Lumumba and the Congo in Ghanaian newspapers, 1958-1961
Pan-African issues and women’s journalistic voices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51185/journals/rhca.2023.0504Keywords:
Ghana, Lumumba, panafricanism, journalist, women, neocolonialismAbstract
This article sheds light on women (journalists, activists, poet) in the Ghanaian press who took an interest in the Congo and Patrice Lumumba, thus participating in the pan-Africanization of the debate on the decolonization of Congo. These actresses, insufficiently recognized in history, nevertheless left their mark on the media history of the 1950s-1960s, revealing the intellectual connections and inter-African solidarity that marked the history of independence. Accra was an important site of widespread indignation after the assassinations of Maurice M'Polo, Joseph Okito and Patrice Lumumba, on January, 17, 1961, impacting the Ghanaian political, popular and cultural imagination. Analysis of the Ghanaian-Congolese relationship, through press articles, shows the ambitions of Kwame Nkrumah's government and these media intermediaries to fabricate opinions, educate or pan-Africanize audiences, in order to make them aware of the crisis being played out in the young Republic of Congo.
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