Ethan Zuckerman’s Blog

Howard French: The Second Emancipation

Veteran journalist Howard French, now a Columbia Journalism School professor, releases "The Second Emancipation," a sweeping study of pan‑Africanism that traces its roots from early Atlantic trade to Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghanaian independence. The book argues that Africa was a prime mover in world history, not a peripheral backdrop, and that African veterans of World War II helped catalyze decolonization. French weaves together Nkrumah’s U.S. education, the trans‑Atlantic black intellectual network, and the post‑war protest movements that reshaped the continent. He concludes that a new, global “second emancipation” is essential for equitable international relations.