Book Review: Africa: Ghana's Foreign Policy 1957–1966: Diplomacy, Ideology, and the New State
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Author | Douglas G. Anglin |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207002500328 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
658 INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Perhaps
the
most colourful
discussions
would
have
dealt
with
contem-
porary
events, and
these
must
be
dealt
with
most discreetly,
or
even
with
silence.
Whiteley
wisely
avoids
being
partisan.
He
does
not
make
a
case
for
Swahili;
he
could
have said
much
in
its
favour.
Instead,
he
lets
history
make
its
own
brief.
Many, however,
would
have
been
interested
in how
an
African
language
changes
in
response
to
culture
change.
There
is
only
an
inkling
here
and
there
in
the
book.
Whiteley
quotes
President
Nyerere
(p.
123)
as
having
said
before
the
National
Assembly,
"so
that
the
public
sector
of
our
economy
grows alongside
the
private
sector."
That
was
the
English
version.
The
official
Swahili
version
reads
(in
translation):
"so
that,
in
general,
profits
of
ordinary
people
should
keep pace
with
those of
employees."
Since
both
languages
are
legal
in
Tanzania,
which
one of
these
versions
does
one
choose
as
the
official
one?
University
of
Toronto
WLLIAM
J.
SAMARIN
Ghana's
Foreign
Policy
1957-1966:
Diplomacy,
Ideology,
and
the
New
State.
By
W.
ScoTT
THomPSoN.
Princeton:
Princeton
University
Press
[Toronto:
Saunders].
1969.
xxviii,
462pp.
$13.75.
Few
countries
achieved
independence
with
such
promising
prospects
or
amidst such
universal
acclaim
as
Ghana.
Yet,
within
nine
years,
Dr.
Kwame
Nkrumah
had
brought
his
country
to
the
point where
its
economy
was
on
the
brink
of
collapse,
its
regime
seriously discredited
at
home,
and
its
foreign
policy
an
almost
complete
failure.
This
im-
pressive
study
traces with
skill
and
thoroughness
the
efforts
of
this
"small
determined
state
...
to
enlarge
its
influence
and
increase
its
power,"
and
explains
its relative
lack
of
success.
Although
the
approach
is
broadly historical,
the
three
themes
suggested in
the
subtitle
run
through
the
book.
The
first
concerns
the
techniques
of
Ghanaian
statecraft
and,
in
particular,
the
consequences
of
Nkrumah's
increasing
tendency
to
bypass
his
able foreign
service
in
favour
of
the
more
"reliable"
African
Affairs
Secretariat
and
Bureau
of
African
Affairs.
The
second
is
the
evolution
of his
ideological
orien-
tation
from a
non-aligned
stance
sympathetic
to
the
West
to
an
open
espousal
of
scientific
socialism
at
home
and
abroad.
The
author
even
suggests
the
possibility
that
Nkrumah
may
simply have
been
pursuing
a
policy
of
"calculated
deception"
throughout,
pending
the
successful
outcome
of
negotiations
over
the
giant
Volta
River
Project. Finally,
and
perhaps
most
important, the
book
seeks
to
define
the
role
which
a
new
and
small
state
can
play
in world
affairs.
The
author's
concluding
comment
is
that
Nkrumah's
"greatest
failing
was
his
inability
to
see
the
limits
of
the
influence
of
one
man
bound
to
one
small
state."
Three
periods
in
the
development
of
Ghanaian
foreign
policy
are
distinguished.
The
first,
from
independence
in
1957
to
mid-1960,
saw
Ghana's
success
and
prestige
at
their
peak.
The
All-African
People's
Conference in
December
1958
was
Nkrumah's
"finest
hour."
The
next
phase
began with
the
Congo
crisis
(which,
despite enormous
efforts,
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