Revisiting Kwame Nkrumah’s African Personality

ABSTRACT:

In 1963, President Kwame Nkrumah announced there would be a national television, which was to be Ghanaian, socialist, and African in content, departing from the commercialism and sensationalism of Western television. The goals of what would become Ghana Broadcasting television were part of Nkrumah’s pursuit of an African Personality. This article examines the complexity of the African Personality, which lies within diaspora African politics, and the tension between Africanism and Westernization. Using Ghana television as a lens, it asserts that the African Personality was not anti-Western or an essentialization of African culture. Rather, it was a revolutionary praxis envisioned by Nkrumah and his diaspora network for decolonization, Pan-Africanism, and postcolonial nation-building.