Kwame Nkrumah and African Socialism

[Brosa Luxemburg]

I was wondering what people's views of Ghana under Nkrumah and Nkrumah's socialism were. Personally, I have a negative view of Nkrumah and his idea of socialism. I think he was power-hungry and spent more time campaigning for his rule over all of Africa and building elaborate buildings for foreign diplomats than actually working to better the lives of his people and build socialism.

[marl]

Kwame wasn't an African socialist. He distanced himself from other African socialists. His rule may have been unsuccessful, but the ideals of African unity will live on.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Kwame wasn't an African socialist. He distanced himself from other African socialists. His rule may have been unsuccessful, but the ideals of African unity will live on.
Um....yes he claimed to be a socialist. I agree with you if you are saying he wasn't a socialist because he didn't follow socialist ideas but you are wrong if you claim he didn't claim to be a socialist. Also, he distanced himself from other African socialists because he wanted to rule all of Africa under a United States of Africa himself with no one else. Read Martin Meredith's "The Fate of Africa".

[marl]

African socialism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_socialism) ≠ African (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African) socialism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism)



He generally took a non-aligned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Aligned_Movement) Marxist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist) perspective on economics, and believed capitalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism) had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time. Although he was clear on distancing himself from the African socialism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_socialism) of many of his contemporaries, Nkrumah argued that socialism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism) was the system that would best accommodate the changes that capitalism had brought, while still respecting African values. He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled "African Socialism Revisited":

[Brosa Luxemburg]

So...we are agreeing with each other, marl?

[marl]

I was just nitpicking about the capitalization of 'African Socialism' in the title. 'African Socialism' has a different meaning than 'African socialism'. Sorry if I confused you.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

I was just nitpicking about the capitalization of 'African Socialism' in the title. 'African Socialism' has a different meaning than 'African socialism'. Sorry if I confused you.
Oh, okay.