Reading Busua: GHANA: Josip Broz Tito Avenue

In February 1961 the Yugoslavian, presidential yacht Seagull (also refered to as "the boat of peace") dropped anchor in Ghana with a Yugoslavian delegation headed by the leader of Yugoslavia -- Josip Broz Tito. This visit to Ghana was part of an African tour undertaken by Tito, the pop-star of Yugoslavian politics, with the aim of strengthening the ties between Yugoslavia and an entire host of friendly African nations: Ghana, Togo, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Tunisia, and others. This "tour" was immortalized by director Aleksandar Mitrovic in the documentary film "Tito u Africi", and by others in photographs.

The idea behind the trip was to strengthen the ties between countries which found themselves faced with the cold war dilemma of what side to choose, or rather between the countries which did not want to side with one of the two rival hegemonic powers--the Soviet Union or the United States of America. During the Asian-African conference in Bandundu in April of 1955, at which 29 heads-of-state were gathered, the ideological foundation for a "Third Way" began to emerge; it became known as the "Movement of Non-aligned Countries". The "Ten Points of Bandundu", which concerned the way in which smaller countries would relate to the superpowers and each other later became a key part of the ideology of the movement.

The Movement of Non-aligned Countries came about after the fall of the colonial system, when newly formed states were struggling to maintain and more firmly establish their recently won sovereignty; at this time the Cold War had reached its peak. Some historians are of the opinion that this movement played an important role in de-colonization. It was the fruit of the efforts of the Indian Prime Minister Džavaharlala Nehruja, the President of Egypt Gamala Abdula Narer and the leader of Yugoslavia, Marshall Josip Broz Tito. The basic principles of the movement included self-rule, independence from entangling alliances, the maintenance of sovereignty and territorial integrity, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, anti-neocolonialism, an end to racism, an end to various occupations, freedom from foreign interference in internal affairs, the rejection of force in international relations, the restructuring of the international economic system, equality in international affairs.

On the 1st and 2nd of September in 1961, 25 countries attended the movements first conference in Belgrade. The main leaders of this conference were Marshall Tito, Sukarno (the first president of Indonesia), and Gamal Abdel Nasser (the second president of Egypt), Jawaharlal Nehru, and none other then the first president of Ghana -- Kwame Nkrumah.

In an earlier post we wrote about President Nkrumah's battle against colonialism, another important part of his political activity was his fight against Capitalism. He believed that Ghanaian political independence would be followed by a move away from the capitalist world; that a society would come into being which would be founded on social justice. He believed that socialism was more compatible with African culture - he wanted to put western socialist theory into an African context. In the year 1967 he wrote, "It is completely obvious that 'traditional African society" is built on a foundation of egalitarianism".

Tito, a socialist/communist himself, received a warm, honored, friendly welcome -- in addition to Dr. Nkrumaha he was greeted by the chiefs of Ghana in traditional tribal dress and other important Ghanaians. Tito and his wife Jovanka were also treated to a welcome by Ghana's youth, which put on a parade in the sports stadium. The highlight of the visit was Tito's address to the Ghanaian Parliament, which was very well received.

Ghanaians commemorated Tito's visit and honored his political influence by naming a road in the capital city of Accra after the Yugoslavian Marshall -- Josip Broz Tito Avenue.

Although the autocratic political systems which Ghana and Yugoslavia had at that time have collapsed, the external politics of both countries has changed (Yugoslavia ceased to exist some time ago), and both of these protagonists have died, the memory of their friendship is still alive. And, interestingly, this memory still serves as an aid to today's diplomats. In the year 2011, for example, the Slovenian Government headed by president Danilo Turk, asked the Ghanaian president John Evans Atta Mills to support Slovenia's application to become a member of the U.N. Security Council. In extending Ghana's support the foreign minister of Ghana, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, alluded to the excellent relations between the two states during the time of their "socialist" leaders as part of the rationale for their support.

Pisalo se je leto 1961, bil je mesec februar, ko je jugoslovanska rezidenčna jahta Galeb (imenovana tudi »Ladja miru«) na čelu s šefom države Josipom Brozom – Titom, pristala na ganskih tleh. Obisk Gane je bil del »afriške turneje« jugoslovanskega političnega popzvezdnika, z namenom poglabljanja vezi s prijateljskimi afriškimi državami: Gano, Togom, Liberijo, Gvinejo, Malijem, Marokom, Tunizijo in drugimi. »Turnejo« je v svojem dokumentarnem filmu Tito u Africi ovekovečil režiser Aleksandar Mitrovic, v objektiv pa so jo ujeli tudi številni fotografi.

Obisk je bil namenjen krepitvi vezi med državami, ki so se v času blokovske delitve znašle pred dilemo, kateri strani pripadati, oz.bolje rečeno, državam, ki se niso želele izreči za nobeno od hegemonističnih sil - ne za Sovjetsko zvezo kot tudi ne ZDA. Že od aprila 1955, od azijsko-afriške konference v Bandundu, kjer se je zbralo 29 voditeljev držav, se je izoblikova ideološka podlaga za tretjo pot, znana kot Gibanje neuvrščenih. »Deset banduških načel«, ki so določala odnose med manjšimi in večjimi državami, je pozneje postalo sestavni del nastalega gibanja.

Gibanje neuvrščnih je nastalo po razpadu kolonialnega sistema, ko so si novonastale države prizadevale vzpostaviti suverene države, in to prav v času, ko je bila hladna vojna na vrhuncu. Po nekaterih ocenah je gibanje odigralo pomembno vlogo pri dekolonizaciji. Nastalo je kot sad prizadevanj indijskega premierja Džavaharlala Nehruja, nekdanjega egiptovskega predsednik Gamala Abdula Naserja in jugoslovanskega predsednika Josipa Broza - Tita.

Pravica samoodločbe narodov, neodvisnosti, suverenosti in teritorialne celovitosti držav, boj proti imperializmu, kolonializmu, neokolonializmu, rasizmu, okupaciji; nevmešavanje v notranje zadeve držav in mirni soobstoj vseh narodov, zavračanje uporabe sile v mednarodnih odnosih, prestrukturiranje mednarodnega ekonomskega sistema, enakopravno mednarodno sodelovanje – so bili osnovni cilji gibanja.
1. in 2. septembra 1961, je bila v Beogradu prva konferenca, na kateri je sodelovalo 25 držav. Glavni stebri gibanja naj bi bili jugoslovanski predsednik Josip Broz – Tito, prvi indonezijski predsednik Sukarno, drugi egiptovski predsednik Gamal Abdel Nasser, prvi indijski premier Jawaharlal Nehru, ter nihče drug kot prvi ganski predsednik Kwame Nkrumah.

Pisali smo že o Nkrumahovi borbi zoper kolonializem, a ne moremo mimo drugega pomembnega dela njegove politične drže – boja zoper kapitalizem. Verjel je, da bo ganski politični osvoboditvi sledil tudi odmik od kapitalističnega sveta; da bo vzcvetela družba, katere osnovni smoter bo socialna pravičnost ter varnost. Verjel je, da je socializem bolj kompatibilen z afriško kulturo – zahodno socialistično teorijo je želel postaviti v afriški kontekst. Leta 1967 je napisal: »Popolnoma jasno je, da je tradicionalna afriška družba zgrajena na temeljih egalitarizma.«

Socialist Tito je tako leta 1961 v Gani doživel veličastni, bleščeč, prijateljski sprejem – poleg dr. Nkrumaha so ga pričakali tudi Chiefi odeti v svoje tradicionalne plemenske oprave, ter drugo pomembno državno osebje. Titu in ženi Jovanki je pripravila dobrodošlico tudi ganska mladina, ki je svečano paradirala na športnem stadionu. Višek srečanja je predstavljal Titov nagovor v ganskem parlamentu, ki je požel veliko odobravanje.

Da Titov obisk, ter vpliv na gansko politiko ne bo zapisan zgodovinski pozabi, so Ganci poskrbeli med drugim tudi s poimenovanjem avenije v glavnem mestu Accra po jugoslovanskem maršalu - Josip Broz Tito Avenue.

Dasiravno sta avtoritarna režima tako Nkrumahove Gane kot v Titove Jugoslavije propadla, oba omenjena državnika, ki sta bila protagonista vezi med republikama, pa umrla, je spomin na prijateljevanje držav še živ. In je, zanimivo, v pomoč tudi sedanjim diplomatom. Leta 2011 se je primerilo, da je slovenski državni vrh, z dr. Danilom Turkom na čelu, preko posebnega odposlanca poslal ganskemu predsedniku Johnu Evansu Atta Millsu sporočilo, ki naj bi zadevalo prošnjo podpore slovenskim prizadevanjem za vstop med članice Varnostnega sveta ZN. Takrat je ganski zumanji minister Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni izpostavil izjemne bilateralne odnose med državama v času obeh socialističnih državnikov in ravno v njih videl priložnost za zbližanje obeh držav.

Sonja