Building the Ghanaian Nation-State

Kwame Nkrumah's Symbolic Nationalism

H. Fuller

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781349496525, 9781137448569
• eBook ISBN: 9781137448583
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Ghana has always held a position of primacy in the African political and historical imagination, due in no small part to the indelible impression left president Kwame Nkrumah. This study examines the symbolic strategies he used to construct the Ghanaian state through currency, stamps, museums, flags, and other public icons.

C H A P T E R 1

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Banal Symbols of the New Nation-State

One common feature of all independent nation-states—both Western and non-Western—is that they possess unique national symbols such as a national flag, a national anthem, a coat of arms, and other banal insignia and emblems to distinguish them from other nation-states. For the newly independent countries that want to emerge from international obscurity, the creation of unique symbols of nationhood is even more pressing. Cerulo notes, “Since the inception of nations, national leaders have embraced and adopted national flags and anthems, using them to create bonds, motivate patriotic action, honor the efforts of citizens, and legitimate formal authority.”¹ As Ghana prepared to join the dysfunctional family of nations-states in the late 1950s, Kwame Nkrumah utilized the time-tested symbols of nationhood to announce its entry onto the world stage. The Convention People’s Party cabinet proposed, commissioned, and supervised the design and selection of official symbols for the party and the nation. These included everything from the party and national flags, anthem, pledge of allegiance, coat of arms, crest, public seal, National Assembly speaker’s chair and desk, to police officers’ badges and insignia.

Nkrumah’s use of symbolic nationalism to give the Gold Coast an identity and to achieve nation-building was unique in that there was virtually no precedence or model in sub-Saharan Africa on how to create a new, modern nation-state out of a formerly colonized territory. Therefore, he had to look mainly (though not exclusively) outside of his own territorial and continental boundaries for cues. From his studies of the African, Asian, and European past, his readings of socialist and capitalist literature, and his time spent in Britain and the United States, Nkrumah came to gain an adequate understanding of how nation-states were constructed, symbolically. He studied the design and symbolism of the “Union Jack” and “Old Glory,” and listened to the lyrics of the “Star Spangled Banner” and “God Save the Queen,” which gave him ideas on how he wanted “God Save Our Homeland Ghana” to be composed. The national flags and anthems of “core” nations such as Ireland, France, Austria, and the United States, for example, were purposefully designed by leaders of the respective nationalist revolutions in those countries with intentional color juxtapositions and musical arrangements. This was intended to express particular nationalist ideals, mainly national unity out of regional, ethnic, and religious diversity. While the stars and stripes of the American flag were created “as a graphic manifestation of a new political program,” the Irish flag “displays a green vertical stripe representing the Catholics, an orange vertical stripe representing the Protestants, and a white vertical stripe meant to indicate the peaceful coexistence of the two groups.”²

This chapter argues that while Ghanaian nationalism was inspired by the political realities and restrictions of colonialism on African soil, the construction of the first Ghanaian national and nationalist symbols, although having some roots in Africa, was informed by larger international patterns, especially Western ones, in the making of nations and nationalism.

PARTY SYMBOLS

From 1935 to 1945, Nkrumah lived in the United States, pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies at the Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively.³ After finishing his American journey, Nkrumah went to Britain at the end of World War II, where he continued his studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the University of London.⁴ Political developments in the Gold Coast after World War II, particularly the rise of an anticolonial nationalist movement, propelled Nkrumah to reluctantly return home in 1947 to engage in politics. His return home was on the persuasive invitation by the leadership of the United Gold Coast Convention, headed by the British-educated lawyer Dr. J. B. Danquah, to assume the position of the general secretary of the budding organization. Established in Saltpond in August 1947, the UGCC emerged as the dominant entity in Gold Coast politics before it broke into two competing organizations owing to ideological differences between Danquah and Nkrumah.⁵ Nkrumah’s sudden return to the Gold Coast and entry into national politics necessitated his abandonment of his doctoral studies.⁶

From the very moment that Nkrumah returned from London to join the ranks of J. B. Danquah’s UGCC, the two politicians had disagreements over how to represent the anticolonial movement symbolically. Nkrumah and Danquah disagreed over the appropriate emblem to adopt for the organization. The former wanted the UGCC emblem to represent an emerging Ghana, symbolized by a soaring eagle. He did not approve of Danquah’s idea of an emblem representing an independent Ghana. As Nkrumah wrote,

I was completely taken aback when I saw it, for he [Danquah] had depicted an animal with two heads and one stomach which, according to the African, symbolises selfishness, lack of interest in others and, in short, was hardly in keeping with what I imagined the U.G.C.C. had been formed for. Fortunately there was a division of opinion and they failed to come to an agreement, so the hideous monstrosity was never adopted.⁷

The two-headed “monstrosity” that Nkrumah was referring to was most likely the Adinkra symbol Funtunfunefu-Denkyemfunefu (the Siamese crocodile—see Figure 1.1), which “share a common belly yet they fight over food.”⁸ However, Nkrumah took the meaning of the symbol literally, and therefore showed a lack or different understanding of its deeper esoteric significance. Funtunfunefu-Denkyemfunefu represents democracy and unity in diversity. The symbol is a call for peoples of diverse persuasions to come together in unity. According to Agbo,

This symbol signifies the unification of people of different cultural backgrounds for achieving common objectives despite their divergent views and opinions about the way of life. The symbol stresses the importance of democracy in all aspects of life. It also encourages oneness of humanity. It therefore discourages tribalism.⁹

The issue over the UGCC emblem highlights the tensions between Nkrumah and Danquah that would contribute to the young nation’s growing pains. By writing that Danquah chose a mythical creature (which Nkrumah misread to symbolize selfishness) to be depicted on the emblem of the new state of Ghana, Nkrumah was arguing that Danquah did not quite understand African cultures, societies, and philosophies and therefore was less committed to Ghanaian and African nationalism. Again, Nkrumah’s accusations were far from being accurate as Danquah was a scholar and intellectual well-versed in Ghanaian culture and jurisprudence, having written several books and delivered numerous speeches on these topics.¹⁰ Notwithstanding the feud over the UGCC’s emblem, however, the most important fights over the symbolic representations of the new nation-state took place between the CPP and the National Liberation Movement, and later the National Liberation Council. The symbolism of the CPP’s red cockerel logo and the cocoa tree logo of the NLM, as well as the national and party flags, the anthem, and the Black Star would also prove to be most contentious.

Nkrumah’s government had developed a series of symbols designed to reflect his personal and political convictions as well as to construct national identity. Some of these symbols were synonymous with the ideology of the CPP party. The red cockerel, for example, was the CPP party logo that represented work, happiness, and progress as symbolized by the slogan “Forward Ever.” Later in his administration, with the assistance of socialist economic advisers from Europe, the CPP launched economic schemes that were embodied in their 1962 Programme for Work and Happiness as well as the 1963 Seven-Year Development Plan, which was marketed on the party’s logo.¹¹ There are striking symbolic similarities between the CPP’s red cockerel symbol and the use of the cockerel and the hen symbols by traditional ethnic groups in Ghana. This appropriation of a traditional symbol is consistent with Nkrumah’s adoption or endorsement of other traditional emblems and insignia.

The cockerel is also a symbol often found on the staffs of “linguists” who represent traditional leaders.¹² The job of a linguist as the chief’s ambassador and courtier is an important one. His ability to convey the chief’s messages in parables, proverbs, poetry, and eloquent language has a tremendous impact on the ruler’s fame and authority. The linguist’s staff (typically made of wood wrapped with gold or silver leafs or solid gold or silver metal) is engraved with a variety of symbols reflecting the aspirations and beliefs of the state that he represents. These symbols include depictions of animals, birds, human forms, abstract shapes, and the like.¹³

There are several Adinkra symbols used by the Akans and other traditional groups relating the cockerel to ideas of leadership, power, and authority. The Crowing Cockerel symbol signifies the Akan phrase, Obi nnto n’akokonin mma onnkobono obi kuroso (No one buys a cock to let it crow for another person’s town). In the Ga language, the Crowing Cockerel signifies a state of alertness—Wuo gbee, La gbee (The people of La (a sub-metropolitan area of Accra) wake up to the crowing cockerel). Another Adinkra symbol, A Cockerel and a Hen, relates to the Akan saying, Akoko bedee nim adekyee nanso otie no akokonini ano (The hen knows it is dawn but it leaves the announcement to the cockerel).¹⁴ It also connotes knowing one’s position or status in society. We can extend the symbolism of these sayings and place them in the context of Kwame Nkrumah being summoned from Britain by the UGCC in 1947 to lead the charge for Gold Coast self-government. On the one hand, the UGCC expected Nkrumah to carry out their gradualist program of self-government, that is, “self-government in the shortest possible time.” However, Nkrumah’s goal of achieving “self-government now” collided with this gradualist approach of the UGCC. Nkrumah conceived that he was the right man for the task and that the UGCC and later the NLM should step aside as independence dawned and allow him, as the political cockerel, to “announce” Ghanaian self-determination.

The CPP’s choice of a cockerel over a hen was also an expression of a gendered form of nationalism, given that the hen is equally associated with power and authority, but was not used as a party symbol. The CPP thought of itself as a masculine cockerel that took charge while the UGCC, NLM, and other opponents of Nkrumah were relegated to the status of the “weaker” entity, a feminine hen that acquiesced to the power of the male. The Ga symbol of Wuo nane egbee ebi (A hen stepping over her chicks), for example, asserts that “A hen steps on her chicks not to hurt them but to prevent them from being trampled upon by some one [sic] else which might be harmful.”¹⁵ Another symbol related to the hen is “a hand holding an egg,” which states, “Power is like an egg, when held too tightly it might break, or falls and breaks when held loosely. A successful ruler must be both firm and sympathetic.”¹⁶ These sayings equated to the idea of “benevolent dictatorship,” which the Nkrumah administration believed was necessary in building a new nation-state under demanding circumstances. The government-sympathetic Evening News concurred with this assessment of th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction: The Symbolism of Ghanaian Nationalism
• 1 Banal Symbols of the New Nation-State
• 2 Philatelic Nationalism
• 3 Economic Nationalism
• 4 Civitatis Ghaniensis Conditor
• 5 Exhibiting the Nation
• 6 Monumental Nationalism
• 7 Pan-African Nationalism
• 8 The Downfall of Kwame Nkrumah
• 9 The Death and Symbolic “Resurrection” of Kwame Nkrumah
• 10 From “Redeemer” to Redeemed?
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index