Alex Quaison-Sackey's conflicting accounts of his actions following the 1966 coup against Kwame Nkrumah
Following the February 24, 1966 coup that overthrew Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, his Foreign Minister, Alex Quaison-Sackey, returned to Ghana on March 2, 1966, and publicly supported the new National Liberation Council NLC government. Quaison-Sackey, who was with Nkrumah in China during the coup, stated upon his return that there was “a fresh whiff of air blowing through Ghana” and acknowledged growing public discontent over the high cost of living and shortages. However, his memoir, The Memoirs of Alexander Quaison-Sackey, presents a different narrative. According to the memoir, Nkrumah summoned Quaison-Sackey in Peking now Beijing on February 26, 1966, and tasked him with defending his government. Quaison-Sackey recalled Nkrumah, visibly emotional, asking him to kneel while he prayed for him, saying, “My spirit go with you.” Quaison-Sackey then traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Dr. J. E. Bossman, J. H. Sackey, and Albert K. Haynes, to advocate for Nkrumah's “constitutional and legal government” against the NLC, which had also sent a delegation to Ethiopia. This account from his memoir appears to contradict his public statements made upon his return to Ghana.
