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Nkrumaism (sometimes Consciencism) 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 (later Ghana) from 1952 until 1960 and subsequently as President of Ghana before being deposed by the National Liberation Council in 1966. [1]
Nkrumaism is a pan-African socialist theory which aims to adapt Marxist–Leninist theory to the social context of the African continent. Nkrumah defined his belief system as "the ideology of a New Africa, independent and absolutely free from imperialism, organized on a continental scale, founded upon the conception of one and united Africa, drawing its strength from modern science and technology and from the traditional African belief that the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." [2] The Convention People's Party (CPP), founded by Nkrumah in 1949, writes "Nkrumaism simply means Self Reliance, African is capable of managing his own affairs. The values CPP stands for or the guiding principles of Nkrumaism today are those which have guided it throughout its existence. Social justice, Pan-Africanism, Self Determination, African Personality, Anti-Imperialism." [3]
Nkrumaism is a syncretic ideology which blends different sources together while not necessarily borrowing their entire frameworks. In his work, Nkrumah blended different sources from within Africa, the canon of Western philosophy, [4] and black intellectuals in North America and Europe, like Marcus Garvey and George Padmore. Particularly important in founding this ideology were his study and meetings with C. L. R. James, W. E. B. Du Bois and Father Divine. [5] [6] [7] Aside from the Marxist–Leninist framework, this blending of ideas largely only took bits and pieces of other philosophical systems and even its use of traditional African cultural concepts were often stretched to fit into the larger theory. [6] [8] While a major focus of the ideology was ending colonial relationships on the African continent, many of the ideas were utopian, diverting the scientific nature of the Marxist political analysis which it claims to support. [6]
Like other African political ideologies at the time, the central focus of Nkrumaism was on decolonization across Africa. The central contention of Nkrumaism was that African countries, united with one another, needed to adopt socialist political structures which were consistent with the traditional African values of egalitarianism. Nkrumah rejected the idealized view of pre-colonial African societies that were classless or non-hierarchical, but accepted that Africa had a spirit of communalism and humanism. While colonial structures had damaged these communal, egalitarian values, they had not fully supplanted them. Nkrumaism then argued that a return to these values through socialist political structures would both heal the disruption caused by colonial structures and allow further development of African societies. [5] The pan-African aspects of Nkrumah's ideology were justified by a claim that all African societies had a community of economic life and that in contradiction to the neocolonial structures that replaced formal colonies, only African unity would create real autonomy. [9] [4]
In Nkrumah's argument, four basic pillars formed the applied aspects of this theory: state ownership of the means of production, a one-party democracy, fostering a classless economic system, and pan-African unity. [5] While embracing much of Marxist–Leninist philosophy and Soviet political structures at the time, the ideology differed in some key respects. First, while Marxism–Leninism saw revolution as the only way to replace class structures with a socialist egalitarian system, Nkrumah saw reform as the more appropriate case for Africa. He argued that Ghana, and most of the rest of Africa, had never developed the class distinctions which Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin saw in Europe and thus reform could reestablish preexisting egalitarianism suited to a post-colonial context. [9] Nkrumah wrote that:
From the ancestral lines of communalism, the passage to socialism lies in reform, because the underlying principles are the same. But when this passage carries one through colonialism the reform is revolutionary since the passage from colonialism to genuine independence is an act of revolution. But because of the continuity of communalism with socialism, in communalistic society, socialism is not a revolutionary creed, but a restatement in contemporary idiom of the principles underlying communalism. [10]
He would change this idea after the 1966 coup seeing revolution as increasingly necessary. [11] Second, while Nkrumah believed in the materialism and economic determinism of Marxism, he argued that focusing on the economic system was only appropriate after achieving independence throughout Africa and that the political struggle was the first order in colonial and neocolonial contexts. [12]
The ideology of Nkrumaism formed a key part of the personality cult around Nkrumah and the party-building efforts of his political party, the CPP. This was in part achieved through Nkrumah's use of democratic centralism in the CPP and government. [1] His arguments were widely published and these had an impact within the Gold Coast colony, independent Ghana, and other parts of Africa in the 1950s and 1960s. The CPP, founded by Nkrumah in 1949, became a vocal proponent for the teaching and application of Nkrumaism. When he became president in the 1960s, his Minister for Presidential Affairs, Tawia Adamafio, established study groups on Nkrumaism which many civil servants joined to advance their careers. [13] At the same time, the CPP established Ghana Young Pioneers groups for school age children where Nkrumaism was taught. [14] While the tenets were promoted through these various party efforts, applying all aspects of the ideology proved to be difficult for Nkrumah while President of the country. [9] Because of this, some consider Nkrumaism to be "first of all a cultural phenomenon" in Ghana with little impact on the actual politics of the country. [15]
Henry Bretton argues that Nkrumaism was not a coherent ideology, but a vague framework supporting the cult of personality and the centralized rule of Nkrumah. He writes:
Nkrumaism was a verbalization of the requirements of the personal political machine. Professional scribes and amateurs, along with the Ghanaian Left, were set to the task of providing the coherence and internal consistency required to give a semblance of philosophy to the chaotic assemblage of ideas and fantasies borrowed from all parts of the world and from all periods of history, frequently out of context. [16]
In contrast, Yuri Smertin criticized early works by Nkrumah from a Marxist perspective for distorting scientific socialism by combining religious and traditional elements. [17]
Francis Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain. He was then the first Prime Minister and then the President of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. 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.
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology that became the largest faction of the communist movement in the world in the years following the October Revolution. It was the predominant ideology of most communist governments throughout the 20th century. It was developed by Joseph Stalin and drew on elements of Bolshevism, orthodox Marxism, and Leninism. It was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, Soviet satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various countries in the Non-Aligned Movement and Third World during the Cold War, as well as the Communist International after Bolshevization.
African socialism or Afrosocialism is a belief in sharing economic resources in a traditional African way, as distinct from classical socialism. Many African politicians of the 1950s and 1960s professed their support for African socialism, although definitions and interpretations of this term varied considerably. These politicians include Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Modibo Keita of Mali, among others.
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).
The prime minister of Ghana was the head of government of Ghana from 1957 to 1960 and again from 1969 to 1972.
The United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was an early nationalist movement with the aim of self-government " in the shortest possible time" founded in August 1947 by educated Africans such as J.B. Danquah, A.G. Grant, R.A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo Addo, and others, the leadership of the organisation called for the replacement of Chiefs on the Legislative Council with educated persons. whose aim was to bring about Ghanaian independence from their British colonial masters after the Second World War. The United Gold Coast Convention appointed its leaders to include Kwame Nkrumah, who was the Secretary General. However, upon an allegation for plans against Nkrumah's leadership, he was arrested and jailed. The UGCC leadership broke up and Kwame Nkrumah went on a separate way to set up the Convention People's Party (CPP) for the purpose of self-governance. The UGCC was founded in Saltpond.
Ako Adjei, was a Ghanaian statesman, politician, lawyer and journalist. He was a member of the United Gold Coast Convention and one of six leaders who were detained during Ghana's struggle for political independence from Britain, a group famously called The Big Six. He has been recognized as a founding father of Ghana for his active participation in the immediate politics of Ghana's pre-independence era. Adjei became a member of parliament as a Convention People's Party candidate in 1954 and held ministerial offices until 1962 when as Minister for Foreign Affairs he was wrongfully detained for the Kulungugu bomb attack.
Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu was a Zanzibar-born Marxist and pan-Africanist nationalist who played an important role in the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution and served as a minister under Julius Nyerere after the island was merged with mainland Tanganyika to form Tanzania. He was jailed by Nyerere from 1972 and, after his release following an international campaign, remained a vocal critic of imperialism, authoritarian states and excessively statist development models.
The National Liberation Council (NLC) led the Ghanaian government from 24 February 1966 to 1 October 1969. The body emerged from a coup d'état against the Nkrumah government carried out jointly by the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Armed Forces with collaboration from the Ghana Civil Service.
The All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) is a socialist political party founded by Kwame Nkrumah and organized in Conakry, Guinea in 1968. The party expanded to the United States in 1972 and claims to have recruited members from 33 countries. According to the party, global membership in the party is "in the hundreds".
Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that originates in the works of 19th century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism analyzes and critiques the development of class society and especially of capitalism as well as the role of class struggles in systemic, economic, social and political change. It frames capitalism through a paradigm of exploitation and analyzes class relations and social conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development – materialist in the sense that the politics and ideas of an epoch are determined by the way in which material production is carried on.
Kofi Batsa was a Ghanaian political activist and writer.
William Emmanuel Abraham, also known as Willie E. Abraham or, to give his day name, Kojo Abraham, is a Ghanaian retired philosopher.
Hannah Esi Badu Kudjoe, née Hannah Dadson, was a prominent activist for Ghanaian independence in the 1940s and 1950s. She was one of the first high-profile female nationalists in the movement, and was the National Propaganda Secretary for the Convention People's Party. She was a political activist during the government of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. She was also an active philanthropist and worked to improve women's lives in Northern Ghana. Hannah had the ability to bring people together. She was able to convince others to support and fight for independence. She helped Kwame Nkrumah in bringing people to join the CPP and support it. She once helped the Big Six when they were arrested by bringing people together to call for their release by the colonial government.
Gershon Ashie Nikoi was a Ghanaian politician, Pan-African activist, and a farmer. He was a founding member of the Convention People's Party (C.P.P.) and founder of the Ghana Farmers' Congress.
John Kofi Barku Tettegah (1930–2009) was a Ghanaian trade unionist, diplomat, and politician. He held many influential positions in Ghana's government especially during the Nkrumah government, where he served as general-secretary of the Gold Coast Trades Union Congress (TUC), as a Convention People's Party (CPP) central committee member, and secretary-general of the All-African Trade Union Federation. He was influential to Kwame Nkrumah's domestic and foreign policy, and remains one of the most influential political organizers in Ghanaian labor history.
Ama Biney 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, including at such institutions as Middlesex University, Birkbeck College, University of London, the University of Liverpool, and Webster University Ghana. Among outlets for which she has written are New African magazine, African Studies Quarterly, South African History Online and Pambazuka News, for which she has served as Editor-in-Chief. As an independent Pan-Africanist scholar and activist, she follows Steve Biko's tradition of "writing what she likes."
Hugh Horatio Cofie-Crabbe was a Ghanaian politician who is notable as being detained with two cabinet ministers for the Kulungugu bomb attempt on the life of Ghana's political leader Kwame Nkrumah in 1962. At the time of being detained, he was the executive secretary of Nkrumah's Convention People's Party and a widely known party functionary.
