Harrison Forman Diary, Ghana, Nigeria, May 1961

Harrison Forman, photographer and journalist, provides an account of his trip to Ghana and Nigeria in this diary. Forman observes the prosperity in Accra, Ghana, with its modern buildings as evidence of British colonialism. Forman notes his perception of Kwame Nkrumah, the nationalist leader, who led the drive for independence from Britain and headed the new, independent nation of Ghana. Forman notes the Russian communist influence on Nkrumah's policies and the formation of the Young Pioneers, a communist youth movement. He mentions Ghana's largest export and financial dependence on cocoa. Forman comments on the politics involved in the Volta Dam project (Akosombo Dam on the Volta River near Akosombo, Ghana). This construction project, collaboratively funded by Ghana, the World Bank, the United States, and the United Kingdom, ultimately would generate electrical power providing for the industrialization of Ghana, and enabled them to sell power to neighboring countries. Forman the The diaries are part of the Harrison Forman Papers 1931-1974 housed at the Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. UWM Libraries received the dairies on a loan from the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries and digitized them to accompany the digital collection of Forman's photographs. The diaries were digitized to provide research materials for the Forman's negatives scanned as part of the NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images."