Kwame Nkrumah Won the War on African Liberation but Lost in the African Unity Project

Kwame Nkrumah, a great Pan Africanist was the first President of Ghana and one of Africa’s leading statesmen. He was a man who was very passionate about African emancipation and the unity of Africa. So passionate was he about this goal that the moment he declared Ghana independent on 6th March 1957, he made a historic pronouncement which would later become the bedrock of his foreign policy objectives. He said; “We again re-dedicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless its linked up with the total liberation of Africa”. With these words, Nkrumah’s vision for the nation became imprinted both intrinsically and immediately. Also, it was also no hidden truth that President Nkrumah wanted a unified Africa for he believed that the key to Africa’s success lay in its ability to unite continent-wide and he worked hard to fulfill this vision.

Whether Nkrumah achieved these specific objectives total liberation of Africa and African unity is a question that has been discussed on different platforms. Based on historical evidence, it has been said by many scholars that Nkrumah won the war on total liberation of Africa but lost the battle on his African unity quest. The discussion in this essay is based on this assertion that Nkrumah won the war on total liberation of Africa but lost the battle on African unity.

The first part of this essay would look at how and why Nkrumah won the battle on total liberation whereas the second part would be focused on why he lost the battle on African unity.

Nkrumah back in the day as a student in the U.S and subsequently U.K was a very strong believer in the African being able to manage his own affairs which meant that the colonial masters had to leave Africa. He was also greatly influenced by Marcus Garvey who talked of an “Africa for Africans” and this greatly inspired him to embark on a program to systematically rid Africa of colonialism and neo colonialism. Whiles studying abroad, Nkrumah and other African students like Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya who were members of pan-Africanists groups wanted to go back to their respective countries and fight for independence. Upon his return to Ghana in 1947, Nkrumah fought tooth and nail to make sure Ghana gained independence which it eventually did in March 1957. After successfully gaining independence for Ghana, he knew that the onus was upon him to help other African countries to gain independence. It is important to note that Nkrumah was uncompromising in his commitment to the basic objective of liberty for all and he fought tirelessly to make this dream a reality. By the time Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, a lot of African countries had been liberated with some n their way to liberation due to certain influences from Nkrumah.

 With this background information, we examine his contribution to the decolonization process and certain factors/circumstances which led to Nkrumah winning the war on the total liberation of Africa

Some scholars have stated that Nkrumah succeeded in helping to liberate Africa mainly because the European powers were ready to give up power as at the end of the world war 2  because  their economies were shaky and they were finding it difficult to hold on to colonies. The war had adverse effects on most of the colonial masters. In Britain for example, their economy and human resource was exasperated by the war effort. Also, other European powers found it increasingly difficult to hold on to their colonies in the face of weakness at home and growing internal demands for independence by African nationalists like Nkrumah himself. The stage was therefore already set for the decolonization process and Nkrumah used this opportunity and supported most African countries to fight for and gain their independence. Through his efforts, most African countries got independence though the transition was relatively peaceful for some countries than it was for others.