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FIELDS AND VISIONS

The ‘African Personality’ and Ghanaian Soccer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2010

James Rosbrook-Thompson  and
Gary Armstrong
James Rosbrook-Thompson*
Affiliation:
School of Sport and Education, Brunel University
Gary Armstrong
Affiliation:
School of Sport and Education, Brunel University
*
James Rosbrook-Thompson, Visiting Lecturer in Sport and Development, School of Sport and Education, Brunel University, West London. Flat 3 Dartington, Plender Street, London, NW1 0DE, United Kingdom. E-mail: j.rosbrook-thompson@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

The concept of the “African Personality” was celebrated by the continent's first post-colonial President, Kwame Nkrumah. Sweeping to power in Ghana's first general election in 1951, Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party—inspired by Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois—espoused the doctrines of nationhood and self-reliance. The conceptual dimensions of Nkrumah's “African Personality” and the role he had in mind for Association Football (soccer) as an instrument of its expression are crucial points of this analysis. Here we attempt to locate Nkrumah's political ideal within the contemporary realities of the migration of young Ghanaian soccer talent, examining at the same time the socio-economic processes which act as “push” and “pull” mechanisms in the context of such migratory trends. While Nkrumah's “race-conscious,” pan-African forces have been utilized in the face of post-colonial identifications, soccer loyalties and objectives which are far more immediate and parochial in character continue to supersede those surrounding national or “racial” interests. Ghana's domestic game and national selection are riven by ethnic and regional hostilities while interlopers from Europe—some acting alone, others as emissaries for European soccer clubs—have laid down roots in Ghana, recognizing the nation as a breeding ground for talented, and comparatively cheap, young soccer talent. We argue that such inveterate ethno-regional rivalries, along with the conditions of neoliberal capitalism and its instrumental system of uneven geographical development, have provided entry points for the post-colonial forces so maligned by Nkrumah. Furthermore, we question the wisdom of notions of belonging based on bounded units such as “race” and attendant expressions of “race-consciousness.”

Keywords

Post-colonialismNeoliberalismW. E. B. Du BoisKwame NkrumahAfrican PersonalityGhanaSoccer
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , Fall 2010 , pp. 293 - 314
Copyright
Copyright © W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research 2010

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