Mark Nartey
Kwame Nkrumah’s construction of ‘the African people’ via the Unite or Perish myth: A discourse-historical analysis of populist performance
Nartey, Mark
Authors
Abstract
Employing Wodak's discourse-historical approach, this paper examines how Ghana's independence leader - Kwame Nkrumah - in his creation of the Unite or Perish myth constructed 'the African people' in a manner in sync with populist performance. It argues that Nkrumah's discourse, in its focus on the formation of a Union Government of Africa as the only means of Africa's peace, progress, security and survival in the post-independence era, can be characterized as a form of populist rhetoric that presupposes an antagonistic relationship between two homogeneous social groups. To this end, the paper analyzes three discursive strategies utilized by Nkrumah in promoting anti-establishment sentiments while celebrating or valorizing 'the ordinary people': nomination and predication of social actors and actions, the construction of a man of the people image and the exploitation of familiarity and historical memory. It concludes with a discussion on the implications of the study for political discourse analysis in terms of the interrelationship between political myth and populist performance.
Citation
Nartey, M. (2022). Kwame Nkrumah’s construction of ‘the African people’ via the Unite or Perish myth: A discourse-historical analysis of populist performance. Pragmatics and Society, 13(4), 605-624. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19023.nar
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Feb 21, 2021 |
Online Publication Date | Nov 4, 2022 |
Publication Date | Nov 4, 2022 |
Deposit Date | Nov 16, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 29, 2024 |
Journal | Pragmatics and Society |
Print ISSN | 1878-9714 |
Electronic ISSN | 1878-9722 |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 13 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 605-624 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19023.nar |
Keywords | Critical discourse analysis, discursive strategy, discourse, historical analysis, Kwame Nkrumah, populist style, political discourse analysis |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10146004 |
Publisher URL | https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ps.19023.nar |
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Kwame Nkrumah’s construction of ‘the African people’ via the Unite or Perish myth: A discourse-historical analysis of populist performance
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Copyright Statement
This is the author’s accepted manuscript of the article 'Nartey, M. (2022). Kwame Nkrumah’s construction of ‘the African people’ via the Unite or Perish myth: A discourse-historical analysis of populist performance. Pragmatics and Society, 13(4), 605-624. https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19023.nar'.
The final published version is available here: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ps.19023.nar
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.19023.nar
For re-use of the published version, the publisher must be contacted.
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