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It is quite amazon the level of bullshit bingo that goes on in modern press releases. Using Plan English is now a long dead skill.
Hi Jonathan-haha “Partner focussed capacity building”. Couldn’t agree with you more! The British Army does however have a long standing relationship with Commonwealth countries in Africa and the stamp of their tactics, ranks, uniforms and traditions remains as a strong link with the UK. Pre independence, the local colonial units included such fine Regiments as the Kings African Rifles,the Rhodesian Light Infantry and the Royal Rhodesia Regiment although particularly in Rhodesia they were strongly influenced by local conditions. Here in SA even today and notwithstanding the ANC’s drive to eliminate anything from the ‘settler’ community, much of the old structures remain although they have just replaced old names and badges with local insignia and titles.
Look at the video of the last parade of the Rhodesian Light Infantry laying up their Colours in 1980 as Mugabe took over. The Regimental colours were those of the pre UDI period including the Union Jack. Must have been hard for many of those troopies who by then were very anti-British although it must be said that the bulk of them were British born or first generation Rhodesians! Echoes of 1776!!
I met the ex Police Commisioner of the BSAP in Durban. He was Ian Smith’s right hand man but privately admitted to me that he never liked the Republic nor got over the loss of the Union Jack.
Yes.
BMATT in Ghana have done an amazing job over the years, supporting the Staff College and Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, and providing wider support through STTTs and to neigbouring nations such as Sierra Leone, Gambia and Nigeria. They have anchored our infuence and military assistance in West Africa long before intervention in Sierra Leone and the establishment of the British Defence Staff in Nigeria. The Ghanian Armed Forces are the most professional in the region, and that is testimony to our cooperation.
Good post James. I have a friend who worked in Ghana for a year and was very impressed by the country as one of Africa’s few success stories! Thanks in no small measure to Jerry Rawlings who staged a coup that ejected the dictator who would have destroyed Ghana, much like Mugabe,IdiAmin, Mobutu etc
@Geoff, Jerry Rawlings did not overthrow any dictator in his 2 coups. The first coup in 1979 overthrew the Supreme Military Council v2 (SMC2) lead by General Fredrick Akuffo who had overthrown General Ignatius Achaempong (he overthrow the Constitutional government of 2nd Republic lead by Dr. Busia), a few months earlier and was in the process of organizing elections to return power to a civilian government.
Rawling in the June 1979 insurrection killed all the former living Ghanaian heads of States, on the pretext that they were corrupt. He however proceeded to complete the SMC2 political transition process which saw elections take place in November 1979 which was won by Dr. Hilla Limman’s People’s Nationalist Party (PNP).
Two years later, December 31 1981, Rawling staged a coup and overthrew the constitutional PNP government of Dr. Limman which had won the November 1979 election that he Rawlings had overseen.
Rawling was an insurrectionist and using his own logic for for executing the former heads of State in 1979, that they had overthrown constitutional governments in the past (a charge that was not true with regards to General Akuffo), he himself should have been shot for overthrowing the constitutional government of Dr. Limman. Ghana.
Ghana has never had a dictator like Idi Amin, Mobutu or Mugabe except Rawlings, who was ruthless and killed hundreds if not thousands of his opponents in his 20 year rule of Ghana (all documented under the Truth and Reconcilation Commission of 2002).
Yes Rawling did some good for Ghana, primarily returing us to Constitutional governance in 1992 after 11 years of his military dictatorship. He however set Ghana back economically with stupid economic policies in those 11 years that he then tried to remedy in his 8 years as a civilian president. Let’s not turn Rawlings into a saint. He was far from that.
Yes Ghana is making progress economically, but years of military juntas, include that of Rawlings, have not helped the country in its economic development. The current political dispensation, the 4th Republic (since 1992 constitution was promulgated) has seen the country mature politically with change of government (and ruling parties) 3 times. This political stability has resulted in positive economic growth. Countries like Ghana on the African continent should become the focus of UK investments for outsorucing manufacturing, and export markets. Africa is a continent of 1.2 billion people with a 100 million middle class population that is growing at over 10% per annum. By 2050 sub-sahara Africa will have a population of 3.5 billion, more that India and China combined.
Africa is the last Frontier in terms of markets and outsourced production. The UK and EU have a competitive advantage over the Chinese and even the USA due to past colonial ties and their familiarity with UK/EU laws and systems which they have inherited. Global Britain is missing the opportunity to establish a dominant beachhead in terms of economic ties with the last market where UK Inc. is in many ways the favored Foreign Investor, but this advantage is being frittered away by archaic paternalistic views of the African continent and peoples, thus allowing the Chinese, Indians, Turks and even the USA to steal a march on the UK.
Thank you for correcting my simplistic view of Gerry Rawlings Branaboy. The point that I was trying to illustrate in broad terms was firstly, how Ghana has fared better than many other African states in the post colonial period, and secondly how few and far between have been leaders of calibre on this troubled continent. Here in South Africa we had a wonderful start with Mandela and Mbeki-both educated, intelligent individuals, but then we had a decade of Zuma, a disgusting corrupt,criminal who has all but ruined what was the finest economy in Africa.The Chinese have indeed spread their influence very quickly on this continent and although to an extent this has been a worldwide phenomenon, we are far more vulnerable to the snake oil sales elements of this process. The population growth at its present rate will devastate this beautiful part of the planet and confirm it’s place at the bottom of the pile in almost all the ratings and statistics that matter. It is a tragedy of beyond Greek proportions. It has thepotential to uplift all its people to a level that would be the envy of the world-all that is needed can be found in two elements-halt and reverse runaway population growth, and find among Africa’s diverse and gifted peoples some capable leaders.
On the subject of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah was a torch bearer in the liberation of his country but along with others such as Nyerere and Kaunda pursued socialist policies guaranteed to fail ruining their economies in the process.
Here is an example of the defence review thinking in restructure the army, create security regiments, repurpose the RM to their origins and create littoral support groups.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/90-reported-killed-as-myanmar-forces-crack-down-on-anti-coup-protesters-njkg7d7l5