When I first came across this letter, I was only curious and anxious at the same time to read it. I had followed a link on the twitter page of a pal called Dadzie (Legenderry) because I occasionally blog-read. The letter was written by Ghana's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as a response to one Mrs. Shirley G. Du Bois, director of Television in 1964. The latter had requested to film the president together with his family; but, what Dr. Nkrumah gave as a decline to the offer did more that just that. It expressed the man's opinion on marriage.
Dr. Nkrumah calls marriage "unnatural...[as]not existing in nature...bourgeoise imposition, a mere contrivance set up as a matter of human convenience for the protecting of inheritance rights.." He goes on to assert that "any advantage that is based on privilege rather than on merit is both illusory and unnatural." If this is the case, then marriage too is "illusory and unnatural."
I have enormous respect for Dr. Nkrumah's intellect and I am sure for the advancement of thinking, we can slightly overlook his politics which has for so long overshadowed his intellectual growth and achievement. I have always thought of marriage as a social construct, unreal and artificial. It only is meant to protect privileges, give some to others; and, because we have made several social arrangements like passports etc, marriage becomes another creation for convenience. It will all be fine if many do not take marriage for more that it is. Like Dadzie, I reproduce the letter below.
12th November, 1964
My Dear Shirley
Thank you for your letter of the 6th November, suggesting that NHK should film me and my family in the gardens of Flagstaff House on Sunday.
Although I appreciate your reasons for suggesting this, I have to say quite firmly and definitely that I am not in favour of it. I would like to take this opportunity to explain why and to express a little of my own thinking about marriage.
You will appreciate that my Office as President of Ghana is not a hereditory one, like that of a Monarch or Emperor. It is therefore not in the best interest of the children, nor is it wise, to encourage them to live in an artificial atmosphere which they cannot maintain without me when they grow up and have to fend for themselves like any other citizens of Ghana. I consider it important to ensure that my wife and the children are allowed to live a normal private life, free from the entanglements of public obligations.
Indeed, I regard it as my bounden duty to protect them from the glare of undue publicity.
People in general seem to be insatiably curious about the family and private lives of those who are in the public eye. It has always been my strong conviction that my domestic affairs – my home and my family – are purely private matters which should not be “mixed up” with my official and public life. I see no reason why I should exhibit my wife and children in order to satisfy public curiousity.
My view – and this may jolt you a little, Shirley! – is that marriage does not exist in nature and does not warrant the importance that has come to be attached to it. It is a bourgeoise imposition, a mere contrivance set up as a matter of human convenience for the protecting of inheritance rights, capitalists and property-owners.
To sum up – I am most anxious that no one should tamper with my own liberty within my family. Irrespective of my present position, I still look upon my family as a private concern and not as an instrument of projecting a personality of myself either as an individual or as Head of State. You know that any advantage that is based on privilege rather than on merit is both illusory and unnatural.
I have no objection to NHK filming me when I am alone or engaged in some State activity. But other than this, I refuse to budge one inch!
Yours very sincerely,
Kwame Nkrumah
