New Books Network

In 1957 Ghana achieved its independence from Great Britain under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah. In Living with Nkrumahism: Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana (Ohio University Press, 2017), Jeffrey Ahlman uses a wide range of archival and print sources to examine the first decade of Ghanaian self-rule and challenges the teleological assumptions that have dominated historical understandings of African decolonization. The author starts by explaining the roots of Nkrumah’s anti-colonial agenda, which became the guiding principle for the Convention People’s Party (CPP) political program. The book also describes the means by which said program was implemented, how it evolved in response to national and international conditions, and how it was experienced by some of the people who lived through it.

Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia is Associate Professor of History at Montclair State University. She specializes in modern intellectual history of Africa, historiography, World History and Philosophy of History.  She is the co-author of African Histories: New Sources and New Techniques for Studying African Pasts (Pearson, 2011).