Today marks the birthday of the first Prime Minister and later President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. In 1935, he came to the United States and obtained Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Lincoln University and The University of Pennsylvannia, respectively. He also pledged Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity.
Kwame Nkrumah’s real gift to the world was birthing the idea of Pan-Africanism, his early vision of a United States of Africa. Wayne over at the Electronic Village did a nice piece on Nkrumah that I won’t duplicate here, but it is important to note that the dream – one that saw Ghana established as a Republic and then just as easily converted to a dictatorship, is one which we need to examine.
Nkrumah died in 1972, his vision unrealized and his rule ended in exile. It makes one wonder about the dream. Long after first reading about him in college, I developed my own vision of the dream. It’s an ambitious one – it expands on the original theory to encompass the entire African Diaspora. The same reasons, benefits and logic hold true, but the dream continues to be elusive.
The question is why. Why is it so difficult for Africa (and the diaspora) to see the benefits of unification? Would the model of the United States and the European Union not work in Africa?
I completely agree with you about the necessity of unification. It’s something that I would personally like to work towards, however I have heard a lot of discussion about how impossible or unlikely this is. Recently, a came across this article and it gave me a little bit of encouragement: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909210008.html
It looks like the dream is not so far out of reach after all!
Alicia, this is something I hadn’t thought about, but having a common monetary system is definitely key to unification thanks for the link to the article. As for the dream – I’m keeping hope alive
[...] My African Diaspora says Nkrumah’s greatest gift to the world was: ‘…birthing the idea of Pan-Africanism, his early vision of a United States of Africa. [...]
[...] My African Diaspora says Nkrumah’s greatest gift to the world was: ‘…birthing the idea of Pan-Africanism, his early vision of a United States of Africa. [...]