Dr
Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of the first sub Saharan country to
gain independence outlined his motives concerning international affairs on the
African continent, the very day he gained independence. In his independence
declaration, he made the statement that “…the independence of Ghana is
meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of the African
continent.” The total liberation of the African continent was indeed the
backbone of Nkrumah’s foreign policy; Dr. Nkrumah was indeed committed to
eliminating all forms of dependency in all territories in Africa. His evident
support for the independence struggle of colonized states at the time was
realized by his financial support as wells as training and mentoring for freedom
fighters in countries like Mali, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Zimbabwe to mention
but a few.
Attached
to this motive of the total liberation of Africa was a related goal of, African
Unity. Nkrumah with experience from the United States of America had the view that
Africa would never be competitive in the global front unless it was united
politically. To him the only way forward for Africa was to form the “United
State of Africa”, with a common government as wells as former colonial
territories serving as loose territorial boundaries, with compromised
sovereignty, just as in the case of the United States of America. Nkrumah on
the preface of his book “Africa Must Unite” writes
“No single part of Africa can be safe, or free
to develop freely and independently, while any part remains unliberated, or
while Africa’s vast economic resources continues to be exploited by
imperialists and neocolonialist interests. Unless Africa is united, under an
All-African Union Government, there can be no solution to our political and
economic problems” (Nkrumah, 1963).
My
task for this paper, is therefore to assess the level at which these aims were
or were not achieved. To asses first, whether Nkrumah won the war on the total
liberation of Africa, and again to test the assertion that “Nkrumah lost the
battle on African Unity”. In my candid opinion neither the total liberation of
Africa nor Africa unity has been achieved, comparing the current circumstances
of Africa to references made by Nkrumah.
Nkrumah’s
concept of the liberation of Africa is not limited to the decolonization of the
African sub region. Indeed his goal for independence went beyond that, it included
cultural, economic as well as political independence to mention but a few.
Nkrumah in his book “Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of imperialism” written in
1965, enlightens readers about the dangerous effects of African countries,
being dependent on economic aid by the west, and its consequence of leading to
a new form of colonialism which he termed as Neo colonialism. The irony of the
case is that the same author of this book was in the process of receiving 25
million dollars in aid from the U.S State Department, which was eventually
cancelled as a sharp note of protest to his arguments raised in his book. Contrary
to somewhat popular believe that Nkrumah’s war of total liberation was achieved
in 1994, marked by the fall of the Aparthied regime of South Africa, and
therefore the total political decolonization of Africa, I am of the view that
Nkrumah war on the total liberation of Africa, was and had never been won by
Nkrumah himself or any other African leader.
Indeed
I would like to also address the philosophical gap in the assertions made by
Nkrumah, to the fact “African should not depend on the west for nothing”. The
reality however is that, no country can ever exist oblivious of dependency from
other countries in the Global economic system. The western countries are
arguably dependent on the raw materials from the global south; almost a majority
of all raw materials used in their industries are obtained from the global
south. Minerals like bauxite, copper, zinc, crude etc. which are essential for
the production of their sophisticated goods are all obtained from our parts of
the world. Africans however depend on these nations for technological and
rather sophisticated goods. There is therefore inter dependency in the global
arena, and it cannot be the cause of the woes of Africa. The woes of Africa, in
my opinion are as a result of the inability of African leaders to manage these
resources. The activities of organizations like OPEC (Organization for
Petroleum Exporting Countries) have giving as practical evidence of how the
monopoly of a resource and unity of producers of commodities can influence
international relations. Receiving aid therefore cannot be the cause of
Africa’s problems, from history it is realized that nations in Europe, example,
U.K, Italy received aid through the then Marshall Aid Plan after the Second
World War. However, these countries are back on their feet and still
competitive in the Global arena. In the case of Africa countries the case is
totally different and I vehemently assert that, the underdevelopment of Africa
it is due to mismanagement of aid and resources by African leaders and not the
aid or resources by itself.
Nkrumah’s
war on the total liberation of Africa was lost in the 1960s.In fact Nkrumah
himself lost the battle of liberation in Ghana. He “begged” the United States
government for financial support for the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam project. He
requested aid to the tune of 25 million dollars from the United States Federal
Government about the same period. In fact, if any form of liberalization was
realized, it was in the minimal sense, which was marked by the fall of
Aparthied and the total decolonization of Africa.
Liberalization
in African has so far just been the replacement of the white skinned governors
as representatives of imperial authority, with dark skinned African governors
serving the same function. African till now are still dependent on aid,
continually from the west. In fact about 90 percent of all African nations
continually depend on aid from the west and Bretton Woods institutions to fund
their budgets. The African was never totally liberalized by decolonization. However,
even with this pseudo liberalization, I must say that Nkrumah deserves
commendation as its pioneer in Africa, he continued this fight by helping other
nations in Africa, to some point however, but failed to complete it. His
ideologies and tactics for freedom struggle, which was characterized with
radicalism, failed in South Africa. In the end, the negotiation strategy which
was adopted by Mandela and the ANC won. Africa is just experiencing what the
wise Dr. Nkrumah termed Neo colonialism, himself a victim of this phenomenon.
I
vehemently agree however to the assertion that Nkrumah “lost the battle on
African unity”. His plan of uniting Africa was a failure, mainly due to
presence of the opposition from other leaders on the continent. Nkrumah’s
definition of African unity was defined and not ambiguous. It is clearly
realized in his writings. Nkrumah opted for a tighter and well defined union than
what is now found in Africa as the African Union. He wanted an ‘All-African
Union Government’ (Nkrumah, 1963), a politically united Africa like the United
States. Even in his speech at the inaugural ceremony of the OAU in 1963, he
reaffirmed his position clearly making us understand that his aim was not in
the process of the being realized with the OAU the mother organization of the
AU. He suggested the setting up of “A common market of Africa”, “An African
currency”, “African monetary zone”, “African Central Bank”, “Common African
Citizenship” to mention but a few. All these recommendations show clearly, that
his goal was not met then, and even in present times.
To
put the icing on the cake he concluded his speech by saying,
“Your
Excellencies, with these steps, I submit, we shall be irrevocably committed to
the road which will bring us to a Union Government of Africa…”.
The
fact that Nkrumah was not content with the OAU and AU style of unity is evident
and He suggests ways through which his ideal African Union can be achieved. His
suggestions and recommendations sadly have not been realized since the 60s.
In
all, it can be asserted that indeed Nkrumah is widely acclaimed as one of the
main faces so far as independence struggle as wells African liberation is
concerned. However, evidence enlisted in this essay clearly suggests that, his
dream concerning Africa liberation as wells African unity if achieved had been
done in the minimal sense. In spite of this failure I strongly agree that
Africa needs to unite, to be competitive in the global arena. Evidence, from
organizations like the E.U has really given us a case on the importance of
states coming together under a union. Unification will give Africa a strong
army, a large economy as well boost Africa’s image in the Global arena to
mention but a few, “Africa must Unite”.
REFERENCES
1. Nkrumah.
K, Africa Must Unite. First published
in 1963 Reprinted 1970, 1974, 1985, 1998.
2. Nkrumah. K, Neo-colonialism the Last Stage of Imperialism. First published in
1965, Reprinted 1971, 1974, 2002.
3. www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=275088
No comments:
Post a Comment