Liberalism: An Obstacle to Black Unification

International discourse has long rendered liberalism as an ideology of optimism, aiming to attain specific objectives: the proliferation of democracy, support for human rights, capitalist expansion, international cooperation, and pacifism. However, in analyzing the mission to spread liberalism to other non-democratic countries, we must interrogate which actors are promoting preferred norms and practices for the international community and at whose expense these norms are being enforced. I thus contend that liberalism augments cultural hegemony and homogenization, assuming the guise of world peace to ensure the global jurisdiction of dominant nation-states. Using Ghana as a case study to delve into Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-African leadership, I argue that liberalism is an ideology rooted in colonialism and serves as a global index of White citizenship. Its disruption of transatlantic Black unification efforts further relies on three elements: primitivism, patronization, and the manipulation of power. We must therefore bear in mind that while ostensibly innocuous, liberalism is an ideology fueled with Western self-interests that aim to advance an imperial agenda and halt Black Diasporic unification. The dissolution of the Pan-African Movement indicates this triumph. [Note to Readers: This is the third chapter of a larger honors thesis, titled “Blood Diamonds: The Recovery of Black Unification Amidst White Hegemony”