Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has made a rare and emotionally charged admission, attributing the origins of the protracted Bawku chieftaincy conflict to deliberate political decisions taken by his father in the early years after independence.
Speaking on Asaase Radio, Sekou Nkrumah said the Mamprusi–Kusasi conflict did not arise naturally from traditional succession disputes but rather from political interference that altered an existing and relatively stable chieftaincy structure for partisan advantage.
According to him, the Bawku chieftaincy became politicised when the post-independence Convention People’s Party (CPP) government dismantled the colonial-era traditional authority system and created a parallel chieftaincy structure, a move he said was designed to serve political interests rather than preserve custom.
“This became the genesis of the chieftaincy dispute known today as the Mamprusi–Kusasi conflict,” Sekou Nkrumah stated.
Reading from a document he authored titled “The Bawku Chieftaincy Dispute: History, Legitimacy and Political Interference,” Sekou Nkrumah traced how colonial authorities had maintained a single recognised traditional authority in Bawku, ensuring clarity and relative stability.
That arrangement, he said, was disrupted shortly after independence when Dr Kwame Nkrumah installed a rival chief, effectively creating two competing claims to the Bawku skin.
This political intervention, Sekou argued, permanently destabilised the traditional governance system and entrenched division.
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Although critical, Sekou Nkrumah said he understands the political thinking behind his father’s actions.
He explained that Dr Nkrumah, having closely studied electoral patterns during the 1951, 1954 and 1956 elections, identified communities and groups he believed would best support his vision of national development.
In that context, traditional authority became a tool for consolidating political power.
Sekou Nkrumah said the manipulation of chieftaincy structures formed part of a broader CPP strategy to integrate traditional authority into a centralised modern state.
However, this integration often came at the expense of long-established customs and legitimacy.
He explained that chiefs perceived to be aligned with opposition parties were weakened or removed, while political loyalists were elevated.
The Mamprusi Kingdom particularly the Bawku traditional area was among those he described as politically targeted due to its perceived lack of support for the CPP.
To support this position, Sekou Nkrumah referenced a famous warning attributed to President Nkrumah, in which he openly cautioned chiefs who opposed his political agenda, “Those of our chiefs who are with us, we will honour you. Those who are against us shall run away fast and leave their sandals behind.”
He further noted that during the 1954 elections, the Mamprusis largely supported the Northern People’s Party, while the Kusasis aligned with the CPP.
That political divide, he said, hardened ethnic lines and transformed political competition into a recurring chieftaincy conflict.
According to Sekou Nkrumah, the overthrow of his father did not end political interference in Bawku.
Instead, successive regimes including the National Liberation Council (NLC), the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and later the National Democratic Congress (NDC) inherited and continued to exploit the same fault lines.
He argued that political traditions established under Dr Nkrumah created enduring electoral advantages in areas where chieftaincy structures had been altered benefits later governments were unwilling to relinquish.
As a result, the conflict has persisted not because solutions are unavailable, but because resolving it would require political sacrifices many governments have been unwilling to make.
Sekou Nkrumah concluded that the Bawku crisis has evolved into a conflict sustained by political convenience rather than tradition, making genuine resolution extremely difficult.
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