Independent Africa

The First Generation of Nation Builders

Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780253066657
• eBook ISBN: 9780253066671
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Independent Africa explores Africa's political economy in the first two full decades of independence through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations.

Drawing on the political careers of four heads of states: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania, Independent Africa engages four major themes: what does it mean to construct an African nation-state and what should an African nation-state look like; how does one grow a tropical economy emerging from European colonialism; how to explore an indigenous model of economic development, a "third way," in the context of a Cold War that had divided the world into two camps; and how to leverage internal resources and external opportunities to diversify agricultural economies and industrialize.

Combining aspects of history, economics, and political science, Independent Africa examines the important connections between the first generation of African leaders, and the shared ideas that informed their endeavors at nation-building and worldmaking.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. Africa in the Twentieth Century
• 2. Religion, Culture, and the Arts in the Making of the African Nation-State
• 3. Economic Imaginaries: African Leaders and Development Economics
• 4. Pan-African Socialism: The African Developmental State, Regional Integration, and Worldmaking
• 5. Nkrumah, Cocoa, and the United States: The Vision of an Industrialized African Nation-State
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author