On March 16th, 2026, the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies hosted Howard French, a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, along with Adam Hochschild, a journalist and lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, to discuss French's newest book, The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide. The conversation was sponsored by the Institute of European Studies, the Center of African Studies, the Department of African American Studies & African Diaspora studies, and the Journalism School and History department. It was delivered to an audience of thirty-five attendees, centered primarily around the book's main topic – the story of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president – but also included reflections on America's historical relations with Africa, pan-Africanism, and Africa's role in modern-day geopolitics.
According to French, most Western journalism on Africa "glosses over the continent," painting it as dark and irrelevant, a depiction he sees as largely inaccurate. To show how Africa and the United States have been "connected in modern ways deeply and richly," French presents the life of Kwame Nkrumah.
Born in a neglected area of South-West Ghana to a junior wife, Nkrumah's rise to power seemed unlikely. But, with luck and determination, Nkrumah was able to receive an extensive education, study in the United States, and integrate the network of Black thinkers in Harlem and D.C. in the 1930s. His time in America greatly inspired him – back in Ghana, he helped lead the country's non-violent resistance movement against colonial Britain, and became Ghana's first president. Ghana's independence movement would go on to inspire the United States' Civil Rights Movement. Black resistance organizations, including the Freedom Riders, cited Nkrumah as a leader that inspired their actions. Prominent Black newspapers in the United States reported on Ghana and the Gold Coast daily. The two countries' oppressed Black populations kept international relations strong.
The ties between the United States and Ghana extended beyond American social movements. U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Nkrumah were close, and hoped to establish stronger economic ties between their respective countries in light of the Cold War. Unfortunately, the plans for economic cooperation were cut short when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Ghana's independence movement, and its ability to assert African independence from colonial powers, continues to serve as a guiding light for pan-Africanists. Nkrumah is revered all across the continent by pan-Africanists to this day.
The last half hour of the event was reserved for questions from the audience. One question asked French’s perspective on how Western journalism on Africa can improve. French explained he was pessimistic about coverage on Africa in the short-run, but not in the long-run, stating that eventually, “greed will re-awaken the world to Africa.” In the next century, Africa’s population is projected to grow larger than China and India's combined, cementing the continent as a key player in the global economy. In French’s view, the world will come to realize “we've been sleeping on Africa for the last 500 years,” allowing Africa to throw off its “cloak of humiliation,” asserting its sovereignty on an international scale.