K Botwe-Asamoah - Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-Cultural Thought and Politics_ An African-Centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution (African Studies-History, Politics, Economics and Culture) (2005).pdf

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AFRICAN STUDIES HISTORY, POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND CULTURE Edited by Molefi Asante Temple University A ROUTLEDGE SERIES

AFRICAN STUDIES: HISTORY, POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND CULTURE MOLEFI ASANTE, General Editor KWAME NKRUMAH’S CONTRIBUTION TO PAN-AFRICANISM An Afrocentric Analysis D.Zizwe Poe NYANSAPO (THE WISDOM KNOT) Toward an African Philosophy of Education Kwadwo A.Okrah THE ATHENS OF WEST AFRICA A History of International Education at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone Daniel J.Paracka, Jr. THE ‘CIVIL SOCIETY’ PROBLEMATIQUE Deconstructing Civility and Southern Nigeria’s Ethnic Radicals Adedayo Oluwakayode Adekson MAAT, THE MORAL IDEAL IN ANCIENT EGYPT A Study in Classical African Ethics Maulana Karenga YORUBA TRADITIONAL HEALERS OF NIGERIA Mary Adekson IGBO WOMEN AND ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA, 1900–1960 Gloria Chuku KWAME NKRUMAH’S POLITICO-CULTURAL THOUGHT AND POLICIES An African-Centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution Kwame Botwe-Asamoah

KWAME NKRUMAH’S POLITICO-CULTURAL THOUGHT AND POLICIES AN AFRICAN-CENTERED PARADIGM FOR THE SECOND PHASE OF THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION Kwame Botwe-Asamoah

Routledge New York & London

Published in 2005 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 http://www.routledge-ny.com/ Published in Great Britain by Routledge, 2 Park Square Milton Park, Abingdon Oxon OX14 4RN http://www.routledge.co.uk/ Copyright © 2005 by Taylor & Francis Group, a Division of T&F Informa. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Botwe-Asamoah, Kwame. Kwame Nkrumah’s politico-cultural thought and policies: an African-centered paradigm for the second phase of the African revolution/Kwame Botwe-Asamoah. p. cm.—(African studies: history, politics, economics, and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-94833-9 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909–1972—Political and social views. 2. Ghana— Politics and government—To 1957. 3. Gh ana—Politics and government—1957–1979. 4. Ghana—Cultural policy. 5. Pan-Africanism. I. Title. II. Series: African studies (Routledge (Firm)) DT512.7.N57B68 2005 966.705’1’092–dc22 ISBN 0-203-50569-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-57819-8 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-94833-9 (Print Edition)

This book is dedicated to two great mothers whose wisdom and guidance changed the lives of their children. First, to Nkrumah’s mother, Nyaniba, who dragged Nkrumah several times to school until he gave in to her demand. Finally, to my loving mother, Akua Awusiama, who also dragged me to school on two occasions. She died four months after I had left her in Ghana for the US in December 1993. I was all that she had in this world. Her living spirits, since her untimely death and that of my father, Ohene Kwaku Owusu Botwe, have been the driving force throughout the research and the writing of this book.

Contents

Preface viii Acknowledgments xiii List of Abbreviations xiv

Chapter One Introduction: The Raison d’Etre of Kwame Nkrumah’s Politico-Cultural Thought 1 Chapter Two Critical Discourse on Kwame Nkrumah’s Life and Works 16 Chapter Three Kwame Nkrumah’s Politico-Cultural Thought 37 Chapter Four The Political Policies of Kwame Nkrumah 71 Chapter Five Post-Independence Political Policies 96 Chapter Six Nkrumah’s Cultural Polices: The State and the Arts 118 Chapter Seven Nkrumah’s Cultural Policy: The National Theater Movement and the Academy 140 Chapter Eight Conclusion 166

Bibliography 175 Index 182

Preface Growing up in both Gold Coast, later Ghana, I witnessed much systematic campaign against Kwame Nkrumah’s political, social and cultural thought and policies. In my elementary schools, some of my teacher s openly condemned his alleged communist ideology in the classrooms. One particular teacher told us that with communism, we were “all going to wear khaki uniforms and line up everyday for rationed food with our parents.” The Odekro (owner of town) of my town Ettokrom in Dr. J.B. Danquah’s (a founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention and a leading opponent of Nkrumah) constituency said that Nkrumah was an athe ist; in addition, he denounced him for siding with Nasser in Egypt’s war with Israel in 1956, whom he described as “the chosen children of God.” In the in tellectual community, Nkrumah was also accused of lowering the educational standards because of his policy on Africanization of the curriculum of the educational system in the country; this included his decree abolishing a pass in the English language as the sole criteria for obtaining the secondary school certificate. An added frequent accusation was an alleged to ffee (candies) that Nkrumah frequently dropped from the ceiling into the hands of th e Young Pioneers, which the Christian God could not do, when asked. Between 1955 and February 1966, his foes, both within and without Ghana engaged in vicious lies about him as well as a well-organized assassination attempts on his life. In fact, no political leader or ruler in Ghana, to date, has experienced terrorist attacks in terms of constant bomb throwing, a f ace-to-face gun shot and ambushes as Nkrumah did. Furthermore, the kind of economic sa botage and political de stabilization campaign against his government at the national and inte rnational levels is unparalleled in Ghana’s political history. Yet, in spite of the hostile and violent environment in Ghana, the national unity as well as the rapid cultural, social, economic transformation and industrial development achieved for the country within the short span by Nkrumah’s government will go down in African history as one of the most remarkable periods of post- independence achievements. These positive acclamations notwithstanding, I saw the heroic struggle of Nkrumah and his adoration by the ordinary people, including the majority of the inhabitants of my village and neighboring towns and urban cente rs. He was viewed as a god-sent savior. While many Ghanaians praised and adored him as a great visionary leader, others continued to see him as Africa’s inimitable leader. Historically speaking, no African political leader, past or present, has more completely personified the political, economic and cultural liberation and unity of Africa than did Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. As the father of African nationalism, he advanced the cause of African liberation and engendered an understanding of th e insidious nature of neo-colonialism. He stands forth as one of the few pivotal political leaders of the twentieth century. The formation of the African Union in South Africa in the summer of 2001, though a shift from Nkrumah’s African-centered union government, to promote rapid economic

development of the continent is an attestation to the foresight and vision of Nkrumah’s policy on Pan-Africanism. Nkrumah’s unparalleled accomplishments regarding African liberation as well as his incomparable leadership skills and achievements in terms of national unity, social, educational, economic transformation and industrial projects in Ghana came to be buried by the kind of systematic misinformation warfare following the CIA orchestrated military coup that overthrew his government on February 24, 1966 (Stockwell 1978:160 and 201). It is this politically orchestrated misinformation which has come to serve as a model for discourse on Nkrumah’s political and cultural philosophy and policies by his foes and some of his admirers. Studies on the nature of the political and cultural institutions of the Nkrumah era have been carried out without adequate reference to colonial legacies. Even when such a connection is made it has often ignored the contradiction between the thinking patterns of the European trained African scholars, and politi cal and cultural activists in charge of the institutions one hand, and Nkrumah’s African-centered vision, on the other. Also, the major error by Nkrumah’s critics is their failu re to acknowledge the fact that he was the only African leader at the time to formul ate an African-centered socio-philosophical system as a guiding principle for post-independence Ghana and Africa’s socio-economic transformation. Nkrumah inherited a fragmented country besieged by an insidious colonial legacy, such as Eurocentric economic, judicial and educational systems, law enforcement and military institutions, civil service administrative superstructure, infectious diseases and uneven socio-economic development. Other aspects of the colonial legacy included illiteracy, ignorance, superstitions and undemo cratic and violent behaviors of the embittered parochial and ethnic based political parties. All these were more difficult to combat than the anti-colonial struggle. Thus , the tendency of such critics to compare and contrast, inter alia, the ideas of African revolutionaries like Cabral and Fanon with Nkrumah’s ideas at the anti-colonial stage and the post-independence politico-cultural philosophy and policies are thus inappropriate. Also, any discourse that lumps together the ontological nature of both the anti-colonial struggle and that of the post-independence socio-political and cultural revolution, especially in the context of the cold war politics, with respect to Nkrumah’s Ghana, would be an intellectual aberration. Another common error among scholars of post-independence socio-economic and cultural transformation in Nkrumah’s Ghana has been the tendency to present them in a linear fashion. Rooted in Eurocentric perspective, this linear approach has tended to reduce Nkrumah’s integrated educational, economic, cultural and Pan-African agenda into separate entities for abstract analysis. As a consequence, culture has come to be seen as an entity by itself having no place in African political, economic and social transformation. Theater, they say, should not be mixed with political ideology (Agovi, 1989:8). Not only is such a persp ective an antithesis to African aesthetics, but it has also led to several false assumptions on the role of theater in socio-economic transformation in Ghana. In the final analysis, some politicians, and intellectuals in Ghana refer to Nkrumah’s politico-cultural and economic theories and policies as outdated and of no use for the current dilemmas. Yet, while this same populace complain bitterly about the abrogation of Nkrumah’s socio-economic a nd education services resulting from his

rational thinking, they ironically cry for a Eurocentric political system and Adam Smith’s laissez-fair economic theories and policies formulated in 1776. This book synthesizes and analyzes the relationship between Kwame Nkrumah’s politico-cultural philosophy and policies as an Afrocentric paradigm for the second phase of the African revolution. It also argues for the relevance of his theories and policies in today’s Africa. The book examines and anal yses three aspects of Nktumah’s politico- cultural thought from a holistic standpoint. First, his socio-political philosophy returns to traditional African ethics, humanistic values and an egalitarian mode of production to formulate a new socio-economic system for post-independence Africa. Second, the institutional aspect of his cultural thought offered an African-centered framework for institutional development. Third, his thought on creative culture also provided for an African-centered perspective to undergird the intellectual and artistic endeavors of the School of Music and Drama, with specific reference to the National Theater Movement, This integrative cultural thought thus offered an African-centered prototype for the statutory cultural institutions in the society and in the acad emy. It is this holistic framework of Nkrumah’s Pan-African politico-cu ltural agenda that is often ignored by several scholars and his critics. In writing this book, I have attempted to analyze Kwame Nkru mah’s politico-cultural philosophy and policies. In doing so, I realize my limitations as regards the data upon which the book is written. The research was based on qualitative, ethnographic and Afrocentric research methods. As the Afrocentric research scholar Kershaw (1989:47) puts it, “the unity between theory and praxis is possible only if praxis occurs before construction.” Accordingly, the theory was developed during the data collection process or grounded in the data. The data collection consists of primary and secondary materials as well as interviews. The primary materials included Kwame Nk rumah’s major speeches and works, his government’s policy statements, parliame ntary instruments, committees’ reports, documents on the Arts Council of Ghana, th e Institute of African Studies and this researcher’s personal experience as a student in the School at the time. The cognate secondary materials consisted of studies done by scholars on Nkrumah’s political thought, his cultural policies, and the educational and artistic institutions of the era. I interviewed renowned and well-informed Ghanaian scholars and cultural activists. They include

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