Table Of ContentFelix Kumah-Abiwu
Sabella Ogbobode Abidde Editors
Jerry John
Rawlings
Leadership and Legacy: A Pan-African
Perspective
Jerry John Rawlings
Felix Kumah-Abiwu • Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
Editors
Jerry John Rawlings
Leadership and Legacy: A Pan-African
Perspective
Editors
Felix Kumah-Abiwu Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
Department of Africana Studies Department of History and Political Science
Kent State University Alabama State University
Kent, OH, USA Montgomery, AL, USA
ISBN 978-3-031-14666-4 ISBN 978-3-031-14667-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14667-1
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To the memory of former President Jerry
John Rawlings
(June 22, 1947–November 12, 2020)
And to all past and future political leaders
of Africa.
The Africa we want for the future generation
is in our collective hands as Africans.
Let us continue to demand effective/servant
leadership from our leaders and promote a
culture of accountability across the African
continent.
Preface
The opportunity to lead this book project on the leadership and legacy of former
President Jerry John Rawlings has not only been a great honor for me in many ways,
but working with my co-editor on the project has been one of the rewarding moments
in my professional career as an academic/scholar on African politics and the field of
African affairs. Like many of our contemporaries who had their formative education
on the continent of Africa in the late 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s, my co-editor and
I also had our formative educational years on the continent during these periods
when Jerry Rawlings could not be avoided in our educational pathways. Jerry
Rawlings did not only dominate Ghana’s political landscape but his name was pop-
ular across the African continent by his long stay in power as a military leader
(1981–1993) and a democratically elected President of Ghana (1993–2001). For
some, Rawlings epitomizes the leadership traits and ideals of some of our transfor-
mational/nationalist African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, and
Kenneth Kaunda, among many others, who not only fought for our freedom from
European colonial rule but were also outspoken about anti-imperialism and neoco-
lonialism in post-colonial Africa. These nationalist leaders promoted the ethos and
ideas of Pan-Africanism, African personality, and African unity. Jerry Rawlings also
promoted these ideas during his era.
Former President Rawlings was considered by most as a transformational leader,
and Ghana is today a shining example of stability, democracy, and development
because of the leading role he played in the country’s transition to democratic rule
in the early 1990s. Many of his admirers also share the view of how former President
Rawlings was a compassionate leader who devoted his life to improving the human
condition, especially the plight of ordinary people. He was a fearless, pragmatic,
and visionary leader with big ideas. It is also well-documented in the extant litera-
ture that the role and leadership of Jerry Rawlings concerning his pragmatic deci-
sion to accept and implement the external aid package that was negotiated in the
1980s were critically important in changing the direction of Ghana to growth/devel-
opment from a near economic collapse and social decay in the 1980s. While recog-
nizing the roles that have been played by previous political leaders of Ghana and
ordinary Ghanaians in the progress and development of the country since 1957,
vii
viii Preface
Ghana’s admiration today in the international community as one of Africa’s stable
and advancing democratic countries is partly due, as many have argued, to Jerry
Rawlings’ leadership. His post-presidency roles on the African continent with the
African Union (AU) on important issues of conflict resolution and peacebuilding
initiatives have also been widely applauded.
Yet, Jerry Rawlings has also been despised by some because of his authoritarian
style of leadership and human rights issues, especially during the military regime of
the AFRC and the PNDC eras. In sum, the name Jerry John Rawlings, or
J.J. Rawlings, as he was popularly known, like other political leaders of history,
tends to evoke mixed reactions and multifaceted views, opinions, and varied per-
spectives among scholars, public intellectuals, and ordinary Ghanaians and Africans.
His passing on November 12, 2020, not only shocked and saddened many Ghanaians,
Africans, and those in the African diaspora, but going through the process of think-
ing about J.J. Rawlings and the critical question of how his leadership and legacy
can be critically assessed/examined and how he can best be remembered, gave birth
to my idea to put this scholarly book together to honor his memory. Thanks to my
colleague, and co-editor, Dr. Sabella Ogbobode Abidde, who agreed to the idea of
us working together as co-editors on this important and timely book in a mutual
spirit of scholarly collaboration, Pan-Africanism, and African unity to honor late
former President Jerry Rawlings’ leadership and legacy.
Kent, OH, USA Felix Kumah-Abiwu
Montgomery, AL, USA Sabella Ogbobode Abidde
Fall 2022
Acknowledgment
The process of writing an important/timely book of this nature can be challenging,
but it can equally be rewarding when surrounded by loving family members, trusted
colleagues, and other great friends who provide constant support and encourage-
ment along the way.
We would like to express our profound thanks and appreciation to our immediate
family members for their extraordinary support and encouragement throughout the
process of working on this book.
To our colleagues and fellow scholars who have contributed to this edited vol-
ume, we say thank you for sharing your ideas and perspectives on Jerry Rawlings.
Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers of the proposal and the manuscript. Your
constructive comments and useful suggestions have enriched the book. Thank you!
Thanks to colleagues in our respective academic departments at Kent State
University and Alabama State University and other friends in the academy who
have continued to encourage us to keep the scholarly agenda on political leadership
in Africa and other critical issues on African affairs moving forward for a better
future for the continent.
We also appreciate the professionals at Springer Publishing for all their support.
To you, Lorraine Klimowich, for your extraordinary guidance and professionalism
throughout the process. Thanks to you, Mahalakshmi Saravanan, and the rest of the
team for your excellent work.
And thanks to you, the reader of this important book on the leadership and legacy
of Jerry John Rawlings. We hope that your knowledge and understanding of his
leadership and legacy in terms of his achievements and limitations as a political
leader will inspire and challenge us to create a brighter pathway for Africa’s effec-
tive leadership, peace, security, democracy, and overall development.
ix
Introduction
The literature on African politics and the broader field of African affairs has for
several decades underscored the importance of effective political leadership to
Africa’s peace, stability, and development. In other words, weak, corrupt, vision-
less, and ineffective political leadership as well as fragmented state institutions have
contributed largely to Africa’s current challenges. While the African continent con-
tinues to suffer from these challenging issues, especially with poor leadership,
Africa has also been blessed with transformational political leaders such as late
former President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana among other extraordinary leaders
in the post-colonial era. To enhance our knowledge and understanding of former
President Jerry Rawlings’ political leadership and legacy as one of Africa’s transfor-
mational leaders, the idea emerged to produce this edited volume titled, Jerry John
Rawlings-Leadership and Legacy: A Pan-African Perspective.
The main thesis of the book focuses on the centrality of political leadership and
strong democratic institutions as important elements for Africa’s quest for develop-
ment with a focus on Jerry Rawlings. The emphasis on Rawlings’ leadership and
legacy is meant to provide a context of how his political leadership was instrumental
in changing the direction of Ghana from a near economic collapse and social decay
in the 1980s to a country that has embraced political reforms in the 1990s. While
former President Rawlings has generally been described as one of Africa’s transfor-
mational/compassionate leaders who devoted his life to improving the human con-
dition, especially the plight of the ordinary people, he was also criticized by some
for his authoritarian style of leadership and human rights issues. The central pur-
pose of the book is threefold. First, it examines the role and place of good and effec-
tive political leadership in the development of Africa. Second, it seeks to situate
Jerry Rawlings’ political leadership and legacy in post-colonial Ghana and the rest
of Africa. Finally, the book seeks to enhance our knowledge and understanding of
Jerry Rawlings as one of Africa’s preeminent political leaders, although he has also
been vilified by some for his limitations.
xi
xii Introduction
To achieve the above objectives of the book, we have been successful in gather-
ing leading experts/scholars on African politics and the broader field of African
affairs who have contributed outstanding chapters on various aspects or perspec-
tives on the leadership and legacy of Jerry Rawlings. These perspectives cover the
political eras of Jerry Rawlings on critical issues of political leadership, Ghana’s
foreign economic relations, policy making/administration, heritage tourism, gender
and women issues, Pan-Africanism, and the African diaspora. By systematically
examining the different viewpoints of Rawlings’ leadership and legacy, we have
provided a balanced perspective in our efforts to better understand his leadership/
legacy and Ghana’s political landscape during his eras. The Pan-African perspective
of the book with regards to the contributors and their interdisciplinary fields of
expertise also makes the book unique, timely, and novel.
The book contains a total of 20 chapters from contributors with backgrounds and
expertise in various disciplines in the social sciences. Areas of their expertise range
from the fields of political science, foreign policy, public administration, policy
studies, economics, legal studies, anthropology, geography/urban studies, and soci-
ology. The book is divided into three main parts. Part I provides an overview of
governance and leadership in Africa, while Part II examines Ghana’s political land-
scape with a focus on the political eras of Jerry Rawlings. Part III explores Rawlings’
leadership and legacy from a Pan-African perspective.
Chapter 1, which is titled “Leadership-Institutions-Development Nexus in
Africa: A Jerry John Rawlings Perspective,” draws on the leadership-institutions-
development nexus or framework to examine leadership and development in Africa
with a focus on Jerry Rawlings. Written by Eunice Annan-Aggrey, Senanu K. Kutor,
Elmond Bandauko, and Godwin Arku, the chapter argues that poor leadership and
weak institutions are still responsible for Africa’s development challenges.
Challenges such as poverty, inequalities, unemployment, conflicts, and poor public
service delivery are cases in point. With regards to Jerry Rawlings, the authors argue
that he has been hailed as one of Africa’s transformational leaders given the impor-
tance of his leadership in impacting state institutions and development in Ghana and
the rest of Africa.
Chapter 2, with the title, “Africa’s Nationalist and Transformational Leaders: A
Survey,” by Richmond Danso, looks at the life and politics of three African leaders-
Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Jerry John Rawlings (Ghana), and Thomas Sankara
(Burkina Faso). The chapter argues that these leaders have not only left a lasting
footprint on the politics of their countries as well as the continent, but they also had
a huge impact on the political, economic, and social aspects of their respective
countries and the African continent. The chapter underscores the commonality of
the three leaders in their extraordinary impact and the way they have inspired each
other, especially Rawlings and Sankara. Thus, Jerry Rawlings drew inspiration from
Kwame Nkrumah’s political thought and ideas on Pan-Africanism, African unity,
and anti-imperialism, while Thomas Sankara was also inspired by Jerry Rawlings’
revolutionary ethos and ideas on anti-imperialism.
