Ama Biney

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Ama Biney
Born1960s
OccupationHistorian, journalist, political scientist and academic
NationalityBritish
Education University of Birmingham; School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London
Notable worksThe Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah (2011)

Ama Biney (born 1960s) [1] is a British Ghanaian historian, journalist, political scientist and academic, who for more than 25 years has lectured and taught courses on African and Caribbean history, the History of Black People in Britain, and on international relations in the UK and in Ghana, [2] including at such institutions as Middlesex University, Birkbeck College, University of London, the University of Liverpool, [3] [4] and Webster University Ghana. [5] Among outlets for which she has written are New African magazine, African Studies Quarterly , South African History Online [6] and Pambazuka News , for which she has served as Editor-in-Chief. [2] [7] As an independent Pan-Africanist scholar and activist, she follows Steve Biko's tradition of "writing what she likes." [8] [9]

Contents

Biography

Biney's first degree was from the University of Birmingham in African Studies, and she went on to earn a Master's in Government & Politics of West and Southern Africa from the School of Oriental & African Studies in 1988, and subsequently obtained her PhD at the University of London, with her doctoral thesis entitled "Kwame Nkrumah: An Intellectual History." [4]

She is the author of The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011, [10] and with Adebayo Olukoshi compiled Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards of Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Pambazuka Press, 2010). [2] She is also a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa , edited by Margaret Busby.

Bibliography

Selected articles

Related Research Articles

Kwame Nkrumah Ghanaian pan-Africanist and the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana

Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.

Pan-Africanism Movement to encourage and strengthen bonds between people of African ancestry

Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic Slave Trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe.

George Padmore Trinidadian Pan-Africanist and writer (1903–1959)

George Padmore, born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a leading Pan-Africanist, journalist, and author. He left his native Trinidad in 1924 to study medicine in the United States, where he also joined the Communist Party.

Convention Peoples Party Political party in Ghana

The Convention People's Party (CPP) is a socialist political party in Ghana based on the ideas of the first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. The CPP was formed in June 1949 after Nkrumah broke away from the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). Nkrumah was the then appointed Secretaty General of the UGCC when he was arrested by the leader of the UGCC and imprisoned for an alleged thought, plans and power against Kwame Nkrumah's leadership. Kwame Nkrumah then formed the Convention People's Party with support of some UGCC members and had a purpose for self governance. Upon Kwame Nkrumah's leadership with the CPP, he orgranized a non violent protest and strike for support of the purpose for self-governance which took him to imprisonment for a second time, but he was released after winning a massive vote by the CPP following the colonies election general election whilst he was in prison. The CPP followers supported Nkrumah's ideas and voted for him massive for power of self-governance. The articles discussed about the origins of Ghana political parties, the 1948 riot and the birth of the Convention People Party among others. Issues that led to the formation of the CPP, struggles with the colonial powers led by Kwame Nkrumah and finally the attainment of Ghana's independence were part of the key concerns for this write up.

J. B. Danquah Ghanaian politician

Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah was a Ghanaian politician, scholar, lawyer, and one of the founding fathers of Ghana. He played a significant role in pre- and post-colonial Ghana, which was formerly the Gold Coast, and is credited with giving Ghana its name. During his political career, Danquah was one of the primary opposition leaders to Ghanaian president and independence leader Kwame Nkrumah. Danquah was described as the "doyen of Gold Coast politics" by the Watson Commission of Inquiry into the 1948 Accra riots.

Prime Minister of Ghana Head of government in Ghana; 1957–1960 and 1969–1972

The prime minister of Ghana was the head of government of Ghana from 1957 to 1960 and again from 1969 to 1972.

Horace G. Campbell is a noted international peace and justice scholar and Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, he has been involved in Africa's Liberation Struggles and in the struggles for peace and justice globally for more than four decades. From his years in Toronto, Canada, to his sojourns in Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom and parts of the Caribbean, he has been an influential force offering alternatives to the hegemonic ideas of Eurocentrism. In an attempt to theorise new concepts of revolution in the 21st century he has been seeking to expand on the ideas of fractals and the importance of emancipatory ideas. He currently teaches in the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University.

Samia Nkrumah Ghanaian journalist and politician

Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah is a Ghanaian politician and chairperson of the Convention People's Party (CPP). In the 2008 parliamentary election, she won the Jomoro constituency seat at her first attempt. She is the daughter of Kwame Nkrumah, first President of Ghana.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem was the general secretary of the Pan-African Movement, director of Justice Africa, the Deputy Director of United Nations Millennium Campaign for Africa, as well as a writer for newspapers and journals across Africa.

Dorothy Pizer or Dorothy Padmore was a British working-class anti-racist activist, secretary and publishing worker. In the 1940s and 1950s she was the partner, supporter and collaborator of Pan-African activist and Communist George Padmore.

Archie Casely-Hayford Ghanaian politician

Archibald "Archie" Casely-Hayford was a British-trained Ghanaian barrister and politician, who was involved in nationalist politics in the former Gold Coast. Having joined the Convention People's Party (CPP), in 1951 he was elected Municipal Member for Kumasi and was appointed by Kwame Nkrumah Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the government of the First Republic. When Nkrumah declared Ghana's Independence on 6 March 1957, he was photographed on the podium flanked by Casely-Hayford, together with Kojo Botsio, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Nathaniel Azarco Welbeck and Krobo Edusei.

Nkrumaism African socialist political ideology

Nkrumaism is an African socialist political ideology based on the thinking and writing of Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah, a pan-Africanist and socialist, served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1960 and subsequently as President of Ghana before being deposed by the National Liberation Council in 1966.

Kofi Batsa was a Ghanaian political activist and writer.

William Emmanuel Abraham Ghanaian philosopher

William Emmanuel Abraham, also known as Willie E. Abraham or, to give his day name, Kojo Abraham, is a retired Ghanaian philosopher.

The history of African Americans in Ghana goes back to individuals such as American civil rights activist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, who settled in Ghana in the last years of his life and is buried in the capital, Accra. Since then, other African Americans who are descended from slaves imported from areas within the present-day jurisdiction of Ghana and neighboring states have applied for permanent resident status in Ghana. As of 2015, the number of African-American residents has been estimated at around 3,000 people, a large portion of whom live in Accra.

Mabel Dove Danquah was a Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist, and creative writer, one of the earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields. As Francis Elsbend Kofigah notes in relation to Ghana's literary pioneers, "before the emergence of such strong exponents of literary feminism as Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, there was Mabel Dove Danquah, the trail-blazing feminist." She used various pseudonyms in her writing for newspapers from the 1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in The Times of West Africa; "Dama Dumas" in the African Morning Post; "Ebun Alakija" in the Nigerian Daily Times; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the Accra Evening News. Entering politics in the 1950s before Ghana's independence, she became the first woman to be elected a member of any African legislative assembly. She created the awareness and the need for self-governance through her works.

Esi Sutherland-Addy is a Ghanaian academician, writer, educationalist, and human rights activist. She is a professor at the Institute of African Studies, where she has been senior research fellow, head of the Language, Literature, and Drama Section, and associate director of the African Humanities Institute Program at the University of Ghana. She is credited with more than 50 publications in the areas of education policy, higher education, female education, literature, theatre and culture, and serves on numerous committees, boards and commissions locally and internationally. She is the daughter of writer and cultural activist Efua Sutherland.

Akua Asabea Ayisi was a feminist, former High Court Judge and the first female Ghanaian journalist. During the rise of the Ghanaian independence movement, Akua Asabea Ayisi trained as a journalist with Mabel Dove-Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, who would later become the country's first prime minister and president.

Pan-Africanism in Kenya Ideology calling for the unity of Africa

Pan-Africanism is a cultural and political ideology calling for the unification of the various African communities and their diasporadic counterparts for the purpose of empowering each other. The heights of the movement is primarily characterized in the west by the black nationalist struggles of Marcus Garvey, and the push for greater self determination by W.E.B Du Bois during the early twentieth century. The literature is much vaster once one leaves the western world and enters the African continent, where one can find a consistent effort in much of the territory to unify themselves against the common enemy of Imperialism. Pan-Africanism's influence can be characterized through its contributions to art, media, and politics.

The Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Intellectual Cultural Festival also known as Kwame Nkrumah Festival (KNF) is a festival organized by the Kwame Nkrumah Chair at the Institute of African Studies in the University of Ghana.

References

  1. "New Daughters of Africa | Contents" (PDF). Myriad Editions. p. x. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Dr Ama Biney: Pan-Afrikan Leadership: The Political Evolution of Kwame Nkrumah". Pembroke College Oxford . Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  3. "Dr Ama Biney". Department of History. University of Liverpool. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Capitaine Thomas Sankara + Q&A with Dr Ama Biney". Meeting of Minds. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  5. "Meet Visiting Faculty, Dr. Ama Biney". Webster University Ghana. Retrieved 15 May 2022 via YouTube.
  6. Biney, Ama (3 April 2012). "Uncovering Josina Machel from obscurity: African women idden in his-tory". South African History Online. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  7. "Ama Biney". Pambazuka News. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  8. New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent (paperback ed.). 2020. p. 306.
  9. "Conference: Walter Rodney's Legacy and Black Lives Matter today". ROAPE. 22 October 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
  10. Biney, Ama (2011). The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah. Springer Link. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230118645. ISBN   978-1-349-29513-5.