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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 19, 1982
PAGE 5
(Provisional National Defence Council} with an accusation (untrue)
against the management, which is Swiss, German and Lebanese. The PNDC
soldiers came round and started beating them up. Now the workers are
simply refusing to obey any orders from the management.•.•
The city is rife with rumours. That's not uncommon. Last week,
the headline in the paper was that Ghana was about to be invaded
by British, American and Nigerian "imperialists." Of course, it
was utter rubbish, but the people believe it.
The thinking
amongst ex-patriots is that it was an excuse to bring in foreign
soldiers to "defend the revolution."
Last Thursday morning, we sent Frank (one of our employees} out
to buy us some kenkey for lunch (we're now almost 100% on native
food again, through necessity) and the kenkey seller was about to
leave. She was telling Frank that the white men have come to
invade us; so she packed up her things and went home. I left the
house at 11:30 a.m. to go to the dairy and on to pick up our
daughter from school.
At the dairy, I noticed the owners'
children there and asked why they were not in school. They told
me that a friend in the army had visited them that morning and
advised them not to send their children to school (they go to the
same school as ours) as there was going to be trouble. Boy, did I
dr-ive to school fast!
The school was deserted. Only about a
dozen kids were left.
Parents had collected all the others
earlier, or in some cases not sent them to school at all. We all
knew there was going to be a big demonstration to denounce "U.S.
and British imperialism" that morning, but it was in the center
of town near the bank. I had told all our employees to stay away
from there that morning and didn't think a second thing of it.
But the rumour was that they were going to go right to the High
Comrnissioner's house (which is next to the school} and even
demonstrate outside the school. There's nothing worse that an
African mob, and this demonstration was a real big one. However,
Rawlings [leader of the ruling council] went to the demonstration
and told them not to harm anybody and to stay away from embas
sies. But we didn't know that until later.
Making things worse that morning were two other incidents. Three
military planes arrived at the airport at about 8:00 a.m. carry
ing foreign troops. The rumour went round that we were being in
vaded, and a panic set in. (Fortunately, nobody took it out on
those of us who come from the lands of the "invaders.") It turned
out they were friendly planes (i.e. Libyan or Russian). There
was also a shooting incident at Burma Camp, which is also near
the school. Turned out to be somebody escaping getting shot.
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The curfew continues from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. and people break
ing it are punished severely. There are rumours that those hours
are used to bring in foreign troops and "show them around." Cer
tainly, there are more Russians around. Yesterday, at the bank,
there were only two other whites there, both Russian. And at a
coffee shop there were three other whites, all Russian. I com
mented on this to somebody and then learned of the rumour that
Soviet troops are being landed at Tamale, in the north of the