march from colonial subjection to inde- pendence salute our newvest com- rades of the way of liberty! We join together to share in their joy and glory at the forward march of freedom into Africa.

Donald Harrington is the chairman of the Executive Board of the American Committee on Africa. Minister of New York's famed Community Church and chairman of the World Federalists, Harrington is a sympathetic observer and supporter of freedom movements throughout the world.

3

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:28:06 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions