{"id":88767,"date":"2017-03-07T10:47:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T08:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/ghana-is-60-an-african-success-story-with-tough-challenges-ahead-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2017-03-07T10:47:40","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T08:47:40","slug":"ghana-is-60-an-african-success-story-with-tough-challenges-ahead-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/ghana-is-60-an-african-success-story-with-tough-challenges-ahead-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana is 60: An African success story with tough challenges ahead | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ghana is 60: An African success story with tough challenges ahead<\/a>: <\/p>\n

A member of Ghana's navy attends celebrations in Accra to mark the country's 60th independence anniversary. <\/span> EPA\/Christian Thompson<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Black Africa\u2019s first independent nation celebrated its 60th independence anniversary this week. A pioneer in many ways, Ghana was the first country in sub Saharan Africa to secure independence from Britain on March 6, 1957.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s post-independence experience is also in many ways the African post-colonial story. President Kwame Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union. He was also the most influential voice in the Pan-African movement in the early years of independence. <\/p>\n

The Pan-Africanist flame burnt brightest at the height of agitation for independence, drawing in the likes of Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. But the Pan-Africanist rhetoric was soon extinguished as its leaders secured independence for their countries. <\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s anniversary is well worth celebrating. Over the last six decades Ghana has transitioned from military dictatorships to a well functioning democracy while it\u2019s economy has seen both boom and near bust. Its story offers both lessons and hope that Africa can fashion its own dignified path to peace and democracy. <\/p>\n

The early decades<\/h2>\n

Nkrumah\u2019s vision for Ghana was founded on the nationalist demands that drove agitation against colonialism. He sought to steer his young country to significant progress in health and education. Also on the new leader\u2019s agenda were other social and economic issues confronting the country. <\/p>\n

This vision was embedded in his seven-year development plan presented to parliament on March 11, 1964. In his view, the 1963-1970 plan would ultimately, <\/p>\n

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bring Ghana to the threshold of a modern state based on a highly organised and efficient agricultural and industrial programme. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nkrumah believed he could completely obliterate the dependency-driven colonial economy he inherited which reduced Ghana to an importer of finished goods sold at exorbitant prices and exporter of raw materials bought cheaply. In its place would be an industrialised economy modelled along a socialist production and distribution system which would make Ghana self-sufficient and self-reliant.<\/p>\n

But we will never know what all his success would have looked like. Nkrumah\u2019s vision was cut short by a pro-western military coup in 1966. The planning of it was known to the US which considered Nkrumah a significant threat to its interests in Africa. <\/p>\n

The acting special assistant for National Security Affairs R.W. Komer praised the coup as <\/p>\n

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\u2026another example of a fortuitous windfall. Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some 50 years after his overthrow, however, Nkrumah remains a household name in Ghana because of his investments in education, health and energy. Many of his contributions to other important sectors, such as the building of the Akosombo Dam, the Accra-Tema Motorway, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, University of Cape Coast, continue to support the economy today.<\/p>\n

Nkrumah\u2019s overthrow in 1966 was followed by four military takeovers in 1972, 1978, 1979 and 1981. Two democratically elected governments established in 1969 and 1979 were overthrown by the military. Eventually, the current succession of democratic elections was established in 1993. <\/p>\n

In its early years Ghana\u2019s flirtation with socialism dominated its politics. However, the civilian governments that followed steered the country onto a capitalist economic path in which the Bretton Woods institutions often dictated the pace. <\/p>\n

But the country has been unable to achieve the envisioned self-reliant and self-sufficient economic policies. But it\u2019s not all gloom and doom.<\/p>\n

Democracy success story<\/h2>\n

Ghana has made remarkable progress as one of the success stories in Africa\u2019s democratic project over the past 25 years. Political power has changed three times \u2013 all important milestones; <\/p>\n