1947–1957: (Ghana’s Path to Independence — The British Attempt to Discredit Nkrumah as a Dangerous Radical While Promoting Danquah as the Safe Pair of Hands,…

1947–1957: (Ghana’s Path to Independence — The British Attempt to Discredit Nkrumah as a Dangerous Radical While Promoting Danquah as the Safe Pair of Hands, the CPP’s Sweeping 1951 Election Victory Forcing the British to Release Nkrumah, His Skillful Combination of Radical Rhetoric and Pragmatic Diplomacy, Internal Self-Government in 1954, Full Independence in 1957 as the First Sub-Saharan African State, and the Emergence of the Big Man Model of Leadership): In response to escalating social problems, the British set up the Coussey Commission to discover what had gone wrong in their model colony. The Commission advocated more African representation and constitutional reform, while the administration hoped to facilitate the moderate UGCC elite. Nkrumah was deliberately depicted as the wild man of the Left, a dangerous radical, while Danquah was promoted as the safe pair of hands. But in the 1951 elections, Nkrumah and the CPP won a sweeping victory — the British quickly decided they had little option but to release him and work with the CPP. Initially leader of government business, Nkrumah gently forced the pace of decolonization, combining diplomacy with political capital drawn from the supposed risk of massive internal disorder. Internal self-government in 1954 was followed by full independence in 1957 — Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African state to achieve this. Ghana’s independence resulted from two dynamics: popular nationalism expressed through widespread protest compelling constitutional concessions, and the CPP’s tactics of positive action that eschewed violence while making colonial governance difficult. Nkrumah was a combination of populist radical and compromising pragmatic diplomat — a great orator employing radical rhetoric in public while tempering this in private dealings with officials. This theme of charismatic individual leaders dominating their movements — the Big Men of Africa’s first independent generation — would have important consequences for the political structures of independent states.