Table Of ContentPAN-AFRICANISM IN ONE COUNTRY: AFRICAN SOCIALISM,
NEOLIBERALISM AND GLOBALIZATION IN GHANA
A Dissertation Presented
by
Justin Williams
to
The Graduate School
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
History
Stony Brook University
December 2011
UMI Number: 3494778
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Copyright by
Justin Williams
2011
Stony Brook University
The Graduate School
Justin Williams
We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the
Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend
acceptance of this dissertation.
Olufemi Vaughan- Dissertation Co-Advisor
Professor, Department of History and Africana Studies
(Geoffrey Canada Professor of History and Africana Studies, Bowdoin
College)
Paul Gootenberg- Dissertation Co-Advisor
Professor, Department of History
Herman Lebovics- Chairperson of Defense
SUNY Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Department of
History
Floris Cash- Inside Member
Professor, Department of Africana Studies
Partice Nganang- Outside Member
Associate Professor, Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School
Lawrence Martin
Dean of the Graduate School
Abstract of the Dissertation
“Pan-Africanism in One Country: African Socialism, Neoliberalism and
Globalization in Ghana”
by
Justin Williams
Doctor of Philosophy
in
History
Stony Brook University
2011
This dissertation is about the changing historical role of Pan-Africanism in
Ghanaian politics from the late colonial period to the present. For a variety of
reasons, the Republic of Ghana is an ideal site to explore questions about the
interplay between Pan-Africanism and globalization. After becoming the first sub-
Saharan African nation to gain its independence in 1957, Ghana’s First Republic
espoused the core values of African socialism andanti-imperialism and anti-
colonial solidarity under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. The realization of
independence in Ghana and Nkrumah’s eagerness to sponsor other nationalist
movements shifted the center of Pan-African activity from the African diaspora to
the continent itself.
Despite Nkrumah's authoritarianism and political demise via military coup
in 1966, Pan-Africanism remained an important facet of Ghana’s political and
economic landscape. This was particularly evident with the end of the Cold War,
re-establishment of multi-party democracy and adoption of Africa's most rigorous
Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPS) under the auspices of the Breton Woods
institutions. This major paradigm shift not onlymade Ghana a darling of the
global donor community, but also created the framework for the nationto become
a major site for African-American migration, investment and heritage tourism.
In my dissertation, I claim the sum of these interactions between the Ghana and
the African diaspora constitute a “free-market Pan-Africanism,” a distinctive
cultural product of the age of globalizationin direct contrast to the African
socialist political project of the Nkrumah era. In the early Ghanaian state, Pan-
Africanism was an anti-capitalist and anti-imperial, continental political ideology.
My argument is contemporary Ghana deploys Pan-Africanism as a pro-market
commodification of culture to serve the greater project of nation building.
iii
To my family, friends and teachers
iv
CONTENTS
List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………vi
Acknowledgments......................................................................................vii
Preface.....................................................................................................viii
I. The (Anti) Colonial Context, Pan-Africanism and Kwame Nkrumah
(1800-1957)………..……………………….……………………………………1
II. The First Republic: Building African Socialism and Continental Unity
(1957-1966)…………………………………………………………………….44
III. Busia's Second Republic, The Cold War, Economic Crisis and Ghana's
Lost Years (1966-1982)……………………………………………………….84
IV. The Emergence of the “Model” Liberal State (1982Present)..............117
V. A “Free Market Pan Africanism: for the Global Age?..........................160
Appendix A: Map of Ghana………………………………………………….198
Appendix B: Timeline of Important Events...……………..……………….199
References..............................................................................................202
v
List of Abbreviations
AFRC Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
AU African Union
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CPP Convention People’s Party
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
ERP Economic Recovery Program
EU European Union
HIPC Highly Indebted Poor Countries
IMF International Monetary Fund
NDC National Democratic Congress
NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development
NLC National Liberation Council
NPP New Patriotic Party
NRC National Redemption Council
OAU Organization of African Unity
PNDC Provisional National Defence Council
PP Progress Party
SAPS Structural Adjustment Programs
SMC Supreme Military Council
UGCC United Gold Coast Convention
UP United Party
UN United Nations
vi
Acknowledgments
The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible
without the generous assistance of many people throughout the years.
First, I would like to thank the faculty of Columbia College in Columbia,
Missouri for giving me an excellent liberal arts education. In particular,
Brad Lookingbill was instrumental in inspiring me to pursue my career as a
historian. As a graduate student at Stony Brook University, Herman
Lebovics, Brooke Larson and Floris Barnett-Cash all played an
indispensable role in helping me make the transition from student to
scholar. Paul Gootenberg was invaluable in helping me shape this project
into a viable research prospectus, introducing me to relevant scholarship
on Latin America and lending a helping hand to countless drafts. Bowdoin
College's Olufemi Vaughan deserves special recognition for introducing
me to the field of African studies and selflessly agreeing to serve as my
advisor despite his departure from Stony Brook and a notoriously busy
schedule. Also of special note is Patrice Nganang, who selflessly and
graciously agreed to serve as a member of my dissertation committee.
The research phase of this project was made possible by the aid of
many people in both the United States and Ghana. Angel Batiste at Africa
and Middle East Reading Room at the Library of Congress in Washington,
D.C. and the staff of the Schomburg Center for the Study of Black Culture
in Harlem, New York were both extremely helpful. In Ghana, I would like
to thank Anne Adams at the W.E.B Du Bois Centre for Pan-African
Culture, Josiah Gymiah at Ghana’s Public Records and Archives
Administration Department (PRAAD) and Mr. Raymond Agbo at the
National Museum of Ghana.
vii
Preface
And these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
-John Godfrey Saxe, “The Blind Men and the Elephant”1
“Pan-Africanism, general term for various movements in Africa that have
as their common goal the unity of Africans and the elimination of
colonialism and white supremacy from the continent. However, on the
scope and meaning of Pan-Africanism, including such matters as
leadership, political orientation, and national as opposed to regional
interests, they are widely, often bitterly, divided.”
-“Pan-Africanism” the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia2
Since Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana, Pan-Africanism and their historic
ties to African-Americans are among the most studied topics by scholars
interested in modern Africa and black internationalism, an unavoidable
preliminary question is; what about this dissertation is new? As the
Stalinist inspired title of this dissertation and end John Godfrey Saxe's
version of the old fable imply, I took a decidedly multi-faceted approach to
1 John Godfrey Saxe, The Poems of John Godfrey Saxe: Complete in One Volume
(Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868), 260.
2 The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2007.
viii
Description:Stony Brook University The Graduate School Justin Williams We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby
