THE REGIME CHANGE OF KWAME NKRUMAH
Epic Heroism in Africa and the Diaspora
Ahmad A. Rahman
Availability: Now In Stock
From Palgrave Macmillan
Pub date: Feb 2007
268 pages
Size 5-1/2 x 8-1/4
$65.00 - Hardcover (1-4039-6569-2)
http://www.palgrave-usa.com/catalog/...sbn=1403965692

Description
This book is a new and innovative approach to writing a political biography and intellectual history. Ahmad A. Rahman provides a fresh perspective on Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to become Africa's first sub-Saharan country to gain independence after World War II. Rahman analyzes Nkrumah's behavior through utilizing the epic hero patterns of Call, Quest, and Return. The scholarship is unique in its attention to Nkrumah's experiences in the United States, using recently declassified U.S. and British government documents. Nkrumah is portrayed as an epic hero who gained stature by overcoming enemies but who, like Africa's previous epic heroes, eventually lost his "throne" to increasingly stronger opponents.

Author Bio
Ahmad A. Rahman is Assistant Professor of History in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. He is presently working on the Kwame Nkrumah Reader as well as the History of the Black Panther Party in Detroit.

Praise for Regime Change of Kwame Nkrumah
"This is an extremely welcome addition to the scholarship on Nkrumah, the leadership of African liberation movements, and the quest for Black liberation from the mid-1950's onward. This is history written with an electric verve in its narrative voice, and with a precisely researched clarity."
--Melvin T. Peters, Associate Professor of African American Studies, Eastern Michigan University

"Rahman is a brilliant political analyst and a longtime activist who brings enormous insight and skillful creativity to his study of Ghanaian leader and Pan-Africanist thinker, Kwame Nkrumah. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Africa, her past, her future, and the many complex personalities that she produced."
--Barbara Ransby, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Rahman's study is an important contribution to Pan-Africanism, specifically the origins of the independence process and the role of the U.S. in the days before the new globalization took off. This study takes us into the logic of regime change, both as a function of internal contradictions and the logic of global domination. Rahman demonstrates that the Black Power paradigm for research can lead to a nuanced analysis of a complex historical process."
--Abdul Alkalimat, Professor of Sociology, and Director, Africana Studies Program, University of Toledo

"This is an important and timely new addition to the literature on the life, career, and accomplishments of Kwame Nkrumah. Rahman directly challenges previous work that emphasized the incompatibility of Nkrumah's pragmatic devotion to traditionalism and the demands of the modern state. His careful and nuanced study delves deeply into Nkrumah's life and times and offers a balanced appraisal and critique of this African leader’s accomplishments and his shortcomings."
--Joseph F. Jordan, Associate Professor and Director, Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Ahmad A. Rahman's The Regime Change of Kwame Nkrumah: Epic Heroism in Africa and the Diaspora enriches our understanding of Kwame Nkrumah's significance in Afirican insurgent politics. Rahman challenges Euro-centrics interpretations which provide superficial accounts of Nkrumah's legacy. His book offers a sophisticated and innovative treatment of multiple factors, such as indigenous African constructs, which gives us rich insights into Nkrumah's efforts to lead Ghana and Africa to independence and Pan-African solidarity."
--Charles E. Jones, Chair, Department of African-American Studies, Georgia State University

“Kudos to Ahmad A. Rahman! He has written a sophisticated political biography that takes seriously the ways in which Nkrumah’s culture influenced his political actions, Ghanaians’ culturally derived political expectations, and the position of Nkrumah’s Ghana in the world capitalist political economy.”
--Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Associate Professor of History, and Director, Afro-American Studies and Research Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Table of contents
The Ashanti Trickster in the Diaspora * The Osagyefo Conquers * The Myth of Afrotopia * The African Messiah Versus the CIA * A Myth Is Broken * The Legacy of Nkrumahism