A historic event worth commemorating.

December 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the All-African People's Conference, held in Accra in December 1958, for the general mobilisation of support for freedom fighters to execute the final phase of the total liberation of Africa. On the eve of the historic anniversary, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo urges the African Union and African leaders not to let the jubilee year go unnoticed. "A race of people are lost if they cannot love their own memories. The meaning and significance of the year 1958 must not be lost on us and especially the younger generation," he writes.

The significance of the year 1958 must be etched in the memories of all Africans, especially the younger generation. The year is memorable because on 15 April 1958, the first conference of independent African states was held in Accra, Ghana, to establish the principle of "one man one vote" as the tool for decolonisation.

This was followed by the All-African People's Conference in Accra, from 5-13 December 1958, held for the general mobilisation of support for "freedom fighters" to execute the final phase of the total liberation of the African continent.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

It was the Convention People's Party (CPP) government of Ghana and the founding father of the nation, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who facilitated these memorable conferences within a year of Ghana attaining independence. Without fear of offending the colonial powers and racist settler regimes, Dr Nkrumah and the CPP practised what they preached.

On the eve of Ghana's independence on 6 March 1957, Nkrumah announced to the world that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.

The 50th anniversary of that historic year has dawned on us in 2008. A race of people are lost if they cannot love their own memories. The meaning and significance of the year 1958 must not be lost on us and especially the younger generation. In that year, the diaspora-led pan-African struggle finally came home to be rooted on the African soil. Many "freedom fighters" of African descent relocated in Accra, Cairo, Algiers, Dar es Salaam, Kampala and Dakar. The key surviving fathers of the pan-African movement, George Pad-more and W.E.B. DuBois, settled and worked in Accra. The three pillars of the pan-African movement are, significantly, buried in Accra and this is not an accident of history.

The facts of the pre-eminence of DuBois, Padmore and Nkrumah must not be lost on us, especially the preparations for Nkrumah's return to the Gold Coast in December 1947 to accelerate the African independence and total liberation process.

In respect of our historic duty to ensure that Africans love their own memories, it is hereby humbly proposed that the current AU chairman, President Kikwete of Tanzania step in where President Nkrumah's CPP would have, to ensure that Africa celebrates the 50th anniversary in December 2008.

I believe that a Tanzania-led initiative would in turn attract Namibia, Senegal, Libya, Nigeria, Cuba, Jamaica, Suriname, Venezuela, and interest from North America, Europe and the diaspora collective to build up a rolling momentum for such a great manifestation to take place in Accra, Addis Ababa, Windhoek or Algiers.