Opposition in Ghana: 1947–67

Extract

How simple the Ghana picture now seems! First, the opposition of nationalist demands to colonial rule; later, the opposition of local movements to the national government, then the internal opposition of sectional groups within the single party until the military intervened to turn everything awry. The story has a familiar ring to it. Anti-colonialism, one can argue, was mistaken for nationalism; but as soon as it became clear that the British were preparing to withdraw, politics became a destructive conflict between the would-be nationalist movement and tribal interests. In terms of this argument the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime has to be seen as simply one more example of the weakness of the structure of control in the newly independent states. Frailty, thy name is African nationalism ! The African colonies became self-governing before it was clear that a single ‘self’ existed; they are states before they are nations, and lack that ‘self-aware unity’ which is needed as the basis for a stable political system. Ghanaian history under Nkrumah (one concludes) is the history of every African ex-colony, the only difference being that the rise and fall of first the opposition and then the Convention People's Party in Accra occurred a little earlier in time than comparable events in other capitals.