Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African colony in the extract to achieve independence, becoming a major advocate of African unity under Kwame Nkrumah. Its post-independence diplomacy sought influence beyond the country’s material capacity, while its educational expansion and cultural revival contributed to the emergence of West African scholarship, literature, art, and political activism.
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The Story
Ghana’s independence generated excitement across Africa and beyond, even though independence still appeared distant for several other British and French colonies. Kwame Nkrumah and his colleagues attached exceptional importance to the independence of other African states and believed that Ghana, despite its small size, could exercise influence beyond its immediate capacity. The country’s political experience therefore became closely connected with wider debates about African liberation and continental unity.
Nkrumah’s government increasingly treated external affairs as Ghana’s principal task after independence. Its commitment to African unity and to the possibility of continental government was unequivocal, but the methods used to advance Union Government divided African governments. Newspaper campaigns, diplomatic confrontations, the harbouring of dissidents, and alleged training of opponents of governments judged hostile to Ghana contributed to tensions surrounding the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity and eventually isolated Ghana.
Ghana’s relations with Nigeria were repeatedly strained, although they briefly improved during Ghana’s first military regime from 1966 to 1969. General Ankrah’s government promptly recognised the new Nigerian military regime, and Yakubu Gowon accepted Ankrah’s invitation to meet Colonel Ojukwu at Aburi in Ghana in January 1967. During the Nigerian civil war, however, Ghanaian newspaper sympathy for the secessionists and later Ghanaian mediation efforts worsened relations with Lagos.
Primary education expanded dramatically in Ghana, with enrolment rising from 80,000 pupils in 1946 to 255,000 in 1951, 465,000 in 1957, and 1,365,000 in 1972. These figures concealed persistent inequalities between boys and girls and between southern and northern regions. The expansion also created social pressures, as many school-leavers possessed limited literacy but expected employment outside agriculture, contributing to urban unemployment and weakening the agricultural labour supply.
Higher education developed alongside this expansion. Achimota College in the Gold Coast offered an engineering degree course linked to the London B.Sc., while Fourah Bay College could award Durham degrees in a limited range of subjects. By 1972 Ghana had three universities. Universities were criticised as elitist and as retaining close links with English-speaking institutions overseas, yet they also helped produce a substantial body of West African scholars and encouraged curricula to incorporate African content, particularly in history.
A renewed interest in African art accompanied the growth of scholarship and cultural self-confidence. Professor A. E. V. Asihene of Ghana wrote on traditional West African art, while J. W. Kwabena Nketia contributed expertise on Ghanaian folk music. Artists such as Ben Enwonwu and Vincent Kofi drew on African artistic traditions for internationally respected work, and archaeological discoveries elsewhere in West Africa challenged assumptions that sophisticated artistic production had been absent from Africa’s remote past.
Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African colony in the extract to achieve independence, becoming a major advocate of African unity under Kwame Nkrumah. Its post-independence diplomacy sought influence beyond the country’s material capacity, while its educational expansion and cultural revival contributed to the emergence of West African scholarship, literature, art, and political activism.
Continue exploring
The Story
Ghana’s independence generated excitement across Africa and beyond, even though independence still appeared distant for several other British and French colonies. Kwame Nkrumah and his colleagues attached exceptional importance to the independence of other African states and believed that Ghana, despite its small size, could exercise influence beyond its immediate capacity. The country’s political experience therefore became closely connected with wider debates about African liberation and continental unity.
Nkrumah’s government increasingly treated external affairs as Ghana’s principal task after independence. Its commitment to African unity and to the possibility of continental government was unequivocal, but the methods used to advance Union Government divided African governments. Newspaper campaigns, diplomatic confrontations, the harbouring of dissidents, and alleged training of opponents of governments judged hostile to Ghana contributed to tensions surrounding the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity and eventually isolated Ghana.
Ghana’s relations with Nigeria were repeatedly strained, although they briefly improved during Ghana’s first military regime from 1966 to 1969. General Ankrah’s government promptly recognised the new Nigerian military regime, and Yakubu Gowon accepted Ankrah’s invitation to meet Colonel Ojukwu at Aburi in Ghana in January 1967. During the Nigerian civil war, however, Ghanaian newspaper sympathy for the secessionists and later Ghanaian mediation efforts worsened relations with Lagos.
Primary education expanded dramatically in Ghana, with enrolment rising from 80,000 pupils in 1946 to 255,000 in 1951, 465,000 in 1957, and 1,365,000 in 1972. These figures concealed persistent inequalities between boys and girls and between southern and northern regions. The expansion also created social pressures, as many school-leavers possessed limited literacy but expected employment outside agriculture, contributing to urban unemployment and weakening the agricultural labour supply.
Higher education developed alongside this expansion. Achimota College in the Gold Coast offered an engineering degree course linked to the London B.Sc., while Fourah Bay College could award Durham degrees in a limited range of subjects. By 1972 Ghana had three universities. Universities were criticised as elitist and as retaining close links with English-speaking institutions overseas, yet they also helped produce a substantial body of West African scholars and encouraged curricula to incorporate African content, particularly in history.
A renewed interest in African art accompanied the growth of scholarship and cultural self-confidence. Professor A. E. V. Asihene of Ghana wrote on traditional West African art, while J. W. Kwabena Nketia contributed expertise on Ghanaian folk music. Artists such as Ben Enwonwu and Vincent Kofi drew on African artistic traditions for internationally respected work, and archaeological discoveries elsewhere in West Africa challenged assumptions that sophisticated artistic production had been absent from Africa’s remote past.
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