ABSTRACT
In the phrase of the time Ghana was thought to be “ready for independence” in a way that other colonies were not, at least not in the eyes of Europeans who wanted to keep a tight control over the course of events. But Ghana had set an agenda that all Africa was listening to on wirelesses that could pick up news of the “African revolution” from stations as far away as Cairo, beyond the reach of colonial censorship. The course of
decolonization had been conceded rather than directed by Britain. The speed of change was determined not by the lawyers of the old Gold Coast convention who had set the movement in train, but by young school-leavers with unlimited ambition and self-confidence. Decolonization was driven by market women with no training in “readiness for independence” but with immense experience in the management of retail business, and by wage-workers and war-pensioners who understood that their earnings were slipping backwards in a foreign-run economy. Some Ghana politicians tried to slow the tempo, change the political emphasis, favour regional interests, restore power to the aristocracy, but the slogans “one man, one vote” and “freedom now” were too powerful to be curbed. Nkrumah won his third general election in 1956 and Ghana was granted independence in 1957.
