Nkrumah

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31023, 31 March 1966, Page 12

Nkrumah

Sir.—Dr. Wendy Carnegie’s article on Nkrumah states: "Nkrumah, under the pretext of training boys for agricultural work, inaugurated the Boys’ Brigade. These youths were brought up much as Hitler’s Brown Shirts,” etc. Would Dr. Carnegie care to define whether this organisation is the same as the Christian youth organisation we know as the Boys’ Brigade? The following points may help her to decide: (a) The Boys’ Brigade would never allow itself to be used for political ends, (b) The Boys’ Brigade is concerned with bringing boys into church membership, not with agriculture or violent demonstrations. (c) The Boys’ Brigade has been in Africa (British) since 1891 and could hardly have been inaugurated by Nkrumah. having been founded in 1883 in Scotland The article casts a shadow on the good name and work of the Boys’ Brigade and should be clarified or retracted as necessary.—Yours, D. H. SEYMOUR, Lieutenant, 27th Christchurch Company, the Boys’ Brigade. March 11, 1966. [Dr. Wendy Carnegie comments: “As far as I know, the ‘Boys’ Brigade’ in Ghana was purely a Nkrumah affair—and the boys in it would have no option but to do as they were told.”] '