After more than a century of British rule, Ghana celebrated its independence on 6 March 1957, led by Kwame Nkrumah and a pioneer of Pan-Africanism. The new state had to build its institutions, assert itself during the Cold War and forge a national identity, and music, theatre, dance, literature and the visual arts joined that momentum. The book accompanies the exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles and looks at the independence dream through the photographs of the period.