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Book by
Lloyd D.
McCarthy
In-Dependence from Bondage:
Claude McKay and Michael Manley
Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora
Relations
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Reconstructing the Nation in Africa
The Politics of Nationalism in Ghana
Reviewed
By
Lloyd D.
McCarthy
When Kwame
Nkrumah first put the national reconstruction of
Ghana in a wider African framework and raised the
matter of Pan-Africanism and the rising up of a
new African identity in world affairs,[i]
those were Africa’s noblest and boldest aspirations
in the dawn of the post-colonial period.[ii]
In Ghana, after independence, there was to be no
further reference to Ashantis, Dagombas, Gas, Ewes
or Fantis. [iii] The new
African personality would build new nations on the
continent on the basis of the people’s common
history and heritage, free of prejudice, chauvinism,
and ethnic antagonisms.
What went
wrong? This is the question that Michael Amoah
appears to be addressing in the book reviewed here.
His work makes an important contribution to the
systematic study of the people of modern Ghana and
their ethnographic origins with the objective of
identifying the basis upon which different peoples
and existing nations, disingenuously partitioned and
lumped together under colonialism, within Ghana and
other African states can be brought harmoniously
together to build a common national identity for the
post-independence reconstruction of Africa (3).
Amoah makes it clear, that there is no lack of
consensus on what is the solution for the
ethnonationalism and “politics of the belly” which
plagues multinational African states. The solution
entails strategies that will strengthen the
solidarity of Africa, instead of its apparent
disharmonies. Amoah argues that the solution
includes any strategy that will bring oneness to the
“homogeneity of ‘transborder’ peoples” as opposed
to superficial “divisive and inter-‘nation’-al
antagonisms and insecurities arising out of
political boundary restrictions” (50).
Africa’s
prosperity and human development is on Amoah’s mind
as he looks, like Janus, to that continent’s past as
well as to its present political realities to
evaluate its future path for development. What
appears to worry Amoah is the same issue that other
African scholars and western journalists seem to be
grappling with, as Africa unravels its colonial
legacy and struggle for reconstruction in the
emerging order of world affairs. As the vision of
uhuru—political independence—and the associated
ambitions and hopes anticlimaxes for millions of
Africans (1), will relatively stable multi-ethnic
states such as Ghana tumble into the sort of ethnic
conflicts that ravaged Rwanda in 1994, or will they
reemerge as unified nations and people in the manner
once expressed by Kwame Nkrumah and Sékou Touré,[iv]
“giving birth to a new man, a man of virtue
committed to collective betterment?”[v]
The political
roots of Africa’s economic disappointments and
stagnation, however, is best analyzed in other
works, as Amoah has devoted his book to nationalism
and the study of the rationality and the patriotism
of ethno-nationalism in Africa’s multinational
states which he argues is not wholly antithetical,
in some cases, to nation building in Africa.
“Ethnonationalism comes rather naturally for most
Ghanaians”, says Amoah, “and rationalistically so”
and is reflected in voting patterns. It does not
mean however that ethnonationalism in Ghana is
contrary to patriotisms or the citizen’s sense of
responsibility to the state (166).
Thus Amoah
suggests that much attention has been paid to
nationalism and nation building at the macro level
in research and policy to the neglect of the
microbehaviours, for example, the political
rationality that can be found in ethnonationalism
that informs national consciousness (4). Hence he
went on to provide a thorough and thought provoking
analysis of the theories on the subject of
nationalism and explains how European “mainstream
thinking” has predetermined the international
criteria for nationhood, when such theorizing may
not be applicable globally and much less to Africa.
He argues persuasively that scholars of modernism
have incorrectly claimed that emerging nations of
the 20th century were imitating the Europeans 18th
century model of nation building which began during
the 16th and 17th centuries (32). “Were there no
nations and nationalisms before the French
Revolution in the late 18th century?”(20), asks Amoah, as he investigates the mainstream theories on
nationalism.
For example, he makes the case that,
“the Ashante in Ghana were known to have been in
existence as a powerful nation-state long before
1699 when trouble began to brew between them and the
Dutch over the procurement of slaves, obviously over
a century before the 18th century threshold” (32).
As far as having an ideology and cultural
institutions as indicators of the existence of a
nation and nationalism, Amoah points to the fact
that the Fanti in Ghana, which emerged prior to the
17th century, had a religious based ideology which
was “strictly adhered to by their leaders in their
nation-building, military, and other nationalistic
efforts.” He reminds his readers that “with regards
to a mass public culture or education system” as a
test of nationhood, Timbuktu, a city of Old Ghana,
is on record as having one of the world’s first
academic centers of higher learning. It had also
reached high levels in “commercial and intellectual
development” and led the way for university
education (32).
In Amoah’s
writings, we can hear a voice arguing from the depth
of Africa’s human development despair[vi]
that the grand vision and psychological capital that
Africans have harnessed to fight for national
independence on the Gold Coast in 1957 can be
recaptured and used in reconstructing the nation in
Africa (2). This “task of reconstructing the
nation” says Amoah, is necessary today in Africa
because there is much more to struggle for (2).
Egalitarianism in statecraft, real economic progress,
and a new caliber of leadership (187-88) are now
required to chip away at the clientelism,
patrimonialism, and what Amoah calls the
“pervasiveness of the figuration” or “the politics
of the belly” that fuels the extreme (42%) to high
(25.5%) levels of ethnonationalism found in his
survey of Ghana’s urbanites (162) and reflected in
the attitude of the general population.
In this thought
provoking work, Amoah finds a ray of hope in
the fact that “62.9% of Ghanaians admit that
tribalism works against homogenization within the
state and ought to be suppressed” (120).
Simultaneously, he reminds us that tribalism is not unique to Africa,
but is a pattern of political behavior that was
observed in 19th c Europe as well (119). Who should
suppress this tribalism in Ghana and/or in Africa?
Amoah did not say. Implicitly, the state is
suggested. While Amoah in this work did not engage
in a class analysis of nationalism, ethnonationalism
and tribalism in Ghana, as a political theorist he
ought not to have ignored the Marxist theory of the
state as an organ of class rule and an organ for the
suppression of one class by another.[vii]
Amoah’s findings that over 62% of Ghanaians believe
that tribalism should be suppressed suggests that
the majority of Ghana’s workers and peasants do not
benefit from tribal or ethnic politics and patronage
practiced by the ruling elites. Neither did, Amoah
explains, the ruling classes among the Fantis,
Ewes, Gas, or Dagombas, in post-colonial Ghana, fuel
ethnonaitonalism and tribal politics as their way of
taking state power and grabbing the public’s purse
to the detriment of the majority classes.
Michael Amoah’s
Reconstructing the Nation in Africa:
The Politics of Nationalism in Ghana
is an important work on
nationalism, ethnic groups, and the history and
politics of nation building in Africa’s
multinational states since independence. As a
scholar of international politics, ethnicity and
nationalism, he has produced a work that convinces
the reader that creating national homogeneity in
Africa’s multinational states will require enormous
investments in the cultural development of the
population and in the creation of a new set of
future leaders committed to egalitarianism in
statecraft and Africa’s economic development for the
benefit of Africans. The book will be of tremendous
value to scholars of African history and politics,
as well as for informing development policies in
multinational states such as Ghana. Students of
Africana studies and international politics should
also find this work to be of tremendous value
although they would be advised to read it along with
a book on African history in maps.
Notes
[i] Nkrumah, Kwame.
I speak of freedom; a
statement of African ideology. New York: Praeger,
1961, p,167.
[ii] Ungar, Sanford
J.
Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging
Continent. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1985, p. 444.
[iii] Nkrumah 168
[iv] Cooper, Frederick.
Africa since 1940:
The Past of the Present. New Approaches
to
African History. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 2002, p.1-19
[v] Sandbrook, Richard, and Judith Barker.
The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation.
African Society Today. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]:
Cambridge University Press, 1985, p.1-3
[vi] McCarthy, Lloyd D.
In-Dependence from Bondage:
Claude McKay and Michael Manley:
Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora
Relations. Trenton, NJ: Africa World
Press, 2007, pp127-147.
[vii] Lenin, Vladimir Ilich, and Henry M.
Christman. Essential works of Lenin. New
York: Bantam Books., 1966, p.274.
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Works Cited
Cooper, Frederick.
Africa since 1940:
The Past of the Present. New Approaches
to
African History.
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Kwamena-Poh, M. A.
African History in Maps. Harlow:
Longman, 1982.
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich, and Henry M. Christman.
Essential works of Lenin. New York: Bantam Books,
1966.
McCarthy, Lloyd D.
In-Dependence from Bondage:
Claude McKay and Michael Manley:
Defying the Ideological Clash and Policy Gaps in African Diaspora
Relations. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press,
2007.
Nkrumah, Kwame.
I speak of freedom; a
statement of African ideology. New York: Praeger, 1961.
Sandbrook, Richard, and Judith Barker.
The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation.
African Society Today. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]: Cambridge
University Press, 1985.
Ungar, Sanford J.
Africa: The People and Politics of an Emerging
Continent. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1985.
Raleigh, NC, May 30, 2008
Source:
Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora.
Volume 8, Number 2. Fall/Winter 2007.
posted 22 April 2010
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Cuba An African Odyssey
is the previously untold
story of Cuba's support for African revolutions.
Cuba: An African Odyssey is the story of the Cold War
told through the prism of its least known arena: Africa. It is
the untold story of Cuba’s support for African revolutions. It
is the story of men like Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral,
Agosthino Neto and of course Che Guevara who have become icons,
mythical figures whose names are now synonymous with the word
revolution. This is the story of how these men, caught between
capitalism and communism, strove to create a third bloc that
would assert the simple principle of national independence. It
is the story of a whole dimension of world politics during the
last half of the 20th century, which has been hidden behind the
facade of a simplistic understanding of superpower conflict.
Cuba: An African Odyssey will tell the inside story of
only three of these Cuban escapades. We will start with the
Congo where Che Guevara personally spent seven months fighting
with the Pro-Lumumbist rebellion in the jungle of Eastern Congo.
Then to Guinea Bissau where Amilcar Cabral used the technical
support of Cuban advisors to bleed the Portuguese colonial war
machine thus toppling the regime in Europe. Finally, Angola
where in total 380,000 Cuban soldiers fought during the 27 years
of civil war. The Cuban withdrawal from Angola was finally
bartered against Namibia’s independence. With Namibia’s
independence came the fall of Apartheid… the last vestige of
colonialism on the African continent.
Cuba: An African Odyssey unravels episodes of the Cold
War long believed to be nothing but proxy wars. From the
tragicomic epic of Che Guevara in Congo to the triumph at the
battle of Cuito Carnavale in Angola, this film attempts to
understand the world today through the saga of these
internationalists who won every battle but finally lost the war.
Credits: Written,
directed and narrated by Jihan El-Tahri / Edited by
Gilles Bovon / Photography by Frank-Peter Lehmann
Sound
Recordists: James Baker, Graciela Barrault / Produced by
Tancrède Ramonet, Benoît Juster, Jihan El-Tahri
Source:
Snagfilms
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Manley and McKay: Reform and Revolution in the
Politics of the African Diaspora
Review of
In-Dependence from Bondage
By Brad Duncan
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The Price of Civilization
Reawakening American Virtue and
Prosperity
By
Jeffrey D. Sachs
The Price of Civilization is a
book that is essential reading for every
American. In a forceful, impassioned,
and personal voice, he offers not only a
searing and incisive diagnosis of our
country’s economic ills but also an
urgent call for Americans to restore the
virtues of fairness, honesty, and
foresight as the foundations of national
prosperity. Sachs finds that both
political parties—and many leading
economists—have missed the big picture,
offering shortsighted solutions such as
stimulus spending or tax cuts to address
complex economic problems that require
deeper solutions. Sachs argues that we
have profoundly underestimated
globalization’s long-term effects on our
country, which create deep and largely
unmet challenges with regard to jobs,
incomes, poverty, and the environment.
America’s single biggest economic
failure, Sachs argues, is its inability
to come to grips with the new global
economic realities. Sachs describes a
political system that has lost its
ethical moorings, in which ever-rising
campaign contributions and lobbying
outlays overpower the voice of the
citizenry. . . . Sachs offers a plan to
turn the crisis around. He argues
persuasively that the problem is not
America’s abiding values, which remain
generous and pragmatic, but the ease
with which political spin and
consumerism run circles around those
values. He bids the reader to reclaim
the virtues of good citizenship and
mindfulness toward the economy and one
another.
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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