This thesis attempts an evaluation of the concept of African socialism in Ghana under the leadership of Kwame NKrumah. African socialism is defined in various ways by contemporary African thinkers. What they all have in common is the tendency to emphasize the point that African socialism is somehow distinctively African, rooted in African tradition and, therefore, not intrinsically related to Socialism elsewhere. This crude definition could bear further clarification as we examine its implications in economics, politics, and the social structure of Ghana.

This dissertation attempts to analyze the concept of African Socialism particularly in Ghana under the leadership of the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. African Socialism is defined in various ways by contemporary African thinkers. What they all have in common is the tendency to emphasize the point that African Socialism is somehow distinctively African, rooted in African traditions, and therefore, not intrinsically related to socialism elsewhere. This crude definition will be clarified as the writer examines the various works of African Socialist leaders.Special attention will be paid to the political implications of African Socialism in Ghana during the leadership of Nkrumah. The discussion will include both his supporters and his opponents and the ultimate collapse of his regime.

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The communitarian conception of person is the dominant view of personhood in African philosophy. This view centrally holds that personhood is something that is attained in direct proportion to one's moral worth and one's relations with her surrounding community. This view understands personhood as something that is acquired as one's moral responsibility grows. Essentially personhood is constituted by the community and expressed in relations that one has with her community. Thus the individual and the community are both tied in the same fate. The individual is seen as constituted by the community and as one with the community. Whatever happens to her happens to the whole community. Some leaders of newly independent Africa used this communitarian VIew of personhood to argue for a socialist order. Such an order would have been faithful to the traditional communitarian conception of person and the soc,i al as well as the economic order that proceeds from that conception. In order to develop an authentically African socialist programme these leaders strived to show that the communitarian conception of personhood naturally leads to African socialism. They took African socialism to be a panacea to economic and social ills that had been brought on by colonialism. This thesis seeks to interrogate both the communitarian conception of personhood and the resultant political ideology of African socialism. It is argued that the major driving factor behind the development of the communitarian view and African socialism is an inordinate desire to find and present the African difference. The problem started with Placide Tempels' futile search for an African ontology and has been perpetuated by all communitarians and African socialists. Thus this project is conceived as a philosophical critique of African communitarianism and the resultant socialism. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermariztburg, 2008.

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