A critical study of the political philosophy of Kwame Nkrumah

Abstract

Since Plato, political philosophy has been regarded as man's attempt to prescribe the ideal solution to the problems of governance, in order to bring the ideal state into being. In post-colonial Africa, several post-independence African leaders, prominent among them, Kwame Nkrumah, attempted theoretical constructions of this ideal state. Nkrumah particularly thought that the three factors that could bring about the ideal state in colonial Africa were: the realisation of political independence, the establishment of socialism and continental unification. In other words, Nkrumah's political philosophy is based on the conviction of the need for freedom and the unification of Africa and its islands. More importantly Nkrumah believed in the liberation of the African conscience, conditioned by the combined presence of the ''triple heritage''. Attractive as this political philosophy may appear to be, nevertheless, it is replete with some contradictions. The central objective of this study is to elucidate some of these problems. First, the simultaneous reliance on subversion and diplomacy for the realisation of African unity did much to extinguish that vision. Second, as a panacea to the alienated African psyche, Consciencism is nebulous; because it fails to reflect the African spiritual world view neither does it reflect Marxian materialism. Third, Nkrumah's idealisation of traditional African socialism was not borne out by the facts, since it fails to consider the individualistic elements inherent in that system. In the fields of religion, commerce and to some extend land management, the African in traditional Africa exhibited individualistic tendencies. In addition, Nkrumah's call for African unity distorts historical facts, as he argued as if pre-colonial Africa were united but disbanded with the advent of colonial rule. In fact, Africa as a geopolitical concept did not exist in pre-colonial times. What is now called Africa was an amalgamation of empires, kingdoms and states–centralised and non-centralised. We also aver that Nkrumah's resort to the one-party system was contrary to human soul, whose nature, since Plato, is to be free.