Football and Nation-Building in Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah, 1951-1966.

Abstract

Sports was an important element of the colonial administration’s attempt to control the leisure life of the people of Gold Coast. After independence, the relationship between sports and politics in the administration of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) cannot be underestimated. Sports came to represent an important tool in government’s effort in instilling national pride and unity among Ghanaians. This study examines how football became arguably the most popular among the various sporting disciplines that were introduced by the British. It further looks into the use of football by Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention People’s Party (CPP) to execute many agendas aimed at promoting national unity and national pride among Ghanaians. The study argues that football was not just a mere leisure activity and that with the founding of the Central Organisation of Sports (COS), it became a major state institution that was used to unify, and to show the African capability. It was also used to pursue some of the CPP government’s foreign policy initiatives which included African unity and the government’s stand against apartheid.