Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism and the Question of Socio-Political Consciousness and Transformation in Africa

Abstract

In most African societies, realizing a government that the masses can boast of as belonging to them, or, governments they can ‘own’ seem to be mere wishful thinking. In addition to that, activating an ideology that would respond to the needs and aspirations of the masses seems challenging. This paper examined Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism and the question of socio-political consciousness and transformation in Africa. The paper employed a qualitative research design where data were derived from primary and secondary materials; obtained from books, journal articles, periodicals, and the internet. The researchers adopted the expository, historical as well as evaluative methods in this paper. The expository method presented Nkrumah’s Consciencism as an ideology and recipe for societal transformation. The historical method analyzed Africa’s socio-political system while the evaluative method justified the imperative for transformation using Nkrumah’s Consciencism as a viable alternative for a renewed socio-political consciousness in Africa. The researchers found out that the masses in African societies often hope for an improved socio-political system as unemployment, access to health care, social inequality, fundamental human rights violations, corruption, wage inequality, etc. are rife. The paper therefore, concluded that the masses need to understand that power belongs to them and that if proper and adequate re-awakening of consciousness is intensified as advocated by Nkrumah, socio-political transformation is inevitable (like the 2020 #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria). It is only when that is actualized that African nations can boast of meaningful and progressive development.