Kwame Nkrumah
Ghana’s Nationalist Icon
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23474904 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Schwab (City University of Seattle, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Pages | 99-115 |
| Publication date | 2004-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Designing West Africa (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan US (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1057/9781403978769_6 |
| OpenAlex | W2489955650 |
| ISBN | 9781403978769 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
The first time I set foot in Ghana, in January 1964, I was exhilarated. Being in the country whose charismatic president, Kwame Nkrumah, more than any other African statesman, was the radical symbol of the continent, and who was a hero to many on the left, was dramatic. After living in politically stultifying Liberia and traveling overland through the Ivory Coast—both models of African conservatism— arriving in Ghana's capital, Accra, was a breath of fresh air. It was never that simple, of course, since Nkrumah was anything but democratic and Ghana was a politically suffocating and frenzied despotic state; yet on the surface Ghana seemed to be on a planet orbiting far from the more earthly right-wing lands of presidents Tubman and Houphouët-Boigny. At the time, Nkrumah was Ghana, and to be in that place at that moment was not dissimilar to being in Cuba during the early years of Fidel Castro.1 If one could manage it, it was the place to be. Indeed, it was the country I had asked to be placed in when I applied to the Peace Corps.
Ancient history · Art · Charisma · Conservatism · Economic history · Geography · HERO · Kwame · League · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Demography · History · Law
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |