Researching Decolonization: Exploring the Applicability of the Concept of Decolonization to Student Activism in Ghana

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the role university students played in the decolonization discourse in Ghana. It analyses whether or not the concept of decolonization can be used to investigate the resistance of student movements through their activism. The consciousness of student movements such as the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) of the continuous existence of forms of colonialism despite nominal independence can be seen in student struggles for socio-economic and political justice especially struggles against neocolonialism and neoliberalism from the 1960s to the early 1990s. It investigates the continuities and discontinuities of different historical conjunctures of student movements and how these fed into the wider debates on decolonization. Using a qualitative multidisciplinary approach and relying chiefly on primary sources, open-ended interviews, newspapers and archival data, this paper analyses the connection between student political activism and the concept of decolonization in Africa. The article situates student actions within decolonisation discourses in Africa by analysing student efforts to ensure the total liberation of all African states, oppose neocolonialism, and contribute to Africa’s development.