THE SECOND EMANCIPATION

Wide-ranging study of the life and thought of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana.

As former New York Times foreign correspondent French observes, Kwame Nkrumah was a brilliant man who, during a sojourn in Depression-era America, “earned four degrees, in sociology, theology, education, and philosophy.” Closely studying the work of African and African American writers, he also formulated the doctrine of Pan-Africanism, which held that the African continent would never be free of the aftereffects of colonialism until its nations, along with new nations and federations, had forged a common cause that would mark a new world order and “remedy the curse of Balkanization…that colonialism had inflicted upon them.” Pan-Africanism is not widely remembered today; this is due in part to the continent’s leaders neglecting to shake off its colonial past and instead allowing themselves to be swayed by corruption and privilege. Nkrumah spent his early years in office steering a careful course between the U.S. and USSR during the peak years of the Cold War; although Ghana appeared to be far friendlier to the U.S., its nonalignment led to confrontation with Lyndon Johnson’s “you’re either for us or against us” mentality, so Ghana effectively dropped off the map. At the same time, French writes, Nkrumah, having built a roster of political enemies and feeling paranoid about being assassinated—for good reason, it happens—began to succumb to the temptations of authoritarianism, so that “in its panic, the regime had begun to commit autophagy, cannibalizing itself,” evidenced by Nkrumah’s firing the country’s chief justice so that three prominent foes could be found guilty and imprisoned for opposing him. In the end, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup, his Pan-African dream thwarted, and died in exile.

A fluent exploration of an important if often overlooked political leader whose ideas still bear consideration.