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Ghana, the West, and the Soviet Union

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Douglas G. Anglin
Douglas G. Anglin*
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba
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Extract

Ghana is the first truly African state to emerge from colonial status. Her attitude towards and relations with the Western powers and the Communist bloc are, therefore, of considerable importance both in themselves and as indications of the policies other independent African nations are likely to pursue. While Ghana’s foreign policy is still not fully defined, the broad pattern which is emerging is sufficiently discernible to merit discussion.

The present position was defined by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah on the eve of Independence. “We of Ghana feel,” the Prime Minister declared, and has since repeated,

that at this stage our country should not be committed in any aspect of its foreign policy and that it should not be aligned with any particular group of powers or political bloc. At the same time, our new state does not intend to follow a neutralist policy in its foreign policy. It is our intention to preserve our independence and to act as we see best at any particular time.

The same view was expressed more succinctly in June, when it was stated that “Ghana will neither join any power bloc nor maintain a blind policy of neutrality and non-alignment.” These formulations of Ghanaian policy are deliberately vague. They do, however, admirably fulfil the pressing need which every country feels of having a foreign policy of its own, and at the same time they leave the Government free to pursue almost any particular course of action it might later choose.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 1958 , pp. 152 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1958

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References

1 Leg. Ass. Deb., March 5, 1957, cols. 24–5; Pari Deb., Aug. 29, 1957, col. 310.

2 Gbedemah, K. A., Acting Minister of External Affairs, Parl. Deb., 06 12, 1957, col. 747.Google Scholar

3 The Vatican was one of nearly sixty states represented at the independence celebrations and the Pope, as patron-in-chief of the World Organization of the Lamp of Brotherhood, has conferred a gold medal on Dr. Nkrumah in recognition of personal interest in and support for the Ghana branch of this body.

4 Parl. Deb., Aug. 29, 1957, col. 309.

5 Mahama, E. A., Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Interior, West Africa, 02 1, 1958, p. 117.Google Scholar Dr. Nkrumah was reported as having stated at his press conference on March 7, 1957, that Ghana would not join the Afro-Asian group in the United Nations as she “did not want to be submerged in any group” (Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 15427).

6 On the other hand, Ghana’s first attempt to capitalize on this asset failed when she sought to interest members of the Sterling Area in a scheme to ensure her exports of cocoa against a drop in price below £220 a ton through the creation of a modest fund of £30 million spread over ten years (Leg. Ass. Deb., March 5, 1957, cols. 28, 35).

7 Ghana Today, I, no. 19, 11 13, 1957, 6.Google Scholar

8 Parl. Deb., June 12, 1957, col. 747.

9 Accra, March 4, 1957; Dept. of Information, press release no. 289/57, same date. In October, when criticism of his policies by the British press was at its peak, Dr. Nkrumah was more forthright: Ghana’s continued membership in the Commonwealth, he said, depended on whether “we will be free to do what we like” ( The Times, 10 4, 1957, 8 Google Scholar; cf. Accra, Daily Graphic, 10 4, 1957, 1 Google Scholar). Later, Mr. Kofi Baako, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, categorically denied that there was any question of Ghana quitting the Commonwealth or even becoming a republic within it, and added that, as a member, “we have nothing to lose and possibly something to gain” (ibid., Oct. 15, 1957).

10 Press conference, Accra, March 7, 1957; The Times, 03 8, 1957, 10.Google Scholar Cf. New York Times, 04 15, 1955, 9.Google Scholar

11 The Ghana (Constitution) Order in Council, 1957, sections 6 and 32, and Third Schedule. Note the sharp reaction of the Joint Provincial Council of chiefs to the “wild rumours” that Ghana would become a republic ( The Times, 11 26, 1957, 9).Google Scholar

12 Ako Adjei, United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 19, 1957, A/PV.680, 22.

13 The Prime Minister’s original statement of March 1, 1954, in the Legislative Assembly was specifically reaffirmed on March 5, May 28, and June 3, 1957.

14 The Ghana (Constitution) Order in Council, 1957, sections 32 and 34, and Third Schedule.

15 Parl. Deb., Feb. 20, 1958, col. 81; New York Times, 02 21, 1958, 9.Google Scholar

16 Parl. Deb., May 31, 1957, cols. 393–5.

17 Daily Graphic, 10 30, 1957, 1, 6.Google Scholar

18 Timothy, Bankole, Kwame Nkrumah (London, 1955), 164.Google Scholar

19 Leg. Ass. Deb., Feb. 25, 1954.

20 Padmore, George, Pan-Africanism or Communism? (London, 1956), 342.Google Scholar There is no branch of the Communist party in Ghana, though there are of course individuals who are Communists or Communist sympathizers.

21 New York Times, 03 5, 1957, 5.Google Scholar

22 Parl. Deb., June 14, 1957, col. 887.

23 Press release, no. 344/57, March 14, 1957. It was later claimed that, in the case of the Soviet Union, there was informal agreement on an eventual exchange of missions ( The Times, 01 15, 1957, 8 Google Scholar).

24 Parl. Deb., Aug. 29, 1957, col. 310. Subsequently, it was announced that five missions, each headed by a cabinet minister, would be despatched to India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Burma; to China, Hong Kong, and Japan; to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Western Germany; to Eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union; and to Canada, the United States, Jamaica, and Rico, Puerto (West Africa, 12 28, 1957, 1243).Google Scholar

25 West Africa, 11 30, 1957, 1145.Google Scholar

26 The Times, 01 15, 1958, 8.Google Scholar

27 Assuming the ambassador to Ghana arrives before the ambassador to Liberia provided for under an agreement concluded two years earlier but not yet acted upon.

28 West Africa, 11 17, 1956, 915, and Feb. 15, 1958, 151Google Scholar; Africa Special Report, II, no. 9, 10 1957, 6 Google Scholar; III, no. 3, March, 1958, 10.

29 Daily Graphic, Oct. 15, and 17, 1957.

30 While Ghana has not formally recognized the German Democratic Republic, and has close economic ties with the Federal Republic of Germany, she is anxious to establish trade relations with the Eastern zone. In November, 1957, a government delegation headed by a cabinet minister visited Cairo for the express purpose of attending the Industrial Exhibition sponsored by the German Democratic Republic (West Africa, 11 9, 1957, 1075).Google Scholar

31 Martin, Kingsley, “Nkrumah Talks to Kingsley Martin,” New Statesman, 10 5, 1957, 404 Google Scholar; The Times, 12 18, 1957, 9.Google Scholar

32 The Technical Cooperation Agreement between the United States of America and Ghana, signed on June 3, 1957, provides that Ghana should keep the United States informed of any technical assistance which “has been or is being requested of other countries” (Article II, 1(b)).

33 Daily Graphic, 09 9, 1957, 1, 7 Google Scholar; West Africa, 09 28, 1957, 916.Google Scholar Later in the month, Mr. Aaron Ofori Atta, Minister of Local Government, declared angrily at a political rally that Russia was “not as bad as Britain had made us to understand” (Winnipeg Free Press, Sept. 21, 1957).

34 Daiy Graphic, 11 9, 1957, 16 Google Scholar; The Times, 11 9, 1957, 5.Google Scholar

35 Daily Graphic, Oct. 15, 1957.

36 West Africa, 01 11, 1958, 45.Google Scholar In reply to a question at a press conference as to whether Russia’s intervention in Hungary was imperialistic, he said: ‘Yes. We condemn the attitude of the Soviet Union towards this problem, exactly as we are against France’s policy in Algeria.” See also, New York Times, 12 27, 1957, 3.Google Scholar

37 S. K. Anthony, U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 13, 1957, A/PV.677, 1468.