March 6th, 1957 was a night like no other. Across the newly minted nation of Ghana, celebrations erupted as the Gold Coast shook off the shackles of British rule to become the first independent black African nation, led by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The air was electric with joy, the kind of joy that comes only once in a lifetime. I was still a young Achimota student—just shy of 17—at the time.

The Overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah:

It would etch itself into the annals of Ghana’s history. It was the night of February 23, 1966—a night that had smuggled my fiancé, Adelaide, who was in Ghana on holiday from Brazil, to the Arakan Mess, and we were enjoying a new movie, The Secret Invasion. But as the film flickered on the screen, an unsettling tension began to weave through the night.

I noticed officers slipping in and out of the mess, their movements more urgent than casual. Something was brewing, but I couldn’t yet grasp what it was. Hours later, the calm shattered as gunfire erupted. Unbeknownst to me, the Second Brigade Commander, Col Emmanuel Kwashie Kotoka, and Brigade Maj A. A. Afrifa, under the pretext of a military exercise, had begun to move on Accra. They had support from the Field Engineers and the Ghana Police hierarchy under IGP H. W. K. Harley. It was a coup, and the tremors of that seismic event had just begun to ripple through the capital. Looking back, there were signs—subtle tremors that hinted at the earthquake to come.

The Path of an Army General: How I Served My Country Ghana is the autobiography of Major General Edwin Kwamina Sam (Rtd), a former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Ebenezer H Brew Riverson

Voice