A PAPER PRESENTED BY MIFTAU SULEMANA TO THE

LEGON CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRSAND DIPLOMACY (LECIAD) OF THE UNIVERSITY

OF GHANA

       

TOPIC :

GHANA’S CONTRIBUTION TO PAN-AFRICANISM AND

REGIONALISM IN AFRICA.

           

21ST MAY, 2014.

INTRODUCTION

Ghana as a leader both in the sub-region and on the continent as a whole has played a very vital role in

the promotion of the concepts of pan-Africanism and regionalism. This is more so as this nation was the

first south of the Sahara to gain independence from the colonial masters. This meant that Ghana had to

from the very beginning, take a leading interest and role in pursuing both pan-Africanist and regionalism

agendas.

According to S.K.B. Asante, Pan Africanism can be described as a two-fold concept. That is, it is both an

ideology and a movement. As an ideology, Pan Africanism is based on the belief that African people both

on the continent and in the diaspora share a common history and a common identity. It seeks to regenerate

Africa and promote a feeling of oneness among the people of the African World as well as to inculcate

pride in African values. The concept also expanded to include all people of African descent who had been

dispersed to the United States, The Caribbean, Latin America as well as parts of the Middle East and Asia

through the transatlantic and Islamic/East African slave trade

As a movement, Pan Africanism is based on principles such as unity of people of African descent in

order to eliminate racial, social, economic and political discrimination and to promote economic, social

and political progress on the African continent. In this regard Pan-Africanism stresses the need for

“collective self-reliance”. Solidarity will enable self-reliance, allowing the continent’s potential to

independently provide for its people to be fulfilled.

Regionalism is not a new phenomenon. It has evolved through regional groupings such as Leagues,

Commonwealths, Unions, Associations, Pacts, Confederacies, Councils among others. They were mainly

based on defensive or offensive purposes. Despite the fact that there are clear differences among

countries, there are also a number of important similarities which have produced an increasingly vigorous

consciousness and identity to achieving a common agenda, integration.

Regionalism has been defined as the attempt to safeguard regional culture, language or identity. It has

also been understood as a political, economic and socio-cultural aspiration for ‘far-reaching autonomy’ at

the regional level, or as the advocacy of ‘geographical closeness between the citizens and their elected

representatives’. In some cases too, regionalism has been confused with regional consciousness, or

described as something that by necessity develops within an ethnic community or from a sense of

regional identity.

GHANA PRE-INDEPENDENCE ACTIVITIES IN PAN-AFRCANISM AND REGIONALISM

Ghana’s involvement in the Pan-Africanism and regionalism did not begin at Independence with

Nkrumah. The Pan-African movement pre-dates the nationalist movements that led to Ghana's

independence in 1957. Although most parts of West Africa was under some form of colonial rule by the

late 1800s, it is on record that by the 1900s, Pan-African thought had taken some root in West Africa, and

most importantly in the then Gold Coast.

Ghana produced some of the foremost leaders of the pan-Africanist movement. Among some the earliest

Pan-African activists of Ghanaian origin include Quobna Ottoban Cugoanoa, a Fante man from the Gold

Coast, who was sold into slavery as a child in the West Indian Island of Grenada. Indeed, according to

S.K.B. Asante, he was the first African to demand the total abolition of the slave trade and emancipation

of slaves.

Another pioneer of Pan Africanism was Chief Alfred Sam, an Akyem born at Appasu who formed a the

Akyem Trading Company in 1913 with the sole aim of bringing Africans from the diaspora back to the

motherland. Between 1914 and 1916, Chief Sam had purchased two vessels named the Liberia and

Ethiopian Steamship Line. He also founded a newspaper, the African Pioneer, to prosecute the Pan

African agenda. However, Chief Sam's efforts were not without challenges. For instance, the Liberia left

for Saltpond on 3rd July, 1914 with about sixty African American delegates from the vicinity of Oklahoma

in the United States. Notwithstanding the friendly reception accorded the ship on arrival in Saltpond, by

May 1915, Chief Sam's African Movement had began to founder due in part to official restrictions and

poor planning on his part. Although Chief Sam's experiment eventually collapsed by September 1915, it

sowed the seed for a burgeoning Pan African activism in the succeeding decades.

A major medium of organising used by Pan-Africanists was through conferences. C.O.C. Amate notes the

early efforts of J.E. Casely Hayford, a Ghanaian lawyer, who held discussions with leading personalities

in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. Although the response was tremendous, the commencement of

the First World War forestalled the Conference. In 1919, however, he restarted his efforts and he was able

to push through his Pan-African conference in March 1920 in Accra. It was at this conference that the

National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) was formed with Hutton-Mills as its president.

Long after these early Pan-African efforts were relegated to history, a plethora of African intelligentsia

took up the challenge with a new spirit. Nationalists such as J. B. Danquah, Dr. F. V Nanka-Bruce,

Kobina Sekyi, Akilakper Sawyer and many others were prominent on this front.

GHANA, PAN AFRICANISM AND REGIONALISM AT INDEPENDENCE

At independence, Dr Kwame Nkrumah espoused the ideals of Pan-Africanism and regionalism as foreign

policy objectives when he famously proclaimed that the independence of Ghana was meaningless without

the total liberation of the rest of Africa. The general consensus within the literature is that Ghana's

independence was a classic opportunity to prosecute the Pan-African agenda from home. Also, the birth

of the new state of Ghana laid the foundations of the future strugglr for regional integration as was seen

through Nkrumah’s vision of a united Africa.

Ghana amended its constitution to allow for the formation of a union between Ghana and Guinea, and

later, Mali in pursuance of this regionalism agenda. The sentiment was that the smallness of the states

meant that it was difficult for one African state to develop on its own. In the spirit of Pan-Africanism,

collective development was preferred. The earlier union that was announced between Ghana and Guinea

with the hope of forming the core of a union in West Africa heralded the beginnings of regionalism efforts

in the sub-region and on the continent.

E.M. Debrah (2002) posits that at independence, Ghana under Nkrumah adopted a five-prong foreign

policy.

Consolidating the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ghana and promoting its

prosperity;

Ridding the continent of Africa totally of colonial rule;

Fostering co-operation among the African people through a Union government of Africa

After 1961, promoting close co-operation and unity of purpose of the non-aligned nations;

Working through the United Nations and the Commonwealth and other international bodies to

bring about a world of peace to facilitate the development of new and smaller countries.

Notable among the five foreign policy objectives are three key policies dedicated to the Pan-African and

regionalist agenda; that is, ridding the continent of colonial rule, cooperation through a Union

government, and using international organisations to facilitate development of new and smaller states.

Clearly, the Pan-African agenda ranked high in terms of propagating foreign policy and have remained

largely unchanged ever since, albeit with different fervour.

Nkrumah hosted the All-African Peoples Conference in Accra in 1958 and created a secretariat for its

smooth running. According to Thompson, the AAPC was considered the Pan-African successor to the

Manchester gathering in 1945. This was a major feat for Ghana and the Pan-African movement. After all,

it was this conference that led to the radical approach adopted by several Pan Africanists including Patrice

Lumumba of the Congo as well as other. Ghana is recorded to have spent about 30,000 pounds on the

planning of the AAPC.

GHANA, PAN-AFRICANISM AND REGIONALISM AFTER INDEPENDENCE

Ghana remains committed to her pan-Africanist and regionalism agendas of a unified Africa. Recently,

the ultimate Pan-African ideal of continental unity has taken a turn where the process for achieving that

unity is the debate. Ghana's position as to whether it preferred the route of regional blocs towards unity or

the direct attempt like Gaddafi proposed during the 2007 African Union Conference in Accra was not well

articulated.

It is important to mention, however, that Ghana seems to have focused on projects geared at connecting

with Africans and diaspora in a bid to establish a regular cultural exchange. The PanaFest and Joseph

Projects are major international programmes cast in the Pan-African spirit that Ghana still vigorously

pursues. Although these programmes are geared also towards tourism, it no doubt was Ghana's

contribution to Pan-Africanism. Also, Ghana’s continued role and importance in ECOWAS, the AU and

the ACP group of countries go to show her continued commitment to the regionalism agenda.

Furthermore, Ghana has continued to sustain the organisation of the Pan African Historical Theatre

Festival (PANAFEST) which was mooted by the late EFUA Sutherland in the mid-1980’s as a cultural

vehicle for bringing Africans on the continent and in the diaspora together around the issues raised by

slavery which remain suppressed. PANAFEST consciously creates the environment for confronting the

effects of enslavement, purging the pain of the diaspora, acknowledging the residual effects of the slave

trade on the continent and most importantly, re-uniting to forge a positive future in the contemporary

global environment.

Alongside the healing process, PANAFEST celebrates the strengths and resiliencies of the African culture

and achievements of Africans in spite of the slave trade, colonialism, and their aftermath. It is designed to

help Africans to reconnect with their strengths and thus be inspired to eternal vigilance, rededicate

themselves to fully assuming the reigns of their own destiny in recognition of the lessons of history.

This form of Pan africanism has taken on new, vital and relevant platform which provides members of the

African family with the opportunity to engage with each other in forthright communication to tackle

contemporary issues like human trafficking, brain drain, marginalrization, African Unification or

integration and exploitation.

The African Union (AU) has endorsed this proudly Ghanaian idea of PANAFEST as an important festival

program on the cultural calendar on the continent and resolved in 1994 that the biennial event be held

under its auspices. This and the other support and goodwill the festival enjoys from several international

organizations and African states attest to the continued existence of the Pan African agenda of the

Ghanaian state.

Ghana’s active involvement in bodies and activities regarding Pan Africanism and regionalism affirm her

continuous commitment to the agenda. Ghana is actively present in the activities of the Pan-African

Writers Association, which is headquartered in Accra, as well as the Joseph Project which seeks to help

people from the diaspora re-trace their roots. Also, Ghana has as a matter of policy established the

Diasporan Support Unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, as a national

platform for Diasporan engagement, migration and development. This new outfit possesses the enhanced

capacity as well as the mandate to coordinate the work of stakeholder institutions and mainstream their

contribution to the Pan Africanist agenda.

According to the President in his recently delivered State of the Nations Address, “Ghana will

accelerate the development and transformation of the sub-region by harnessing the contributions

of the Diaspora. People of African descent made key contributions towards Ghana’s

independence and Ghana continues to benefit from the contributions of Ghanaians and non-

Ghanaians in the Diaspora.” These go to show how strong Ghana’s commitment remains to the

Pan African Movement.

CHALLENGES TO GHANA’S ADVOCACY OF PAN-AFRICANISM AND REGIONALISM

Notwithstanding Ghana’s efforts at advocating for pan-Africanism and regionalism, in order to enhance

sustainable development, it appears that the integration process of ECOWASand Africa as a whole is

moving at a snail’s pace. Even worse, when it comes to the issue of Pan-Africnism, it appears to be a

thing of the past. The slow integration within the sub-region is of much concern since it means that West

African States will not be able to reap the full benefits of the integration or it will take a longer time to

realize such a goal. The challenges that have hindering Ghana’s advocacy of pan-Africanism and

regionalism are critically highlighted below:

FUNDING

Pursuing every agenda requires funding to see it through. This is even more so when it comes to big

agendas like pan-Africanism and regionalism since they require a lot of funds to sustain and keep interest

of the people in their pursuance. Funding the pan-African and regionalism efforts has been a major issue

in Ghana which has for long constituted a disturbing challenge to successive governments. For instance,

each and every year, the annual festival of PANAFEST looks a huge and daunting task because there is no

specific source of funding for it and organizers have to rely on donors and contributions from the diaspora

to get it underway. Bodies and organisations like ECOWAS that could support Ghana carry on such a

good initiative have their own issues with funding. At the time of the inception of ECOWAS it was

decided that its activities would be principally funded from contributions of member states. Unfortunately

this approach to funding ECOWAS has not been successful as member states have either been unwilling

to pay their contributions on time or have totally refused to pay at certain times. According to Prof. S.K.B.

Asante confronted with insufficient resources, ECOWAS has generally been unable to undertake any

sustained and serious research; neither has it been able to systematically monitor and evaluate

programmes and projects.

CIVIL SOCIETY OR INTEREST GROUPS

Furthermore, due to the inability of government to bring on borad civil society, interest groups and the

private sector, the strength of the nation in pursuing the pan-African and regionalism agenda has

dwindled. There is lack of forum created for interest groups such as civil societies, trade unions, and the

media et cetera who are directly interested in and are likely to be directly affected by the numerous

interventions in pan-Africanism and regionalism to make input and exchange views. It has been observed

that in decision-making, the private sector is mostly not involved. This implies that the vast amounts of

funding and other support from these groups remain largely untapped.

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF INTEGRATION

In the first place it is refreshing to note that in recent times there is much knowledge about the problems

in West Africa and the likely advantages to be derived from the ECOWAS integration. The ECOWAS

Executive Secretary in an illuminating paper pointed out the growing conviction among officials of

governments and business entities that regional integration holds the key to national development.

According to Prof. S.K.B. Asante governments have demonstrated their conviction for the integration

agenda by enhancing institutional arrangements through creating a ministry exclusively for regional

integration as in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. Unfortunately, in Ghana there is

no separate ministry for regional integration, it has been merged within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This therefore means that not enough attention is given to the topics of pan-Africanism and regionalism at

the policy making level unlike for instance in the early days of independence under Nkrumah where a

special desk was created under the office of the President to oversee pan-African and regionalism matters.

THE DOMESTIC ECONOMIC SITUATION

As the economic woes of Ghana worsen, governments have concentrated more on salvaging the domestic

economy and upraising the standard of living of the people to the detriment of pursuing the pan-

Afrcanism and regionalism agenda.

IMPLEMENTING INTEGRATION AND PAN-AFRICANIST PROGRAMMES AT THE

NATIONAL LEVEL

Most member countries need to actively show that they are committed to the ECOWAS integration

process by aptly implementing group decisions of regional and sub-regional bodies. It is important that

member states design their national plans to be consistent with promotion of effective integration of West

African states for development. Unfortunately, Ghana cannot be said to have fully complied with this

assertion. Even worse, Ghana has sometimes blatantly refused to implement pre-agreed upon decisions of

both ECOWAS and the AU. An example was when Ghana, and some others countries went ahead to sign

an interim agreement with the European Union against the general agreement of ECOWAS. These

negatively affects and contradicts Ghana’s own advocacy of pan-Africanism and regionalism

Member countries including Ghana, need to realize that the success of the ECOWAS integration will

invariably translate into success of their individual states and should therefore show more involvement

and commitment to the integration process. They should also ensure that decisions and protocols taken by

the decision making-organs of ECOWAS are implemented.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this paper would want to emphasize that Ghana has contributed significantly to both the

pan-Africanism and regionalism agendas in the sub-region and on the continent as a whole. Ghana’s role

and importance in this regard cannot be overemphasized. However, this effort has not been without its

challenges which have been highlighted above. Nonetheless, it is the author’s belief that the struggle is

not over yet. If more effort is put into the advocacy, a new wave of pan-Africanism and regionalism could

be unleashed which would propel the whole African continent and the third world into a new phase of

development to match that of the developed world.

both the first and second waves of regionalism provides useful historical insights and practical lessons

for developing countries to learn from in their quest to integrate. To this end, if the right steps are taken

coupled with undiluted commitment on the part of stakeholders the African integration project could be

the panacea to the continent’s economic, political and social malaise if dealt with in a more structured

manner. The current issues of Globalization, Climate Change and Global Financial Crisis, Terrorism and

the poor progress

REFERENCE

1. Asante S. K. B. Regionalism and Africa’s Development: Expectations, Reality and Chal-lenges (London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1997) pp. 1-31

2. Asante S. K. B. “Building Capacity in African Regional Integration: Acquiring Some Ba-sic Knowledge of Regionalism” (Accra: GIMPA, 2007) pp. 1-45

3. Antwi-Danso Vladimir, “Regionalism and Regional Integration: Prospects and Chal-lenges (Making the Ordinary Ghanaian Active in the Integration Process), the ChapterFour of Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda (Accra: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2009) pp. 67-81

4. Kosiba Cletus, “Promoting Regional Integration in West Africa: The Private Sector, aCritical Partner”, the Chapter Seven of Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda(Accra: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2009) pp.125-137

5. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda, Accra, 2009

6. 2014 State of the Nations Address

On-line sources

1. Wikipedia Internet Resources – www. Wikipedia.org2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration website - www.mfa.-

gov.gh