Consciencism

A philosophical treatise by Ghana's first president, written while he governed and revised after his overthrow in 1966; the revised edition is subtitled Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization. Nkrumah argues that every society needs a unifying ideology, and that African societies after independence hold three strands at once: traditional African life, Islam, and Euro-Christian influence brought through colonialism. Consciencism is his name for a philosophy that would harmonise these strands on the basis of traditional African humanism and egalitarianism. The opening chapters survey Western philosophy from the Greeks onward, arguing that philosophies have always served social interests. Nkrumah then defends a materialist metaphysics in which matter is primary but can give rise to mind through what he calls categorial conversion. Socialism, he claims, restates in modern form the communal values of traditional Africa. A final chapter sets out his ideas in logical notation. Critics have questioned the formal apparatus and noted the book's role as ideology for a one-party state.

It is the most systematic attempt by an African independence leader to ground politics in a full philosophy, and it frames debates about African socialism and decolonisation still read today.