Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney - Book Report/Review Example

Review of Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney of The paper is an analysis of the book Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney. According to Academia Press (2014), this book is the greatest work of historical biographies that are devoted to the leader of Ghana during its independence movement, and perhaps the most influential black African leader of the 50s and 70s in terms of worldwide impact and effectiveness. This paper will analyze and evaluate the book using scholarly references to elaborate further on the analysis. Key words; Kwame Nkrumah, politics, independence Review of Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy by David Rooney Kwame Nkrumah: vision and tragedy is a book that has been written to show the history of Kwame Nkrumah since he was born. The book takes a journey through the life and political career of Kwame Nkrumah highlighting his vision and some of the tragedies that he came across during his political career. David Rooney, who is a renowned writer with over 33 books under his name, writes the book. The writer uses different styles of writing to help the readers understand his points and arguments. David Rooney has been writing for several years and this book has been referred to as a magnificent piece of history. The book launch coincided with the 50th celebration of the first president of Ghana who is viewed by many as the person who brought about independence to Ghana. The book was published in the year 1988 but the version of the book that is available is from the year 2007. The book contains 338 pages and was published by the Sub-Sahara publishers. Sub-Sahara publishers are a native Ghanaian publishing firm that specializes in African children books, history of African leaders, the slave trade, and many great scholarly books (African Books Collective, 2014). The reason why this book has been chosen to be analyzed is because the book represents the struggle of an emerging nation and highlights the visions that most leaders have and the tragedies that they run into while trying to achieve these visions. The book has also been well written with a clear hypothesis and illustrations of all the political events and problems that the leader passed through. The book is also a tool for all leaders to associate with while creating visions for their respective countries. It also warns the leaders against the tragedies that they are to encounter in the fulfilment of the visions. The book prepares solutions for the tragedies that other leaders are to face in their vision creation. The book also highlights real governance issues such as corruption, lack of corporation among many others. Many leaders across the world are faced by these similar problems. This makes the book a vital instrument for the leaders to learn how to cope with the problems they might face. The book gives the history of Kwame Nkrumah right from where he was born at Nkroful to Achimota to Lincoln University and back to Ghana and to Guinea where he resided after the coup that removed him from power. The coup was carried out on February 24, 1966 against his governance by the opposition that felt that he had failed miserably in his governance. The book provides information that has never been mentioned in other works concerning Kwame Nkrumah. The chapters titled socialist state; foreign policy and denouement consist of information that has never been mentioned in other stories. The criticism is on the leaders’ ideologies that are associated with the creation of the scientific socialism for Ghana’s union government for Africa. Great development economists Kaldor Bognar, Lewis Lilck and many more, influenced his great visions of transforming Ghana and taking his people from poverty. These people swayed him to one of his greatest tragedies that was the murder of Lumumba by CIA agents and the Belgians. The attempt on his life increased his socialist learnings (Rooney, 2007). This individual however, became remote when the vision to get a union government for Africa faced stern opposition from your other Africa countries especially those who had by then received independence from their colonial masters. To obtain his vision, which possibly was more of an obsession to the point of getting psychotic, he gave cash out to various Africa nations in order to fight the imperialists and colonialism. This event, together with his indifference to financial important, led to the deterioration of the economy, therefore annoying the already incensed countrymen. However, encased by sycophants in and praise-singers, Nkrumah lived inside a world of his own ignorant on the true state on the economy along with the angering the people. Aside from, after the number of coup attempts during his tenor, he grew to be a schizophrenic and used Detention camps, which been around since the colonial error, put powering bars to anybody who shown a modicum association with the opposition. This particular made him more unpopular amidst Ghanaians and other African leaders. Moreover, his power was mistreated and misused by the die-hard Marxists who surrounded him and this made him professionally blamed as the president. Even with all these problems, Nkrumah was a leader in the way he communicated with world leaders and mediates in conflict situations amongst countries, though Nkrumah was speculated to have displayed subversive behaviors, especially by countries that had been against his concept of the union government. What perhaps cannot be forgotten may be the organizational power he delivered to the United Gold Shore Convention. The national politics party lead by JB Danquah invited him to participate and grow the partys administration and political incentives. Prior to his assumption in this role, the UGCC acquired a particular flag that meant all officers would operate inside northern territories opposed to the past where they were not allowed to operate in the north. It was the hard leadership of Nkrumah that ensured that these rules were executed, thus paving way for his popularity. He changed his affiliations from the UGCC to the Tradition Peoples Party. In addition, Nkrumah discouraged many political groups in the country. Nkrumah failed the nation economically, which was the backbone of the country. His disregard for financial advice and giving out money to sway people to his will were some of the undoings of his leadership. Politics are closely associated with finances. Countries that enjoy good financial stability are more politically stable. If the finances of a country are down the public will not support the government and will create problems for he executive. According to Roe (1991), public collaboration is more of a partisan adaptation as an economical or technological inevitability. The public also will support a government that will look after its finances well. His vision to apply a big political system that did not suite the country failed miserably. His vision resulted to tribalism and he was greatly defeated by corruption due to choosing advisers who encouraged corruption. Corruption and governance have come to this fore in contemporary talks of reform in building countries. Many of the problems for you to which file corruption error and governance relate are major and historical. Yet, just how mainstream economics provides analyzed all of them simply supplies support for a programme of market improving reforms. These seek to scale back the role from the state to the delivery of your small variety of core providers that cannot be delivered through the private segment. The mainstream analysis is not just misleading in failing to identify the most important determinants of corruption and of apparent governance downfalls in building countries (Khan, 2004). The author of the book is very much objective in his writing to show the two sides of the story. He makes the book more of a biography rather than a political book. However, the book still contains some political views that can help leaders in developing countries manage the politic of the country better. The book presents new brand-new analysis, which aids you to clarify areas of the history, while improving new sides. What comes across clearly over the book could be the significant share of Nkrumahs eyesight and personality for a critical moment inside the history connected with Africa as well as the Third Globe. He, perhaps greater than any some other, was in a position to identify, focus and also catalyze the particular major aspects and people driving the particular struggle pertaining to political freedom in Ghana and also liberation in other parts of The African continent. In accomplishing this, he was determined in his life and operated totally to a multitude of activities and processes within Ghana, the continent and inside the global Non-Aligned Motion. As the leader of the government, Nkrumah faced many difficulties: first, to ensure control, second, to unify the four territories of the Gold Shore; third, to win his country’s independence from Britain. Nkrumah seemed to be successful with the three ambitions. Several Ghanaians celebrated when the police and military overthrew their own former idol while he was on the visit in order to China in 1966. There is little reply to Nkrumahs broadcasts calling for that nation to elevate against the particular coup market leaders. The book has been well structured and tells the truth about the life and readership of Kwame Nkrumah. For me the book is the best example of leadership and how bad choices can mean the end to an era of leadership. The book is worth a lot in the market. The lessons that the book teaches cannot be compared with the price of the book. The main lesson of the book is that every leader has his shortcomings but it is the bad decisions that they make while perusing their own interests that push them away from power. The nation will also not sit silent and watch these atrocities continue to ruin the country. References African Books Collective (2014). Kwame Nkrumah. Sub-Sahara Publishers, Ghana. Retrieved May 3, 2014, from; https://www.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/sub-saharan-publishers Khan, M. (2004). The New Development Economics. Corruption, Governance and Economic Development. Retrieved May 3, 2014 Roe, M. J. (2005). Corporate Governance: Political and Legal Perspectives. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar Pub. Retrieved May 3, 2014 Rooney, D. (2007). Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy. Legon: Sub-Saharan Publishers. Retrieved May 3, 2014 Read More