GHANAIAN INDEPENDENCE
Kwame Nkrumah= first PM and President of Ghana after having led the Gold Coast to
independence from Britain in 1957
Gold Coast= first area in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence
Ghana means ‘Warrior-King’ in the Soninke language
Ghana has a pre-colonial history of strong states (e.g., Ashanti Empire)
15th Century onwards- upon the arrival of the Dutch to the ‘Gold Coast’, Ghana became more
and more a victim of European slavery
Prior to the twentieth century, there was much violence and conflict between Ashanti and British
forces
Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup after less than a decade as the premier of Ghana; he later
died alone in 1970
Ghana’s peaceful path to decolonization in 1957 was due to effective African political resistance,
Ghana’s unitary state nationalism (which was reactionary), and the fact that Nkrumah’s vision of
Pan-Africanism stymied
Nationalism in Africa has a rich historiographical tradition:
● ‘Admirer’ school of thought emphasize the success of nationalist leaders and the first
generation of African leaders as charismatic, popular, energetic and mobilized
● ‘Sceptics’ (R Robinson, J Gallagher) view nationalism as “a continuation of
imperialism by other means”
● ‘Sympathizers’: J Iliffe- “nationalism only partially aroused many of Africa’s deepest
political forces” (responses to nationalism were often shaped by local
circumstances); Africans had multiple identities (R Reid) = nationalism was more
complex and influenced by other factors; John Lonsdale- there were older ‘ethnic
patriotisms’
● Critics: there were alternative forms of nationalism across much of Africa (Mwanga
Nkumbula in Zambia displayed a form of liberal nationalism)- this links to the work of
Giacomo Macola
● Legacy of imperialism- leaders may have inherited states but not necessarily nations.
(African states had been carved out arbitrarily during the ‘Scramble’)
Franz Fanon: mere independence did not mean Africans had become free; Africans became
“enfranchised slaves”
Adom Getachew (Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination, 2019):
● 20th century anti-colonial leaders challenged international racial hierarchies and
developed new approaches to view the world
● Pan-Africanism developed a new kind of ideology in the lead up to African
independence
● Pan-Africanism viewed a post-colonial egalitarian world order
● Pan-Africanism emerges during a time of pushback against established international
orders (e.g., the UN)
Nationalism in Africa was moralistic and emotional; one of the central bedrocks of nationalism
was understandings around race, slavery and historical oppression
Kwame Nkrumah= first PM and President of Ghana after having led the Gold Coast to
independence from Britain in 1957
Gold Coast= first area in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence
Ghana means ‘Warrior-King’ in the Soninke language
Ghana has a pre-colonial history of strong states (e.g., Ashanti Empire)
15th Century onwards- upon the arrival of the Dutch to the ‘Gold Coast’, Ghana became more
and more a victim of European slavery
Prior to the twentieth century, there was much violence and conflict between Ashanti and British
forces
Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup after less than a decade as the premier of Ghana; he later
died alone in 1970
Ghana’s peaceful path to decolonization in 1957 was due to effective African political resistance,
Ghana’s unitary state nationalism (which was reactionary), and the fact that Nkrumah’s vision of
Pan-Africanism stymied
Nationalism in Africa has a rich historiographical tradition:
● ‘Admirer’ school of thought emphasize the success of nationalist leaders and the first
generation of African leaders as charismatic, popular, energetic and mobilized
● ‘Sceptics’ (R Robinson, J Gallagher) view nationalism as “a continuation of
imperialism by other means”
● ‘Sympathizers’: J Iliffe- “nationalism only partially aroused many of Africa’s deepest
political forces” (responses to nationalism were often shaped by local
circumstances); Africans had multiple identities (R Reid) = nationalism was more
complex and influenced by other factors; John Lonsdale- there were older ‘ethnic
patriotisms’
● Critics: there were alternative forms of nationalism across much of Africa (Mwanga
Nkumbula in Zambia displayed a form of liberal nationalism)- this links to the work of
Giacomo Macola
● Legacy of imperialism- leaders may have inherited states but not necessarily nations.
(African states had been carved out arbitrarily during the ‘Scramble’)
Franz Fanon: mere independence did not mean Africans had become free; Africans became
“enfranchised slaves”
Adom Getachew (Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination, 2019):
● 20th century anti-colonial leaders challenged international racial hierarchies and
developed new approaches to view the world
● Pan-Africanism developed a new kind of ideology in the lead up to African
independence
● Pan-Africanism viewed a post-colonial egalitarian world order
● Pan-Africanism emerges during a time of pushback against established international
orders (e.g., the UN)
Nationalism in Africa was moralistic and emotional; one of the central bedrocks of nationalism
was understandings around race, slavery and historical oppression
