Paper short abstract:

In the 1950s, young Accra dwellers played sports within strengthening local and regional associations. The nationalisation of sports under Nkrumah’s panafrican and socialist independent regime will be rooted within their colonial bureaucratic practices and durably influence Accra sporting urban life.

Paper long abstract:

During the early days of Ghana's first republic (1957-1966), Kwame Nkrumah nationalised Ghana sport movement within the Central Organisation of Sport (COS) led by Ohene Djan (1960-1966). This nationalisation is rooted within the progressive bureaucratisation of sports in the British colony.

From the early 1920's, associations dedicated to urban leisure had grown in Ghana main towns (mainly Accra and Kumasi). Young educated men and women practiced games under the patronage of prominent African bureaucrats and colonial officers within associations such as the Achilles Club. They progressively joined together in regional associations created in the 1950s. This institutionalisation process under the umbrella of the Gold Coast Amateur Sport Council (GASC) allowed the rise of bureaucratic practices, materialised by typewritten official paperwork (minutes, correspondences with international bodies), a growing number of official positions (President, Secretaries and so on), new vocabulary and phrasing as well as links with colonial and international bodies that may be traced back at Ghana National archives.

When the First Republic came into power in 1957, the COS soon became an essential piece of Nkrumah's "African Personality" project: building a "new African man". Ohene Djan gathered sport associations under his patronage and intertwined sports, youth activities and politics, following a soviet organisational model.

Therefore, the COS stands at the crossroad between colonial associative practices and socialist choices. By doing so, this Nkrumahist administration will shape a new urban sport life in Accra and durably influence associative practices.