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Ghana The Politics of the Independence Movements
Although political organizations had existed in the British
colony, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was the first
nationalist movement with the aim of self-government "in the
shortest possible time." Founded in August 1947 by educated
Africans such as J.B. Danquah, A.G. Grant, R.A. Awoonor-Williams,
Edward Akufo Addo (all lawyers except for Grant, who was a wealthy
businessman), and others, the leadership of the organization called
for the replacement of chiefs on the Legislative Council with
educated persons. For these political leaders, traditional
governance, exercised largely via indirect rule, was identified
with colonial interests and the past. They believed that it was
their responsibility to lead their country into a new age. They
also demanded that, given their education, the colonial
administration should respect them and accord them positions of
responsibility. As one writer on the period reported, "The symbols
of progress, science, freedom, youth, all became cues which the new
leadership evoked and reinforced." In particular, the UGCC
leadership criticized the government for its failure to solve the
problems of unemployment, inflation, and the disturbances that had
come to characterize the society at the end of the war.
Their opposition to the colonial administration
notwithstanding, UGCC members were conservative in the sense that
their leadership did not seek drastic or revolutionary change. This
was probably a result of their training in the British way of doing
things. The gentlemanly manner in which politics were then
conducted was to change after Kwame Nkrumah created his Convention
People's Party (CPP) in June 1949.
Nkrumah was born at Nkroful in the Nzema area and educated in
Catholic schools at Half Assin and Achimota. He received further
training in the United States at Lincoln University and at the
University of Pennsylvania. Later, in London, Nkrumah became active
in the West African Students' Union and the Pan-African Congress.
He was one of the few Africans who participated in the Manchester
Congress of 1945 of the Pan-Africanist movement. During his time in
Britain, Nkrumah came to know such outspoken anti-colonialists and
intellectuals as the West Indian, George Padmore, and the African-
American, W.E.B. Du Bois. In 1947 when the UGCC was created in the
Gold Coast to oppose colonial rule, Nkrumah was invited from London
to become the movement's general secretary.
Nkrumah's tenure with the UGCC was a stormy one. In March 1948,
he was arrested and detained with other leaders of the UGCC for
political activism. Later, after the other members of the UGCC were
invited to make recommendations to the Coussey Committee, which was
advising the governor on the path to independence, Nkrumah broke
with the UGCC and founded the CPP. Unlike the UGCC call for self-
government "in the shortest possible time," Nkrumah and the CPP
asked for "self-government now." The party leadership, made up of
Nkrumah, Kojo Botsio, Komla A. Gbedemah, and a group of mostly
young political professionals known as the "Verandah Boys,"
identified itself more with ordinary working people than with the
UGCC and its intelligentsia.
Nkrumah's style and the promises he made appealed directly to
the majority of workers, farmers, and youths who heard him; he
seemed to be the national leader on whom they could focus their
hopes. He also won the support, among others, of influential market
women who, through their domination of small-scale trade, served as
effective channels of communication at the local level.
The majority of the politicized population, stirred in the
postwar years by outspoken newspapers, was separated from both the
tribal chiefs and the Anglophile elite nearly as much as from the
British by economic, social, and educational factors. This majority
consisted primarily of ex-servicemen, literate persons who had some
primary schooling, journalists, and elementary school teachers, all
of whom had developed a taste for populist conceptions of
democracy. A growing number of uneducated but urbanized industrial
workers also formed part of the support group. Nkrumah was able to
appeal to them on their own terms. By June 1949, when the CPP was
formed with the avowed purpose of seeking immediate
self-governance, Nkrumah had a mass following.
The constitution of 1951 resulted from the report of the
Coussey Committee, created because of disturbances in Accra and
other cities in 1948. In addition to giving the Executive Council
a large majority of African ministers, it created an assembly, half
the elected members of which were to come from the towns and rural
districts and half from the traditional councils, including, for
the first time, the Northern Territories. Although it was an
enormous step forward, the new constitution still fell far short of
the CPP's call for full self-government. Executive power remained
in British hands, and the legislature was tailored to permit
control by traditionalist interests.
With increasing popular backing, the CPP in early 1950
initiated a campaign of "positive action," intended to instigate
widespread strikes and nonviolent resistance. When some violent
disorders occurred, Nkrumah, along with his principal lieutenants,
was promptly arrested and imprisoned for sedition. But this merely
increased his prestige as leader and hero of the cause and gave him
the status of martyr. In February 1951, the first elections were
held for the Legislative Assembly under the new constitution.
Nkrumah, still in jail, won a seat, and the CPP won an impressive
victory with a two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.
The governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, released Nkrumah and
invited him to form a government as "leader of government
business," a position similar to that of prime minister. Nkrumah
accepted. A major milestone had been passed on the road to
independence and self-government. Nonetheless, although the CPP
agreed to work within the new constitutional order, the structure
of government that existed in 1951 was certainly not what the CPP
preferred. The ministries of defense, external affairs, finance,
and justice were still controlled by British officials who were not
responsible to the legislature. Also, by providing for a sizable
representation of traditional tribal chiefs in the Legislative
Assembly, the constitution accentuated the cleavage between the
modern political leaders and the traditional authorities of the
councils of chiefs.
The start of Nkrumah's first term as "leader of government
business" was marked by cordiality and cooperation with the British
governor. During the next few years, the government was gradually
transformed into a full parliamentary system. The changes were
opposed by the more traditionalist African elements, particularly
in Asante and the Northern Territories. This opposition, however,
proved ineffective in the face of continuing and growing popular
support for a single overriding concept--independence at an early
date.
In 1952 the position of prime minister was created and the
Executive Council became the cabinet. The prime minister was made
responsible to the assembly, which duly elected Nkrumah prime
minister. The constitution of 1954 ended the election of assembly
members by the tribal councils. The Legislative Assembly increased
in size, and all members were chosen by direct election from equal,
single-member constituencies. Only defense and foreign policy
remained in the hands of the governor; the elected assembly was
given control of virtually all internal affairs of the colony.
The CPP pursued a policy of political centralization, which
encounted serious opposition. Shortly after the 1954 election, a
new party, the Asante-based National Liberation Movement (NLM), was
formed. The NLM advocated a federal form of government, with
increased powers for the various regions. NLM leaders criticized
the CPP for perceived dictatorial tendencies. The new party worked
in cooperation with another regionalist group, the Northern
People's Party. When these two regional parties walked out of
discussions on a new constitution, the CPP feared that London might
consider such disunity an indication that the colony was not yet
ready for the next phase of self-government.
The British constitutional adviser, however, backed the CPP
position. The governor dissolved the assembly in order to test
popular support for the CPP demand for immediate independence. The
crown agreed to grant independence if so requested by a two-thirds
majority of the new legislature. New elections were held in July
1956. In keenly contested elections, the CPP won 57 percent of the
votes cast, but the fragmentation of the opposition gave the CPP
every seat in the south as well as enough seats in Asante, the
Northern Territories, and the Trans-Volta Region to hold a
two-thirds majority of the 104 seats.
Prior to the July 1956 general elections in the Gold Coast, a
plebiscite was conducted under United Nations (UN) auspices to
decide the future disposition of British Togoland and French
Togoland. The British trusteeship, the western portion of the
former German colony, had been linked to the Gold Coast since 1919
and was represented in its parliament. The dominant ethnic group,
the Ewe, were divided between the Gold Coast proper and the two
Togos. A clear majority of British Togoland inhabitants voted in
favor of union with their western neighbors, and the area was
absorbed into the Gold Coast. There was, however, vocal opposition
to the incorporation from some of the Ewe in southern British
Togoland.
Data as of November 1994
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