Building the Ghanaian Nation-State: Kwame Nkrumah’s Symbolic Nationalism

297 Pages·2014·2.594 MB·English

by  Harcourt Fuller (auth.)

Building the Ghanaian Nation-State
AFRICAN HISTORIES AND MODERNITIES
Series Editors
Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
Matthew M. Heaton, Virginia Tech
Editorial Board
Aderonke Adesanya, Art History, James Madison University
Kwabena Akurang-Parry, History, Shippensburg University
Nana Amponsah, History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Tyler Fleming, History, University of Louisville
Barbara Harlow, English and Comparative Literature, University of Texas at Austin
Emmanuel Mbah, History, College of Staten Island
Akin Ogundiran, Africana Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions to and nego-
tiations of diverse modernities over time and space, with a particular emphasis on
historical developments. Specifically, it aims to refute the hegemonic conception of
a singular modernity, Western in origin, spreading out to encompass the globe over
the last several decades. Indeed, rather than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or
parameters, the series instead looks to receive and respond to changing perspectives
on an important but inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space in which
multiple modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While privileging works that
emphasize historical change over time, the series will also feature scholarship that
blurs the lines between the historical and the contemporary, recognizing the ways in
which our changing understandings of modernity in the present have the capacity to
affect the way we think about African and global histories.
Published in the series
Contemporary Africa: Challenges and Opportunities (2014)
Edited by Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah
African Postcolonial Modernity: Informal Subjectivities and
the Democratic Consensus (2014)
By Sanya Osha
Building the Ghanaian Nation-State: Kwame Nkrumah’s
Symbolic Nationalism (2014)
By Harcourt Fuller
Prisoners of Rhodesia: Inmates and Detainees in the Struggle for Zimbabwean
Liberation, 1960–1980 (2014)
By Munyaradzi B. Munochiveyi
Building the Ghanaian
Nation-State
Kwame Nkrumah’s Symbolic Nationalism
Harcourt Fuller
BUILDING THE GHANAIAN NATION-STATE
Copyright © Harcourt Fuller, 2014.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 ISBN 978-1-137-44856-9
All rights reserved.
First published in 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-49652-5 ISBN 978-1-137-44858-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137448583
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fuller, Harcourt, author.
Building the Ghanaian nation-state : Kwame Nkrumah’s symbolic
nationalism / by Harcourt Fuller.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–137–44856–9 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909–1972—Influence. 2. Nationalism—Ghana.
3. Symbolism in politics—Ghana. 4. Ghana—Politics and government—
1957–1979. I. Title.
DT512.3.N57F85 2014
966.7051—dc23 2014020338
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Foreword: Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah—His Symbolic
Nationalism and Nation Building xv
Acknowledgments xxi
Abbreviations xxv
Timeline of Important Dates in the Life of Kwame Nkrumah xxix
Ghanaian Premiers, 1951—Present xxxi
Introduction: The Symbolism of Ghanaian Nationalism 1
1 Banal Symbols of the New Nation-State 21
2 Philatelic Nationalism 39
3 Economic Nationalism 55
4 Civitatis Ghaniensis Conditor 69
5 Exhibiting the Nation 81
6 Monumental Nationalism 119
7 Pan-African Nationalism 133
8 The Downfall of Kwame Nkrumah 149
9 The Death and Symbolic “Resurrection”
of Kwame Nkrumah 163
10 From “Redeemer” to Redeemed? 175
Conclusion 189
Notes 193
Bibliography 231
Index 251
This page intentionally left blank
Illustrations
MAP
0.1 Map of Ghana xxxii
TABLES
1.1 Ghana’s national anthem (1957, original) 35
1.2 Ghana’s national anthem (1960, Republican version) 36
3.1 World price for cocoa, 1956–1965 64
3.2 Final designs for permanent independence stamps proposed
by the Reconstituted Stamp Advisory Committee 67
PLATES AND FIGURES
Plates and figures appear between chapters 5 and 6. All captions and
sources for the corresponding figures are located on the recto side of
the plate
Plate 1
1.1 The Adinkra symbol Funtunfunefu-Denkyemfunefu (the
Siamese Crocodile)
1.2 Asantehene Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, seated beside the
Golden Stool (Sika Dwa Kofi)
1.3 The Golden Stool (Sika Dwa Kofi)
1.4 The “elephant and palm tree” flag of the colonial Gold Coast,
1877—1957
1.5 The Ethiopian imperial flag
1.6 The Ghanaian national flag
1.7 The flag of the Asante nation
1.8 The NLM flag
1.9 A Ghanaian coat of arms sculpture at Independence Square
(Black Star Square)
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 2
2.1 Kofi Antubam and US Postmaster General
2.2 2d “Ghana Independence Commemoration 6th March 1957”
stamp
2.3 1d “Nkrumah Statue Parliament House” stamp, 1958
2.4 2/- “National Founder’s Day 21st Sept. 1962” stamp
2.5 3d “National Founder’s Day 21st Sept. 1962” stamp
Plate 3
3.1 2/- BWA coin (obverse and reverse sides), 1915
3.2 1/- BWA banknote (obverse side), 1918
3.3 20/- BWA banknote (obverse side), 1957
3.4 100/- (£5) BWA banknote (reverse side), 1954
3.5 £1 Ghanaian banknote (obverse and reverse sides), 1958
3.6 £5 Ghanaian banknote (obverse and reverse sides), 1962
3.7a 5p “Decimal Currency System 19–7-65” stamp
3.7b 2/- “Inauguration of Ghana Airways July 1958” stamp
3.7c 1d “Ghana Railway 1903–1963” stamp
3.7d 5/- “Inauguration of the Black Star Line 1957” stamp
3.7e 24p “Volta River Project” stamp, 1966
3.7f 2/6 “New Town & Harbour Tema” stamp, 1962
3.7g 6d “Oil Refinery Tema” stamp, 1964
3.7h 4d “Red Cross Centenary 1863–1963” stamp
3.7i 4d “The World United Against Malaria” stamp, 1962
3.7j 4d “Freedom From Hunger Campaign March 21st 1963”
stamp
3.7k 6p “Herring and Fishermen” stamp, 1966
3.7l 2 1/2d “Cocoa” stamp, 1959
3.7m 3d “Harvesting Corn in a State Farm” stamp, 1964
3.7n 1/2d “Ambassador Hotel” stamp, 1958
3.7o 1 1/2d “Ghana Timber” stamp, 1959
3.7p 4d “Diamond” stamp, with overprint, 1965
Plate 4
4.1 Republic Day commemorative gold coin, 1960
4.2 ¢1 Ghanaian banknote (Obverse side), 1965
4.3 ¢10 Ghanaian banknote (obverse side), 1965
4.4 CPP Minister Paul Tagoe
4.5 CPP Minister Paul Tagoe
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
4.6 CPP Minister Paul Tagoe
4.7 CPP Minister Paul Tagoe
Plate 5
5.1 The main dome-shaped building of the Ghana National
Museum
5.2 The Asante Cultural Centre
Plate 6
6.1 The Independence Square Monument
6.2 The Independence Arch Monument
6.3a The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Monument
6.3b Close-up of Figure 6.3a
6.3c Another view of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Monument
6.4 The Three Marble Slab Cenotaph at Independence Square
6.5 Slab of Plaque-Monument
6.6 Memorial Plaque-Monument
6.7a Statue of Kwame Nkrumah at Parliament House, Accra
6.7b Front plaque of Nkrumah Parliament House statue
6.7c Side plaque of Nkrumah Parliament House statue
6.7d Side plaque of Nkrumah Parliament House statue
6.7e Back plaque of Nkrumah Parliament House statue
6.8 Statue of Kwame Nkrumah at the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological
Institute in Winneba
Plate 7
7.1a Shield and spears given to Nkrumah by Emperor Haile Selassie
I of Ethiopia
7.1b Close-up of shield in Figure 7.1a
7.2 The “Port Said,” given to Nkrumah by Egyptian President
Nasser around 1965
7.3 Italian mortar captured in WWII and put on display at the
GAFM
7.4 Belgian weapons, Congolese “juju mask” and guns captured
by the Ghana Armed Forces in the Congo
7.5a 2 1/2d “Conference of Independent African States Accra
1958” stamp