Kwame Nkrumah was one of the most prominent African leaders who guided his country Ghana through the difficult postcolonial years. His philosophical and political views contributed to the idea of free and prosperous Africa significantly. Being born in goldsmith and retail trader’s family, Kwame pursued his higher education in the US, where he obtained both Bachelor and Mater degrees. During the years spent in the US Nkrumah actively studied the socialist ideas of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and nationalist ideas of the black American leader Marcus Garvey (Britannica, 2013). The nationalist ideas on the one side and socialist ideas on the other contributed to the development of his concept of Pan Africanism and his harsh position towards neoliberal reforms and multinational corporations that exhausted African resources. The presentation will concentrate on both intellectual and political legacies of Kwame Nkrumah as well as on his leadership and decision-making style, and show how the aforementioned points contributed to the development of modern African continent.
Kwame Nkrumah’s case clearly shows that his political and philosophical worldview defined his actions and achievements as a president and an activist. Ama Biney (2012, pp. 127 – 137) distinguishes between six Nkrumah’s legacies that contributed to the development of the continent. The first legacy is a book Neo-colonialism: The Highest Stage of Imperialism in which Nkrumah accuses Western capital in re-establishing colonial rule in Africa under the cover of financial aid (Biney, 2012, p. 128). Nkrumah argues that corporations and financial bodies like IMF or World Bank extract valuable natural resources from African countries, destabilize the political situation in African countries, and spread war and destruction that do not let Pan Africanism to be established as a continental ideology (Biney, 2012, p.129). The second legacy, which was largely underestimated, is the book Consciencism. Nkrumah points at the crisis of African conscience and refers to Africa’s “triple heritage” – African, Christian, and Islamic (Biney, 2012, p. 133). Nkrumah brings the Japanese example up and claims the Africans to re-establish their true African identity. The third legacy bears more practical connotations. The Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare called for the creation of OSPAAL (Biney, 2012, p. 134). Although Nkrumah has never provided any blueprints of the organization and it has never emerged, two modern organizations are based on the ideology offered by Nkrumah: Non-Aligned Movement and World Social Forum (Biney, 2012, p. 134). NAM took a stance against block system during the Cold War and actively promoted cultural links between Africa, Latin America, and Asia, whereas WSF united all alternative to neoliberal forces. The fourth intellectual legacy can be considered Nkrumah’s commitment to “scientific socialism” (Biney, 2012, p. 135). His Pan-African idea strongly relied on socialist ideas in a way that Africa should choose alternative to neoliberal capitalism economic system, which will ensure egalitarian society, fair income distribution, and more equal society. In addition, Nkrumah saw Pan-African society governed by All-Africa socialist government (Biney, 2012, p. 135). Such approach to socialist remains actual nowadays since African economy witnesses its increasing dependency over Western companies and organizations that limit African developmental opportunities and require adaptation of a totally new alternative approach to economy. The fifth legacy is Nkrumah’s belief that Africans should never give up their actual identity under the influence of globalization. No matter where the person is, he/she should always remember the nation (i.e. African nation) he/she belongs to (Biney, 2012, p. 136). The final intellectual legacy is Nkrumah’s opposition to nuclear weapons. He severely criticized French government for testing the nuclear bomb at Sahara desert, and his government hosted a “World without the Bomb Conference” in 1962 (Biney, 2012, p. 137).
Although Nkrumah’s contributions are usually considered to be limited to intellectual legacy, he implemented some of his principles to practice in the political sphere and development of Ghana. Nkrumah contributed to creation of the CCP’s newspaper, the Accra Evening News, and the Encyclopedia Africana Project (Biney, 2012, p. 138). In addition, he was one of the first African leaders doing investments in education and infrastructure building. Thanks to Nkrumah the level of literacy in Ghana increased, new roads and motorways were built, and a dam was built to supply Ghana and West Africa region with electricity. Finally, Nkrumah’s ideological believes led him to creation of Joint African Command, which main purpose was to defend Africa from imperial and neoliberal enemies (Biney, 2012, p. 138). The Nkrumah’s ideas of the political unification had a great weight among African leaders; however, most of them were not ready for radical unification of Africa into a single political body (Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel, 2013, p. 123). Nevertheless, many of Nkrumah’s achievements on the political front deserve admiration. His Convention People’s Party, which stood for self-government, allowed Gold Coast to become independent from British colonial rule (Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel, 2013, p. 123). After gaining independence in Ghana, Nkrumah did not stop his nationalist activities but continued spreading his ideas across the continent. His idea to unite all African countries under one nation resulted in formation of Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union that presented the draft of the United States of Africa Charter (Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel, 2013, p. 128). Some grounding ideas of Charter resemble those of modern European Union: supranational governing bodies, unified defense system, and open borders with one passport and one currency (similar to Schengen zone).
A great deal of Nkrumah’s achievements is prescribed to his innate ability to influence the political events using charismatic leadership style (Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel, 2013, p. 132). Such strong belief that he can make things happen enhanced by his theoretical knowledge and clear vision of Africa’s path made him a role model of a policy-maker for the whole African continent. Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel (2013, p. 134) argue that is was Nkrumah’s leadership that shaped Ghana’s foreign policy making it more aggressive and goal-oriented. Although Nkrumah was often blamed for being overly aggressive and distrustful, which further resulted in his project’s failure, maybe it was his leadership style that made his ideas so disputable and broadly discussed. Nowadays Africa suffers another wave of Pan-African aspirations. A conference on topic Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance held in Ethiopia, 2013, gathered political leaders from all over Africa to discuss the issues of reviving the idea of African unity (Kumah-Abiwu & Ochwa-Echel, 2013, p. 137). Nkrumah’s greatest achievement can be seen in the fact that his ambiguous political characteristic did not prevent modern political leaders from discussing his ideas on the continental level.
Conclusions
Kwame Nkrumah’s achievements need to be discussed on three fundamentally different levels – political, leadership, and intellectual. Nkrumah was one of the first active African thinkers who criticized neocolonial expansion of Western capital and neoliberal economic policies imposed from the outside. The only way to escape economic and, what is more important, conscience crisis he offered the idea of African nation that unites all African states into a single community. His political achievements, although not as prominent, gave Ghana a new push towards economic growth and development of its people. Finally, his undeniable charisma resulted in modern perception and revision of his ideas and modern African leaders’ attempts to revive the Pan-African idea.
References
Biney, A. (2012). The Intellectual and Political Legacies of Kwame Nkrumah. The Journal of Pan African Studies, 4(10), 127-142.
Britannica. (2013, October 18). Kwame Nkrumah (president of Ghana). Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/416674/Kwame-Nkrumah#toc5303
Kumah-Abiwu, F., & Ochwa-Echel, J. (2013). Rethinking the Ideas of Pan-Africanism and African Unity: A Theoretical Perspective of Kwame Nkrumah’s Leadership Traits and Decision Making. The Journal of Pan African Studies,, 6(6), 122-142.
