India's immortal Gandhi was also an African hero. When he died, the leaders of the independence struggle declared a day of mourning for him.

By Prof. Mike Oquaye, High Commissioner of Ghana in India

Dated: May 2003

INDIA IS an age-long friend of Africa. You cannot recap the struggle for independence in Africa without emphasizing that the anti-colonial struggle, which Ghana happened to be at the forefront, took a huge cue from events in India soon after the Second World War. Indeed, the Asian struggle of Independence led by India under Nehru, inspired the African struggle for self-emancipation led by Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. India's immortal Gandhi was also an African hero. When he died, the leaders of the independence struggle declared a day of mourning for him. The West African Pilot published in Lagos, Nigeria wrote: "We shall badly miss that tangible symbol of Indian nationalism, that fountain of fortitude and virtue, the inspirer of them that are on the thorny road to freedom". (Feb 2, 1948, p.1).

At a time when the world was polarized into East and West, our two countries led by great leaders, together with other leaders such as Tito of Yugoslavia, Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia, helped to chalk a path of non-alignment to promote world peace. The joint efforts of our great leaders were not only beneficial to the whole world, but also, they kindled a tradition of friendship and co-operation between India and Africa. Indeed, in global politics, at the United Nations, within the Commonwealth of Nations, India proved beyond doubt that it was a friend of Africa.

The world today has become bi-polar rather than uni-polar and the relevance of non-alignment should receive fresh attention if the dream of Nehru, Nkrumah, Nasser and others should not sink into oblivion.

Many Africa leaders are conscious of the need to rediscover our special relationship with India to our mutual benefit. For example, when His Excellency Mr. J.A. Kufuor, President of the Republic of Ghana, was sending me here early last year as High Commissioner, he instructed, inter alia,: "India is very close to my heart. We should revitalize our relationship to rediscover a new era of South-South co-operation-politically, economically, socially and culturally." This should be a guiding principle in the search for meaningful cooperation between India and African nations.