Milne's Compilation

Nkrumah's post coup correspondence allowed him to participate in the debate that scholars launched about his ideological and agential influence.  Milne's compilation, The Conakry Years, provides some support here.  Milne played a significant role in the Panaf Books Ltd.[1] that issued or reissued a number of Nkrumah's works.  Her proximity to his works was therefore an important one.  Milne's selection of documents, however, reflects a transitional European-centered focus.  The assessment of Milne's focus is based on her choice of documents presented.  It overwhelmingly reflects the conversations between Nkrumah and European expatriates that had worked in his government and even less relevant Europeans.  Marvin Wachman is one such not-so-important reference.[2]

It is understood that all books are limited and choices have to be made concerning what is included or omitted.  One would, however, like to have seen more correspondence between Nkrumah and significant African and non-African scholars and revolutionaries.  I visited Howard University's Mooreland-Spingarn Research Center where Nkrumah's papers are housed and had the opportunity, for instance, to come across correspondence between Nkrumah and Cheikh Anta Diop.  This was absent in Milne's book as was any significant correspondence between the Egyptian and Cuban ambassadors that visited Nkrumah frequently (Ture 1997)