Ghana, Death, and the Afterlife

Abstract

On 6 March, 1957, political and cultural leaders from around the world including Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Bunche, Norman Manley, A. Philip Randolph, and Mrs. Louis Armstrong assembled in Accra to celebrate the independence of Ghana from British rule.¹ On the trip to Accra for the ceremony, George and Dorothy found themselves on a VIP plane with former British governors, the British Parliamentary delegation, the Norwegian ambassador, and delegations from China, Burma, and Malaya. Describing the journey, Dorothy joked to Ellen Wright that ‘I believe we were the only “unimportant” people on the plane.’² Although Dorothy’s comment was likely intended partly as a sarcastic jibe against established power, it also contained some truth. Padmore never held any ‘official’ leadership position since his time with the ITUCNW. His name was known as an author and journalist to a circle of people in West Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, and the United States. Rarely were newspaper stories ever printed about him, outside of the recent attacks in the Ashanti Pioneer. He was not revered as a political, intellectual, nor cultural figure in the same manner as leaders like Ralph Bunche, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, or Kwame Nkrumah.