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Nkrumah's Theory of Underdevelopment: An Analysis of Recurrent Themes*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2011
Extract
In recent years tremendous concern has been expressed about the problems of what had first been identified as “backward,” then euphemistically “underdeveloped” or “undeveloped,” and now more positively “developing” or “emerging” areas. A wealth of factual and theoretical studies has been produced, attempting to view the problems of underdevelopment broadly and to construct a conceptual framework by which we might comprehend the apparently complex phenomena occurring in those regions. In spite of this growing scholarly interest, and without attempting to minimize the contribution of those who are laboring in this as yet untapped field, it is this writer's contention that too few studies have been undertaken which examine and analyze the views of those individuals most influential in shaping the future of the emerging states—the national political leaders.
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References
1 Among the few notable exceptions are Bretton, Henry L., “Current Political Thought and Practice in Ghana,” American Political Science Review, LII (March 1958), 46–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fischer, Georges, “Quelques aspects de la doctrine politique guinéenne,” Civilisations, IX, No. 4 (1959), 457–78Google Scholar; Hodgkin, Thomas, “A Note on the Language of African Nationalism,” in St. Antony's Papers No. 10, African Affairs: Number One, ed. by Kirkwood, Kenneth (London 1961), 22–40Google Scholar; Laqueur, Walter Z., “Communism and Nationalism in Tropical Africa,” Foreign Affairs, XXXIX (July 1961), 610–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wallerstein, Immanuel, “The Political Ideology of the P.D.G.,” Présence Africaine, XII (First Quarter 1962), 30–41.Google Scholar
2 Gold Coast Weekly Review (July 20, 1955), as quoted in Kilson, Martin L. Jr. “Nationalism and Social Classes in British West Africa,” Journal of Politics, XX (May 1958), 380.Google Scholar
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6 Nkrumah, Kwame, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (New York 1957), 46–47.Google Scholar The substance of these ideas was reiterated recently in I Speak of Freedom, ix.
7 For a more detailed examination of the views of the Malian leaders, see Grundy, Kenneth W., “sMarxism-Leninism and African Underdevelopment: The Mali Approach,” International Journal, XVII (Summer 1962), 300–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For extended discussions of Guinean ideology, see Fischer, “Quelques aspects”; and Wallerstein, “Political Ideology of the P.D.G.”
8 Nkrumah, , Autobiography, III.Google Scholar
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10 Ibid., XV. See particularly Kwame Nkrumah, What I Mean by Positive Action, Ghana Pamphlets No. I (Accra 1949).
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26 Ibid.
27 A radio address delivered December 22, 1961, reprinted in Africa Report, VII (January 1962), 13–14 and 17.
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37 Nkrumah, “Movement for Colonial Freedom,” 398. Contrast this position with Sékou Touré's, which contends that, as a mass party, the PDG can have no vanguard or elite. He asserts that no single group or person “can ever be in advance of the point of view of democracy. … If a man is in advance of the people, it is for him to place himself at the level of the people or to identify himself with them. It is not for the people to place themselves at the level of one man.” Touré, Expérience Guiníene et Unité Ajricaine (Paris 1959), 364.
38 Bretton, “Current Political Thought,” 51.
39 Nkrumah, Autobiography, 45.
40 Gold Coast, Legislative Assembly, Debates, 1954, Official Report, Issue No. 1 , February 25, 1954, cols. 979–82.
41 The Times (London), February 14, 1951.
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43 Nkrumah, Autobiography, 13.
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