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West African Wager: Houphouet Versus Nkrumah. By Jon Woronoff. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1979. Review by John O'Sullivan, Tuskegee Institute.
Mr. Jon Woronoff has established a reputation as a prolific writer on West African affairs and Ivory Coast in particular. His byline is often seen in Africa Report and other periodicals. He seems well acquainted with modern Ivory Coast though his knowledge seems more that of a journalist than an academician. This in itself is no criticism of course.
West African Wager follows in the wake of at least five other works
which compare the two countries. Such comparisons are logical for several reasons. Ghana and Ivory Coast are two similarly sized countries covering approximately the same-ecozone. Ghana experienced British colonial rule while Ivory Coast was controlled by the French and since independence they have pursued markedly different political and social policies. Ghana's Kwame N'Krumah was the Pan-Africanist and arch foe of neo-colonialism while Felix Houphouet-Boigny, President of Ivory Coast, has been willing to consort with France and even South Africa in order to build up the economic base of Ivory Coast and to promote its development.
Woronoff's book leads us along the road of such comparisons though it certainly is not the definitive study. His book plods from chapter to chapter presenting first the Ghanaian then the Ivorian experience of "the Struggle for Power," "Foreign Policy," "Economic Development" without delving into any serious analysis of the whys and why-nots.
It is striking to me that Nkrumah, the militant anti neo-colonialist,
led his struggle for independence with the slogan "Seek ye first the political kingdom and then all else will follow" and then proceeded to lead Ghana straight into the neo-colonial trap from which it still is not freed. On the other hand Houphouet, the tool of neo-colonialism it is claimed, has been able to develop the Ivorian economy significantly. At least Ivory Coast has been able to maintain a 7% growth rate while Ghana faces inflation of 116% per year, the devaluation of the cedi and other economic difficulties.
The book's presentation is lifeless and dull which is too bad since the problem of development and neo-colonialiam is so interesting. What progress has been made in the more than thirty years since Nkrumah and Houphouet began their struggle?
A further problem with using this book in a course on Africa is that doleful bane of the Africanist--the Hamites. They crop up on page 4 as "Fierce Hamitic tribes." That canard ordinarily causes me to close the book and give up on the author as unread if not worse. The whole first chapter is weak on history with few footnotes or acquaintance with the literature.
Beyond that Woronoff could get the unwary confused as to time sequence (-beginning Chapter 2), internal Ghanian (Gold Coast in the context) politics, and the complexity of the Ivorian struggle within the confused post war French political scene.