Ideology and Power in Political Rhetoric: Perspectives into Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s 1963 Speech at Addis Ababa

As one of the process to create Africa Union, African leaders organised a conference of Heads of States and Governments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963. At this Conference, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah delivered one of the most powerful speeches in order to persuade the leaders to embrace the unity. This paper examines the speech delivered by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah during the Conference. It investigates the latent meanings inherent in the speech text. The study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to interrogate the speech based on the concepts of power and ideology in relation to political speeches. It examines how social power, ideology, and social relations are built and retained through communication. The theory goes beyond surface-level apprehension of language to explore the concealed meanings, power dynamics, and social inequalities enclosed within texts and conversations. The findings reveal that issues of power and ideology are subtly constructed in the speech through stringing of arguments via carefully selected pronouns to create power, identification and differentials between Kwame Nkrumah and his audience. The findings also discover embedded characterization of Nkrumah as an ideologue and unrepentant supporter of socialism who was obsessed with African unity. Lastly, the findings disclose Nkrumah’s penchant for using logical reasoning in his speeches as a strategy to bring to the fore his ideology.