Kulungugu bomb attack
{{Short description|An failed bomb attack}}
File:Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah Bomb Attack.jpg
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The Kulungugu bomb attack was a failed assassination attempt on Kwame Nkrumah, the President of Ghana.
On 1 August 1962, Kwame Nkrumah stopped in Kulungugu, a minor port of entry in the Pusiga District in Upper East Bawku.{{Cite web|last=Dogbevi|first=Emmanuel|date=2017-02-04|title=Dr Nkrumah's bombing site neglected|url=https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2017/02/04/dr-nkrumahs-bombing-site-neglected/|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Ghana Business News|language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last=Agency|first=United States Central Intelligence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PCsDqaDRGJoC&dq=kulungugu+bomb&pg=RA3-PP24|title=Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts|date=1965|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1964-05-03|title=Portrait of Nkrumah as Dictator|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/03/archives/portrait-of-nkrumah-as-dictator.html|access-date=2020-08-11|issn=0362-4331}} There was a bomb explosion aimed at killing the President.
History
Nkrumah was coming from a meeting with President Maurice Yaméogo in Tenkodogo, Burkina Faso, at the time known as Upper Volta. The meeting was to sign documents relating to the construction of the major hydroelectric project on the Volta which would become Lake Volta.{{Cite web|title=Kulungugu Bomb Site {{!}} About Ghana|url=https://ghana.peacefmonline.com/pages/tourism/other_sites/kulungugu_bomb_site/|access-date=2020-08-11|website=ghana.peacefmonline.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite book|last=Fuller|first=Harcourt|title=Building the Ghanaian Nation-State|chapter=The Downfall of Kwame Nkrumah|publisher=|year=2014|isbn=978-1-349-49652-5|location=|pages=149–162|doi=10.1057/9781137448583_9}}{{Citation|last=Fuller|first=Harcourt|title=The Downfall of Kwame Nkrumah|date=2014|work=Building the Ghanaian Nation-State: Kwame Nkrumah’s Symbolic Nationalism|pages=149–162|editor-last=Fuller|editor-first=Harcourt|series=African Histories and Modernities|place=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|language=en|doi=10.1057/9781137448583_9|isbn=978-1-137-44858-3}}
During the trip back to Ghana, heavy rains caused difficulties for the convoy on the country's bad roads. The Presidential convoy stopped at an outskirts of Bawku to greet school children who had been waving and catching glimpses of the President. A school child, Elizabeth Asantewaa,{{Cite web|date=2015-09-25|title=NDC group donates to victim of 1964 Kulungugu bomb explosion|url=https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/ndc-group-donates-to-victim-of-1964-kulungugu-bomb-explosion/|access-date=2020-08-11|website=MyJoyOnline.com|language=en-US}} approached the president with a bouquet of flowers, was severely injured when the bomb exploded.{{Cite web|last=Dodoo|first=Fuaad|date=2020-05-25|title=Victim of 1964 Kulungugu bomb attack cries for help as leg rots [video]|url=https://www.adomonline.com/victim-of-1964-kulungugu-bomb-attack-cries-for-help-as-leg-rots-video/|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Adomonline.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Nkrumah wept by my bedside – Kulungugu bombing victim|url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/nkrumah-wept-by-my-bedside-kulungugu-bombing-victim.html|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Graphic Online|language=en-gb}} The president was saved by his bodyguard, Captain Samuel Buckman, who instinctively wrestled the president to the ground after hearing the ticking of the timing device. The President and Buckman experience non life-threatening injuries, but 55 other people were injured.
Nkrumah was treated by a British doctor at Bawku Hospital, who removed shrapnel from the President's back and side.{{Cite web|title=August 1, 1962: Nkrumah is injured by an attempt on his life from a bomb in Kulungugu.|url=https://www.eaumf.org/ejm-blog/2017/8/1/august-1st-1962-nkrumah-is-injured-by-an-attempt-on-his-life-from-a-bomb-in-kulungugu|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Edward A. Ulzen Memorial Foundation|language=en-US}}
A memorial stands at the site of the bombing.
Aftermath and trial
Nkrumah accused Tawia Adamafio, the Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Presidential affairs, Ako Adjei, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and H.H. Cofie-Crabbe, Executive Secretary of the Convention People's Party, of being behind the assassination plot. They were jailed under the Preventive Detention Act.{{Cite journal|last=Shepherd|first=George W.|date=1962|title=The Price of Progress|journal=Africa Today|volume=9|issue=10|pages=4–14|jstor=4184367|issn=0001-9887}}
The three were cleared by a court headed by Chief Justice Arku Korsah in a trial which lasted for a year. Nkrumah had Korsah dismissed, and appointed a new court to recharge the men. Nkrumah handpicked the jury that found the three guilty and they were sentenced to death. Later, the death sentences were commuted to twenty year sentences.{{Cite web|date=2020-08-09|title=Today in history: Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, two others tried in Kulungugu bomb attack|url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Today-in-histroy-Ebenezer-Ako-Adjei-two-others-tried-in-Kulungugu-bomb-attack-1029256|access-date=2020-08-11|website=www.ghanaweb.com|language=en}}
After Kwame Nkrumah was ousted from office in 1966, the three were released by the National Liberation Council (NLC).
References
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Category:Road incidents in Ghana
Category:August 1962 in Africa
Category:Failed assassination attempts in Africa
Category:1962 disasters in Ghana
Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in the 1960s
Category:Improvised explosive device bombings in Africa