Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

“Non-alignment, as practiced by Ghana and many other countries, is based on co-operation with all States whether they be capitalist, socialist or have a mixed economy.”

Nkrumah here advocates for the importance of the “non-aligned movement” (See: Index of Terms). In arguing for African nations to co-operate with other regimes regardless of which political and economic system they follow, Nkrumah hopes to ensure African countries’ independence from the wider Cold War conflict of the time.

“This book is therefore an attempt to examine neo-colonialism not only in its African context and its relation to African unity, but in world perspective.”

In the Introduction, Nkrumah clearly states that neo-colonialism is not only a problem of former colonial states. The issue is global and, thus, his analysis will not be limited to Ghana or any other former colony. In emphasizing the importance of a “world perspective,” Nkrumah introduces the theme of The Importance of Unity for Resistance amongst the exploited peoples of the world.

“If Africa’s multiple resources were used in her own development, they could place her among the modernized continents of the world.”

Among the many moral objections to colonialism and neocolonialism, Nkrumah alludes to the exploitative manner in which Western countries extract resources from their colonies, denying the colonies the opportunity to develop their own industries. The western powers then continue to refer to these former colonies as “developing countries” (See: Index of Terms) while ignoring that the opportunity for meaningful development has been taken from them, along with so much more.