Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere, central figures in the Pan-African and African Liberation movements, have been the subject of debates, research and scholarship since Ghana and Tanzania gained independence.
“Many scholars see their debates as antagonistic and as potentially leading to the collapse of Pan-Africanism. I disagree. Together, they began a decades-long conversation on Pan-Africanism in 1957 in Ghana," said Mjiba Frehiwot of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana.
"There has been little research on the conversation they were engaged in since the beginning of their Pan-African story. Even when in disagreement, the conversations still happened. However, the two are rarely put in conversation in scholarship about the larger Pan-African project. I want to tell the story as an interwoven conversation between not just Nkrumah and Nyerere but Tanzania and Ghana as central to the Pan-African Movement.”
“Many scholars have regarded their strategic and tactical differences as antagonistic, with little room for complementarity or intersection,” she continued. “However, a careful comparison of the decolonised and gendered nature of Pan-Africanism in Ghana and Tanzania reveals important similarities and intersections, such as the implementation of Pan-African development policies; the welcoming and supporting of liberation and Pan-African movement leaders for training; and strategies that propelled the Pan-African charge across the continent.”
“Most books on the topic focus on either Ghana or Tanzania, not the two nations as a collective contribution.”
Frehiwot’s book will attempt to do this by focusing on the two individuals, but also on the Pan-African Projects in Ghana and Tanzania. The book is organised around three main themes: first, it examines the Pan-African philosophies of Nkrumah and Nyerere, with particular attention to Ujamaa and the concept of the African personality; second, it situates Pan-African institutions such as the Bureau of African Affairs in Ghana and the Organization of African Unity Liberation Support Committee in Tanzania as central to the Pan-African movement; and third, it identifies lessons for contemporary Pan-African projects through an engagement with Nyerere’s and Nkrumah’s social policies, including education, healthcare, housing and other public goods.
Frehiwot’s method is analysing primary sources, including national newspapers, government memos, communiques and reports, and then using secondary sources to triangulate and validate. “I’m lucky to have access to the University of Ghana archives,” she said. “I’m also working closely with PhD students in Tanzania because, unfortunately, I don’t speak Swahili.”
She explained that the book will contain chapters on Pan-African history and debates; Pan-Africanism and geo-political movements; Pan-African institutions; Pan-African conversation; and implications for the 21st century.
“But,” she added, “I want interventions to move to the finish line.”
Setting the scene
She introduced the first chapter, highlighting a few of the key historical milestones of the Pan-African movement as well as some of the interactions between Nkrumah's Ghana and Nyerere’s Tanzania to support the development of a multi-layered history of the Pan-African movement.
Although Pan-Africanism has a very long history, Frehiwot noted that it became more organised from the first official conference in London in 1900.
“The movement to unite Africa and its people started long before the colonists entered the continent and was not only a response to slavery and colonisation,” she said. “However, the 1900 conference was the first open meeting to discuss liberation and freedom since the colonial project; it directly challenged colonialism. Ironically, it still had limited African participation from the continent.”
“Between 1900 and 1945, there were five conferences on Pan-Africanism,” she said. “These pushed the boundaries of what was demanded, and the approach became increasingly revolutionary. By the fifth conference, there was a radical call around uniting as coloured (African/Black) people of the world.”
By the 1945 conference, Ghana had become central to the movement, and by 1958 (only a year after Ghana’s independence), Nkrumah held the First All-African People’s Conference in Accra in December. According to Frehiwot, the 1958 conference had a very clear agenda about the independence of Africa from foreign domination.
This became one of many conferences organised by the Bureau of African Affairs. “Several liberation leaders stayed in Ghana after the conference, including Kenneth Kaunda (later the first president of Zambia),” she said. “The country attracted members from different independence movements and was seen as a place for engagement and study.”
“Ghana's independence also offered Nyerere and Nkrumah an opportunity to start their decades-long Pan-African conversation,” she added.
Nyerere's attendance at Ghana’s independence celebration in 1957 reinforced his Pan-African philosophy and ideas. Upon return to East Africa, along with Tom Mboya and other vital regional leaders, he founded the Pan-African Freedom Movement for East and Central Africa in 1958. While in Ghana, Nkrumah hosted a series of All-African People’s conferences. In the early years of their Pan-African careers, Nyerere and Nkrumah were busy working to develop their nations and promote a Pan-African agenda.
By 1963, the OAU Liberation Support Committee had been founded in Addis Ababa, championed by Nyerere with Dar es Salaam as its base and access to the resources of the Tanzanian government. Frehiwot explained that the committee mobilised resources for independence, supported liberation movements, helped movements consolidate within countries, and organised both for military training and for economic and social development. “At one point, there were over 30 liberation movements in Tanzania,” she said. “By the 1970s, they were providing economic support to most southern African liberation movements.”
Frehiwot will look in detail at the work of this committee and the bureau in Ghana to fully understand their role in the development of Pan-Africanism across the continent.
“They were not just training fighters but educating the Pan-African world globally,” she said. “The OAU committee is not as heavily researched as it should be because many of the archival resources are still under lock and key – there are very few articles about this important committee.”
“I’m asking, what can we learn from these institutions? How did they contribute to the national question and to the larger Pan-Africanist project? How can institutions like this be replicated in the 21st century? How much did political movements impact the Pan-Africanist fervour? And why were some closed after South Africa’s independence in 1994?”
“My reading is that institutions played critical roles not just in liberation but in providing education across the continent,” she said. “You can tell this in the Pan-African ideas that emerged. These can be tied back to specific moments. There are clear linkages between these institutions and the move to independence.”
“I also believe we miss the mark when we think about what liberation is. 1994 is seen as the end, liberation has been won, but, of course, for most people in Africa, it hasn’t.”
“I’m interested in the practicalities of the Pan-Africanist project, not in merely retelling Nyerere’s and Nkrumah’s philosophies,” she added.
Article: Michelle Galloway
Photo: Curt Ruiters, Quickclick Productions