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From International Socialism, No.14, Autumn 1963, p.39.
Thanks to Ted Crawford & the late Will Fancy.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Africa Must Unite
Kwame Nkrumah
Heinemann. 21s.
The newly independent states of Africa find themselves with a single-crop agriculture, mainly extractive industries and an inadequate system of internal communication. They have to compete to sell their crops, for aid and for investment. Many of them are too small to be economically viable and most find difficulty in financing major public works – the projected Inga dam, for example, is too expensive for the Congo alone to finance. Industrialisation is thus impeded, and Africa remains a prey to continued poverty and economic imperialism. Political, without economic, independence is meaningless.
This is one theme for Nkrumah’s latest book. African unity, with a continental road and rail network, a common political, educational and economic programme, and so on, is the only alternative to balkanisation and capitalist control. The other main theme concerns the building of socialism and of national unity in Ghana. The main needs are central planning and control and, at present, discipline. The workers select the government and, through party membership, help to formulate its policy. ‘The aspirations of the people and the ... objectives of the government are synonymous’. Nkrumah seems unaware of the problems posed to socialists by this position. This is a pity.
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Last updated on 26 March 2010