Open Collections

Quansah, Stephen Akushie

University of British Columbia

The narrative of decolonization, industrialization, the automobile industry, and technical education in Ghana following its independence on March 6th, 1957, is mixed with aspirations and failures. Before independence, foreign companies dominated the vehicle manufacturing and assembly industry. By examining government records, newspapers, and photographs, this thesis elucidates how Kwame Nkrumah, the first African president of Ghana, was unhappy about this situation and strategically invited proposals from foreign companies to establish vehicle assembly plants jointly. This historical account illustrates how Nkrumah saw the automobile as a symbol of modern technology and enhanced mobility during Ghana's early years of independence and envisioned using it to advance technical education and training by establishing workshops affiliated with automobile assembly plants. This research work is about the visions and dreams of post-independent leaders of Ghana who made significant efforts to pave the way for industrialization while also seeking to ensure the independence and modernization of their country, which they hoped would enable them to participate actively in global and African affairs. Although the reign of Nkrumah was fraught with many disappointments, causing his overthrow in 1966, the study observed that in the bid to industrialize, traditional technical schools were supplemented by workshops associated with the automobile assembly industry.

Text

2024-08-28

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89072

History

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/