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"Riots and looting": literally how Ghana happened, and it all started with a series of protests that were met with police brutality (thread)
On the 28th February 1948, there was a peaceful demonstration of the Ex-Servicemen's Union. 65,000 Ghanaians fought in WWII, including my grandfather. They were vital, brave and highly-decorated. They were promised pensions when they came home.
They quickly discovered they were being paid peanuts compared to British soldiers. They saw other colonised countries, like India, and realised how little the British had actually built in Ghana.
The pensions never came. Instead, veterans came home to inflated prices and massive shortages. The ex-servicemen, along with the Osu Manste (gang gang) organised boycotts and protests. That day, they hoped to deliver a petition. From the Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah:
“The trouble began as the contingent of ex-servicemen approached the crossroads at Christiansborg [sic] where the road branches off to Christiansborg Castle, the official residence of the Governor.
"By now, they had left the route prescribed as when they arrived at the crossroads they were commanded to halt by the police. They refused to do so maintaining that it was a peaceful demonstration.
"This brought about a clash between them during which the European police officer in command ordered his men to open fire." Three protestors - Sergeant Cornelius Francis Adjetey, Corporal Patrick Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey - were killed.
"When news of this shooting reached the business centre of Accra, where hundreds of Africans were out shopping... people were quite naturally inflamed. In a matter of minutes the whole town was in a commotion... rioting and looting followed and continued for days."
British attempts at suppressing protest - for years - were brutal and random. "In the streets of Accra, Syrians, Lebanese and British nationals were appointed as special constables and given truncheons to help them resume order.
"Some of these people took the law into their own hands and seemed to take pleasure in beating up anybody who happened to be walking anywhere. Accra became the scene of persecution. At this period a number of people disappeared and were never accounted for."
My ancestors (including people who I've known and loved, people who would survive to raise me - this wasn't that long ago) were pushed, by endless violence, subjugation and exploitation to reclaim their humanity by any and all means. And it worked. It works. #BlackLivesMatter 
