To this end, ‘loose’ treaties and protocols were signed under the Organisation of African Unity to allow Africans to travel freely between nations.

While some countries still honor bonds formed between their leaders many years ago, others strive to see themselves as Francophone, Anglophone, or Lusophone. Our borders are tapestries of how we see ourselves—as different people. Insouciant border guards have become the sentinels of the artificial boundaries that map Africa, enforcing this colonial vestige with pride.

Despite the formation of the Organisation of African Unity and even economic regional bodies such as ECOWAS, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the East African Community (EAC) to facilitate the free movement of people and trade, we still remain divided and seemingly far from the united Africa that was dreamt of and tirelessly pursued by Kwame Nkrumah—some say to the detriment of his home nation, Ghana.

“Nkrumah’s greatest bequest to Africa was the agenda of continental unification. No one else has made the case for continental integration more forcefully, or with a greater sense of drama than Nkrumah. Although most African leaders regard the whole idea of a United States of Africa as wholly unattainable in the foreseeable future, Nkrumah, even after death, has kept the debate alive through his books and through the continuing influence of his ideas.”

—Ali Mazrui

Eight Ghanaian artists—Bernard Akoi-Jackson, Adwoa Amoah, Ato Annan, Serge Clottey, Kelvin Haizel, Kwesi Ohene-Ayeh, Mawuli Tofah, and Yibor Kojo Yibor—have spent four months exploring the meaning of Ghana’s independence from the viewpoint of other African countries.

Gadi Ramadhani, an artist and printmaker from Tanzania, is visiting and working with young students and artists, exploring the concept of the exhibition through print workshops.

What does independence mean to Ghanaians today? What does it mean to other African countries?

Come and continue the interrogation of our consciousness.
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Nubuke Foundation, Accra 2024