Nkrumah never dies. There is no aspect of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s life as impactful as his writings. They augment the saying; Nkrumah Never Dies. Indeed! Beyond his great speeches and passion for liberating the Ghanaian and the black man, how much do you know of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s thoughtful and philosophical side, which he expressed in his authorship?
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is best known for his struggle for the independence of Africa from Colonial rule. His desire for freedom and pan-African unity was so strong it would have been a surprise if such a man hadn’t transcribed some of the fires of his ideals and shared his philosophies with generations to come. Let’s get into Kwame Nkrumah’s writing perspective and authorship.
Kwame Nkrumah’s educational background in literature which he studied at Lincoln University in the US, gave expression to his political passion and fighting spirit directed at the colonial systems in his time. However, most of his writings were thoughts and ideas which passed through a two-way sieve. He interpreted a majority of the things that went on around him through the lens of either anti-colonialism or pro-colonialism. He would later conclude that these two forms of lenses through which he saw the world had progressively merged into one; neo-colonialism.
Unsurprisingly, the book he authored on Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism was one of his favorite and most popular books. Kwame Nkrumah was an avid reader who was greatly influenced by socialist literature. He was fascinated by and held on to the writings and works of people like Marcus Garvey, Karl Max, and Vladimir Lenin. It is no surprise then that he became the very embodiment of the subject of an excerpt of Lenin’s writings. “…The real question that arises in appraising the social activity of an individual is… what guarantee is there that these actions will not remain in an isolated act lost in a welter of contrary acts?” In response to Lenin’s question, Kwame Nkrumah’s writing personality would serve today as the guarantee of a future uprising and a testament to his active social investment in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
The weight of Nkrumah’s writings bears on the world today and throughout history. His definitions, projections, and prophetic warnings have once stirred the hornet’s nest and confirmed the fears of many to align with the concerns of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In his book on Neo-colonialism, he wrote extensively on an analytical exposition of how the Western world seeks and will continue to “carve-up” Africa for themselves to serve their interests other than that of the African populace. He wrote of how Africa has failed to make much headway on the road to purposeful industrial development but has been used for the greater development of the Western world. He continued to write that Africa was a paramountly uncharted continent economically for which the West would scramble under the guise of aid and other deceptive means.
He detailed how Western influence would one day “exert imperialist economic stranglehold over African economies” through the establishment and operations of Western institutions and multinational companies. The end result would be to bring Africa down to economic and societal degradation, creating a need for cyclical dependence on the West. These revelatory writings were what stirred the hornet’s nest. Upon coming across the contents of Nkrumah’s submission in this book (Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism), the American government reacted offensively to it. How did they do it, you asked? A $35 million request Nkrumah had made to procure surplus food shipments from the American government was rejected.
Another intellectual legacy the first prime minister and president of Ghana left was his book, Challenge of the Congo, which he wrote in 1967. In this book, Nkrumah wrote about the intentional destabilization of African economic structures by neo-colonial forces, using Congo as a case study. Kwame’s Nkrumah’s work in the Challenge of Congo runs in an illustrative tandem with the 2006 Hollywood movie Blood Diamonds, which starred veteran actors Djimon Hounsou and Leonardo De Caprio. The invasion of DRC by some 85 mostly western companies whose resources within the country were overseen by Congolese warlords was indirectly linked to the over 5 million Congolese deaths in the twentieth century. One publication wrote, “This figure is approximately the same number of Jews who were killed in the Nazi concentration camps.”
Nkrumah went ahead to write about the impact of globalization on Africa’s economy and how it presents as a new form of colonization, crippling Africa’s self-sufficiency under the guise of various forms of aid and collaboration. The space between the detailed analysis in Nkrumah’s writings and the manifestations of these realities today is a testament to the weight of his authorship and insights as a visionary leader.
One final aspect of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s writings is his diversion from external influences and focus on the African societal makeup in his book, Class Struggle in Africa. Ama Biney, in her case study titled “The Intellectual and Political Legacies of Kwame Nkrumah,” mentions that the book Class Struggle in Africa “…provides a pertinent theoretical perspective that requires updating in our present times.” Nkrumah’s authorship of this piece was aimed at addressing the divisions that emerged in Africa post-independence. These unequally yoked divisions, all five social classes, would become the stain that would eventually bring Africa down.
Nkrumah’s works mentioned here in this article, in addition to his over 15 other books, including his bestselling autobiography, contain blueprints, fears, projections, and detailed expositions that are as relevant for our time as it was for theirs.
