National Liberation Movement
National Liberation Movement was a political party in Ghana that was founded in 1954 during the independence process in the Gold Coast colony .
The founding father is a political leader of the Akan people of the Ashanti Baffour Osei Akoto. The NLM stood in the political tradition of the Danquah-Busia era.
Political orientation
The NLM operated as a lobby group for the Ashanti in the center of what is now Ghana and what was then the British colony of the Gold Coast. The Ashanti are a numerically and culturally important tribe within the Akan ethnic group, which is still dominant in Ghana today .
As an important opposition party, the NLM sought a political alliance with the other regional parties of the time such as the Anlo Youth Association or the Northern Peoples' Party in order to form a strong counterweight to the then dominant party of Kwame Nkrumah , the Convention People's Party (CPP) .
Due to the hard representation of interests of the Ashanti, who represent the local center in Kumasi , responsibility for violent, political riots in Kumasi is attributed to the political engagement of the NLM . Particularly when it came to the question of how the constitution of Ghana would be structured, the NLM took a counter-opinion to the prevailing politics of the CPP. The NLM wanted to enforce a federal constitution.
NLM election results
In the elections of 1954, the NLM achieved 104 seats in the Legislative Assembley . In the elections of July 17, 1956 for the assembly, the NLM achieved 12 out of 104 seats, all of which were won in the Ashanti region , ie with a massive regional connection. The CPP emerged as the clear winner of both elections.
In the elections of 1956 in particular, the NLM had deterred voters from other regions and tribes with the hard route towards Ashanti dominance in Ghana. The Ashanti Empire had been a dominant power in the region even in pre-colonial times.
After independence in 1957
Soon after Ghana's independence on March 6, 1957, a law to prevent discrimination ( Avoidence of Discrimination Act 1957 , CA 38) was enacted by the then Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah and later President of Ghana . This law prohibited any grouping with an orientation based on ethnic, religious, regional or similar orientation with effect from December 31, 1957.
The full title of the law read:
Law on the prohibition of organizations that use for propaganda membership of a tribe, region, race or religion to the detriment of a community or to choose people based on their membership of a tribe, region or religion or similar To secure purposes. (Engl .: An Act to prohibit organizations using or engaging in tribal, regional, racial and religious propaganga to the detriment of any community, or securing the election of persons on account of their tribal, regional or religious affiliations and for other purpuse connected therewith . )
Due to its clear connection to the Ashanti people , the NLM fell under the law and thus became an illegal group almost overnight, although it had been represented in parliament since your elections in 1954. Affected were the Muslim Association Party (MAP), Togoland Congress , Northern Peoples' Party and other organizations as well as Ga Shifimo Kpee .
The city council of the political center of the NLM in Kumasi consisted mainly of NLM members. Kkrumah unceremoniously suspended the city council and appointed CPP members as commissioners with the task of regulating city administration. Likewise, the then Brong-Ahafo region with the power center in Kumasi was separated into two regions in order to smash the balance of power. In 1958, the Ashanti Region and Brong-Ahafo Region, which are still in existence today, were created with tribal councils and administrative units each. The CPP wanted to finally bring the supremacy of the Ashanti in the central area in Ghana under its control.
NLM - United Party
In order to avoid a party ban, various parties formed the United Party (Ghana) in early 1958 . The UP was composed of the following parties and groups:
- National Liberation Movement (NLM)
- Anlo Youth Association (AYA)
- Togoland Congress (TC)
- Northern Peoples' Party
- Muslim Association Party
- Ga Shifimo Kpee
When the UP was founded, the NLM no longer officially existed. In addition to the successor United Party, there was only the Nkrumahs party in Ghana, the Convention People's Party (CPP) from 1958.
Footnotes
- ↑ UNRISD, page 25 ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
