How Ghana Won Independence from the UK - Cold War DOCUMENTARY
While British foreign policy during the 19th Century can probably be best surmised as “expansionistic”, epitomized in the so-called Scramble for Africa, the second half of the 20th Century very much saw the British Empire dismantled. While the white dominions had gained independence during the first half of the 20th Century, they remained connected to London through shared cultural and economic ties. The rest of the Empire however had a more difficult struggle ahead of them to achieve the same goals of nationhood, with those colonies in Africa arguably facing the most resistance.
I’m your host David and this week, we are going to take a look at the Gold Coast, modern day Ghana, the first non-white dominated sub-Saharan colony to gain its independence. This is...The Cold War. With so much going on in both my life and in the world overall, it can be hard for me to unwind and relax which is why I am so glad to be using the sponsor of this video Endel - a uniquely useful application that creates personalized soundscapes to help you focus, relax, or sleep! If you find yourself anxious or stressed and struggling to be productive, then Endel is the solution you have been looking for! Its patented technology creating personalized soundscapes for every user is informed by science, created with science and backed by science and can help you to relax by creating feeling of comfort and safety. Studies show that Endel provides the fastest, most consistent focus vs playlists on streaming platforms. It is known that your biological clock, your circadian rhythm, should be in tune with nature’s organic rhythms and cycles and Endel complements these to improve how you feel – night and day. Endel also features a soundscape complementing famous lectures by the writer and speaker Alan Watts, whose soothing and motivating soundscape is infused with perspective-changing words! Endel has a special offer for our viewers: the first 100 people to download Endel using the link in the description will get a free week of audio experiences! This will also support our channel! By the end in 1945, Britain was in a dire economic situation. The six years of war had expended blood and treasure on a vast scale, with much of that treasure having been borrowed from the United States. The maintenance of its global Empire was not only becoming an economic burden
but did not align well at all with the post-war spirit of organizations like the United Nations and things like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now, Britain was prepared to accept the immediate independence of some of its colonies, including India, and also accepted in principle that its other colonies would also be given independence, but on a different time scale. Britain was hoping that it would be able to retain its African colonies especially for another 20 to 30 years, a time frame London deemed necessary for those African nations to become “ready'' to rule themselves. Almost certainly a taste of paternalism and likely a healthy dose of racism heaped on top of this attitude from the Colonial Office. But, the United States, a country always willing to talk a good game regarding national independence, stood in opposition to this time frame and used its now considerable financial leverage to ‘encourage’ London to shorten the time frames involved in decolonization. So, based on that, let's now move our attention
to The Gold Coast. European explorers and traders had maintained a presence along the Gulf of Guinea since the 1400’s, looking to take advantage of the lucrative trade in gold and slaves. The British presence in the region formally began in the mid-1700s with the Royal Trading Company setting up shop which was then replaced by the African Company of Merchants, but it wasn’t until 1821 when the commercial charters were withdrawn by the English Crown and a formal colony established on the Gold Coast. Exploiting pre-existing conflicts that existed between the Fante along the coast and the Ashanti people who lived inland, the British set the different communities against each other to take over more and more territory inland. The entire region was not formally under the control of the British crown until 1902 when the last Ashanti resistance was defeated. Over the course of the 19th Century into the 20th, the British Empire developed key infrastructure in the colony, all with the aim of accessing and exploiting the vast natural resources of the colony. This included gold, metal ores, diamonds, ivory, pepper, timber, grain and cocoa.
These resources, seemingly plentiful and easy to extract, not only helped to make the Empire wealthy but made the Gold Coast a comparatively wealthy colony as well. Along with greater wealth, emerged a new Ghanaian elite, especially by the early part of the 20th Century. Educational facilities within the colony began to improve and technical schools were established, a teachers’ training college was opened in Accra and numerous secondary schools opened across the colony, all bolstering the education levels of the people. This event included the establishment of the University College, the colony's first Higher Education facility, in 1948. And they were popular. In 1940, 91,000 children were
enrolled in Gold Coast schools, but only a decade later in 1950 that number had climbed to 279,000 students enrolled in some 3,000 schools across the Gold Coast. As a percentage of population, that was 43.6% of school age children at the time. The British authorities also invested in the education system in the colony, using it to create local cadres of loyal subjects to serve in the colonial administration so that they could reduce administrative costs from London.
However, it was these very same cadres, trained to serve the Empire and the reigning monarch, that were to bring about revolutionary changes to the colony and set the path towards independence. Although various independence movements had existed in the Gold Coast since at least the late 19th Century, it was in the immediate post-Second World War era that they found a new momentum. Colonial troops from Gold Coast had served in the Great War, largely fighting German colonial troops in German East Africa, but it was their service during the Second World War, in places like Ethiopia and Burma where they earned exceptional praise. However, despite their performance and loyalty to the Crown, returning veterans found the post-war period to be fraught with financial and political problems, both of which contributed to an inability to find employment. As you might expect, this contributed to a feeling of abandonment by the Empire and thus spurred many into the political struggle of the colony. A pro-independence coalition of educated Ghanaians, ex-servicemen, urban workers and merchants was emerging to challenge British authority.
So what did that authority look like? Well, since 1925 the Gold Coast had been administered under the aptly named Constitution of 1925 which also went by the name of the Guggisberg Constitution. Leading the colony was the Governor, the representative of the British Crown and the most powerful person as a result. The Constitution made provision for a Legislative Council, made up of 30 people. Leading it was the
Governor. Of the remaining 29 people, only 9 of those positions were reserved for Africans; 6 spots for the Paramount Chiefs representing the Western, Central and Eastern provinces and then three elected representatives to represent Accra, Cape Coast, and Sekondi-Takoradi. The rest of the spots in the Legislative Council were reserved for Europeans from the Chamber of Commerce, the mining industries and various nominations by the Governor. Separate from the Legislative Council was the Executive Council, the ruling body actually governing the colony. It was made up of 5 members, all Europeans. This was amended in 1942 when Nana
Ofori Atta and Sir Arku Korsah were added to the Council. 1943 saw a third African, Nana Tsibu Darko also added to the Executive. So, what was important about the Guggisberg Constitution? Well, it added elected representation for the first time in the colony's history, even if it was only limited to specific areas. It also included tribal representation which was new. But, and there is always a but, the Governor not only retained a veto over any bills passing through the Legislative Assembly, he also had the ability to certify any law, even in the face of majority rejection in the Assembly. Another significant issue was that the Ashanti had no
representation nor did the Northern Territory or Trans-Volta Togoland. While a step forward, this constitution was clearly lacking in full representation as the African members were outnumbered by Europeans at every turn. And agitation for further reforms continued. African independence movements, including in Gold Coast, were given a huge boost by the 1938 African Survey, a work put together by Sir Malcom Hailey as well as reports which Lord Hailey was tasked with in the 1940s. He advocated moving colonial administration towards that of a partnership. And before you think this was done from a sense of altruism and desire to see the colonies become independent, Hailey saw this as the best way for the British to retain their influence in the colonies in the face of growing independence movements.
The war accelerated the process of involving Africans in the running of the country as they took on administrative jobs in all sectors of the government and economy as Britons vacated them to go fight the war. So 1946 saw another new Constitution introduced, the Burns Constitution. This Constitution increased the scope of elected representation and the Legislative Assembly was reformed to make it majority African. Some lands in the north of
the colony also received representation of their own in the Assembly. On the downside, the Northern Territory and Togoland continued to be controlled by the Governor directly and the Governor retained his Veto and Certification powers. The educated Ghanaian elites were also unhappy with the Burns Constitution as they were left out. The Africans chosen to be included in the new Assembly
were the tribal chiefs, who often acted in their own interests and not in the interests of a colony aspiring to independence. Falling short of the expectations of Ghanaians, who wanted self-rule, the Burns Constitution convinced many in the colony that reform and independence were needed. And then, 1948 happened. January started with a boycott of all European goods as a protest to inflated prices. The boycott was planned to last until February 28, which also happened to be the day a group of war veterans conducted what was supposed to be a peaceful march to the Governor's House in Accra. They were bringing a petition asking for their war pensions which had not been paid out as promised. The marchers were however blocked by colonial police,
who demanded they disperse or the police would use force, an order which was ignored. The police, under orders from the British Superintendent, opened fire killing three veterans and wounding at least 60 others. Accra erupted into riots in protest of the police killings, which spread to other cities and communities across Gold Coast, lasting for five days. The United Gold Coast Convention, the strongest Ghanaian political party at the time sent a telegram directly to the British Government in London stating that “unless Colonial Government is changed and a new Government of the people and their Chiefs installed at the centre immediately, the conduct of masses now completely out of control with strikes threatened in Police quarters, and rank and file Police indifferent to orders of Officers, will continue and result in worse violent and irresponsible acts by uncontrolled people."
The UGCC also stated their readiness to establish an interim government to lead to elections. OK, so who was the UGCC? Well, it was a party established in 1947, largely composed of educated Ghanaians with the express goal of attaining independence “in the shortest possible time”. They called for greater representation of Ghanaians in the colonial administration and wanted that administration to actually take into account Ghanaian suggestions of governing the colony.
The most prominent members of the UGCC were George Alfred Grant, J.B. Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah. So they advocated a road to independence that would grant Ghanaians administrative experience in running a country. But, the Accra riots in 1948 hurt the credibility and legitimacy of the UGCC; many people felt that the colonial administration could no longer be trusted, and that included those who would work with them. What came from this, was a new political party, the Convention People’s Party or CPP, led by Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah, who had
been educated in both the United States and in Germany, had risen to prominence in the UGCC as an organizer for the Committee on Youth Organization. It was this group, led by Nkrumah, that led the break away from the UGCC in protest of their moderate tactics. This move was likely made easier by the fact that the UGCC had tried to freeze out Nkrumah from their leadership! Granted, the politics of the CPP were very similar to the UGCC but the main difference was that they demanded “self-government now”. Nkrumah was a fiery orator and his demands for immediate independence endeared him to workers, farmers, youth, and war veterans among others and the CPP quickly gained strength as a result. OK, now that we are a bit more familiar with the political actors in Gold Coast, let's go back to the wake of the Accra riots. Wanting to find a solution to the calls for independence without
actually granting independence, the British administration created the Coussey Committee, headed by the Ghanaian jurist James Henley Coussey. That an African was selected to head this Committee is actually quite remarkable and certainly a sign that the British wanted a solution that would have credibility with the Ghanaian population. The committee was tasked with suggesting reforms that would be incorporated into a new Constitution, adopted on January 1, 1951. The new Constitution greatly expanded the Legislative Assembly to 84 members, 38 of whom would be elected by the people. 37 would represent territorial councils, 6 would represent mining and commercial interests in the colony and 3 would be ex officio members appointed by the Governor.
The Executive Council was also reformed, with the majority of members still being selected by the Governor but now from the Legislative Assembly and also requiring approval from the Assembly. This was a huge step forward, and towards independence, as it gave real representation in government and real experience in governance to Ghanaians. But! But it still fell short of the CPPs call for full independence. While the Coussey Committee was meeting, the CPP had been busy campaigning across the Gold Coast and gaining more and more support. Nkrumah was promoting non-violent action,
similar in fashion to Gandhi, and in an attempt to thwart Nkrumah, the authorities charged him with sedition and he was in jail when he received word of the new Constitution. And, like so many jailed advocates for national independence, imprisonment only increased Nkrumah’s popularity. The elections held in 1951 to select members for the new Legislative Assembly were a resounding victory for the CPP, winning 34 out of 38 seats and more than 91% of the vote. The
UGCC, once so powerful, only won two seats and disbanded soon after. It was clear that the will of the people of Gold Coast lay with independence. Nkrumah was released from prison by order of the Governor and was asked to form a government, at first under the title “Leader of Government Business” but in 1952 as Prime Minister thanks to a Constitutional Amendment. With Nkrumah at the
head and with a firm mandate from the people, independence was now only a matter of time. 1954 saw another new Constitution introduced which not only increased the number of elected seats to 104 but also saw the removal of those seats elected by the tribal councils. Step by step, the traditional influences that had diminished the will of the people were being removed. The elections of 1954 saw the CPP win 71 of the 104 seats. The main opposition faced by the CPP
was from new parties that had sprung up, largely representing the protection of regional interests and not a broad representation of all Ghanaians. Nkrumah continued his push towards independence, working to Africanize the public service and create the framework for an independent defence and foreign policy, both of which were still directly controlled by the Governor and London. Fresh elections in 1956 saw the CPP win 72 of 104 seats and was well represented across the colony, including Togoland which had voted in an earlier plebiscite to join Gold Coast earlier in the year. In August of 1956, the parliament of Gold Coast adopted a motion calling on the British government to accept Gold Coast under the name Ghana as an independent country within the Commonwealth.
The British government, in the face of the overwhelming support of the population of Gold Coast, agreed to grant Dominion status, independence, to Ghana on March 6, 1957. Independence celebrations in Ghana were attended by a number of world dignitaries. Representing the British Crown was the Duchess of Kent while Vice-President Richard Nixon represented the United States. Also, in attendance at the ceremonies on March 6 was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his address at the ceremonies, Nkrumah placed emphasis on Ghana’s position within the Commonwealth as well as its good relations with Britain, saying: “We part the former imperial Power, Great Britain, with the warmest feelings of friendship and goodwill. This is because successive Governments
in the United Kingdom recognized the realities of the situation in the Gold Coast and adopted their policy accordingly. Thus, instead of that feeling of bitterness which is often born of a colonial struggle, we enter on our independence in association with Great Britain and with good relations unimpaired. We are proud that we are the first British colonial territory in Africa to gain its freedom and to enter into the Commonwealth. We value the Commonwealth link because it brings us closer to other members who practice the same type of democracy and have the same system of laws which we have established here. Particularly we value it because it brings us into association with the newer Commonwealth countries of Asia whose problems are so akin to our own.” And with that, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence. It did
so largely by means of bloodless and nonviolent struggle, working through the legislative process to achieve its goal. This feels atypical from many other colonial independence struggles in Africa and around the world but Ghana had a particular set of advantages which many other future nations did not It had a significant number of highly educated people, a relatively prosperous and stable economic situation, and had a government in London to work with that was largely in favour of a smooth decolonization process. Ghana would go on to play an interesting role during the Cold War, establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union a year after independence and the maintenance of good relations between Accra and Moscow was a feature of Nkrumah’s time as leader. Despite good relations however, Ghana was more interested in procuring Soviet arms rather than Soviet ideology. Through the 10 years after independence, both the Soviets and the West courted Nkrumah, the former wanting a base of operations in West Africa, the latter wanting to keep the Soviets from gaining a base of operations in West Africa while still maintaining lucrative commercial ties to Ghana. We hope that you have enjoyed today’s episode and to make sure you don’t miss all of our future episodes please make sure you subscribe to our channel and have passed numerous constitutional reforms, slowly growing the power of the Bell Button until it is in a position that it can press itself.. We can be reached via email at thecoldwarchannel@gmail.com and we are active
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2022-03-08 19:01
