By Napoleon Ato Kittoe
His upper part showing in an open-top military vehicle, he was paraded through the city of Algiers for a good view of him on his first state visit to Algeria.
That was 1985, after four years at the helm of affairs of the Republic of Ghana, having seized power in a military coup on 31 December, 1981. It was Rawlings’ second coming, following a stint between June 4 and September 9, 1979.
For revolutionaries like him, the dates of their emergence matter, and their rhythmic synchronisations suggest where inspiration came from. The sudden bounce to power in 1979 in Ghana marked exactly 10 years of the Col. Muammar Gaddafi Al-Fateh revolution in Libya.
His first official visit to Algeria, coinciding with the tenure of President Chadli Bendjedid, looked more calculated than a happenstance of time. His host also came to power in February 1979; in the case of Algeria, it was a reformist regime but not a revolution like Ghana in 1979 and 1981. In 1991, Rawlings was again the guest of Bendjedid at widely publicized events, symbolising the acceptance and full throttling of each other in the international diplomatic space.
Algeria embarked on its own revolution between 1954 and 1961, culminating in hard-earned agreements for political independence from France in 1962. Known as the Algerian War, the north African country launched a series of fights before a major conquest by imperialist forces.
Algeria’s success at it triggered a wave of revolutions on the continent, and Rawlings sprung out of latent existence to lead Ghana’s own. Chadli Bendjedid died in 1992, the year Rawlings was to end 11 years of military rule to pave the way for constitutional governance, which he won the first elections to lead Ghana for another 8 years.
Whilst Rawlings was on retirement, Algeria kept close ties with him as part of its broad engagement with Ghana. In two such visits by envoys of the Algerian government in 2010 and 2015, Rawlings stressed the need for Algeria to play a lead role in alerting developing countries about the ills of globalization.
Much earlier, he had urged African countries to visit Algeria to understand the peculiarities of its past or present armed struggles in order to solidify relations for their mutual benefit.