This well-crafted study of Ghanaian life under the rule of Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People's Party (CPP) makes an important contribution to our understanding of a critical period in Ghana's and Africa's history. Focusing on what he calls the ‘lived experience of Nkrumahism’, Jeffrey Ahlman offers a social and cultural reading of Ghana's late-colonial and post-colonial eras, in contrast to the mostly political and intellectual approaches of previous works. His analysis rests on a thorough examination of the fragmentary surviving archival record, located both in Ghana and elsewhere, and on a revealing series of 44 oral interviews (of which 30 are cited in the bibliography) with Ghanaian men and women who lived Nkrumahism in a variety of roles. Inspired by similar social-historical approaches to the post-colonial history of Guinea and Tanzania, Ahlman perhaps follows most closely in the footsteps of Fred Cooper (Reference Cooper2002), who noted the remarkable and often ignored achievements of the newly independent African states during the first decade or so of freedom. At the same time Ahlman shows the often contradictory and ambiguous character of Ghana's historical record.
The book's introduction and first chapter set the ground for the chapters that follow, beginning with a perhaps too brief analysis of the vision of Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP for a decolonised Gold Coast in the context of post-war African and global alignments. A more in-depth account of Nkrumah's personal biography before his 1947 return to the colony might have helped clarify the origins of that Nkrumahist vision. Chapter 2 narrates Nkrumah and the CPP's late-colonial efforts to effect ‘modernisation’ through planned development, exemplified by the Tema harbour and resettlement scheme. Ahlman shows that the project had the unintended consequence of eliciting local (Gã) cultural discontent and political opposition. Much the same occurred in Asante, which saw the emergence of a potent ethno-nationalist opposition party, the National Liberation Movement, prior to independence. Yet the opponents of Nkrumahism adopted the tactics and at times even the vision of their political nemesis.
Chapters 3 to 6 address the post-colonial period and constitute the heart of the work. Ahlman offers compelling analyses of key institutions created to implement Nkrumah's vision: the Builders Brigade, the Young Pioneers, the Bureau of African Affairs, and the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute. The author's archival work and interviews with former members show that participation profoundly shaped the outlook and lives of these and many other young Ghanaian men and women. These institutions were intended to create a new type of pan-African and national citizenry in line with evolving Nkrumahist ideology. Like the modernisation projects, however, the institutions’ activities aroused political opposition, as did the state's response to the massive, though failed 1961 labour strike; the CPP government attempted to co-opt and neutralise the independent Trades Union Congress. Together with several attempts on Nkrumah's life, these developments led to the adoption of repressive security measures, culminating in the declaration of a one-party state. Thus, Nkrumahism, shaped by historically contingent events, was not a static body of thought and actions. Ghanaian citizens found ways to survive the increasingly oppressive state, while they were deeply changed by it.
Ahlman clearly succeeds in his goal of illuminating the ‘aspirations and tensions involved in living with Nkrumahism’ and reconstructing a critical period in Ghana's history ‘without the weight of later decades’ (p. 209). One aspect of Nkrumahist Ghana that would benefit from further analysis would be the CPP itself, which hovers like a ghost throughout the study. Nevertheless, this is an important intervention in the ongoing debates on the Nkrumah era, a model of decolonisation scholarship and post-colonial African history.
