Kume Preko was the name given to an anti-government demonstration that occurred in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

in 1995, led by Charles Wereko Brobbey. The protest took place in opposition to the Value Added Tax (VAT) initiative which was introduced under the

Jerry John Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the de ...

administration. It is said to have been one of the biggest protests ever organised in the country, with an estimated 100,000 people participating. The demonstration was initially billed as a peaceful protest but quickly became violent when unidentified assailants shot live bullets into the crowd resulting in the deaths of a few protestors.

Etymology

"Kume Preko" means "You may as well kill me" in the

Akan language Akan () is a Central Tano language and the principal native language of the Akan people of Ghana, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. About 80% of Ghana's population can speak Akan, and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers. I ...

spoken by the majority of Akan people in

Reports

In the aftermath of the demonstration, some of the leading protestors -

Nana Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 January 2025. Akufo-Addo previously ...

Charles Wereko-Brobby Charles Wereko-Brobby popularly known as Tarzan (born 27 March 1953) is a Ghanaian engineer, politician, diplomat and businessman in Ghana. He was once the chief executive officer of Ghana's Volta River Authority, then the country's major power ge ...

Kwesi Pratt Jnr Kwesi Pratt Jnr (born 7 September 1953) is a Ghanaian journalist and managing editor of the ''Insight'' Newspaper. Kwesi was a member of ''Alliance for Change'', the organisers of the 1995 Kume Preko anti-government demonstration. He is the fou ...

, Akoto Ampaw and Napoleon Abdulai wrote a book "Ghana: The Kume Preko demonstrations: Poverty, Corruption and the Rawlings Dictatorship".

References

External links

* https://www.amazon.co.uk/GHANA-Demonstrations-Corruption-Rawlings-Dictatorship/dp/B0018LTSWQ

Etymology

Reports

References

External links

Further reading