Nkrumah’s appropriation of historical and dialectical materialism as a pathway to African Liberation from Neo-Colonialism

This paper attempts a critical examination of Kwame Nkrumah’s views that materialism as a form of socialism can be a panacea for the liberation of Africa from neo-colonialism. To this effect the paper scrutinizes Nkrumah’s rejection of Idealism in favour of materialism. Materialism, he argues, naturally promotes egalitarianism-a view critically looked at. It proceeds to analyze Nkrumah’s distinctive conception of materialism as a tool to fight against the vices of Western religion and politics, which constitute forms of neo-colonialism on the continent