May Day: Remembering four independence leaders considered “fathers of African socialism”

Kwame Nkrumah

Nkrumah‘s socialism is a philosophically intriguing position that insisted that Marxism and Leninism were conjugates of African communalism. What was African socialism therefore for Nkrumah was simply a purposive way of life that seeks to maintain community and equality.

If the necessary means to living could be produced collectively, there was a chance to make everyone happy while they found self-fulfillment, Nkrumah thought. This was the reason for the many worker brigades he oversaw.

Nkrumah was not against capitalism because he thought it was evil. Au contraire, he actually thought there are nice things to be said about capitalism.

He just did not think that mode of material production was a sustainable ethic. For him, capitalism lacked the values to support universal human flourishing and that was why African socialism was necessary.