Continental Visions: Ann Seidman, Reginald H. Green and the Economics of African Unity In 1960s Ghana

Abstract

The paper presents the history of the contribution of two American economists to a radical cause: the establishment of a socialist and politically united Africa. The setting is 1960s Ghana which under Kwame Nkrumah, the man who led the country to independence from British colonial rule, emerged as the epicentre of this Pan-African vision. Ann Seidman and Reginald H. Green became, as members of the research team on 'The Economics of African Unity' established at the University of Ghana in 1963, the most sophisticated and systematic advocates of Nkrumah's economic argument for continental planning and political union. The paper argues that Green and Seidman's support for PanAfricanism was rooted in an attempt to question radically the applicability of mainstream economic theory to African conditions, and find an alternative framework to conceptualise African trade, institutions and economic integration. Ultimately the vision associated with Nkrumah and economists like Green and Seidman failed to gain any significant political legitimacy and ended in 1966 with Nkrumah's overthrow. Yet, it is argued that the story of the 'economics of African unity' is a useful departure point to deepen our understanding of the relationship between economics and political imagination in postcolonial Africa.JEL classification: B24, B29, B31, 020, P41.

Explaining the relative success of a developmental state in economic development: a comparison of Malaysia and Ghana

“…Nkrumah's visits to and affinity with China, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe (Mensah 1998). The primary aim of the seven-year development plan was to turn Ghana into an industrial hub and serve as a role model for other countries in SSA (Serra 2013). In view of the scarcity of 30 Trans Volta Togo land was a German protectorate along the border between Ghana and Togo, which was later divided between the British and the French in 1916.…”