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INJUSTICE
CELL 17
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VChristmas eve, 1960 at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra Ghana, a poor boy went to bed thinking of how wonderful the next day will be for
him. Thoughts and ideas of the sumptuous food and drinks waiting for him the next day had even appeared in his dreams but a knock
on the door of Julius Samuel Boye-Doe, a then 15 year old boy turned out to be the beginning of five years of suffering and torture under the
watchful eyes of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
A film entitled Injustice Cell 17 has been written and produced by Mr Boye Doe to highlight the conditions he and his fellow prisoners went
through. African Echo’s Isaac Amo-Kyereme brings you the first of a two part interview granted Mr. Julius Samuel Boye-Doe, the boy
who spent five years in jail under the Preventive Detention Act of 1958.
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African Echo:
Welcome sir and what brings you to our office.
Boye- Doe: I am extremely happy for the opportunity to speak to Africa through your newspaper. I am also grateful for your being ready to listen
to me. I come from James Town, a part of Accra that used to be called British Accra. That used to be the hub of all commercial activity in Accra. There
were several shipping warehouses there. This area was very cosmopolitan in nature. People from all parts of the world lived and worked there. |
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AE: Your name Boye-Doe is very unique and rhymes very well, where in Ghana is it from.
BD: That’s true, any Boye-Doe you find in the world comes from my family. The name came about when my grandfather then a little became
the favourite of most of the captains and merchants who frequented James Town. His name was DOE. But because every one kept asking
of the BOY DOE it became his name and has been so for the family till now.
AE: How was live as a young boy in James town like?
BD: It was marvellous. This was at the time when Ghana, then Gold Coast was agitating for independence.
The GA people too were actively pressing on the government to give back Ga lands to Ga’s. At the same time Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and
the Convention Peoples Party and that of United Gold Coast Convention as well as the others were all campaigning for votes for
series of elections that led to Ghana’s independence.
AE: were you active then in any of these political activities?
BD: No, Not really I was just a teenager then. I used to attend these rallies though. Just stand there to listen to the speeches.
AE: What about your family. Was anyone politically active then?
BD: Not to my knowledge. I was however a very popular footballer. I was a prolific goal scorer. My inclusion in any team was good omen for
that team. That was all. As a Ga, I however supported the demands of the Ga’s for the return of their Lands.
AE: After independence what happened next?
BD: As a young boy, I was as innocent as any young boy. When we attended rallies I remember hearing slogans like “Choo Boi” and the
response was “Nsawam prisons”. Unkown to me and the young boys, that was a signal for where any one who opposed Nkrumah’s policies will
end up. And I poor 15 year old ended up in jail as a political prisoner for no apparent reason.
I remember the day as if it happened only yesterday and it still haunts me. Some people think I should shut my mouth and keep quiet, But my son, it
is like a film playing over and over before my eyes everyday. It has taken me over 37 years to brood over this experience before I was able to come out to tell my story. And I even had to do so because of a promise I made to my fellow political prisoners I met in detention. I woke up on
Christmas eve 1960 with a knock on my door. I opened the door and a security personnel requested my presence at the police
station to assist in a case I was involved in. Because I knew I had not done anything I followed him. That was the end of my freedom for six years.
AE: That is your story in the film INJUSTICE Cell 17 .
BD: Exactly. The experiences in the prison were horrible. For all the years we spent in detention we never brushed our teeth. No chewing stick or brush was given us. Many of elderly ones lost their teeth in jail. We were so many in a cell and anytime one fell sick you were given quinine irrespective of your illness. We ate and relieved ourselves in the same cell. The people in detention were not ordinary people.
These were self made men, people who had studied to the highest levels.
Lawyers, politicians, teachers, chiefs, doctors etc. I perhaps was the only no body there. And I have always wondered as to why I was arrested and detained amongst people like Dr. J.B. Danquah, Joe Appiah, Kwame Kissiedu, William Ofori Atta, E.O.Obetsebi-Lamptey etc.
AE: What was it like to be with them in detention.
BD: As a child when I was put in there, I did not really know who most of them were. I had head of their names but as I said I was not politically
active and so did not know them. But even though detention was cruel to me and them It was an honour to know such honourable
men. They really understood democracy and the rule of law. I remember Dr. J.B Danquah when he heard of a teenager in detention with them
called me to meet him at the library. He looked at me and called Joe Appiah to come and look at me. With tears in their eyes Dr. Danquah
asked Joe Appiah to petition Dr Nkrumah about my release as a juvenile I had nothing to do in jail with them.
AE: What happened to the petition?
BD: Nothing at all. I spent five years in Cell 17 and that is the story in the
film I have released. bring you the concluding part of an interview African Echo’s Isaac Amo-Kyereme conducted with Julius Samuel Boye-Doe, the young 15 year old boy whose experience in Kwame Nkrumah’s detention, has been produced into a film-Injustice Cell 17.
AE: Mr Doe, How were you able to cope?
Boye Doe: My son, I will not wish for anyone to ever be in such a situation. It was extremely difficult as for the five years I spent there, no reason was given me as to why I was there. I cried a lot for the first month and felt bitter and angry as well. I missed my poor mother and the entire family. Each time we were served with our usual Gari and watery soup I felt like having the strength of Samson to break the prison walls to gain my freedom.
AE: How did the other detainees treat you?
BD: I became the child of everyone there. I used to run errands for the prison officers as well as the noble men who were in the detention. It was a privilege to meet up with such noble men. Even though it was not the most appropriate place, I sat at the feet of these freedom fighters to gain wisdom. Remember there were over 2000 detainees under the Preventive Detention Act and most of the people there had been the friends and colleagues who had fallen out with Nkrumah’s policies. Some of these men had actually engineered his return from the United States and they kept asking themselves about why Nkrumah was paying them with such ungratefulness.
AE: From listening to them, what do you think must have made Nkrumah turn against his friends.
BD: Most of the people in detention just believed the greed for power had made Nkrumah a tyrant. He saw himself as the saviour of Ghana and the leader of Africa. And who ever did not think like him was a dissident and needed to be kept under lock.
The elder statesmen like Danquah at a point in time even requested for people like myself to be released but nothing happened. They were men who loved their country. They were democrats. It is a shame that J.B. Danquah for example died in detention.
AE: Did you ever meet Nkrumah?
BD: No! He never came to the usher prisons. But we knew that even in detention we were still spied on.
AE: Having watched I realised that there was a lot of torture going on. Did you experience direct torture yourself ?
BD: The greatest torture for me was the mental one. Not knowing when you will be going home was enough to kill you. Our health also deteriorated and many preventable diseases rather became chronic ones for us. For the whole period I stayed in detention I never had a tooth paste or even chewing stick to brush my teeth. Many of us lost our teeth. The dark cells also affected the eye sight of many of us. Many lost their wife’s and their children could not continue their education. My son some of the effects still continue with me till now.
AE: Why the film?
BD: Hmm.(sighs) It has taken me about forty years to get this story out. As I said earlier on, I thought I could let things go. But I made a promise forty years ago to my fellow detainees. That I will tell their story to the world. Because I was the youngest person, they asked me to tell their story to the world when able. It is a promise I could not renege on. But I really felt obliged to produce this film when I visited Ghana and went to see the conditions in which some of my colleagues still live in.
I was surprised that even though the government of Ghana today is made up of sons and daughters of fellow detainees of mine, they have not done anything to assist the few living PDA graduates. Most of them today are blind or bedridden. All they need is a little sustenance but no one seems to care about them.
I therefore decided to embark upon this project to raise the awareness and raise up some funds to help these men who struggled to free Ghana from the hands of tyranny and colonialism.
AE: As Africans in the Diaspora, what can we do to help in your cause?
BD: I will urge your Ghanaian readers to first of all put some pressure on their government to speed up the disbursement of restitution and reconciliation funds promised in December 2005.A special concession could be granted to persons in my age group to pick their pittance now as any delay might make them miss this gesture as death beckons at most of them each day.
Secondly, I will urge those of you here to buy the film to help me raise some money for the suffering colleagues of mine. I financed the project on my own but will need help to help in this direction.
AE: What is your final message for our readers?
BD: Dr Nkrumah became a tyrant as a result of power. It has been said that power corrupts absolutely. He came to Ghana from the United States as a democrat but he changed over night. I will want to urge my fellow Africans to be careful when entrusted with power. You can affect the lives of others either positively or negatively for life. Nkrumah chose the negative path whilst Danquah and others chose the positive side. In all that we do we must remember the question Danquah asked if it was worth dying for the new Ghana. He did indeed die in jail but was it necessary.
The choice lies in our own hands. In a few years we of the older generation will be gone and we will go with the history. I have produced my history into a film for posterity to watch and know. Help me to produce more and to help sustain the lives of my fellow noble men back home in Ghana.
AE: Thanks you Mr Boye Doe.
BD: Thanks for having me here Mr. Amo-Kyereme.
You can get a copy of the film INJUSTICE CELL 17 by calling Mr. Boye Doe on 07944914787 or on 02077939393 or email: injusticecell17@tmail.co.uktiscali.
The main agent is Kumasi Market.
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