The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

institutions that make up the exhibitionary complex, and reflect broader struggles over
citizenship, national identity and personhood. 69
In order to construct a sense of nationalism in newly independent Ghana in the late
1950s, the administration of Kwame Nkrumah encouraged the production of spectacles,
cultural exhibitions and representations that promoted a specific vision of political
authority. Among these representations of the nation was “an idealised form of
portraiture that was both illustrative and propagandistic”. Artists produced idealised
illustrations of Nkrumah for government publications, which aligned Nkrumah with
traditional authority and the idea of nationalism. Convention People’s Party manifestoes
were dominated by stylised Nkrumah images and Nkrumah portraits were prominently
displayed in government offices. A range of media, such as murals, posters, medallions
and printed textiles were utilised to disseminate Nkrumah’s image widely in Ghanaian
society and to create an identification of his figure with the ‘nation’. The propagation of
Nkrumah’s image as national hero on commemorative stamps and the national currency
(accompanied by the words ‘Civitas Ghanaiensis Conditor’ – ‘Founder of the Ghana
Nation’) met with some resistance from the opposition National Liberation Movement
(NLM), who argued that this represented the beginnings of dictatorship. In reply
Nkrumah argued that his image on stamps and currency gave non‐literate Ghanaians a
feeling of being independent and “truly a free people”. Likewise, when a monumental
Nkrumah statue was erected in front of Parliament in Accra (as one of a series),
Nkrumah argued that this was necessary “in order to demonstrate the nation’s
independence”. This did not stop the NLM from responding that an environment was
being created of “sycophantic adulation and idolatry”. 70
69 The concept of the ‘exhibitionary complex’ and its relationship with citizenship and modernity
was theorised by Tony Bennett. See Tony Bennett, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics
(London, Routledge, 1995). Chapter 2, ‘The Exhibitionary Complex’ was first published in New
Formations, no 4, 1988.
70 Janet Hess, ‘Exhibiting Ghana: Display, Documentary, and “National” Art in the Nkrumah Era’,
African Studies Review, 44, 1 (April 2001), pp 69‐72.
74