When the Gold Coast became independent Ghana, still with lots of gold, hopes were high. President Kwame Nkrumah had style, copied directly by President Obama, and big plans. When neither him nor his rivals could deliver, it was time for the army to try to get back to basics. What is more basic than a feed yourself campaign? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I laughed when I examined this stamp. Is Ghana suggesting feeding yourself by way of wet nurses. Did the junta want to celebrate the glorious anniversary of their majestic coup by deploying wet nurses to hungry areas. On closer look she is proposing to feed you by selling you a banana. All in all pretty pathetic for the freaking Gold Coast.
Todays stamp is issue A113, a five penny stamp issued by independent Ghana in April 1973. It was an 8 stamp issue that was also available as a souvenir sheet that promoted the new feed yourself campaign. According to the Scott catalog , the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.
In 1972 Ashanti Catholic Ghana Army Coronel Ignatius Kutu Acheanpong was dissatisfied by the economic progress of the elected government. In the over a decade since independence, the country under both the left and the right wing governments had performed poorly and still relied on foreign charity for food. The Coronel believed that by promoting agriculture the country would no long feel the humiliation of constantly begging from people you hate. The USA provided the lions share of the worlds food aid at the time. Ghana still had gold, the mine had opened in 1897, but maintaining output under government control was difficult and the crude methods ecologically destructive. Coronal Acheanpong was not able to get the results he wanted. Ghana is still today a large recipient of food aid, theirs now comes from Japan. In 1978 it was time for a General, Fred Akuffo to try his hand. and there was another coup. In 1979, Ghana took a different tact. A Flight Lieutenant from the Air force, Jerry Rawlings, had a third coup and blamed the problems on higher ups in the military and tribal system. He was an outsider to that as he was the illegitimate son of an Englishman with a wife at home and a local female. He had never been trained abroad and had no important tribal connections. To clear the decks, he had both Coronel Acheanpong and General Akuffo shot. The earlier failed politicians had sensibly gone into exile after their failures.
This actually went a little better with Rawlings transitioning to an elected President. The gold mining situation improved with the government selling off a share in the gold mine Ashanti Goldfields. The outside investment allowed for modernized mining methods and proving additional reserves. It also lead into falling back into foreign control of the wealth. Ashanti Goldfields was merged into Anglo-American Gold, of South Africa. You can probably guess that something that calls itself Anglo-American is neither Anglo nor American and you would be correct. It was an old South African front outfit for the German Jews that took over Cecil Rhodes’ mineral empire when he died without heirs. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/21/south-africa-1966-a-tiny-minority-can-go-it-alone-because-they-have-diamonds-but-do-they/ . Ghana still generates over $6 billion a year in gold but still had to rely on food aid. The food aid is mainly wheat, so perhaps the bananas and wet nurses are still local.
Well my dink is empty and I am left wondering how Ghana recruits it’s army officers. Seems like not a good place to rise to the top. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.