The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide

"In this magisterial account, journalist French (Born in Blackness) revisits the history of the Pan-Africanist movement through the life of Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah, who in 1957 became the first head of state of the first colonized African nation to gain independence . . . Weaving a staggering amount of history into a propulsive narrative that recasts the 20th century as a long struggle for liberation, this is a towering achievement.

Wide-ranging study of the life and thought of Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana.

As former New York Times foreign correspondent French observes, Kwame Nkrumah was a brilliant man who, during a sojourn in Depression-era America, “earned four degrees, in sociology, theology, education, and philosophy.” Closely studying the work of African and African American writers, he also formulated the doctrine of Pan-Africanism, which held that the African continent would never be free of the aftereffects of colonialism until its nations, along with new nations and federations, had forged a common cause that would mark a new world order and “remedy the curse of Balkanization…that colonialism had inflicted upon them.” Pan-Africanism is not widely remembered today; this is due in part to the continent’s leaders neglecting to shake off its colonial past and instead allowing themselves to be swayed by corruption and privilege. Nkrumah spent his early years in office steering a careful course between the U.S. and USSR during the peak years of the Cold War; although Ghana appeared to be far friendlier to the U.S., its nonalignment led to confrontation with Lyndon Johnson’s “you’re either for us or against us” mentality, so Ghana effectively dropped off the map. At the same time, French writes, Nkrumah, having built a roster of political enemies and feeling paranoid about being assassinated—for good reason, it happens—began to succumb to the temptations of authoritarianism, so that “in its panic, the regime had begun to commit autophagy, cannibalizing itself,” evidenced by Nkrumah’s firing the country’s chief justice so that three prominent foes could be found guilty and imprisoned for opposing him. In the end, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup, his Pan-African dream thwarted, and died in exile.

A fluent exploration of an important if often overlooked political leader whose ideas still bear consideration.”
― Publishers Weekly, starred review

"It would be as impossible to overstate the importance of Nkrumah as it would be to overstate the brilliance of this study. For too many, Africa as a whole remains an enigma. Howard W. French’s masterwork clarifies the continent, both its history and the backstory to its current conflicts, with remarkable precision."
― Greg Grandin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The End of the Myth

"A brilliant examination. . . . Howard W. French illuminates a period of time when people believed that standards of justice and equality could prevail for African people on the continent and in the diaspora, especially in the United States during the civil rights movement."
― Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Hemingses of Monticello

"An original, provocative, and important work of history. . . . With meticulous research and crisp writing, Howard W. French helps us see and understand the modern world anew. An extraordinary achievement."
― Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for King: A Life

"In this truly monumental biography of the rise and fall of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, global observer Howard W. French documents the Cold War hubris that foredoomed Africa’s aspirations in a Greek tragedy of racist pathologies affronted by emancipated leadership. French’s The Second Emancipation stands the second half of the last century on its geopolitical head."
― David Levering Lewis, winner of the Pulitzer Prize