The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah

265 Pages·2011·1.52 MB·English

by  Ama Biney

The Political and Social Thought of
Kwame Nkrumah
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The Political and Social Thought of
Kwame Nkrumah
Ama Biney
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the political and social thought of kwame nkrumah
Copyright © Ama Biney, 2011.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 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: 978-0-230-11334-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biney, Ama.
The political and social thought of Kwame Nkrumah / by Ama Biney.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-230-11334-3 (alk. paper)
1. Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909–1972—Political and social views. 2. Ghana—Politics
and government—1957–1979. 3. National liberation movements—Ghana—
Philosophy. 4. National liberation movements—Africa—Philosophy. 5. Pan-
Africanism. I. Title.
DT512.3.N57B52 2011
320.54'9092–dc22 2010040966
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: April 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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To Tajudeen Abdul- Raheem and all those unknown Africans
killed prematurely as he prophetically and ironically said, “through
inadequate public services compromised by corruption. Monies meant
for drugs, roads, hospitals, schools, public security, etc. . . . are siphoned
away making all of us vulnerable to premature death.”
—Tajudeen Abdul- Raheem, “Corrupt Leaders are Mass Murderers”
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
1 The Discourse on Nkrumah 1
2 Nkrumah’s Intellectual Influences, 1927– 1945 11
3 From Activist to Leader of the CPP, 1945– 1951 29
4 Nkrumah and the Dyarchic Partnership, 1951– 1954 47
5 Nkrumah and the Opposition, 1954– 1957 65
6 Nkrumah’s Politics, 1958– 1966 81
7 Economic, Social, and Cultural Policies, 1958– 1966 99
8 Nkrumah’s Political Writings, 1958– 1966 119
9 Nkrumah’s Foreign Policy, 1958– 1966 135
10 Nkrumah in Exile, 1966– 1972 155
11 Nkrumah in Retrospect 173
Notes 193
Bibliography 233
Index 243
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Acknowledgments
As students of history we can learn to honour great men and women without
shutting our eyes to their faults. Perhaps these human imperfections make their
achievements all the more heroic.
— Michael Stanford, A Companion to the Study of History, p. 41.
My fascination with Kwame Nkrumah began in my late teens during my under-
graduate studies at the University of Birmingham in 1983 where I encoun-
tered Nkrumah as a larger-t han-l ife figure and then in my years as member of
the United Kingdom Chapter of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party
(AAPRP) led by Kwame Ture, formerly known as Stokely Carmichael. At Bir-
mingham, Nkrumah was vilified in the readings I came across and by lecturers.
In the AAPRP, he was shrouded in hagiography; critique was inconceivable.
My interest in Nkrumah eventually led to my formal enrollment as a part- time
PhD student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of
London in 1998, under the supervision of Prof. Richard Rathbone and later Dr.
John Parker. At this juncture I was, as most doctoral students were, unclear on
what to focus on. It was June Milne, Nkrumah’s literary executrix whom I met
back in 1990, who inspired me to consider the subject of Pan- Africanism and
Nkrumah. She wrote a reference for me and continued to offer encouragement
and research materials at her wonderful house in Pinner, just outside central
London. Gradually it became clear that the evolution of Nkrumah’s ideas, essen-
tially what motivated Nkrumah, was of immense interest to me. This became the
focus of my doctoral dissertation and is the subject matter of this book. However,
my approach to Nkrumah is encapsulated in the quotation from Michael Stan-
ford that begins these words of acknowledgment. All great figures of history are
simply flawed human beings, like all of us. How these defects and strengths in
human character impact on their agency, vision, and material reality makes an
analysis of the past fascinating.
Along my intellectual sojourn, I would like to sincerely thank my supervi-
sors Richard Rathbone for his encouragement, his infectious enthusiasm, and for
passing me into the rigorous supervision of John Parker when he retired in 2003.
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