Kwame Nkrumah: Wrestling with Nonviolence

Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.

By Stella D’Acquisto


Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister of Ghana, had a path from activism to revolution to leadership that presents a fascinating case study in the practice of nonviolence. This article seeks to provide a relatively objective analysis of Nkrumah’s relationship with nonviolence while reserving any moral judgements. The storytelling of “postcolonial” Africa in academia can at times focus too heavily on biographies of certain iconized leaders rather than on how the lives of ordinary African people have changed over time.[1] Acknowledging this issue, I aim to examine Nkrumah not as a positive or negative leader but as an influential figure to be studies.

Black and white image of man delivering a speech.
[2]

Similarly, Ghanaian anticolonial resistance is not typically described as an example of nonviolence,[3] despite that the methods the resistance used can largely be considered nonviolent. Nkrumah coined the term “Positive Action”[4] to refer to nonviolent resistance against colonialism, formed around the “African Personality,”[5] a form of Pan-Africanism focused on uniting Africans toward decolonization.

There have been protest movements — largely nonviolent — against British influence in Ghana since the late 1700s, such as women-led protests against taxation and the formation of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, which was made up of both Ghanaians and early British colonists.[6] These efforts were largely based around specific issues, however, rather than resistance against the very idea of colonialism. British rule itself arguably did not solidify in Ghana (then the Gold Coast) until around the 1890s,[7] which meant that Ghanaian resistance to it also developed gradually.

Meanwhile, a young teacher named Kwame moved from the Gold Coast to the United States to study at Lincoln University.[18] From 1935 to 1947, Nkrumah travelled to the United States and Britain, where he saw the struggle of colonized Ghanaians reflected in the struggles of the African diasporas there.[9] In 1945, Nkrumah went to the Fifth Pan-African Conference in Manchester, where attendees discussed methods for anticolonial revolution.[10] This was soon after India had achieved independence, which meant that nonviolent methodology was on the table at the conference, with a particular focus on strikes and boycotts.

Having established himself as a leading thinker on anticolonialism, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 to become the general secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).[11] The UGCC encouraged slower progress within the colonial system, however, so he left in 1949 to form his own party. The Convention People’s Party (CPP) focused on “self-government now”[12] and refused to agree to any form of compromise that did not give Ghanaians full sovereignty. They released the Coussey Report which laid out their demands for a new constitution. The CPP drew supporters from all walks of life, particularly attracting young people and lower-class people who may not have shown interest in parties like the UGCC.

The CPP began organizing its first set of actions that same year, following the proposal of a new constitution[13] that would have offered some additional rights to Ghanaians but remained entrenched in colonial rule. Nkrumah released a pamphlet called What I Mean by Positive Action, laying out his philosophy of strict nonviolence utilizing “all legitimate and constitutional means.”[14] Later that year, he published an article titled The Era of Positive Action Draws Nigh,[15] alerting the public to the CPP’s plan to launch a Positive Action campaign if the government went forward with the constitution.

Threatened by Ghanaians’ support of Nkrumah, the British-run government attempted to negotiate with the CPP, who refused to budge. Finally, on January 8, 1950, he made a speech in Accra calling on all Ghanaians to strike. The response was widespread and hit the economy hard, and a few weeks into the strike, Nkrumah and other CPP leaders were arrested and convicted of sedition.[16] Nkrumah’s imprisonment only increased his popularity among Ghanaians, however, and finally, while he was still incarcerated, the government drafted a new constitution that met some of the CPP’s demands and arranged for an election to create a new Assembly in February 1951.

The new constitution was still limited, and Nkrumah himself declared it “bogus and fraudulent.”[17] However, believing that boycotting the election would only pull them backwards, Nkrumah advocated for the CPP to fully participate and to ensure that every seat was challenged by a CPP candidate. To the surprise of the colonial government, the CPP swept the polls, electing Ghanaians to seats across the country and making Nkrumah himself the leader of the Assembly with CPP as the new majority party. In a seeming attempt to avoid further embarrassment, the government released Nkrumah from prison and allowed him to participate in the new Assembly. Within a year, the now majority-Ghanaian Assembly drafted an amendment to the constitution making Nkrumah the Prime Minister[18] and eventually the President under a new, independent government.

Black and white image of four men giving a speech.
Kwame Nkrumah stands with other Ghanaian leaders declaring Ghana an independent state on March 6, 1957.[19]

As the head of state of the newly independent Ghana, Nkrumah became a transnational leader in the movement toward decolonization, working with many other revolutionaries across the continent. At times, he also advocated for socialism as an alternative system for new African countries, becoming a leader in the development of African Socialism, a distinct branch of socialism based in African traditions.[20] Ghana was among the first of the African nations to gain independence from European colonization, and so Nkrumah believed that Ghana’s fate was intertwined with that of all Africans. He famously said that “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”[21]

Positive Action theory came out of an environment where strategies for anticolonial action, particularly in the African context, were still being developed. At that time, nonviolence in India served as the primary model for the successful expulsion of colonial powers, particularly Britain.[22] Over time, however, others like Frantz Fanon and the Algerian FLN (National Liberation Front), began turning to more explicitly violent tactics, believing that violence against colonizers was necessary.[23] Nkrumah never fully responded to these theories, although he and Fanon likely crossed paths, and Fanon spoke at the 1958 All-African People’s Conference in Accra.[24] The FLN also frequently utilized Ghana’s resources and political community, likely with his tacit approval.[25]

Nkrumah’s role as a powerful Pan-African leader is complicated by a later turn toward domestic policy that many criticized as authoritarian. In 1958, he introduced the Preventative Detention Act, which allowed for the imprisonment of political opponents, and in 1964, he established Ghana as a one-party state under the CPP,[26] uniting the country under an ideology he called “Nkrumahism.” He claimed that the party and the people were inseparable,[27] citing African traditions of collectivism. This was also in the face of attempts to overthrow Nkrumah and his government altogether.[28] Because of these policies as president, Kwame Nkrumah remains a controversial figure; nonetheless, his legacy as a leader and thinker is undeniable.


[1] Anais Angelo, ed., The Politics of Biography in Africa, Routledge Studies on Gender and Sexuality in Africa (London: Routledge, 2022).

[2] “Kwame Nkrumah memorial day: Why Ghana dey celebrate de late politician,” BBC News Pidgin, accessed March 3, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-58639237.

[3] Gail Presbey, “Ghana: Nonviolent Resistance in the Independence Movement, 1890s-1950s,” in Recovering Nonviolent History: Civil Resistance in Liberation Struggles, ed. Maciej J. Bartkowski (London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013), 51.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Jeffrey S. Alman, “The Algerian Question in Nkrumah’s Ghana, 1958–1960: Debating ‘Violence’ and ‘Nonviolence’ in African Decolonization,” Africa Today 57, no. 2 (2010): 73.

[6] Gail Presbey, “Ghana: Nonviolent Resistance in the Independence Movement, 1890s-1950s,” 53.

[7] Gail Presbey, 54.

[8] Philip Holden, “Modernity’s Body: Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana 1,” Postcolonial Studies 7, no. 3 (November 1, 2004): 314, https://doi.org/10.1080/1368879042000311106.

[9] Robert Addo-Fening, “Gandhi and Nkrumah: A Study of Non-Violence and Non-Co-Operation Campaigns in India and Ghana as an Anti Colonial Strategy,” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 13, no. 1 (June 1972): 77.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Robert Addo-Fening, “Gandhi and Nkrumah: A Study of Non-Violence and Non-Co-Operation Campaigns in India and Ghana as an Anti Colonial Strategy,” 78.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Robert Addo-Fening, 79.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Robert Addo-Fening, 80.

[17] Robert Addo-Fening, 83.

[18] Robert Addo-Fening, 84.

[19] “Kwame Nkrumah memorial day.”

[20] Ama Biney, “The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah in Retrospect,” The Journal of Pan African Studies 2, no. 3 (2008): 133.

[21] Jeffrey S. Ahlman, “The Algerian Question in Nkrumah’s Ghana, 1958–1960: Debating ‘Violence’ and ‘Nonviolence’ in African Decolonization,” 69.

[22] Gail Presbey, “Ghana: Nonviolent Resistance in the Independence Movement, 1890s-1950s,” 57.

[23] Jeffrey S. Ahlman, “The Algerian Question in Nkrumah’s Ghana, 1958–1960: Debating ‘Violence’ and ‘Nonviolence’ in African Decolonization,” 74.

[24] Jeffrey S. Ahlman, 77.

[25] Ibid.

[26] Ama Biney, “The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah in Retrospect,” 139.

[27] Ama Biney, 142.

[28] Ama Biney, 144.