Ghana and the Non-Aligned Movement

President of GhanaKwame NkrumahwithPresident of YugoslaviaJosip Broz Titoarriving at the1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movementin 1961 inBelgrade(TerazijewithPalace Albanijain the background)

Ghanahas been a member state of theNon-Aligned Movementsince the time of the1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movementin 1961 inBelgrade.As the firstdecolonizedcountry inSub-Saharan Africa,Ghana actively participated in earliest efforts to initiatePan-Africanand Non-Aligned cooperation. Ghana, together withSFR Yugoslavia,India, Indonesia, and Egypt, was one of the five countries that initiated the establishment of the movement.

The firstPresident of GhanaKwame Nkrumah,together with some other prominent African leaders at the time such asJulius NyererefromTanzaniaandGamal Abdel Nasserfrom Egypt, joined hands with non-African leaders from countries beyondCold Warbloc divides, includingJosip Broz Titoof Yugoslavia,Jawaharlal Nehruof India andSukarnoofIndonesia,in building what would become known as the Non-Aligned Movement.The country believed that the Non-Aligned framework might help to shield Africa from becoming directly involved in destructive Cold War United States-Soviet Unionrivalries, while providing enough space for collective activist foreign policy aimed at supporting anticolonialliberation movementsand African unity.In this respect, some scholars compared the Ghanaian approach towards the Non-Aligned Movement with theMonroe Doctrine,stressing how Ghanaian leadership aimed to create an African Monroe Doctrine that would protect the continent from external powers.

Theforeign policy of Ghanawas deeply shaped by the principles of Non-Alignment in the belief that they alone might be the reliable route towards African unity.During the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961 in Belgrade, President Nkrumah called upon other participants to end colonialism, to work on thereform of the United Nationsand to act as a "moral force" to avoid war between theEasternandWestern Bloc.The Ghanaian principled Non-Aligned position at the conference was perceived as remarkable in light of the concurrentCongo Crisisand the murder ofPatrice Lumumba,which was expected to trigger potentially stronger anti-western reactions.This expectation was exacerbated by the fact that Ghana was a part of the more radical andAfrican nationalistCasablanca Group,as opposed to theBrazzaville Group,with only countries from the first group attending the Belgrade conference.

See also

• Tanzania and the Non-Aligned Movement
• Egypt and the Non-Aligned Movement
• Ghana–Yugoslavia relations