Teaching Africa: A Guide for the 21st-Century Classroom

8 Pan-Africanism: The Ties That Bind Ghana and the United States

90 8 Pan-africanism The Ties That Bind Ghana and the United States harry nii Koney Odamtten introduction This chapter explores intellectual, political, and sociocultural exchanges between ghanaian nationalists and african americans. focusing on the similarities and interconnections between the peoples of ghana and the diaspora, the chapter offers a historical analysis of events leading to ghanaian and american independence and links such events to other world historical processes. i look at similarities in the martyrdom of american crispus attucks (1723–1770) and ghanaian sergeant cornelius frederick adjetey (1894–1948). an examination then follows of the life and times of ghana’s first president, Kwame nkrumah (1909–1972), particularly his student days in the United States and his subsequent relationship with Pan-africanism’s cofounder W. e. B. Du Bois and american civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This discussion, while focused on ghana and the United States, embraces current trends in the field of african Studies and its interdisciplinary shift toward global african history. Background Teaching african history has suggested that when students are presented with images or real-life situations that reinforce what they have learned in the classroom, they are more likely to reevaluate previously held pessimisms about africa and africans.1 This chapter examines the Pan-african ties between africans and african americans by combining historical narrative and comparative analysis: a brief narrative of the lives of individuals from both groups, on the one hand, and a comparative look at the Pan-Africanism | 91 relationships these individuals established with one another, on the other. Many students , for example, are aware of Martin Luther King Jr.’s important contributions to the evolution of the United States’ political culture, but are unaware that he ever visited ghana or had some inspirational impetus for his civil rights struggle from an african leader, Kwame nkrumah. Theoretical groundings This chapter is grounded in the contextualization of african history in a global past. This global african context is derived from sociologist ruth Simms hamilton’s definition of global africa as “the geographically and socio-culturally diverse peoples of africa and its diaspora [and] is linked through complex networks of social relationships and processes” (2007:1). Building on this definition, the idea of Pan-africanism is examined as one of the avenues by which ghanaian scholars and politicians were linked to their african american counterparts. Pan-africanism is defined here as the idea that people of african descent, no matter their geographic location, share historical, cultural, sociological, and kinship ties given their collective origins on the african continent. in addition, african descendants, because they face similar conditions of socioeconomic inequity based on an international hierarchy, see themselves as part of a global, african community. in light of recent trends in african studies that tend to privilege connections between africa and its diaspora, this approach is noteworthy because it “globalizes africa, repositioning the continent in world history” (Zeleza 2010:3). africa thus becomes more relevant to students as an active participant in worldwide affairs rather than a static and distant continent. hamilton (2007) identifies four characteristics of global africa. The first, geosocial mobility and displacement, captures the forced and voluntary continuous movement of african-descended peoples following initial displacements to locations in europe, asia, and the americas. The later movements tend to include return migrations to the african continent. The second category, power, domination, and inequality, refers to the systemic institutionalization of dominance over african peoples on the basis of race, class, gender, religion, and nationality. Agents of resistance, the third characteristic , is the intellectual, cultural, and social resistance put up by african-descended peoples against systems of oppression and inequality. The fourth domain of global africa, African diaspora connections, is the real and mythical construction of africa as a homeland and the host of networks that are created between continental africans and the african diaspora. This chapter shows how these four characteristics shape the individual and collective lives of ghanaians and african americans. in this way, the chapter shows ways that africa may be incorporated into the limited but increasing treatment of africa in american, Western, and world history textbooks and courses. 92 | Situating Africa crispus attucks and Sergeant frederick adjetey: Martyrs of american and ghanaian independence By hamilton’s definition, crispus attucks of the United States and Sergeant adjetey of ghana not only were geosocially displaced, but also became agents of resistance. attucks, a descendant of enslaved africans...