This is the book which, when first published in 1965, caused such an uproar in the US State Department that a sharp note of protest was sent to Kwame Nkrumah and the $25million of American "aid" to Ghana was promptly cancelled. It exposes the working of international monopoly capitalism in Africa and shows how the stranglehold of foreign monopolies perpetuates the paradox of Africa: poverty in the midst of plenty.

"The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it, is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and this its political policy is directed form outside". – Kwame Nkrumah