CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 2&3, 2021 Page 33

Kwame Nkrumah and the Quest for Independence1

epending on whether you Atlantic world as a student, worker, looked from the North intellectual and political organiser DAtlantic or the Black Adom Getachew before he returned to lead the Atlantic, the year 1957 appeared University of Chicago, nationalist movement in 1947. to signal two different political USA When Ghanaian independence futures. On 6 March, Ghana was finally achieved, Nkrumah finally secured its independence warned that the fight was just from Great Britain after a decade- new nationalist movements, beginning. Ghanaian independence, long nationalist struggle. At this time in the North Atlantic, he insisted, ‘is meaningless unless the independence celebrations, have repudiated internationalist it is linked up with the total Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of institutions like the European liberation of the African continent’ the Convention People’s Party and Union, their critics reject calls for (Nkrumah 1957: 107). In seeking the new prime minister, declared independence and autonomy as this liberation, Nkrumah urged that Ghanaian independence fantastical and dangerous. Such a fellow African nationalists to follow marked the birth of a new African view assumes that nationalism and the Ghanaian example and ‘seek ‘ready to fight his own battles internationalism are incompatible. ye first the political kingdom’ and and show that after all, the black Yet if we return to Ghana in 1957 secure ‘complete independence and man is capable of managing his and trace Nkrumah’s vision of sovereignty’ (Nkrumah 1957: 107). own affairs’ (Nkrumah 1957: decolonisation, we find a view Then and now, this nationalist 107). Less than three weeks of national independence that later, on 25 March, Belgium, aspiration for complete could only be realised through independence inspires scepticism, France, the Federal Republic of internationalism. Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and suspicion, even disdain. Writing the Netherlands signed the Treaty In the early days of independence, in 1960, Elie Kedourie, the British of Rome, creating the European Nkrumah insisted that African historian of the Middle East, voiced Economic Community (EEC). states had to unite in a regional his fear that this nationalist demand For the West German chancellor, federation to overcome economic would only produce postcolonial Konrad Adenauer, the treaty was dependence and international domination. He and other observers one more step in ‘the great work hierarchy. Emerging concurrently of decolonisation worried that of fostering durable international with the EU, this account of colonial elites had grafted the reconciliation and a community regionalism was distinctively nation-state onto African and Asian of nations for the good of Europe’ postcolonial. Rather than taming societies without the necessary (Vogel and Buchstab 2007). While the sovereign state through regional sociological prerequisites: literacy, Ghanaian independence marked economic linkages, Nkrumah’s a middle class and strong political the emergence of a world of nation- Pan-African federation sought to institutions. Nationalism was, states from the ashes of European realise the nation-state’s promise in Kedourie’s account, an alien, imperialism, the birth of the EEC of independence. European ideology that elites in the empire’s metropoles looked mobilised to ‘sway and dominate’ forward to the transcendence of the Securing ‘complete the unready masses. The result in nation-state itself. independence’ postcolonial societies would be new forms of Oriental despotism Over half a century later, we Born in 1909 as a subject of the (Kedourie 1960: 112). ‘Nationalism continue to operate within the British Empire in the Gold Coast and liberalism far from being twins terms of this opposition. As colony, Nkrumah had circled the are really antagonistic principles’, CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 2&3, 2021 Page 34 he wrote (Kedourie 1960: 109). colonised peoples. For Nkrumah, means much more than merely Kedourie’s early critique of however, alien rule was only one being free to fly our own flag and anticolonial nationalism lives on component of a larger experience to play our own national anthem,’ today in the preoccupation with the of colonial dependence and Nkrumah argued (Nkrumah 1967: insularity, parochialism and anti- dependence was first and foremost 55). Independence required a cosmopolitanism of nationalist an economic relation. ‘Imperialism ‘revolutionary framework’, enacted projects. At best, national in- knows no law beyond its own both nationally and internationally. dependence is a naïve aspiration interests’, Nkrumah wrote in 1947 Domestically, he emphasised the in the context of globalisation. (Nkrumah [1947] 1962: 33). And need to institutionalise postcolonial At worst, nationalism is a violent this interest was to transform the citizenship and democratic self- force that undermines transnational colonial sphere into an appendage government. Starting with non- solidarities and institutions. of the metropolitan economy—a violent mass movements for site for the production of raw independence—what Nkrumah For Nkrumah, nothing could materials, the exploitation of called ‘positive action’—colonial have been further from the truth. non-white workers and the sale subjects were to overcome the When he argued that Ghana’s of European goods to a captive psychic and social forms of independence must be linked to market. The forced integration of dependence through political the fate of colonised Africa, he the colony into global circuits of practice. While he insisted that did not just mean that the rest of trade, production and consumption the postcolonial state would the continent had to emerge from generated a distorted colonial be a parliamentary democracy, alien rule by replicating the nation- economy directed by foreign postcolonial citizenship went state form. Instead, he imagined interests. Even after independence, beyond elections and representation. new political and economic links he acknowledged that these form As Jeffrey Ahlman’s recent book, that would create a United States of economic dependence and Living with Nkrumahism, illustrates, of Africa. The 1960 republican domination persisted. Ghanaian citizenship was a Constitution of Ghana looked pedagogic practice that instilled forward to this achievement. At Economic dependence structured the habits of independence through Nkrumah’s insistence, it included the social and political conditions involvement in institutions like the a clause that conferred on the of the colony. A people ‘long Builder’s Brigade, Young Pioneers Parliament ‘the power to provide subjected to foreign domination’, and trade unions. Youth and for the surrender of the whole Nkrumah observed, becomes workers were enrolled ideologically or any part of the sovereignty of habituated to dependence in the project of nation-building Ghana’ once a Union of African (Nkrumah 1970: 50). Echoing in these organisations. Citizens States was formed. Guinea and Frantz Fanon’s better-known would learn, practise and perform Mali followed Ghana’s lead and theories of colonial domination, ‘civic duty and responsibility’ as adopted similar clauses in their Nkrumah highlighted the psychic well as ‘patriotism and loyalty for Constitutions. The three states dimensions of colonialism. the country’ (Ahlman 2017: 84– formed the Ghana-Guinea-Mali ‘Under arbitrary rule, people are 148). Nationalism, following this Union, which was to serve as the apt to become lethargic; their view, was not a backward-looking nucleus for a future continent-wide senses are dulled. Fear becomes project that relied on pre-existing union. The postcolonial political the dominant force in their lives; ties of language or kinship. Instead, kingdom was not the nation-state fear of breaking the law, fear Nkrumah acknowledged the arbitr- but a Pan-African federation. of the punitive measures which ariness of colonial boundaries and might result from an unsuccessful Decolonisation, Nkrumah argued, saw Ghanaian national identity attempt to break loose from their as an inventive project, still in the had become a word ‘much and shackles’(Nkrumah 1970: 50). unctuously used … to describe the process of collective construction. transfer of political control from From the international economy Central to the nationalist project colonialist to African sovereignty’ to the everyday experiences of of postcolonial citizenship was a (Nkrumah 1965: 31). Focusing the colonial subject, colonial developmental and welfarist state on this transfer assumed that the rule operated around interlocked that would restructure the national primary injustice of imperialism structures of domination. As such, economy to ensure equality. was the denial of sovereignty to the demand for ‘Independence ‘The major advantage which CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 2&3, 2021 Page 35 our independence has bestowed financial institutions, external Organised on the continental upon us is the liberty to arrange actors played a dominant role in scale, African states could forego our national life according to the securing the postcolonial state’s their dependence on international interests of our people and along budgets, shoring up its financial markets and reorient their with it, the freedom, in conjunction systems and providing the markets economic relationships towards with other countries, to interfere for its primary goods. These actors other African states. Having with the play of [market] forces,’ could use their outsized economic broken the political and economic argued Nkrumah (Nkrumah 1970: power to shape domestic policy. boundaries’ that separated them, 110). An interventionist state, as African states could eliminate Nkrumah quoted Gunnar Myrdal, In his 1965 book, Neo-Colonialism: competition among them and could ‘alter considerably the The Last Stage of Imperialism, collectively achieve a purchasing direction of the market processes’ Nkrumah detailed the concessions and bargaining power to rival other that had produced dependence and privileges former colonial regions and international powers (Nkrumah 1970: 109–110). As powers demanded as part of the (Nkrumah 1970: 162–163). with developmental states around transfer of sovereignty: ‘setting up the world in this period, Nkrumah’s military bases or stationing troops in A Pan-African federation was economic policy centered on former colonies and the supplying not simply a free-trade area or modernising agriculture, investing of “advisers” of one sort of another’, a customs union. Instead, the in industrialisation and providing demanding ‘land concessions, linkages between new African key social services, including prospecting rights for minerals and/ states would need to be invented. universal education and healthcare. or oil; the “right” to collect customs, As Nkrumah often noted, given the to carry out administration, to character of colonial dependence, But the postcolonial state was issue paper money; to be exempt African states were more connected still trapped between de jure from customs duties and/or taxes to international markets than to political independence and de for expatriate enterprises; and, each other. Railways led from the facto economic dependence. For above all, the “right” to provide resource-rich interiors to the ports Ghana, reliance on the export of a “aid”’(Nkrumah 1965: 239–255). in order to facilitate extraction. single cash crop, cocoa, to finance The result was a distorted form of Telephone lines and postal services development projects, exemplified postcolonial sovereignty where were routed through Europe. this entrapment. International the elected representatives of the Nkrumah argued that a federal prices for products like cocoa postcolonial state ‘derive their state organised at the continental fluctuated wildly, leaving the authority to govern, not from the level with equal representation for Ghanaian state vulnerable to will of the people, but from the all member states could gradually global markets and unable to fund support which they obtain from transform these conditions. A its national economic programme. their neocolonial masters’. political federation with powers to International financing and aid, levy taxes, raise loans and engage in which also supported development A Pan-African federation economic planning could establish projects, only exacerbated the infrastructural connections and If the nation-state had failed to externally oriented character of the diversify the regional economy. A overcome the problem of colonial postcolonial state. strong federal centre would also dependence, if sovereignty could ensure that the economic integration not shield new states from external Neocolonialism and was egalitarian. In the absence of compulsion, then the postcolonial federal redistributive mechanisms, economic dependence political kingdom had to be Nkrumah’s government concluded, reimagined. Nkrumah’s vision of Nkrumah’s famous neologism— ‘There is a real danger of existing a Pan-African federation was an neocolonialism—diagnosed urban and proto-industrial sectors effort to do just that. A federation this persistence of economic capturing all the gains’, recreating of African states would overcome dependence. Imperialism, he dependent relations among the colonial dependence by constituting argued, had reinvented itself, union’s members.2 adjusting to the ‘loss of direct a larger regional market and political control’ by ‘retain[ing] enhancing the capacity for regional Nkrumah led the fight for this and extend[ing] its economic grip’ development. Through economic model of a Pan-African federation (Nkrumah 1965: 33). From former integration, African states would until he was deposed from office in imperial powers to international create an African common market. a 1966 coup. By 1963, however, CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 2&3, 2021 Page 36 the debate had shifted decisively escape those entanglements was, well as the necessary relationship against his project. A majority of Nkrumah argued, a kind of ‘blind between national independence states backed a weaker model of nationalism’. The contemporary and internationalism emerged from integration—the Organisation of crisis of neoliberal globalisation the global circuits that anticolonial African Unity (OAU). has birthed its own versions of nationalists inhabited. Nkrumah’s blind nationalism. On the left, formative years were spent in National independence and German sociologist Wolfgang the United States and the United internationalism working Streeck and others defend a model Kingdom. In these metropoles of together of the democratic nation-state imperial power, Nkrumah, like against the EU. On the right too, the many other nationalists, cultivated The failure of Nkrumah’s fantasy of a national sovereignty subaltern internationalist networks. programme might be taken to unmoored from international law He studied at the historically black confirm that projects of nationalism and institutions persists in the Lincoln University, following a path and internationalism are ultimately authoritarian populism sweeping that Nigerian nationalist Nnamdi incompatible. Yet the debates across the global North. Azikiwe had already travelled. leading up to the formation of the During his student days, he joined Against this effort to cordon off OAU also began from the view black internationalist organisations the nation, Nkrumah insisted that under existing economic like Marcus Garvey’s Universal that international co-operation dependence ‘the emergence from Negro Improvement Association. 3 and regional federation were colonialism is but illusory’. Unity, Tracing the long history of black mechanisms for securing national they argued, ‘is the accepted seamen, he worked on a shipping independence. At the same time, goal’, but they offered competing line between the United States he refused to reject national conceptions of the precise and Mexico. When he travelled to solidarity—the basis of ‘political combination of integration and London, he helped to organise the unity’. It helped to give form independence. Today the dream Fifth Pan-African Congress with to the collective ‘self’ in self- of Pan-Africanism persists under the Trinidadian Marxist George determination. And it could do so the auspices of the African Union, Padmore. which has begun the process of without appealing to a distant past, constituting a continental free-trade but rather through the shared work Nkrumah’s nationalism emerged agreement as part of Agenda 2063. of overcoming colonial domination from these global and subaltern Before signing that agreement on and founding the postcolonial state. networks. These same networks behalf of the continent’s second- The problem was not the aspiration also shaped the administration and largest economy, South African for national independence as such political programme of the nascent president Cyril Ramaphosa echoed but that the institutional form of postcolonial state. When Nkrumah Nkrumah, noting that ‘by trading nation-state appeared ill-suited to became prime minister, Padmore among ourselves, we are able secure that aim. served as his adviser of African to retain more resources in the affairs, while another West Indian, Those committed today to continent’. the St Lucian economist W. Arthur internationalism tend to see Lewis, took the post of economic nationalist claims as insular, Nkrumah’s commitment to adviser. W.E.B. and Shirley exclusionary and frequently violent. developmentalism and economic Graham Du Bois arrived shortly But the age of decolonisation planning are tied to his mid- after independence as guests of reminds us that nationalism was twentieth-century context, but Nkrumah. Accra became a black also a vehicle for demanding recovering the internationalism cosmopolis, hosting nationalists democracy and international of anticolonial nationalism can and freedom fighters from equality. Anticolonial nationalisms help us navigate the impasses of across the continent. Ghanaian were not elite ideologies, as our contemporary moment. In his nationalism, born out of black Elie Kedourie concluded, but vision of decolonisation, national internationalism, became home mass movements that sought to independence had to be secured to that internationalist project. overcome the layered structures of against a backdrop of imperial Ghanaian policy also borrowed and colonial domination. entanglements that generated adapted from global repertoires of hierarchy and dependence. To These insights about the imbrication nation-building. Programmes like imagine you could entirely of the domestic and international as the Young Pioneers and Builder’s CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos 2&3, 2021 Page 37

Brigade were not home-grown consider the external conditions Nkrumah, K., 1961, Speech at the and particularistic projects, but required to make their project Independence of Ghana, 6 March drawn from models used in places possible. There are no true hermit 1957, in I Speak of Freedom: A that ranged from Israel to the kingdoms and there is no meaningful Statement of African Ideology, Communist bloc. choice to make between nationalism New York: Frederick A. Praeger. or internationalism as such. The Nkrumah, K., [1947] 1962, Towards Colonial Freedom: Africa in the These global circuits that help question is how those interested Struggle against World Imperial- constitute nationalist projects in human emancipation may work are not distinctive to anticolonial ism, London: Heinemann. within the nation-state to undo the Nkrumah, K., 1965, Neocolonialism: nationalism. Contemporary right- global hierarchy of nation-states— wing nationalisms deploy and The Last Stage of Imperialism, New to achieve an internationalist York: International Publishers. inhabit their own transnational solidarity from the specific ground Nkrumah, K., 1967, Undated Speech, circuits—from the deadly vigilante upon which we stand and to oppose violence in Charleston and in Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah, the reactionary internationalism that London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. Christchurch, to the lobbying efforts our antagonists embody. Nkrumah Nkrumah, K., 1970, Africa Must of white South African farmers. saw the world in the questions Unite, New York: International The point then is not to recover Ghana faced; we must do no less. Publishers. Vogel, B. and Buchstab, G., 2007, a ‘good’ nationalism that is Notes sufficiently or appropriately Konrad Adenauer and the internationalist and cosmopolitan. 1. This essay is republished from European Integration, An exhibit- ion of the Archive for Christian Neither left nor right has a Dissent, a magazine based in the Democratic Policy of the Konrad monopoly on internationalism. United States. It is drawn from Adom Getachew, 2019, World- Adenauer Foundation, Sankt Moreover, Nkrumah’s project, Augustin: Konrad Adenauer like anticolonial nationalism more making after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination Foundation Archive for Christian broadly, was riven by its own (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer- Democratic Policy (ACDP). contradictions. The conception of sity Press). Available online at https://www. citizenship as ongoing political 2. Union Government Is Essential kas.de/c/document_library/get_ practice tied Ghanaians to the state to Economic Independence and file?uuid=90b35710-947e-00bf- and the Convention People’s Party, Higher Living Standards, in Files 9779-bbab91844282&group closing the space for individual of Ex-Presidential Affairs, Folder Id=252038 freedoms and reproducing RG/17/2/1047 OAU Papers, Public Recommended Additional the alienation it was meant to Records and Archives Administra- overcome. Moreover, Nkrumah’s tion Departments, Accra, Ghana. Readings internationalist vision vacillated 3. Address by His Imperial Majesty Cooper, F., 2014, Citizenship between between a defence of national Haile Selassie I at the Conference Empire and Nation: Remaking sovereignty in the United Nations of Independent African States, June France and French Africa, 1945– and the delegation of sovereignty 16, 1960, Bureau of African Affairs 1960, Princeton, NJ: Princeton to a regional federation. Whether Papers, Box 483 Conference on In- University Press. and how these positions might be dependent African States, George Fejzula, M., 2020, The Cosmopolitan reconciled was never addressed. Padmore Research Library on Af- Historiography of Twentieth- As a result, the failure of the Pan- rican Affairs, Accra, Ghana. Century Federalism, The Historical Journal, 14 July, pp. African federation culminated Bibliography in the entrenchment of state 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/ sovereignty within the OAU. Ahlman, J., 2017, Living with Nk- S0018246X2000025. rumahism: Nation, State and Lal, P., 2015, African Socialism in Rather than search for a good Pan-Africanism in Ghana, Ath- Postcolonial Tanzania: Between nationalism, we need to pose the ens: Ohio University Press. the Village and the World, New question of the value of the nation Getachew, A., 2019, Worldmaking af- York: Cambridge University in historical context. The answers ter Empire: The Rise and Fall of Press. depend in part on the international Self-Determination, Princeton, Wilder, G., 2015, Freedom Time: background against which the NJ: Princeton University Press. Negritude, Decolonisation and national drama plays out. Even the Kedourie, E., 1960, Nationalism, the Future of the World, Durham, most autarkic nationalists have to London: Hutchinson. NC: Duke University Press. FORTHCOMING / À PARAÎTRE