Socialist De-Colony

A new history of Ghana-Soviet relations, tracing attempts to transform Ghana into an archetype of Black freedom and socialist modernity.

In 1957, Ghana won its political independence from the United Kingdom. Nana Osei-Opare offers a provocative reading of this defining moment. He demonstrates how race and Soviet influence enabled and disrupted Ghana's transformational projects to secure Black freedom. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana won its political independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. It precipitated both the dying spiral of colonialism across the African continent and the world's first Black socialist state. Utilising materials from Ghanaian, Russian, English, and American archives, Nana Osei-Opare offers a provocative and new reading of this defining moment in world history through the eyes of workers, writers, students, technical-experts, ministers, and diplomats. Osei-Opare shows how race and Ghana-Soviet spaces influenced, enabled, and disrupted Ghana's transformational socialist, Cold War, and decolonization projects to achieve Black freedom. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.