the [?spite] of communism.Bit by bit, Nkrumah'sutopian vision was slipping away. The Volta scheme had become something verydifferent from what he had originally intended. At every stage, the project hadbeen shaped not by his idealism, but by powerful political and economicpressures. But Nkrumah still believed it was worthwhile, because once the damwas built, it could not be taken away. In time, it would become the engine ofhis country's future.[Bill Mahoney] Everyone was hopeful. Those absolutely wereoptimistic times for hope. Ghana was singular in the sense that it had everything: it had educatedpeople, it had considerable infrastructure, three universities, schools, lawyers, doctors it hadeverything going for it.The construction of the damwas to take four years. Throughout Ghana, factories and roads began to bebuilt: the foundations of the industrial revolution that would be powered bythe dam. But with these trappings of the modern world came other forces thattook Ghana's fragile economy even further from Nkrumah's control.[From footage of Kwame Nkrumah] "Corruption... is not a problem peculiar to anycountry. I personally feel that the only way in which you canstop corruption in any country is to build up a strong public opinion againstit."J. Burke Knapp, Senior Vice-President, World Bank 195678 Elements entered into the equation that had not beenadequately foreseen; and perhaps the greatest of them was corruption. Corruption ofgovernment and of government people; and corruption I call it corruption on the part offoreign suppliers who tried to sell Ghana in fact, did sell Ghana on investment in substantial industrial enterpriseswhich did not... were not properly designed for the country and did not, infact, achieve success.In the early sixties, Ghanabecame a mecca for European industrialists eager to win large contracts fromNkrumah's government. They began to discover that the easiest way was to offerofficials from Nkrumah's party a bribe. This soon becamethe accepted way of doing business in Accra.What resulted was a rush tosell Ghana anything, no matter how inappropriate for an emerging Africannation. Vast sums of Ghana'sprecious foreign currency were spent on these projects.Then, in 1964, Nkrumah'sindustrial experiment received another body-blow. The world price of cocoa,which had been falling for four years, finally crashed. It was Ghana's mainsource of foreign exchange. The millions of pounds needed to pay for the newfactories began to dry up. Ghana, once one of the richest countries in Africa, began to slide into debt.Nkrumah was an increasinglyisolated figure on the world stage. What had once been seen as visionary ideaswere now perceived as dangerous megalomania and his country was sinking everdeeper into debt.Dr. Jonathan Frimpong-Ansah, Deputy Governor, GhanaCentral Bank 19658 By 1965, [?we] had become verydesperate; and I remember we decided to write a memorandum to Nkrumah to tell him the true state of affairs [..?..] the economy. I had writtenthat the reserves were only five-hundred thousand pounds. He looked atme and said: "Ah, you didn't check the typing; you left a few zeroes [off]." So, I said:"No, sir; there are no zeroes left [off]. It is five-hundred thousand; that's all we have in the banksoverseas." And he sat back. Then,what he did was that he went round the table,