Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
8
Political Geography
Field Note Independence Is Better Than Servitude
I arrived in Ghana just after an assas-
sination attempt on the coun-
try's fi rst president, Kwame
Nkrumah. As I drove through
the capital city of Accra in
1962, I stopped short when
I saw a statue of President
Nkrumah in the middle
of the street. I have seen
plenty of statues of leaders
in my travels, but this one was
unique. Ghanians had dressed
their hospital-ridden president in
a hospital gown and bandaged his head!
I stopped the car to take a picture (Fig. 8.1), and I
read the proclamations on Nkrumah's statue. Written
in English, they said, “To me the liberation of Ghana
will be meaningless unless it is linked up with the lib-
eration of Africa” and “We prefer self-government
with danger to servitude in tranquility.”
Ghana, the fi rst Subsaharan African colony
to become independent, gained its independence
in 1960. A wave of decolonization swept through
Africa in the 1960s (Fig. 8.2)—fueled by the hope that
decolonization would bring political and economic
independence. But decolonization did not eliminate
political and economic problems for Africa. Former
colonies became states, reaching political indepen-
dence under international law; each new country
was now sovereign, legally having the ultimate say
over what happened within the borders. New politi-
cal problems arose within the formally independent
countries. Each had to deal with a mixture of peoples,
cultures, languages, and religions that were grouped
within single political units during the colonial period.
Figure 8.1
Accra, Ghana.
Statue of Kwame Nkrumah, the fi rst president
of Ghana.
© H. J. de Blij.
249
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