GHANA: The Burdens of Debt

Ever since the 1966 overthrow of Ghana's President and self-styled Osagyefo (Redeemer), the late Kwame Nkrumah, his once prosperous country has borne the burden of the $1 billion in foreign debts that Nkrumah left behind. When a group of army officers under Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheam-pong seized power last year, they decided to solve the problem by repudiating a $94 million obligation to Britain (on the grounds that it had been incurred through corruption) and by declaring an indefinite moratorium on much of the remaining debt. A few months later, Acheampong proclaimed Ghanaian control over "the commanding heights of...

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