Edudzi Agyeman
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Edudzi Agyeman | |
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.jpg) Agyeman in 1954 | |
| Chairman of the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International | |
| In office 2 September, 1929 – 27 September, 1973 | |
| Deputy | Adelaja Ifedapo (1929–60) Folarin Layeni (1960–66) Kayode Temidare (1966–73) |
| Preceded by | Adelaja Ifedapo |
| Succeeded by | Kayode Temidare (as General Secretary of the Section Presidium) |
| President of the Bahian People's Republic of Asase Lewa | |
| In office 1 May, 1953 – 1 May, 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office abolished |
| Premier of Asase Lewa | |
| In office 11 April, 1966 – 1 May, 1969 | |
| Preceded by | Folarin Layeni |
| Succeeded by | Klenam Vuvor (as General Secretary of the Supreme Workers' Council) |
| Member of the Presidium of the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International | |
| In office 27 February, 1918 – 27 September, 1973 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Klenam Agyeman February 1, 1890 Kedzito, Anloland, Odo |
| Died | September 27, 1973 (aged 83) Edudzi Agyeman City, Asase Lewa |
| Political party | Asalewan Section of the Workers' International |
| Education | Kbeme Normal School |
| Occupation | Politician • revolutionary • teacher |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Asalewan Section of the Workers' International Asase Lewa |
| Branch/service | People's Revolutionary Army |
| Years of service | 1918–1973 |
| Rank | Generalissimo |
| Battles/wars | Asalewan Revolution Great War |
Edudzi Agyeman (born Klenam Agyeman; 1 February 1890 - 27 September, 1973) was an Asalewan politician, political theorist, military strategist, and councilist revolutionary who led the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International from 1929 until his death in 1973. Additionally, Edudzi founded the modern state of Asase Lewa in 1953, leading it until his death and overseeing its progressive establishment of a socialist economy and transformation into a single-party state and then council republic under the Asalewan Section's tutelage. Ideologically a Nemtsovist, Councilist, and Pan-Bahian, he and Adelaja Ifedapo formalized and developed these ideas into the philosophy of Nemtsovism-Tretyakism-Adelajism-Edudzism.
Born to a working-class family in the tin mining district of Kedzito in western Anloland in the Estmerish colony of Odo, now Asase Lewa, Agyeman attended primary school at a United Amendist Church mission. Considered a precocious child by his teachers, Edudzi subsequently attended secondary school and normal school in the larger city of Kbeme, a historic hotbded of working-class radicalism, where he became involved in radical politics and became a founding member of the Odonian Section of the Workers' International in 1912. Returning to Kedzito to become a history teacher at his former primary school, Agyeman clandestinely organized a local Section branch in the district. During the broader 1916-17 Odonian general strike called by the Section, Edudzi led the Kedzito uprising of 1917, establishing the autonomous Kedzito Workers' Council. After Section leaders escaped to the autonomous, highly isolated region in early 1918 following the Section's outlawment as a result of the strike, Edudzi's influence within the area resulted in his ascension to the Section Presidium, and he was influential in the Section's decision to call for an all-out revolutionary war in September 1918, considered the beginning of the Asalewan Revolution.
Over the course of the 1920s, Edudzi's stature within the Section improved immensely, as he became renowned as a shrewd, vital early strategist of guerrilla warfare and people's war, and recognized as the leader of the rural, largely working-class and peasant, wing of the Section, ushering those classes' ascension to the highest levels of Section leadership at the expensive of the formerly-dominant intelligentsia. After becoming leader of the Section during the Great War, Edudzi oversaw the Section's initiation of widespread guerrilla warfare operations against invading Gaullican forces, and, following the Great War's conclusion, the Section leadership's retreat from Keddito to the Highland district of Lokossa, amassing forging deep links with, traditional leaders—particularly members of various Pygmy groups—in a region that, unlike the Lowlands, had hitherto escaped involvement in the Revolution or any serious control by a state or state-like entity. In Lokossa, he further consolidated control over the Section by allying with the long-time leader of the intellectual faction of the Section, Adelaja Ifedapo, in purging Abidemists from the Section en masse during the Lokossa Rectification Campaign.
Though Section activity and number of Section revolutionary base areas temporarily declined in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with the resumption of Estmerish control and beginning of home rule, Section activity increased considerably throughout the rest of the 1940s, with mass discontentment sweeping throughout Asalewan society as a result of severe economic crisis thanks to the Solarian War, disatisfaction with the conservatve, pro-Estmerish rule of home rule Prime Minister Arko Kwarteng, and Kwarteng's outlawment of the leading opposition party, the Labour Party. These factors, combined with the withdrawal of Estmerish troops following decolonization in 1951, resulted in the Section achieving victory and Edudzi Agyeman became the head of state of Odo, renamed Asase Lewa, in 1953.
During the 1950s, Edudzi played an important role in championing the widespread socialization and collectivization of the economy, establishing a command economy that made significant progress in economic development, healthcare, and education, achieved one of the largest reductions in economic inequality in history, and substantially expanded Asalewan state capacity. However, Edudzi also spearheaded the Nutiklɔdzo, the ethnic cleansing of virtually Asase Lewa's entire Euclean minority and mass popular killings of dissidents, class enemies, and remaining Eucleans. While in power, Edudzi and the Section initially shared power with the Labour Party and sympathetic Highlander chiefs, cohered into the National Progressive Party, but in 1958 Edudzi launched the Anti-Tribal Revolution, concentrating control in the Section and establishing a single-party state. In 1960, Edudzi supported Asase Lewa's ascension into the United Bahian Republic as the Section Presidium fell into a power vacuum upon Adelaja Ifedapo's death, ushering in a power struggle between Edudzi and succeeding Premier Folarin Layeni.
In the context of this power vacuum—and, more broadly, crisis triggered by the Sugar Crash and the collapse of the UBR upon Vudzijena Nhema's overthrow in Rwizikuru—Edudzi launched the Protective-Corrective Revolution, marked by the ascension of Edudzi's already-intense cult of personality to unprecedented levels, intense class struggle against pre-revolutionary class enemies and the embryonic Asalewan nomenklatura, and, ultimately, Asase Lewa's transformation into a council republic structured according to participatory economics, which Edudzi strongly supported. Simultaneously, Asase Lewa under Edudzi's leadership pursued a highly interventionist and internationalist foreign policy, forging close links with other socialist states—particularly Dezevau and Tretyakist-era Chistovodia—and offering extensive aid to both left-wing Bahian governments, such as Nhema-era Rwizikuru and the Mabifian Democratic Republic, and insurgent groups, such as the East Riziland Liberation Front and the Tiwuran People's Union. By 1970, with the establishment of the council republic and Edudzi's health entering into serious decline following his contraction of lung cancer, he began substantially transferring power to other figures, most notably the elected government under Klenam Vullor and the powerful military general Kayode Temidare, both of whom were key radicals and allies of Edudzi during the Protective-Corrective Revolution. In this context, Edudzi died in 1973, succeeded as leader of the Asalewan Section by Temidare.
Widely considered the most influential figure in modern Asalewan history and one of the most influential figures in the history of twentieth-century Bahia, Edudzi Agyeman remains an intensely controversial figure. He remains held in deep respect in Asase Lewa, where he remains the subject of an intense cult of personality and is frequently referred to the honorific tᴐ ((Asalewan: "Father") as the Father of the Nation. Similarly, his passing was mourned widely throughout the socialist world and Bahian left; supporters praise him as a fierce opponent of colonialism and champion of the Bahian working-class and peasantry, and credit him with greately lessening Asase Lewa's inequality and ushering in widespread economic and social development. Conversely, Edudzi Agyeman remains widely reviled by the Bahian right; critics allege he focused on ideological purity and supporting Bahian liberation movements at the long-term expense of Asalewan development, and, especially, for initiating widespread political violence that led to mass death, including his violent prosecution of the Asalewan Revolution and various alleged human rights abuses afterwards, primarily during the Nutiklɔdzo, Anti-Tribal Revolution, and Protective-Corrective Revolution.