Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Nuclear Imperialism: Examining Atomic Test Reactions and UN Intervention in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, 1957-1966

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  • France’s decision to test their nuclear weapons program in the Sahara in 1960 wholly reshaped how the Cold War infiltrated into West Africa. During a time of nation building, Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah urged Ghana and Africa, more broadly, to break ties with colonial powers and rebuke further attempts of what he declared to be “nuclear imperialism” on the part of France. This thesis explores the ways in which Nkrumah navigated this ever-changing landscape, as global politics forced him to maintain fluidity in his response. I argue that from the late 1950s through the 1960s, Nkrumah used nuclear opposition as a political tool to promote pan-African unity, sharpening and wielding it as he entered into continental, intergovernmental, and international political conversations. He did this over the course of his time in office from 1957 through 1966 in three distinct phases. First, I will show how in his early years of leadership, Nkrumah explicitly rejected the French nuclear testing in Africa in 1960, expressing concerns over fallout and the nuclearization of the African continent. Secondly, through 1960 and 1961, Nkrumah embraced the opportunity to express his concerns over the French testing and nuclear matters in front of the United Nations, influencing their continued denunciation of the nuclearization of Africa. This reliance of the UN as an amplifying body, I assert, faltered as he witnessed the UN complacency in the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Finally, following this loss of trust, Nkrumah continued to advocate for nonproliferation from 1962 through 1966, though he did so on an international level beyond the UN. Over the course of his presidency, Kwame Nkrumah adjusted and sharpened in his anti-nuclear response, with three phases of raising awareness in Africa through pan-African unity, at the United Nations, and lastly to the broad international nonproliferation community.
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  • I appreciate the assistance of Oregon State University's Pledge Scholarship for help in the completion of this thesis.
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  • Ongoing Research
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  • 2021-01-15 to 2023-02-16

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