The Queen's Visit (Contd.)

Past the modern new general hospital building in the central Ghana town of Kumasi last week drove a sound truck blaring: "The man is coming. The light of Africa will soon arrive." But Africa's light, Kwame Nkrumah, got a low-candlepower reception from hospital staff and patients as he awaited his guests, Britain's touring Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip. The silence that surrounded Osagyefo (The Redeemer) was broken only when the royal pair arrived, to a loud burst of applause.

Nkrumah's chagrin was complete moments later as he escorted the royal visitors through the hospital. Unknown to Osagyefo, a patient (for a glandular disorder) in one of the wards was seven-year-old Kwame Appiah, son of recently jailed Nkrumah foe, Joe Appiah, and his wife Peggy, daughter of Britain's late Sir Stafford Cripps. Unaware of the boy's identity, the Queen greeted him perfunctorily, then moved on. But prominently displayed on the child's bedside table was a photograph of his father and grandmother, Lady Cripps. Suddenly realizing who the woman in the picture was, Prince Philip peeled off from the royal entourage and returned to the boy's bedside. "I met your mother on my last visit here," said Philip. "Please give her my regards." Said the tousle-haired Kwame later about the Queen: "She is a very beautiful lady."

Sleeping Upright. The incident was the crowning embarrassment to Nkrumah in a swing through central and northern Ghana that put His High Dedication in a state of high dudgeon. Tribal traditions are still strong in the north, and feeling runs deep against Nkrumah for breaking the power of the chiefs.

The Queen's tour gave Nkrumah a continued excuse to crack down on his opponents in the United Party. There is a growing feeling that Osagyefo's own Convention People's Party planned the outburst of bombings around Nkrumah's statue in Accra on the eve of the royal visit in order to justify the crackdown on the opposition. The reasoning is that United Party agents would have done the job completely and blasted the statue to smithereens, which would have been an ill omen in fetish-conscious Ghana; the fact that the statue was only damaged, on the other hand, is a good omen for Osagyefo. In Kumasi, one Nkrumah flunky admitted to planting dynamite in the car of a United Party member in order to implicate him in a plot against the state.

Last week, Kumasi police arrested some 200 "criminals," most of whom were coincidentally United Party members. Jails are reportedly so full that prisoners must sleep sitting upright.

40 Pieces of Gold. Throughout all this, the Queen serenely continued her tour. In the northern territories, tribal chiefs put on dazzling ceremonial durbars for the royal visitors. At Tamale, muscular, nearly nude warriors in bikini-brief grass skirts performed the End of the Harvest dance. The most spectacular ceremony was the Ashanti durbar laid on in Kumasi before 35,000 people, including some 150 major and minor chiefs. Host for the ritual was the Asantehene, Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, King of Ashanti and the most important chief in all Ghana.

Arriving at the Kumasi stadium in a huge black Rolls-Royce, the Asantehene brought with him the golden stool that is supposed to contain the soul of the Ashantis. Festooned with effigies of Ashanti warriors, the solid-gold stool must never touch the ground, is always placed atop another stool that sits on an elephant skin, and is guarded by three giant tribesmen. Through his "linguist," or personal interpreter, the Asantehene reported that the durbar was a most important occasion for him: he had always wanted to visit Buckingham Palace, and now the Queen was coming to see him instead. As his retinue fanned him with palm fronds, the Asantehene presented the Queen with a set of carved-ivory talking drums, and Philip with 40 pieces of Ashanti gold.

The Queen's visit set the Ghanaian government back $4,000,000, but it will be a bargain for Nkrumah if he manages to get further British aid that will ease Ghana's financial straits. To this end, the Queen had discreetly and gracefully encouraged the strengthening of Osagyefo's Commonwealth ties. "Let us always recognize that the views of other members of the family, even if they are not the same as our own, nevertheless are genuinely and sincerely held," she said. "Let us be generous in our interpretation of one another's intentions. Let us not doubt one another's good faith."

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