Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism, Marxism and the Dialectics of Change in Africa

Abstract

Africa has, over a long historical period, spanning several centuries, been exposed to a myriad of influences, mostly negative, from Euro-American West, the Judeo-Christian religion, Oriental-Islamicincursion from the Middle-East and Indo-Confucian China, India and South East Asia, all of which have reshaped the African personality so much that the original African egalitarian culture appears almost completely submerged. This is a study on the interpretation, relevance and applicability of Kwame Nkrumah’s philosophy of Consciencism as the driver of the dialectics of change and development in Africa. The Marxist theory of historical materialism or the materialistic interpretation of history was adopted as the theoretical framework. Data sourcing was mainly from secondary sources and analysis based on content analysis of materials of the philosophy of consciencism. It was found that the philosophy of consciencism was the product of Nkrumah’s frustration with the developmental inertia in Africa. Conclusively, the paper acknowledged the relevance of the philosophy of conscienscism but, however, recommended a re-evaluation of the philosophy to accommodate some contemporary realities in Africa, particularly the existence of social classes, as a means of enhancing its applicability to the development of Africa.

Keywords: Consciencism, Philosophy, Development, Socialism, Egalitarianism

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-4-06

Publication date: February 28^th 2022