Introduction ^{Footnote 1}

Fifty years after its overthrow on 24 February 1966, the government of Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana is still construed in the African collective imagination as one of the most controversial, yet influential political experiments, in the modern history of the continent. This is mainly due to its progressive Pan-African policy, built on the idea of liberating the continent from colonial or neo-colonial influences and uniting it under the flag of a one continental government. Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism borrowed elements from Marxism, Ghandism, and the whole tradition of black radical and Pan-Africanist thoughts, and the ideology of Nkrumahism envisaged the revolutionary transformation of Ghana as well as the liberation and unification of a socialist Africa. ^{Footnote 2} Nkrumah was aided and influenced until 1959 by the Trinidadian Pan-Africanist George Padmore, and he sought to attain his goals by devising specific political strategies and inaugurating three separate institutions: the Bureau of African Affairs (BAA), the African Affairs Centre (AAC), and the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute of Winneba (KNII). Even though Nkrumah ambitious objectives proved beyond his reach, he undoubtedly played a critical role in the development of African nationalism. Nkrumah supported, directly or indirectly, liberation movements from all over the continent, all the while trying to influence them politically.

Alongside Padmore, Nkrumah transformed Accra into a “chief meeting site for anti-colonial nationalists seeking to internationalize their own national struggles.” ^{Footnote 3} Thus, to work on Nkrumah’s Ghana, and particularly its Pan-African institutions, is also to consider the trans-national dimension of African liberation and nationalist movements, a topic to which several scholars have been drawn in recent years. ^{Footnote 4} For decades, historians have come up against a dearth of material on the activities of the BAA, the AAC, and the KNII, as their archives were thought to have completely disappeared after the coup of 1966. ^{Footnote 5} During the last twenty-five years, however, a fundamental repository has reemerged to light: the Bureau of African Affairs Collection, now kept at the George Padmore Research Library on African Affairs, in Accra. This archive includes most of the papers of the BAA, and also some documents relating to the activities of the AAC and the KNII. ^{Footnote 6} Only in recent times did scholars begin to employ this invaluable body of records for the history of Ghana, as well as that of African nationalism at the continental level. ^{Footnote 7} Few other documents about the BAA, AAC, and KNII can be found outside this collection. ^{Footnote 8} Drawing on the author’s familiarity with the Bureau of African Affairs records, this article briefly describes the history of the collection and provides an overview of its contents. ^{Footnote 9}

A Brief History of the Collection

Before describing the contents of the Bureau of African Affairs collection, it is important quickly to survey the history of the archive itself, since elements of this history help to account for the present shape of the collection itself. In the turbulent days of Nkrumah’s overthrow, the military authorities of the National Liberation Council (NLC) raided Accra and the other major Ghanaian cities for documents concerning Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) and his government. One of the main goals of this operation was to bring to light evidence of the crimes of the former regime, thereby justifying the coup itself and cleaning up Ghana’s international image. In this regard, the documents of the BAA were considered to be of major importance, as they held information on some of the most secret and controversial African operations carried out by Nkrumah’s government. While Flagstaff House and other ministers were raided by the military or even by common people, the Bureau of African Affairs was shut down, its staff arrested and its papers seized by the authorities for further examination of the materials. The papers of the Bureau, the AAC, the KNII, and other Nkrumahist institutions were impounded and deposited in the Trade Union Congress (TUC) headquarters building, in Accra. ^{Footnote 10} Then, the military authorities set up a committee of officers who had the task of examining the documents, selecting those considered important to build a case against the former government and taking them to Burma Camp, a military base also in Accra. ^{Footnote 11} In the months following the coup, the new military government published some of its findings in the two booklets: Nkrumah’s Subversion in Africa and Nkrumah’s Deception of Africa. ^{Footnote 12} Both of these publications reproduced a selection of the documents confiscated from the BAA. The fate of these documents is unknown. ^{Footnote 13} Their disappearance explains why the Bureau of African Affairs Collection includes few documents concerning the most secret activities undertaken by the Bureau. After the appearance of the NLC publications, the remaining records of the BAA were kept in Burma Camp for a few years until the National Archival and Library Authorities moved them. A small part of the papers was sent to the National Archives, but the rest were moved to its present location under the control of the Ghana Library Board. ^{Footnote 14} The survival of part at least of the Bureau of African Affairs papers is fortunate, especially when it is set against the fate of other archives, such as those of the KNII and the AAC, which were completely lost after the coup.

The turning point in the history of the archive can be located in the late 1980s, when Jan-Bart Gewald and Joseph Justice Torton Mensah re-discovered the collection. ^{Footnote 15} At the time, the boxes of the BAA had been stored in the basement of the George Padmore Research Library on African Affairs, established by Nkrumah himself in 1961 to preserve Padmore’s personal library and to house Padmore’s own grave. Interestingly, the library was, and still is, a mere 500 meters away from the original address of the Bureau of African Affairs, in today’s Gabel Abdul Nasser Avenue, known as Maxwell Road in Nkrumah’s times. Since the library is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, the then Minister, K.B. Asante, had to grant special permission to survey the documents. Joseph Mensah, at the time a masters’ student in African Studies at the University of Ghana and later Western Regional Director of the Public Records and Archive Administration Department of Ghana, proceeded to examine the papers of the Bureau of African Affairs kept at the National Archives as well as those kept at the George Padmore Library (the Bureau of African Affairs Collection). Since the latter were still un-catalogued, he then created a numbered list. A first survey of the documents of the Bureau was later produced by Mensah himself as his own thesis. ^{Footnote 16} By producing a catalogue of the BAA papers at the George Padmore Library, Mensah tried to rationalize a body of records which was “terribly disorganized” because of the “rough handling by soldiers” after the Bureau was closed down on 24 February 1966. ^{Footnote 17}

The Contents of the Collection

In 2008, almost twenty years after Mensah had produced a first catalogue, Jeffrey Ahlman, then a PhD student of the University of lllinois-Urbana Champaign, prepared a list of the collection with the aid of several members of the library’s staff. Since then, the library retains a copy of Ahlman’s catalogue, which references 966 files. These are either placed into boxes – which are also listed in the catalogue – or sit loose on the shelves. Most of the folders are numbered progressively (from 1 to 1,128 with at least 181 numbered files missing from the catalogue). Some others included in the catalogue are not numbered, and they are listed with only the name on the cover to identify them. During the research leading to my PhD thesis, I had the chance to examine the materials listed in Ahlman’s catalogue. Stored in the basement of the western wing of the library, the records are in a poor state of preservation, being kept in a very confined and humid space. ^{Footnote 18} Some additional records, not listed in Ahlman’s catalogue, are kept in a separate section of the library. Researchers are allowed to read these documents but, without a catalogue, the personnel of the library can only provide them with randomly selected files. After insistent requests, I was able to examine the room where the files are stored. ^{Footnote 19} I estimate them to be grouped into about one hundred unnumbered folders. ^{Footnote 20} Should this estimate be correct, then the entire Bureau of African Affairs Collection might consist of about 1,066 files. Besides archival material sensu stricto, the library also includes bibliographical and photographical materials relating to the work of the BAA or to African affairs more in general, including Padmore’s own library. A series of picture of Padmore’s funeral and burial can be also found in the library.

The Bureau of African Affairs Collection consists of the papers of the BAA and its predecessor, the Office of the Adviser to the Prime Minister on African Affairs. The latter was established in 1957 and began its activities upon the arrival of Padmore in Accra on 5 December of the same year. ^{Footnote 21} The Office was designed to act as an “investigative body, as a propaganda forum and as a center for exchanging views with other African leaders.” ^{Footnote 22} Moreover, the new institution had to provide political and financial aid to African liberation movements, and it was also entrusted with the promotion of African unity and socialism. As Leslie James has put it: “It would supplement, not duplicate, the work of the Ministry of External Affairs,” at the time held by Nkrumah himself. ^{Footnote 23} Padmore’s office was de jure under the control of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs; de facto, however, it was autonomous from it and answerable only to Nkrumah. ^{Footnote 24} Between 1957 and 1959, Padmore’s office cooperated with the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs (renamed Ministry of External Affairs in July 1958) as well as with the CPP, in organizing the two important Pan-Africanist conferences held in Ghana: the first Conference of Independent African States (CIAS), held in April 1958, and the All-African People’s Conference (AAPC), held in December 1958. During the same period, Padmore took part in various trips abroad, such as the meeting between Nkrumah, Sekou Touré, and William V.S. Tubman held in Sanniquellie on 19 July 1959, when the famous Declaration was also issued. ^{Footnote 25} Until Padmore’s death in September 1959, the office was also at the heart of Ghana’s Pan-African propaganda through radio and press, worked towards inaugurating a system of scholarships, and it also begun to provide African liberation movements with offices of representation as well as shelter. ^{Footnote 26} A specific institution, directly dependent from the Office, was created to provide housing to African freedom fighters and political refugees: the African Affairs Centre. This hostel, consisting of a series of houses and bungalows built close to Accra’s airport, was first proposed by the Guyanese T. Ras Makonnen in August 1958 and then made fully operational in December 1958 under the management of Makonnen himself. ^{Footnote 27} The AAC hosted important African leaders such as Kaunda, Lumumba, Mboya, and Roberto. ^{Footnote 28}

Although the documents of the AAC were lost after the coup, some of its correspondence with Padmore’s Office and its successor, the BAA, can be found in the archive. In general, records hailing from Padmore’s days abound in the collection. These include newspaper clippings concerning mainly African affairs, reports, personnel files, circulars, and correspondence both within Ghana (Padmore communicating with other ministers, with the Convention People’s Party headquarters, with Nkrumah or with the AAC) and outside Ghana.

After Padmore’s death, the Office ceased to exist as such and changed its name. In early October 1959, Kwame Nkrumah announced in a press release the establishment of the Bureau of African Affairs “in order to put the work begun by the late Mr. George Padmore on a permanent basis.” ^{Footnote 29} Baako was nominated director, Nkrumah himself took the post of acting director, while Aloysius K. Barden, Padmore’s selected and trusted assistant, became secretary. ^{Footnote 30} Until its formal establishment as an independent institution on 28 April 1960, the BAA, along with the AAC, was administered by the African Affairs Committee, an advisory body created by Nkrumah and Padmore a few months earlier with the view to coordinating Ghana’s African policy. ^{Footnote 31} The collection includes some of the papers of the African Affairs Committee, although not all of them, as well as some of the papers of the All-African People’s Conference, the permanent organization born after the 1958 All-African People’s Conference. ^{Footnote 32} Indeed, by late 1959, the BAA had “virtually absorbed what was left of the AAPC.” ^{Footnote 33}

Similarly to Padmore’s Office, the BAA was established as a body dependent only on Nkrumah. Soon, Barden became the new director. Under his management, the Bureau became an effective instrument for the pursuit of Ghana’s Pan-African policy, being responsible for providing African liberation movements with funds, documents, political support and the other resources they required, including political and military training. Specific departments were created to deal with the specific tasks of the Bureau. The last and final re-organization of these departments took place in October 1965. ^{Footnote 34} One of the departments, the Press Branch, took care of the production and distribution of Ghanaian Pan-Africanist and socialist press both in Ghana and abroad. Among the various publications edited by the Bureau or by its editing subsidiaries were: Voice of Africa, The Spark (and its French version, L’Enticelle), The African Chronicler, Freedom Fighter, and The Information Bulletin on African Affairs. Documents concerning all the departments, including the Press Branch, form part of the collection. ^{Footnote 35}

In 1960, the Bureau also created a network of agents to support Ghana’s Pan-African policy directly on the battlegrounds of the liberation struggle. Because of this, the collection houses the correspondence between the Bureau and several African liberation movements, such as the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), and the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), both in Ghana (where the BAA provided them with offices of representation) and abroad, where the Bureau was in constant touch either directly with African nationalists or with its own agents amongst the latter. ^{Footnote 36} The BAA was also regularly tracking the correspondence between the above-mentioned Ghana-based representatives of African liberation movements and their other offices and headquarters. ^{Footnote 37} Thus, the collection also offers invaluable insights into the activities of the liberation movements themselves, besides those that it provides into their relations with Ghanaian authorities. Other interesting documents of the collection include reports, press statements and newspapers clippings concerning every major African political question of the period 1959–1966. The collection also comprises a substantial amount of documents pertaining to the daily running of the institution itself. Circulars, reports, personnel files and internal correspondence provide an exceptionally detailed picture of the workings of one of Nkrumah’s most controversial institutions. ^{Footnote 38} As Ahlman rightly pointed out: “It is in the relatively mundane act of archival collection and preservation that the Bureau becomes exceptional in the histories of Nkrumah-era Ghana. No other of the Nkrumah institutions (…) created such a complete and informative archival record.” ^{Footnote 39}

The BAA’s activities went beyond the sphere of Ghana’s Pan-African policy, for the office also had an important role to play in the implementation of Nkrumah’s domestic policies. Particularly after the shift to the left operated by Nkrumah in 1961, the Bureau became directly involved in the transformation of Ghana into a socialist – and ultimately Nkrumahist – state. The collection houses the correspondence between the BAA and the various bodies entrusted with the task of working for the transformation of Ghanaian society, such as The Ghana Young Pioneers, the Workers Brigade and the ruling CPP. ^{Footnote 40} After the Kulungugu life attempt on 2 August 1962, the Bureau also became to all intents and purposes an intelligence office, whose duties included “assisting the State apparatus in unearthing plans and exposing the wicked intentions of people both within the country and outside.” ^{Footnote 41} The archive includes document of exceptional importance for understanding the tensions between the various parts that formed the Ghanaian state, including the party, the civil service, the government, the ministries and the secretariats.

Among the most interesting papers included in the BAA collection are those relating to the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute of Winneba, known after 1962 as Kwame Nkrumah Institute of Economics and Political Science. The KNII can be regarded both as a party school and an institution aimed at realizing the goals of Nkrumah’s Pan-African policy. First conceived in 1959, it was officially inaugurated in 1961. It had two main purposes. First, the KNII was meant to train CPP members and civil servants in ideology, economics and administration. Secondly, it provided a similar training to freedom fighters, in order to foster the emergence and development of a new revolutionary and Pan-Africanist African intelligentsia. At the opening ceremony of the KNII on 18 February 1961, Nkrumah himself explained: “When African freedom fighters from all over Africa have come into this institute and quenched their thirst for ideological knowledge, they will go back fortified in the same principle and beliefs, pursue the same objectives and aims, appreciate the same values and advocate the same themes.” ^{Footnote 42} Nkrumah requested the Bureau to organize courses on African liberation and unity for both Ghanaians and foreigners, whose identity and conduct were constantly monitored by the same BAA. The Bureau of African Affairs Collection includes the full texts of a number of lessons taught at Winneba, as well as other documents concerning the running of the Institute, including the selection of the teaching staff. ^{Footnote 43}

Finally, the archive includes papers relating to the most controversial missions delegated to the Bureau, that is, those relating to already independent African countries. The BAA, indeed, supported a number of African opposition groups by hosting them in Ghana as political refugees, and it also sent agents to the same countries. As already stated above, most of the papers concerning the “subversive” activities of the Bureau were confiscated after the coup, published and, later, either destroyed or kept in Burma camp. This is the reason why there are few documents marked as “secret” in the whole collection. Nevertheless, important information about Ghanaian polices towards other independent African independent can be found in the collection. For instance, several documents are available that concern such exiled political parties as the Union du Populations du Cameroun (UPC) or the Sanwi Liberation Movement. ^{Footnote 44}

Final considerations

In conclusion, the collection of the BAA has enormous potential for scholars interested in the study of Nkrumah’s era or the history of liberation movements. From many points of view, the collection provides unique insights into both Nkrumah’s foreign and domestic policies. It is even more precious when one considers that, in itself, the collection offers a snapshot of the shape and workings of a Nkrumahist institution at the time of the coup. Nevertheless, the accessibility and the overall state of the archive are still matters that need to be resolved, as they might affect the work of the future researchers. Some of the files are misplaced and, thus, very difficult to retrieve. Some other files are kept in mislabeled folders – that is, folders whose titles often have nothing to do with the actual contents of the documents included in them. Finally, some folders are not even catalogued and so virtually inaccessible.