Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

To understand the global situation, Nkrumah believes, one must “understand the economic influences and pressures that stand behind the political events” (69). A seemingly unconnected series of headlines are presented by Nkrumah, who reveals the way in which their subtle interconnectedness sketches a diagram of the relationship between politics, finance, and neo-colonialism. A headline which purportedly reports on the founding of an African bank reveals, under greater scrutiny, an opaque web of Western figures associated with “the world’s most powerful private banking institutions” (71).

Through such banks, Western finance can purchase controlling shares in African companies, and thus reroute profits from Africa to the West. Nkrumah lists the names of the directors of these financial institutions; they sit on the boards of many companies and many are related to one another. They invest in one another’s financial ventures and share the profits among the small number of “incredibly powerful groups that dominate our lives on a global scale” (76).

The influence of these financial groups spreads to politics. Their interests dictate policy: Their representatives are placed highly in political and military institutions. This has created an ironic situation, Nkrumah notes, in which capitalism—supposedly based on free enterprise and competition—has “arrived at a stage where competition is being eroded to the point where pyramidal monopolies exercise dictatorial rights” (77).