Kwame Nkrumah's Guerilla WarFare Manual
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Found in Kwame Nkrumah's office was a single, bound copy of a book entitled Strategy
and Tactics of Revolutionary Warfare with Particular Reference to the African Revolution.
The title page bore Nkrumah's name was the author and the next page his dedication,
"To the Freedom Fighters." Although the book was printed at the press of the Bureau
of African Affairs, the actual type was transferred to the Special African Services.
It must be assumed that Nkrumah was waiting what would appear to be an auspicious
time to have the work printed in quantity and distributed throughout Africa as one of his major works.
The origin of the book was the attendance of two members of
the Bureau of African Affairs at the courses given by the Chinese experts on guerilla
warfare at the Obenemasi Camp These men took verbatim notes of the lectures given
by the Chinese, together with very detailed drawings and diagrams. They took these
notes to the Bureau where they were neatly typed and changes made by the hand of
these same or other individuals, possibly by Barden.
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Barden then showed the material
to Nkrumah who decided to appropriate it, supply additional material, and publish
it under his own name. The additional material consisted of the first four chapters
of the final book. It is probable that someone else compiled these chapters for
him from his speeches, articles and other books. Nkrumah himself reviewed the typed
manuscript.
This fact is known from changes made in his own hand. For example, in
a sentence that read, "In Ghana, counter-revolution struck in the Kulungugu bomb
attempt on the President's life," a rectangle has been drawn around "the President,"
and "my" written above it. At this stage the manuscript, with the exception of the
first four chapters, was based on Mao Tse-tung's Selected Military Writings. The
stilted English spoken by the Chinese instructors came through directly, and there were countless quotations from Mao. A few changes were made in terminology, as for
example, "Guerilla Warfare" was frequently replaced by "Revolutionary Warfare".
As the next step the galley proofs were corrected and modified by several hands.
In many cases, where Mao was directly quoted, his name was deleted so that the quotations
were not attributed, the eventual reader could assume that these were statements
by Nkrumah. At the same time many references to Chinese experiences were retained,
as well as such special terminology as the "sixteen-character formula," and "Paper
Tiger" and "the teaching method of mass line." Other terminology used by the Chinese
was altered.
"People" became "Nationalists" and "Nationalist Army" turned into "Home
Guard Militia." The latter change supports the assertion that Nkrumah planned to
build up a militia to be trained at expanded secret camps and so indoctrinated that
it would be more loyal to him than the regular army. The table of contents as included
in the galley proof follows |
1. New Situation
2. The Three-fold Strategy of National Liberation
3. New Strategy for the New Situation
4. Gandhi's Philosophy a Contrast to Positive Action
5. Revolutionary Warfare
6. What is Guerilla Warfare?
7. Establishment and Role of Guerilla
8. Assembling of Guerilla
9. Arms and Ammunition
10. Guerilla Government
11. The Importance of Propaganda in a Guerilla War
12. Guerilla Warfare with Special Reference to Dependent African Countries
13. The Operation
14. Planning the War
15. Provisional Government
16. Training for Toughness
17. Strategy and Tactics
18. Co-ordination with Regular Warfare 19. Establishment of Base Areas
20. Forms of Encirclement By Enemy Forces and by Revolutionary Forces
21. Strategic Defensive and Strategic Offensive in Guerilla Warfare Development
into Mobile Warfare
22. Removed
23. Removed
24. Removed
25. Removed
26. Removed
27. Home Guard Militia
28. The System of Leadership in the Home Guard Militia
29. The Political Work in the Home Guard Militia.
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