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W
hat is a nation? In general, it is
a large body of people united
by descent, history, culture, or
language, which inhabits a
particular state or territory. In pre-
colonial Africa, states were created
by the vagaries of the economy,
while in colonial times,
administrative convenience seems to
have been the main criterion.
Western thought was unable to
cope with the notion of subtle,
stateless societies, such as those of
Africa, being accustomed to nations
whose charted history was of a
particular people, despite the fact
that such ancient kingdoms as
Dahomey, Benin, that of the Ashanti
in Ghana, also the kingdoms of East
Africa, had once existed in Africa.
Pastoral nomads
and agriculturalists
did not necessarily fit these Western
notions of nationhood, so Africans
were deemed to have no history of
their own.
Colonial rule tended to fossilize
institutions. Where kingdoms and
states had risen, bloomed and
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INDEPENDENCE AND NATIONHOOD
BELOW:
Ashanti Yam Ceremony. A
page from a book by Thomas E.
Bowdich - Mission from Cape Coast
Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819).
OPPOSITE ABOVE:
Gezo was a King
of the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-
day Benin, from 1818 until 1858.
OPPOSITE BELOW:
A typical
Ghanan fishing village in Axim, northern
Ghana. Ghana formerly called Gold
Coast was the first African country to
gain independence.