WERRC: "The Motion of Destiny and the Logic of Patriarchy"

Women Studies Research Seminar,

All are welcome to attend.

Thursday 29th Nov; 3.00pm-4.15pm, Resource Room (A201), WERRC,
Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington Building

Ide Corley, Lecturer in English, NUI Maynooth

"The Motion of Destiny and the Logic of Patriarchy: Kwame Nkrumah and
Ghanaian Independence"


Note: This paper examines the status of Kwame Nkrumah as "Osageyfo"
("Savior", or "Redeemer") of Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast colony) in the context of his famous "Motion of Destiny" speech. I will argue that Nkrumah implicitly deployed the "ancestral" figure of the New World slave to undo his "ethnic" affiliations and to inscribe himself within a broad global Pan-African genealogy. While Nkrumah's canny use of genealogy enabled him to unite the Gold Coast population, later his implicit status as a father figure facilitated the privatization of the state. I
aim to be informal and to encourage participation. Those interested in Nkrumah will be offered a Lacanian perspective in conversation with the "(re)turn to culture" in social theory and philosophy (Zizek, Butler et al). For those who have less knowledge of Africa but who hold a broad interest in feminist studies, the paper will use the example of Ghana's first president to examine the role of patriarchal logic within the processes of "democratization" and "modernization".