After twelve early years abroad pursuing higher education, developinghis political philosophy, and organizing with other diasporic pan-Africanists, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast to begin his political career as an advocate of national independence.[3] He formed theConvention People's Party, which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter.[4] He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when he ledGhana to independence from Britain in 1957, a first in sub-Saharan Africa at the time. In 1960, Ghanaiansapproved a new constitution andelected Nkrumah as president.[5]
His administration was primarilysocialist as well asnationalist. It funded national industrial and energy projects, developed a strong national education system and promoted apan-Africanist culture.[6] Nkrumah had a vision to consolidate African countries under a single continental leadership (that was socialist in nature) with himself as president of this bloc.[7] Under Nkrumah, Ghana played a leading role in African international relations and the pan-africanist movement during Africa'sdecolonization period, supporting numerous liberation struggles.[8] The anti-socialist Western nations saw theKwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) as a sympathetic base for military support to African nationalists and hence as a problematic threat.[9]
After an alleged assassination plot against him,[10] coupled with increasingly difficult local economic conditions, Nkrumah's government became increasinglyauthoritarian in the 1960s, as he repressed political opposition and conducted elections that were neither free nor fair.[11] In 1964, aconstitutional amendment made Ghana aone-party state, with Nkrumah aspresident for life of both the nation and its party.[12] He fostered apersonality cult, forming ideological institutes and adopting the title of 'Osagyefo Dr.'[13][page needed]. The Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute (KNII) served the purpose of spreading propaganda and the ideology of Nkrumah's own version of scientific socialism known asNkrumaism.[14] Nkrumah was deposed in 1966 in acoup d'état by theNational Liberation Council, a group supported by theCIA.[15].[16] Nkrumah lived the rest of his life inGuinea, where he was named honorary co-president. In 1999, he was voted BBC African of the millennium.[17]
Kwame Nkrumah was born on Tuesday, 21 September 1909[18][19] inNkroful,Nzema East, (nowEllembele),Gold Coast (now Ghana).[20][21]Nkroful was a small village in theNzema area,[22] in the southwest of the Gold Coast, close to the frontier with the French colony of theIvory Coast. His father did not live with the family, but worked inHalf Assini where he pursued his goldsmith business until his death.[23] Kwame Nkrumah was raised by his mother and his extended family, who lived together traditionally and had more distant relatives often visiting.[24] He lived a carefree childhood, spent in the village, in the bush, and on the nearby sea.[25]
During his years as a student in theUnited States, he was known as Francis Nwia Kofi Nkrumah, Kofi being theAkan name given to males born on Fridays.[26] He later changed his name to Kwame Nkrumah in 1945 in theUK, preferring the name "Kwame".[27][28] According to Ebenezer Obiri Addo in his study of the future president, the name "Nkrumah", a name traditionally given to a ninth child, indicates that Kwame probably held that place in the house of his father, who had several wives.[29]
His father, Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah, came from Nkroful and belonged to the Asona clan of the Akan Tribe.[30] Sources indicated that Ngolomah stayed atTarkwa-Nsuaem and dealt in the goldsmith business.[31] Ngolomah was respected for his wise counsel by those who sought his advice on traditional issues and domestic affairs. He died in 1927.[32][21]
Kwame was his mother's only child.[a][33] She sent him to the elementary school run by a Catholicmission atHalf Assini, where he proved an adept student.[34]
Although his mother, whose name wasElizabeth Nyanibah (1877–1979),[28][35] later stated his year of birth as 1912, Nkrumah wrote that he was born on 21 September 1909. His mother hailed from Nsuaem and belonged to theAgona family. She was afishmonger and petty trader when she married his father.[36] Eight days after his birth, his father named him as Francis Nwia-Kofi after a relative[21] but later his parents named him as Francis Kwame Ngolomah.[31]
He progressed through the ten-year elementary programme in eight years. In 1925, he was a student-teacher in the school and wasbaptized into theCatholic faith.[37] While at the school, he was noticed by the ReverendAlec Garden Fraser, principal of the Government Training College (soon to becomeAchimota School) in the Gold Coast's capital,Accra. Fraser arranged for Nkrumah to train as a teacher at his school.[34][38] Here,Columbia-educated deputy headmasterKwegyir Aggrey exposed him to the ideas ofMarcus Garvey andW. E. B. Du Bois. Aggrey, Fraser, and others at Achimota thought that there should be close co-operation between the races in governing theGold Coast, but Nkrumah, echoing Garvey, soon came to believe that only when the black race governed itself could there be harmony between the races.[39][40]
After obtaining his teacher's certificate from the Prince of Wales' College at Achimota in 1930,[28] Nkrumah was given a teaching post at the Roman Catholic primary school inElmina in 1931.[28] During his years atAchimota, Nkrumah was noted for his debating and leadership skills, traits that later shaped his role as a nationalist leader.[41]
After a year there, he was made headmaster of the school atAxim. In Axim, he started to get involved in politics and founded the Nzema Literary Society. In 1933, he was appointed a teacher at the Catholic seminary atAmissano.[42][43] Although life there was strict, he liked it, and considered becoming aJesuit. Nkrumah had heard journalist and futureNigerian presidentNnamdi Azikiwe speak while a student at Achimota; the two men met and Azikiwe's influence increased Nkrumah's interest in black nationalism.[44] The young teacher decided to further his education.[43] Azikiwe had attendedLincoln University, ahistorically black college inChester County, Pennsylvania, west ofPhiladelphia, and he advised Nkrumah to enroll there.[45]
Nkrumah, who had failed the entrance examination forLondon University, gained funds for the trip and his education from relatives. He travelled by way ofBritain, where he learned, to his outrage, of Italy's invasion ofEthiopia, one of the few independent African nations. He arrived in theUnited States, in October 1935.[43][46][47]
According to historianJohn Henrik Clarke in his article on Nkrumah's American sojourn, "the influence of the ten years that he spent in theUnited States had a lingering effect on the rest of his life."[48] Nkrumah had sought entry toLincoln University some time before he began his studies there. On Friday, 1 March 1935, he sent the school a letter noting that his application had been pending for more than a year. When he arrived inNew York in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the fullsemester.[49] He soon won a scholarship that provided for his tuition atLincoln University. He remained short of funds through his time in the US.[50] To make ends meet, he did menial jobs on roles such as a wholesaler of fish and poultries, cleaner, dishwasher and others.[51] On Sundays, he visited blackPresbyterian churches inPhiladelphia and inNew York.[52]
Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939. Lincoln then appointed him an assistant lecturer in philosophy. He began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York.[53][54] In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at theIvy League institution, theUniversity of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter ofPhi Beta Sigma fraternity at Lincoln University.[55] Nkrumah gained aBachelor of Theology degree from Lincoln in 1942, the top student in the course. He earned fromPenn the following year a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education.[56] While at Penn, Nkrumah worked with the linguist William Everett Welmers, providing the spoken material that formed the basis of the first descriptive grammar of his nativeFante dialect of theAkan language.[57] Nkrumah was also initiated intoPrince Hall Freemasonry while living in theUnited States.[58][59]
Nkrumah spent his summers inHarlem, a center of black life, thought and culture. He found housing and employment inNew York City with difficulty and involved himself in the community.[60] He spent many evenings listening to and arguing with street orators, and according to Clarke, Kwame Nkrumah in his years in America stated;[61]
These evenings were a vital part of Kwame Nkrumah's American education. He was going to a university – the university of the Harlem Streets. This was no ordinary time and these street speakers were no ordinary men ...The streets of Harlem were open forums, presided over [by] master speakers like Arthur Reed and his protege Ira Kemp. The youngCarlos Cook [sic], founder of the Garvey oriented African Pioneer Movement was on the scene, also bringing a nightly message to his street followers. OccasionallySuji Abdul Hamid [sic], a champion of Harlem labour, held a night rally and demanded more jobs for blacks in their own community ...This is part of the drama on the Harlem streets as the student Kwame Nkrumah walked and watched.[62]
Nkrumah was an activist student, organizing a group of expatriate African students in Pennsylvania and building it into the African Students Association of America and Canada, becoming its president.[61] Some members felt that the group should aspire for each colony togain independence on its own; Nkrumah urged aPan-African strategy.[63][64] Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan-African conference held in New York in 1944, which urged the United States, at the end of theSecond World War, to help ensure Africa became developed and free.[65]
His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942, Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside. This led to a break between him and Lincoln, though after he rose to prominence in the Gold Coast, he returned in 1951 to accept an honorary degree.[66][67] Nevertheless, Nkrumah's doctoral thesis remained uncompleted. He had adopted the forename Francis while at theAmissano seminary; in 1945, he took the name Kwame Nkrumah.[64]
Just as in the days of the Egyptians, so today God had ordained that certain among the African race should journey westwards to equip themselves with knowledge and experience for the day when they would be called upon to return to their motherland and to use the learning they had acquired to help improve the lot of their brethren. ...I had not realised at the time that I would contribute so much towards the fulfillment of this prophecy.
— Kwame Nkrumah,The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957)[68]
Nkrumah read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy.[69] In 1943 Nkrumah metTrinidadian MarxistC. L. R. James, Russian expatriateRaya Dunayevskaya, and Chinese-AmericanGrace Lee Boggs, all of whom were members of an American-basedMarxist intellectualcohort.[70] Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him "how an underground movement worked".[71]Federal Bureau of Investigation files on Nkrumah, kept from January to May 1945, identify him as a possible communist.[72] Nkrumah was determined to go to London, wanting to continue his education there now that theSecond World War had ended.[73] James, in a 1945 letter introducing Nkrumah to Trinidad-bornGeorge Padmore in London, wrote: "This young man is coming to you. He is not very bright, but nevertheless do what you can for him because he's determined to throw Europeans out of Africa."[71]
60 Burghley Road, Kentish Town, London, where Nkrumah lived when in London between 1945 and 1947
Nkrumah returned to London in May 1945 and enrolled at theLondon School of Economics as a PhD candidate inAnthropology. He withdrew after one term and the next year enrolled atUniversity College London, with the intent to write a philosophy dissertation on "Knowledge and Logical Positivism".[74] His supervisor,A. J. Ayer, declined to rate Nkrumah as a "first-class philosopher", saying, "I liked him and enjoyed talking to him but he did not seem to me to have an analytical mind. He wanted answers too quickly. I think part of the trouble may have been that he wasn't concentrating very hard on his thesis. It was a way of marking time until the opportunity came for him to return to Ghana."[75] Finally, Nkrumah enrolled in, but did not complete, a study in law atGray's Inn.[75]
Nkrumah spent his time on political organizations. He and Padmore were among the principal organizers, and co-treasurers, of the FifthPan-African Congress in Manchester (15–19 October 1945).[76] The Congress elaborated a strategy for supplanting colonialism withAfrican socialism. They agreed to pursue a federal United States of Africa, with interlocking regional organizations, governing through separate states of limited sovereignty.[77] They planned to pursue a new African culture withouttribalism, democratic within a socialist system, synthesizing traditional aspects with modern thinking, and for this to be achieved by non-violent means if possible.[78] Among those who attended the congress was the venerableW. E. B. Du Bois along with some who later took leading roles in leading their nations to independence, includingHastings Banda ofNyasaland (which becameMalawi),Jomo Kenyatta ofKenya andObafemi Awolowo ofNigeria.[79][80]
The congress sought to establish ongoing African activism in Britain in conjunction with theWest African National Secretariat (WANS) to work towards thedecolonisation of Africa. Nkrumah became the secretary of WANS. In addition to seeking to organize Africans to gain their nations' freedom, Nkrumah sought to succour the many West African seamen who had been stranded, destitute, in London at the end of the war, and established a Coloured Workers Association to empower and succour them.[81] TheU.S. State Department andMI5 watched Nkrumah and the WANS, focusing on their links with Communism.[82] Nkrumah and Padmore established a group called The Circle to lead the way to West African independence and unity; the group aimed to create a Union of African Socialist Republics. A document from The Circle, setting forth that goal was found on Nkrumah upon his arrest in Accra in 1948, and was used against him by the British authorities.[83][84][b]
The 1946 Gold Coast constitution gave Africans a majority on theLegislative Council for the first time. Seen as a major step towards self-government,[85] the new arrangement prompted the colony's first true political party, founded in August 1947, theUnited Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).[86] The UGCC sought self-government as quickly as possible. Since the leading members were all successful professionals, they needed to pay someone to run the party, and their choice fell on Nkrumah at the suggestion ofAko Adjei. Nkrumah hesitated but realized that the UGCC was controlled by conservative interests and noted that the new post could open huge political opportunities for him and accepted. After being questioned by British officials about his communist affiliations, Nkrumah boarded the MVAccra at Liverpool in November 1947 for the voyage home.[87][88]
After brief stops inSierra Leone,Liberia, and theIvory Coast, he arrived in theGold Coast where he briefly stayed and reunited with his mother inTarkwa. He began work at the party's headquarters inSaltpond on 29 December 1947 where he worked as a general secretary.[20][89] Nkrumah quickly submitted plans for branches of the UGCC to be established colony-wide, and for strikes if necessary to gain political ends. This activist stance divided the party's governing committee, which was led byJ. B. Danquah. Nkrumah embarked on a tour to gain donations for the UGCC and establish new branches.[90]
Although the Gold Coast was more developed politically than Britain's otherWest African colonies, there was considerable discontent. Postwar inflation had caused public anger at high prices, leading to a boycott of small businesses run by Arabs which began in January 1948. Localcocoa bean farmers were upset because trees exhibitingcacao swollen-shoot virus, but still capable of yielding a crop, were being destroyed by the colonial authorities.[91] There were about 63,000 World War II veterans in the Gold Coast, many of whom had trouble obtaining employment and felt the colonial government was doing nothing to address their grievances. Nkrumah and Danquah addressed a meeting of the Ex-Service men's Union in Accra on 20 February 1948, which was made in advance of a planned march to present a petition to the governor. When the march took place on 28 February, three veterans were killed by police gunfire, prompting the1948 Accra riots, which spread throughout the country.[92] According to Nkrumah's biographer,David Birmingham, "West Africa's erstwhile "model colony" witnessed a riot and business premises were looted. The African Revolution had begun."[93]
The colonial government assumed that the UGCC was responsible for the unrest, and arrested six leaders, including Nkrumah and Danquah.The Big Six were incarcerated together inKumasi,[94] increasing the rift between Nkrumah and the others, who blamed him for the riots and their detention. After the colonial government learned that there were plots to storm the prison, the six were separated, with Nkrumah sent toLawra; all six were freed in April 1948. Many students and teachers had demonstrated for their release and had been suspended; Nkrumah, using his own funds, began theGhana National College.[95] This among other activities, led UGCC committee members to accuse him of acting in the party's name without authority. Fearing he would harm them more outside the party than within, they agreed to make him honorary treasurer. Nkrumah's popularity, already large, was increased with his founding of theAccra Evening News, which was not a party organ but was owned by Nkrumah and others. He also founded the Committee on Youth Organization (CYO) as a youth wing for the UGCC. It soon broke away and adopted the motto "Self-Government Now".[96] The CYO united students, ex-servicemen, and market women. Nkrumah recounted in his autobiography that he knew that a break with the UGCC was inevitable, and wanted the masses behind him when the conflict occurred.[97][98] Nkrumah's appeals for "Free-Dom" appealed to the great numbers of underemployed youths who had come from the farms and villages to the towns. "Old hymn tunes were adapted to new songs of liberation which welcomed travelingorators, and especially Nkrumah himself, to mass rallies across the Gold Coast."[99]
According to a public speech delivered byAaron Mike Oquaye, a meeting occurred inSaltpond, a town in the Central region, between Nkrumah and the members of UGCC where Nkrumah was said to have rejected a proposal for the promotion of fundamental human rights.[100]
Red cockerel, "Forward Ever, Backward Never": Convention People's Party logo and slogan
Beginning in April 1949, there was considerable pressure on Nkrumah from his supporters to leave the UGCC and form his own party.[101] On 12 June 1949, he announced the formation of theConvention People's Party (CPP), with the word "convention" chosen, according to Nkrumah, "to carry the masses with us".[102] There were attempts to heal the breach with the UGCC; at one July meeting, it was agreed to reinstate Nkrumah as secretary and disband the CPP. But Nkrumah's supporters would not have it, and persuaded him to refuse the offer and remain at their head.[103]
The CPP adopted the redcockerel as its symbol – a familiar icon for local ethnic groups, and a symbol of leadership, alertness, and masculinity.[68][104] Party symbols and colours (red, white, and green) appeared on clothing, flags, vehicles and houses.[68] CPP operatives drove red-white-and-green vans across the country, playing music and rallying public support for the party and especially for Nkrumah. These efforts were wildly successful, especially because previous political efforts in the Gold Coast had focused exclusively on the urban intelligentsia.[68]
Kwame Nkrumah on the cover ofTime, 9 February 1953
The British conveneda selected commission of middle-class Africans, including all of the Big Six except Nkrumah, to draft a new constitution that would give the Gold Coast more self-government. Nkrumah saw, even before the commission reported, that its recommendations would fall short of fulldominion status, and began to organize aPositive Action campaign.[79] Nkrumah demanded aconstituent assembly to write a constitution. When the governor,Charles Arden-Clarke, would not commit to this, Nkrumah called for positive action, with the unions beginning ageneral strike to begin on 8 January 1950. The strike quickly led to violence, and Nkrumah and other CPP leaders were arrested on 22 January, and theEvening News was banned.[105] Nkrumah was sentenced to a total of three years in prison, and he was incarcerated with common criminals in Accra'sFort James.[106]
Nkrumah's assistant,Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, ran the CPP in his absence; the imprisoned leader was able to influence events through smuggled notes written on toilet paper. The British prepared for an election for the Gold Coast under their new constitution, and Nkrumah insisted that the CPP contest all seats.[107] The situation had become calmer once Nkrumah was arrested, and the CPP and the British worked together to prepare electoral rolls. Nkrumah stood, from prison, for a directly elected Accra seat. Gbedemah worked to set up a nationwide campaign organization, using vans with loudspeakers to blare the party's message. The UGCC failed to set up a nationwide structure, and proved unable to take advantage of the fact that many of its opponents were in prison.[108]
In theFebruary 1951 legislative election, the first general election to be held under universal franchise in colonial Africa, the CPP was elected in a landslide.[109] The CPP secured 34 of the 38 seats contested on a party basis, with Nkrumah elected for his Accra constituency. The UGCC won three seats, and one was taken by an independent. Arden-Clarke saw that the only alternative to Nkrumah's freedom was the end of the constitutional experiment. Nkrumah was released from prison on 12 February, receiving a rapturous reception from his followers.[110] The following day, Arden-Clarke sent for him and asked him to form a government.[111]
Nkrumah had stolen Arden-Clarke's secretaryErica Powell after she was dismissed and sent home for getting too close to Nkrumah. Powell returned to Ghana in January 1955 to be Nkrumah's private secretary, a position she held for ten years.[112] Powell was very close to him and during their time together she largely wrote Nkrumah's (auto)biography, although this was not admitted until much later.[113]
Nkrumah faced several challenges as he assumed office. He had never served in government, and needed to learn that art. The Gold Coast was composed of four regions, several former colonies amalgamated into one. Nkrumah sought to unite them under one nationality, and bring the country to independence.[114] Key to meeting the challenges was convincing the British that the CPP's programmes were not only practical, but inevitable, and Nkrumah and Arden-Clarke worked closely together.[101] The governor instructed the civil service to give the fledgling government full support, and the three British members of the cabinet took care not to vote against the elected majority.[115]
Prior to the CPP taking office, British officials had prepared a ten-year plan for development. With demands for infrastructure improvements coming in from all over the colony, Nkrumah approved it in general, but halved the time to five years.[116] The colony was in good financial shape, with reserves from years of cocoa profit held in London, and Nkrumah was able to spend freely. Modern trunk roads were built along the coast and within the interior. The rail system was modernized and expanded. Modern water and sewer systems were installed in most towns, where housing schemes were begun.[117] Construction began on a new harbour atTema, near Accra, and the existing port, atTakoradi, was expanded. An urgent programme to build and expand schools, from primary to teacher and trade training, was begun.[citation needed] From 1951 to 1956, the number of pupils being educated at the colony's schools rose from 200,000 to 500,000.[118] Nevertheless, the number of graduates being produced was insufficient to the burgeoning civil service's needs, and in 1953, Nkrumah announced that though Africans would be given preference, the country would be relying on expatriate European civil servants for several years.[119]
Nkrumah's title was Leader of Government Business in a cabinet chaired by Arden-Clarke. Quick progress was made, and in 1952, the governor withdrew from the cabinet, leaving Nkrumah as his prime minister, with the portfolios that had been reserved for expatriates going to Africans.[120] There were accusations of corruption, and of nepotism, as officials, following African custom, attempted to benefit their extended families and their tribes.[121] The recommendations following the 1948 riots had included elected local government rather than the existing system dominated by the chiefs. This was uncontroversial until it became clear that it would be implemented by the CPP. That party's majority in theLegislative Assembly passed legislation in late 1951 that shifted power from the chiefs to the chairs of the councils, though there was some local rioting asrates were imposed.[122]
Nkrumah's re-titling as prime minister had not given him additional power, and he sought constitutional reform that would lead to independence. In 1952, he consulted with the visitingColonial Secretary,Oliver Lyttelton, who indicated that Britain would look favorably on further advancement, so long as the chiefs and other stakeholders had the opportunity to express their views.[42] Initially skeptical of Nkrumah's socialist policies, Britain'sMI5 had compiled large amounts of intelligence on Nkrumah through several sources, including tapping phones and mail interception under the code name of SWIFT.[123] Beginning in October 1952, Nkrumah sought opinions from councils and from political parties on reform, and consulted widely across the country, including with opposition groups. The result the following year was aWhite Paper on a new constitution, seen as a final step before independence.[124] Published in June 1953, the constitutional proposals were accepted both by the assembly and by the British, and came into force in April of the following year. The new document provided for an assembly of 104 members, all directly elected, with an all-African cabinet responsible for the internal governing of the colony. Inthe election on 15 June 1954, the CPP won 71, with the regionalNorthern People's Party forming the official opposition.[125]
A number of opposition groups formed theNational Liberation Movement. Their demands were for a federal, rather than a unitary government for an independent Gold Coast, and for an upper house of parliament where chiefs and other traditional leaders could act as a counter to the CPP majority in the assembly.[126] They drew considerable support in the Northern Territory and among the chiefs in Ashanti, who petitioned the British queen,Elizabeth II, asking for aRoyal Commission into what form of government the Gold Coast should have.[127] This was refused by her government, who in 1955 stated that such a commission should only be used if the people of the Gold Coast proved incapable of deciding their own affairs. Amid political violence, the two sides attempted to reconcile their differences, but the NLM refused to participate in any committee with a CPP majority. The traditional leaders were also incensed by a new bill that had just been enacted, which allowed minor chiefs to appeal to the government in Accra, bypassing traditional chiefly authority.[128] The British were unwilling to leave unresolved the fundamental question as to how an independent Gold Coast should be governed, and in June 1956, the Colonial Secretary,Alan Lennox-Boyd announced that there would be another general election in the Gold Coast, and if a "reasonable majority" took the CPP's position, Britain would set a date for independence.[129] The results of theJuly 1956 election were almost identical to those from four years before, and on 3 August the assembly voted for independence under the name Nkrumah had proposed in April,Ghana. In September, the Colonial Office announced independence day would be 6 March 1957.[130][131]
The opposition was not satisfied with the plan for independence, and demanded that power be devolved to the regions. Discussions took place through late 1956 and into 1957. Although Nkrumah did not compromise on his insistence on a unitary state, the nation was divided into five regions, with power devolved from Accra, and the chiefs having a role in their governments.[132] On 21 February 1957, theBritish prime minister,Harold Macmillan, announced that Ghana would be a full member of theCommonwealth of Nations with effect from 6 March.[133]
The old Gold Coast flag, symbolising the supremacy of the British Empire
Nkrumah's newflag of Ghana, symbolising African nationalism and abundance
Ghana became independent on 6 March 1957 as theDominion of Ghana. As the first of Britain's African colonies to gain majority-rule independence, the celebrations in Accra were the focus of world attention; over 100 reporters and photographers covered the events.[134] United States PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower sent congratulations and his vice president,Richard Nixon, to represent the U.S. at the event.[120] The Soviet delegation urged Nkrumah to visit Moscow as soon as possible. Political scientistRalph Bunche, an African American, was there for the United Nations, while theDuchess of Kent represented Queen Elizabeth II. Offers of assistance poured in from across the world. Even without them, the country seemed prosperous, with cocoa prices high and the potential of new resource development.[135]
As the fifth of March turned to the sixth, Nkrumah stood before tens of thousands of supporters and proclaimed, "Ghana will be free forever."[136] He spoke at the first session of theGhana Parliament thatIndependence Day, telling his new country's citizens that "we have a duty to prove to the world that Africans can conduct their own affairs with efficiency and tolerance and through the exercise of democracy. We must set an example to all Africa."[137]
As part of the ceremony, Nkrumah gave a speech to instill hope and ooze assurance.[138]
Nkrumah was hailed as theOsagyefo – which means "redeemer" in theAkan language.[139] This independence ceremony included theDuchess of Kent and Governor GeneralCharles Arden-Clarke. With more than 600 reporters in attendance, Ghanaian independence became one of the most internationally reported news events in modern African history.[140]
The flag of Ghana was designed byTheodosia Okoh, inverting Ethiopia's green-yellow-redLion of Judah flag and replacing the lion with a black star. Red symbolizes bloodshed; green stands for beauty, agriculture, and abundance; yellow represents mineral wealth; andthe Black Star represents African freedom.[141]The country's new coat of arms, designed byAmon Kotei, includes eagles, a lion, a St. George's Cross, and a Black Star, with copious gold and gold trim.[142]Philip Gbeho was commissioned to compose the new national anthem, "God Bless Our Homeland Ghana".[143]
As a monument to the new nation, Nkrumah openedBlack Star Square nearOsu Castle in the coastal district ofOsu, Accra.[6] This square would be used for national symbolism and mass patriotic rallies.[144]
Under Nkrumah's leadership, Ghana adopted some social democratic policies and practices. Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various community programs, and established schools.[145]
25 pesewas (Ȼ0.25) coins depicting Nkrumah: "Civitatis Ghanensis Conditor" ("Founder of the Ghanaian State")
Nkrumah had only a short honeymoon before there was unrest among his country's people. The government deployed troops toTogo-land to quell unrest following a disputed plebiscite on membership in the new country.[146] A serious busstrike in Accra stemmed from resentments among theGa people, who believed members of other tribes were getting preferential treatment in government promotion, and thus resulted in riots there in August.[147] Nkrumah's response was to repress local movements by the Avoidance of Discrimination Act (6 December 1957), which banned regional or tribal-based political parties. Another strike at tribalism fell in Ashanti, where Nkrumah and the CPP got most local chiefs who were not party supportersdestooled.[148] These repressive actions concerned the opposition parties, who came together to form theUnited Party underKofi Abrefa Busia.[149]
In 1958, an opposition MP was arrested on charges of attempting to obtain arms abroad for a planned infiltration of theGhana Army (GA).[150] Nkrumah was convinced there had been an assassination plot against him, and his response was to have the parliament pass thePreventive Detention Act, allowing for incarceration for up to five years without charge or trial, with only Nkrumah empowered to release prisoners early.[10] According to Nkrumah's biographer, David Birmingham, "no single measure did more to bring down Nkrumah's reputation than his adoption of internment without trial for the preservation of security."[151] Nkrumah intended to bypass the British-trained judiciary, which he saw as opposing his plans when they subjected them to constitutional scrutiny.[152]
Another source of irritation was the regional assemblies, which had been organized on an interim basis pending further constitutional discussions. The opposition, which was strong in Ashanti and the north, proposed significant powers for the assemblies; the CPP wanted them to be more or less advisory.[153] In 1959, Nkrumah used his majority in the parliament to push through the Constitutional Amendment Act, which abolished the assemblies and allowed the parliament to amend the constitution with a simple majority.[154]
Illegal Asante flag, with colours symbolizing gold, ancestral power, and the forest, andGolden Stool symbolizing Asante political authority[141]Porcupine emblem, symbolising Asante motto, "If you greet us with peace, we will greet you with peace. But if you greet us with war, then we will greet you with war."[141]
Nkrumah also sought to eliminate "tribalism", a source of loyalties held more deeply than those to the nation-state. Thus, as he wrote inAfrica Must Unite: "We were engaged in a kind of war, a war against poverty and disease, against ignorance, against tribalism and disunity. We needed to secure the conditions which could allow us to pursue our policy of reconstruction and development."[156] To this end, in 1958, his government passed "An Act to prohibit organizations using or engaging in racial or religious propaganda to the detriment of any other racial or religious community, or securing the election of persons on account of their racial or religious affiliations, or for other purposes in connection therewith."[157] Nkrumah attempted to saturate the country in national flags, and declared a widely disobeyed ban on tribal flags.[141]
Kofi Abrefa Busia of theUnited Party (Ghana) gained prominence as an opposition leader in the debate over this Act, taking a more classically liberal position and criticizing the ban on tribal politics as repressive. Soon after, he left the country.[158] Nkrumah was also a very flamboyant leader.The New York Times in 1972 wrote: "During his high‐flying days as the leader of Ghana in the 1950s and early 1960s, Kwame Nkrumah was a flamboyant spellbinder.[159] At home, he created acult of personality and gloried in the title ofOsagyefo (Akan for 'Redeemer'). Abroad, he met with the world's leaders as the first man to lead an African colony to independence after World War II."[160]
During his tenure as Prime Minister and then first President, Nkrumah succeeded in reducing the political importance of the local chieftaincy (e.g., theAkan chiefs and theAsantehene).[161] These chiefs had maintained authority during colonial rule through collaboration with the British authorities; in fact, they were sometimes favored over the local intelligentsia, who made trouble for the British with organizations like theAborigines' Rights Protection Society.[162] The Convention People's Party had a strained relationship with the chiefs when it came to power, and this relationship became more hostile as the CPP incited political opposition chiefs and criticized the institution as undemocratic. Acts passed in 1958 and 1959 gave the government more power to dis-stool chiefs directly, and proclaimed government of stool land – and revenues.[163] These policies alienated the chiefs and led them to looking favorably on the overthrow of Nkrumah and his Party.[164]
In 1962, three younger members of the CPP were brought up on charges of taking part in a plot to blow up Nkrumah's car in a motorcade. The sole evidence against the alleged plotters was that they rode in cars well behind Nkrumah's car.[105] When the defendants were acquitted, Nkrumah sacked the chief judge of the state security court, then got the CPP-dominated parliament to pass a law allowing anew trial.[165] At this second trial, all three men were convicted and sentenced to death, though these sentences were subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward, the constitution was amended to give the president the power to summarily remove judges at all levels.[166]
In 1964, Nkrumah proposed aconstitutional amendment that would make the CPPthe only legal party, with Nkrumah aspresident for life of both nation and party. The amendment passed with 99.91 percent of the vote,[167][168][169] an implausibly high total that led observers to condemn the vote as "obviously rigged".[170] Ghana had effectively been a one-party state since independence. The amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into ade facto legal dictatorship.
After substantial Africanization of thecivil service in 1952–60, the number ofexpatriates rose again from 1960 to 1965. Many of the new outside workers came not from the United Kingdom but from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia,Yugoslavia, and Italy.[171][6]
In 1951, the CPP created the Accelerated Development Plan for Education. This plan set up a six-year primary course, to be attended as close to universally as possible, with a range of possibilities to follow.[172] All children were to learn arithmetic, as well as gain "a sound foundation for citizenship with permanent literacy in both English and the vernacular." Primary education becamecompulsory in 1962. The plan also stated that religious schools would no longer receive funding, and that some existing missionary schools would be taken over by government.[173]
We in Ghana, are committed to the building of an industrialised socialist society. We cannot afford to sit still and be mere passive onlookers. We must ourselves take part in the pursuit of scientific and technological research as a means of providing the basis for our socialist society, Socialism without science is void.…
We need also to reach out to the mass of the people who have not had the opportunities of formal education. We must use every means of mass communication – the press, the radio, television and films – to carry science to the whole population – to the people. ... It is most important that our people should not only be instructed in science but that they should take part in it, apply it themselves in their own ways. For science is not just a subject to be learned out of a book or from a teacher. It is a way of life, a way of tackling any problem which one can only master by using it for oneself. We must have science clubs in which our people can develop their own talents for discovery and invention.
— Kwame Nkrumah "Speech delivered by Osagyefo the President at the Laying of the Foundation Stone of Ghana's Atomic Reactor at Kwabenya on 25th November, 1964"[173]
In 1961, Nkrumah laid the first stones in the foundation of theKwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute created to train Ghanaian civil servants as well as promote Pan-Africanism. In 1964, all students entering college in Ghana were required to attend a two-week "ideological orientation" at the institute.[174] Nkrumah remarked that "trainees should be made to realize the party's ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and fervently."[175]
In 1964, Nkrumah brought forth the Seven Year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development, which identified education as a key source of development and called for the expansion of secondary technical schools.[176] Secondary education would also include "in-service training programmes". As Nkrumah told Parliament: "Employers, both public and private, will be expected to make a far greater contribution to labour training through individual factory and farm schools, industry-wide training schemes, day release, payment for attendance at short courses and evening classes." This training would be indirectly subsidized with tax credits and import allocations.[177][173]
In 1952, the Artisan Trading Scheme, arranged with the Colonial Office and UK Ministry of Labour, provided for a few experts in every field to travel to Britain for technical education. Kumasi Technical Institute was founded in 1956.[178] In September 1960, it added the Technical Teacher Training Centre. In 1961, the CPP passed the Apprentice Act, which created a general Apprenticeship Board along with committees for each industry.[173]
Nkrumah was an ardent promoter ofpan-Africanism, seeing the movement as the "quest for regional integration of the whole of the African continent". The period of Nkrumah's active political involvement has been described as the "golden age of high pan-African ambitions"; the continent had experiencedrising nationalist movements anddecolonization by most European colonial powers, and historians have noted that "the narrative of rebirth and solidarity had gained momentum within the pan-Africanist movement". Reflecting his African heritage, Nkrumah frequently eschewedWestern fashion, donning afugu (a Northern attire) made with Southern-producedKente cloth, a symbol of his identity as a representative of the entire country.[179] He oversaw the opening of theGhana Museum on 5 March 1957; the Arts Council of Ghana, a wing of the Ministry of Education and Culture, in 1958; the Research Library on African Affairs in June 1961; and the Ghana Film Corporation in 1964.[158][180][181] In 1962, Nkrumah opened theInstitute of African Studies.[173]
A campaign against nudity in the northern part of the country received special attention from Nkrumah, who reportedly deployed Propaganda SecretaryHannah Cudjoe to respond. Cudjoe also formed the Ghana Women's League, which advanced the Party's agenda on nutrition, raising children, and wearing clothing.[182] The League also led a demonstration against thedetonation of French nuclear weapons in the Sahara.[183][184] Cudjoe was eventually demoted with the consolidation of national women's groups, and marginalized within the Party structure.[184]
Laws passed in 1959 and 1960 designated special positions in parliament to be held bywomen. Some women were promoted to the CPP Central Committee. Women attended more universities, took up more professions including medicine and law, and went on professional trips to Israel, the Soviet Union, and the Eastern Bloc. Women also entered the army and air force. Most women remained in agriculture and trade; some received assistance from theCo-operative Movement.[185][68][183]
Nkrumah's image was widely disseminated, for example, on postage stamps and on money, in the style of monarchs – providing fodder for accusations of aNkrumahist personality cult.[186]
In 1957, Nkrumah created a well-fundedGhana News Agency to generate domestic news and disseminate it abroad. In ten years time the GNA had 8045 km of domestic telegraph line, and maintained stations in Lagos, Nairobi, London and New York City.[187][188]
To the true African journalist, his newspaper is a collective organiser, a collective instrument of mobilisation and a collective educator—a weapon, first and foremost, to overthrow colonialism and imperialism and to assist total African independence and unity.
— Kwame Nkrumah at the Second Conference of African Journalists; Accra, November 11, 1963[188][189]
Nkrumah consolidated state control over newspapers, establishing theGhanaian Times in 1958 and then in 1962 obtaining its competitor, theDaily Graphic, from theMirror Group of London.[190] As he wrote inAfrica Must Unite: "It is part of our revolutionary credo that within the competitive system of capitalism, the press cannot function in accordance with a strict regard for the sacredness of facts, and that the press, therefore, should not remain in private hands." Starting in 1960, he invoked the right ofpre-publication censorship of all news.[188]
TheGold Coast Broadcasting Service was established in 1954 and revamped as theGhana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). Many television broadcasts featured Nkrumah, commenting for example on the problematic "insolence and laziness of boys and girls".[191] Before celebrations of May Day, 1963, Nkrumah went on television to announce the expansion of Ghana'sYoung Pioneers, the introduction of a National Pledge, the beginning of a National Flag salute in schools, and the creation of a National Training program to inculcate virtue and the spirit of service among Ghanaian youth.[192] Nkrumah outlined his views on the role of Ghanaian television to Parliament on 15 October 1963 saying, "Ghana's television will not cater for cheap entertainment or commercialism; its paramount objective will be education in its broadest and purest sense."[193][173]
As per the 1965 Instrument of Incorporation of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting had "powers of direction" over the media, and the President had the power "at any time, if he is satisfied that it is in the national interest to do so, take over the control and management of the affairs or any part of the functions of the Corporation," hiring, firing, reorganizing, and making other commands at will.[194][188]
Radio programmes, designed in part to reach non-reading members of the public, were a major focus of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. In 1961, the GBC formed anexternal service broadcasting in English, French, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese andHausa.[195] Using four 100-kilowatt transmitters and two 250-kilowatt transmitters, the GBC External Service broadcast 110 hours of Pan-Africanist programming to Africa and Europe each week.[188]
He refused advertising in all media, beginning with theEvening News of 1948.[188]
The Gold Coast had been among the wealthiest and most socially advanced areas in Africa, with schools, railways, hospitals, social security, and an advanced economy.[196]
Nkrumah attempted to rapidlyindustrialize Ghana's economy. He reasoned that if Ghana escaped the colonial trade system by reducing dependence on foreigncapital, technology, and material goods, it could become truly independent.[197]
After the Ten Year Development Plan, Nkrumah brought forth the Second Development Plan in 1959. This plan called for the development of manufacturing: 600 factories producing 100 varieties of product.[198]
The Statutory Corporations Act, passed in November 1959 and revised in 1961 and 1964, created the legal framework for public corporations, which included state enterprises. This law placed the country's major corporations under the direction of government ministers. The State Enterprises Secretariat office was located inFlagstaff House and under the direct control of the president.[199][200]
After visiting the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China in 1961, Nkrumah apparently became still more convinced of the need for state control of the economy.[201][200]
During Nkrumah's time in office, free health care and education were introduced.[202][203][204]
A Seven-Year Plan introduced in 1964 focused on further industrialization, emphasizing domestic substitutes for common imports, modernization of the building materials industry, machine making,electrification and electronics.[205][198]
Nkrumah's advocacy of industrial development, with help of longtime friend and Minister of Finance,Komla Agbeli Gbedema, led to the Volta River Project: the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, theAkosombo Dam on theVolta River in eastern Ghana.[206] The Volta River Project was the centrepiece of Nkrumah's economic programme. On 20 February 1958, he told the National Assembly: "It is my strong belief that the Volta River Project provides the quickest and most certain method of leading us towards economic independence."[207] Ghana used assistance from the United States, Israel and the World Bank in constructing the dam.[208][209]
Kaiser Aluminum agreed to build the dam for Nkrumah, but restricted what could be produced using the power generated. Nkrumah borrowed money to build the dam, and placed Ghana in debt. To finance the debt, he raised taxes on the cocoa farmers in the south. This accentuated regional differences and jealousy. The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst global publicity on 22 January 1966.
In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton. Rather than allowing cocoa farmers to keep the windfall, Nkrumah appropriated the increased revenue via central government levies, then invested the capital into various national development projects.[212] This policy alienated one of the major constituencies that helped him come to power.[213]
Prices continued to fluctuate. In 1960 one ton of cocoa sold for £250 in London. By August 1965 this price had dropped to £91, one fifth of its value ten years before.[78] The quick price decline caused the government's reliance on the reserves and forced farmers to take a portion of their earning in bonds.[214]
Nkrumah actively promoted a policy of Pan-Africanism from the beginning of his presidency. This entailed the creation of a series of new international organizations, which held their inaugural meetings in Accra.[215] These were:
the First Conference of Independent States, in April 1958;[216]
the more inclusiveAll-African Peoples' Conference, with representatives from 62 nationalist organizations from across the continent, in December 1958;[217]
the All-African Trade Union Federation, meeting in November 1959, to coordinate the African labour movement;[218]
the Positive Action and Security in Africa conference, in April 1960, discussing Algeria, South Africa, and Frenchnuclear weapons testing;[219]
the Conference of African Women, on 18 July 1960.[78][209]
In theYear of Africa, 1960, Nkrumah negotiated the creation of aUnion of African States, a political alliance between Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. Immediately, they formed a women's group called Women of the Union of African States.[221][183]
Nkrumah was instrumental in the creation of the OAU inAddis Ababa in 1963.[158] He aspired to create a united military force, the African High Command, which Ghana would substantially lead, and committed to this vision in Article 2 ofthe 1960 Republican Constitution:[224]"In the confident expectation of an early surrender of sovereignty to a union of African states and territories, the people now confer on Parliament the power to provide for the surrender of the whole or any part of the sovereignty of Ghana."[78][225]
He was also a proponent of the United Nations, but critical of the Great Powers' ability to control it.[209]
Nkrumah opposed the entry of African states into the Common Market of theEuropean Economic Community, a status given to many former French colonies and considered by Nigeria. Instead, Nkrumah advocated, in a speech given on 7 April 1960,[226]
an African common market, a common currency area and the development of communications of all kinds to allow the free flow of goods and services. International capital can be attracted to such viable economic areas, but it would not be attracted to a divided and balkanized Africa, with each small region engaged in senseless and suicidal economic competition with its neighbours.[227][209]
Nkrumah sought to exploit the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to gain maximum concessions from both sides in their geopolitical attempts to outmanoeuvre one another in West Africa and elsewhere.[228] This was exemplified by the Volta River Dam Project and its back-and-forth oscillation between Soviet and Western financial backing.[229]
In 1956, the Gold Coast took control of theRoyal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF),Gold Coast Regiment, from the British War Office. This force had formerly been deployed to quell internal dissent, and occasionally to fight in wars: most recently, in World War II, against the Japanese in India and Burma.[230] The most senior officers in this force were British, and, although training of African officers began in 1947, only 28 of 212 officers in December 1956 were indigenous Africans. The British officers still received British salaries, which vastly exceeded those allotted to their Ghanaian counterparts. Concerned about a possible military coup, Nkrumah delayed the placement of African officers in top leadership roles.[231][232]
Nkrumah quickly established theGhanaian Air Force, acquiring 14Beaver airplanes from Canada and setting up a flight school with British instructors.Otters,Caribou, andChipmunks were to follow.[231] Ghana also obtained fourIlyushin-18 aircraft from the Soviet Union. Preparation began in April 1959 with assistance from India and Israel.[233] Nkrumah also established a gliding school led byHanna Reitsch andJ.E.S. de Graft-Hayford.
TheGhanaian Navy received two inshore minesweepers with 40mm and 20mm guns, theAfadzato and theYogaga, from Britain in December 1959. It subsequently received theElmina and theKomenda, seaward defence boats with 40-millimetre guns.[231] The Navy's flagship, and training ship, was theAchimota, a British yacht constructed during World War II. In 1961, the Navy ordered two 600-ton corvettes, theKeta andKromantse, fromVosper & Company and received them in 1967. It also procured four Soviet patrol boats. Naval officers were trained at theBritannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth.[234] The Ghanaian military budget rose each year, from $9.35 million (US dollars) in 1958 to $47 million in 1965.[235]
The first international deployment of the Ghanaian armed forces was to theCongo (Léopoldville/Kinshasa), where Ghanaian troops were airlifted in 1960 at the beginning of theCongo Crisis.[231] One week after Belgian troops occupied the lucrative mining province ofKatanga, Ghana dispatched more than a thousand of its own troops to join a United Nations force.[236] The use of British officers in this context was politically unacceptable, and this event occasioned a hasty transfer of officer positions to Ghanaians.[231][237] The Congo war was long and difficult.[236] On 19 January 1961 the Third Infantry Battalion mutinied. On 28 April 1961, 43 menwere massacred in a surprise attack by the Congolese army.[238]
In 1961, Nkrumah went on tour through Eastern Europe, proclaiming solidarity with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.[78] Nkrumah's clothing changed to the Chinese-suppliedMao suit.[240][241]
Kwame Nkrumah with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, 8 March 1961
In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit toNorth Vietnam and China, his government was overthrown in a violentcoup d'état led by the nationalmilitary andpolice forces, with backing from thecivil service.[243] The conspirators, led byJoseph Arthur Ankrah, named themselves theNational Liberation Council and ruled as a military government for three years. Nkrumah did not learn of the coup until he arrived in China. After the coup, Nkrumah stayed in Beijing for four days, and PremierZhou Enlai treated him with courtesy.[244][245]
Nkrumah alluded to American involvement in the coup in his 1969 memoir,Dark Days in Ghana; he may have based this conclusion on documents shown to him by theKGB.[246][247] In 1978John Stockwell, former Chief of the Angola Task Force of theCIA turned critic, wrote that agents at the CIA's Accra station "maintained intimate contact with the plotters as a coup was hatched". Afterward, "inside CIA headquarters the Accra station was given full, if unofficial credit for the eventual coup. ...None of this was adequately reflected in the agency's written records."[248][249] Later that same year,Seymour Hersh, then atThe New York Times, defended Stockwell's account, citing "first hand intelligence sources". He claimed that "many CIA operatives in Africa considered the agency's role in the overthrow of Dr. Nkrumah to have been pivotal."[250][251] These claims have never been verified.[252][16]
Following the coup, Ghana realigned itself internationally, cutting its close ties to Guinea and the Eastern Bloc, accepting a new friendship with theWestern Bloc, and inviting theInternational Monetary Fund andWorld Bank to take a leading role in managing the economy.[253][failed verification] With this reversal, accentuated by the expulsion of immigrants and a new willingness to negotiate withapartheid South Africa, Ghana lost a good deal of its stature in the eyes of African nationalists.[254][78]
In assessing Nkrumah's legacy,Edward Luttwak argued that he was undone by the growth ofpolitical consciousness and his inability to repress potential opponents:
Nkrumah, in spite of his eccentricities, was largely defeated by his own success: the by-product of the considerable economic development achieved by Ghana was to stimulate and educate the masses and the new elite; their attitude to Nkrumah's regime became more and more critical in the light of the education the regime itself provided. When this happens, more and more repression and propaganda are needed to maintain political stability. In spite of considerable efforts, Nkrumah was unable to build a sufficiently ruthless police system. The cause of his downfall was not, therefore, the mismanagement of the economy—which was considerable—but rather the success of much of the development effort.
Nkrumah died on 27 April 1972, inBucharest, the capital ofRomania,[255] of an unknown but apparently incurable sickness. Since the coup, he had been living in the Guinean capital ofConakry, lying low.
In 2000, he was voted African Man of the Millennium by listeners to theBBC World Service, being described by the BBC as a "Hero of Independence", and an "International symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule."[257][17]
Statue of Kwame Nkrumah in Owerri,Imo State, Nigeria
In September 2009, PresidentJohn Atta Mills declared 21 September (the 100th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah's birth) to beFounders' Day, a statutory holiday in Ghana to celebrate the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah.[259] In April 2019, President Akufo-Addo approved the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019 which changed 21 September from Founders' Day toKwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.[260]
Nkrumah generally took anon-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believedcapitalism had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time.[261] Although he was clear on distancing himself from theAfrican socialism of many of his contemporaries, Nkrumah argued thatsocialism was the system that would best accommodate the changes that capitalism had brought, while still respecting African values.[262] He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled "African Socialism Revisited":
We know that the traditional African society was founded on principles of egalitarianism. In its actual workings, however, it had various shortcomings. Its humanist impulse, nevertheless, is something that continues to urge us towards our all-African socialist reconstruction. We postulate each man to be an end in himself, not merely a means; and we accept the necessity of guaranteeing each manequal opportunities for his development. The implications of this for sociopolitical practice have to be worked out scientifically, and the necessary social and economic policies pursued with resolution. Any meaningful humanism must begin from egalitarianism and must lead to objectively chosen policies for safeguarding and sustainingegalitarianism. Hence, socialism. Hence, also,scientific socialism.[263]
Nkrumah was also best-known politically for his strong commitment to and promotion ofpan-Africanism. He was inspired by the writings of black intellectuals such asMarcus Garvey,W. E. B. Du Bois, andGeorge Padmore, and his relationships with them. Much of his understanding and relationship to these men was created during his years in America as a student.[264] Some would argue that his greatest inspiration was Marcus Garvey,[265] although he also had a meaningful relationship withC. L. R. James. Nkrumah looked to these men to craft a general solution to the ills of Africa. To follow in these intellectual footsteps Nkrumah had intended to continue his education in London, but found himself involved in direct activism.[266] Then, motivated by advice from Du Bois, Nkrumah decided to focus on creating peace in Africa. He became a passionate advocate of the "African Personality", embodied in the slogan "Africa for the Africans", earlier popularised byEdward Wilmot Blyden, and he viewed political independence as a prerequisite for economic independence.[76] Nkrumah's dedications to pan-Africanism in action attracted these intellectuals to his Ghanaian projects. Many Americans, such as Du Bois andKwame Ture, moved to Ghana to join him in his efforts. Du Bois and Ture are buried there today.[267] His press officer for six years was the Grenadian anticolonialistSam Morris. Nkrumah's biggest success in this area was his significant influence in the founding of theOrganisation of African Unity.[268]
Nkrumah also became a symbol for black liberation in the United States. When in 1958 theHarlem Lawyers Association had an event in Nkrumah's honour, diplomatRalph Bunche told him:
We salute you, Kwame Nkrumah, not only because you are Prime Minister of Ghana, although this is cause enough. We salute you because you are a true and living representation of our hopes and ideals, of the determination we have to be accepted fully as equal beings, of the pride we have held and nurtured in our African origin, of the freedom of which we know we are capable, of the freedom in which we believe, of the dignity imperative to our stature as men.[269][209]
In 1961, Nkrumah delivered a speech called "I Speak Of Freedom". During this speech he talked about how "Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world".[270] He mentions how Africa is a land of "vast riches" with mineral resources from that "range from gold and diamonds to uranium and petroleum".[270] Nkrumah says that the reason Africa is not thriving right now is because the European powers have been taking all the wealth for themselves. If Africa could be independent of European rule, he said, then it could truly flourish and contribute positively to the world. In the ending words of this speech Nkrumah calls his people to action by saying "This is our chance.[271] We must act now. Tomorrow may be too late and the opportunity will have passed, and with it the hope of free Africa's survival".[270] This rallied the nation in a nationalistic movement.[citation needed]
In his honour, an annual event called "Journey to Nkroful" was set up to celebrate his birthday.[272] Mausoleum and Museum atNkroful, Western Region have been named after him that showcase some of the artifacts he used when alive.[273]
Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Museum, Accra has been there to keep memory of him. Also, University of Science and Technology was changed to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to recognise his support building a strong education system in the country.[274][275][276]
Kwame Nkrumah marriedFathia Ritzk, anEgyptian Coptic bank worker and former teacher, on the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year's Eve, 1957–1958.[277] Fathia's mother refused to bless their marriage, after another one of her children left with a foreign husband.[278][279]
As a married couple, Fathia and Nkrumah had three children:Gamal (born 1958),Samia (born 1960) and Sekou (born 1964). Gamal is a newspaper journalist, while Samia and Sekou are politicians. Nkrumah also has another son, Francis, a paediatrician (born 1935).[280][281][282][283][284]
In the 2010 bookThe Other Wes Moore, Nkrumah, during his time in the United States, is noted to have served as a mentor to the author's grandfather for several months upon theimmigration of the author's family into the country.[285]
Nkrumah is played byDanny Sapani in theNetflix television seriesThe Crown (season 2, episode 8 "Dear Mrs Kennedy"). The show's portrayal of the historical significance of the Queen's visit to Ghana and dance with Nkrumah has been described as exaggerated in one source interviewing Nat Nuno-Amarteifio, later mayor of Accra, who was a teenage student at the time.[286]
African's Black Star: The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah is a 2011 film about the rise and fall of this colonial rebellion leader.
A golden statue of Nkrumah is a centrepiece in Ghanaian rapperSerious Klein's 2021 video "Straight Outta Pandemic".[287]
Even though the state film archive was ordered to be burned after the coup, Nkrumah's personal cameraman Chris Hesse was able to preserve 1300 rolls of film which weren't revealed to the public until he was in his 90s. Hesse's attempts to screen the footage publicly were made into a documentary film,The Eyes of Ghana, that was produced byBarack andMichelle Obama and premiered at the2025 Toronto International Film Festival.[288]
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 thus its political policy is directed from outside.
— Introduction
Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)[300][301]
^Nyanibah survived her son, watching over him throughout his life. For a time after his death, she guarded his tomb. SeeBirmingham, p. 3.
^Members swore an oath of secrecy, pledging to "irrevocably obey" orders from the group, to "help a member brother of THE CIRCLE in all things and in all difficulties", to avoid the use of violence, to fast on the twenty-first day of the month, and finally, to "accept the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah". See: "The Circle" inNationalism in Asia and Africa by Elie Kedourie, 1970.
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^"Fathia Nkrumah: Farewell to all that".Al-Ahram Weekly. 20 September 2009. Archived fromthe original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved21 September 2017.Grandmother Nyaneba, then well into her 90s, waited patiently for her son. Mother stood by her side. Grandmother was determined to remain alive to witness Nkrumah's triumphant return to Ghana. Only after her hand was placed on his coffin did the old woman at last accept that he was dead. Grandmother was to pass away seven years later in my mother's arms, aged 102.
^"VIII. "And although these men were rare and wonderful, they were nevertheless but men, and the opportunities which they had were far less favorable than the present; nor were their undertakings more just or more easy than this; neither was God more a friend of them than of you."",How to Choose a Leader, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 37–41, 31 December 2016,doi:10.1515/9781400880409-009,ISBN978-1-4008-8040-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
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^Ninsin, Kwame A. (1991).Ghana'a Transition to Constitutional rule. Accra: Ghana Universities Press. pp. 35–58.ISBN9964-3-0199-5.
^Vogel, Gretchen (19 April 2018). "A new dengue vaccine should only be used in people who were previously infected, WHO says".Science.doi:10.1126/science.aat9362.ISSN0036-8075.
^"'I believed that Russians were our friends, that they were brave people who fight huge numbers of Germans'. Interview with R. Inglehart".Historical Expertise.4 (21):9–18. 25 December 2019.doi:10.31754/2409-6105-2019-4-9-18 (inactive 1 July 2025).ISSN2409-6105.S2CID243560299.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^Biney, Ama (2011), "Nkrumah and the Opposition, 1954–1957",The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 65–79,doi:10.1057/9780230118645_5,ISBN978-1-349-29513-5{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Kaplan, Frederick I.; Adamovich, Anthony; Winner, Thomas G. (1958). "Opposition to Sovietization in Belorussian literature (1917–1957)".Books Abroad.32 (4): 442.doi:10.2307/40098174.ISSN0006-7431.JSTOR40098174.
^Alawattage, Chandana; Hopper, Trevor; Wickramasinghe, Danture (2007).Management accounting in less developed countries. Emerald.ISBN978-1-84663-619-6.OCLC182539917.
^Cullather, Nick (2010). "We Shall Release the Waters".The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia. Harvard University Press. pp. 108–133.doi:10.2307/j.ctvjnrv65.9.ISBN978-0-674-05882-8.
^Kwame Nkrumah,Africa Must Unite (1983), p. 74; quoted by George P. Hagan, "Nkrumah's Cultural Policy", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^abcHagan, George P., "Nkrumah's Cultural Policy", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^Anthony, S. (1969). "The State of Ghana".African Affairs.68 (273):337–39.JSTOR720657.
^Joseph R. A. Ayee, "Public Sector Manpower Development During the Nkrumah Period 1951–1966", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^Franker, Karen; James, Dennis (2016). "The Course Development Plan: Macro-Level Decisions and Micro-Level Processes".New Directions for Higher Education.2016 (173):43–53.doi:10.1002/he.20178.ISSN0271-0560.
^abcdefE. A. Haizel, "Education in Ghana, 1951 – 1966", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^National Reconciliation Commission Report (Report). 2004. p. 251.
^Nkrumah's Deception of Africa. Ghana Ministry of Information. 1967.
^First seven year economic and social development plan, 1355–1361 (Mar. 76-Mar. 83) (Report). 1976.doi:10.2458/azu_acku_hc417_a57_1976_v2 (inactive 1 July 2025).{{cite report}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
^abcdefP. A. V. Ansah, "Kwame Nkrumah and the Mass Media", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah. Also see: "Media", in Owusu-Ansah (2014),Historical Dictionary of Ghana, pp.211–213Archived 1 June 2015 at theWayback Machine.
^"Haines, Joseph Thomas William, (born 29 Jan. 1928), Assistant Editor, The Daily Mirror, 1984–90; Group Political Editor, Mirror Group Newspapers, 1984–90",Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007,doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.18570
^"Lambert, Richard Stanton, (1894–27 Nov. 1981), Supervisor of Educational Broadcasts, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1943–60",Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007,doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u166154
^"Economic(al) geology in its broadest sense",Dictionary Geotechnical Engineering/Wörterbuch GeoTechnik, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, p. 455, 2014,doi:10.1007/978-3-642-41714-6_50467,ISBN978-3-642-41713-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Brevini, Benedetta (2013), "Theorizing Public Service Broadcasting Online",Public Service Broadcasting Online, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 19–29,doi:10.1057/9781137295101_3,ISBN978-1-137-29510-1{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^abS. Asamoah Darko, "The Development and Patterns of Manufacturing Industries in Ghana, 1951–1965", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^"Chapter IV. The State Regulates Government Corporations",Government Corporations and State Law, Columbia University Press, pp. 95–118, 31 December 1939,doi:10.7312/wein91324-006,ISBN978-0-231-88317-7{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^abK. B. Asante, "Nkrumah and State Enterprises", in Arhin (1992),The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah.
^Zwass, Adam (16 September 2016).From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union and China.doi:10.4324/9781315482859.ISBN9781315482859.
^"Figure 1.1. Jobs were destroyed in manufacturing and created in education, social and health care services and public administration".Back to Work: Finland. OECD.doi:10.1787/888933426286.
^Bouman, Martine (1999).The turtle and the peacock : collaboration for prosocial change: the entertainment-education strategy on television. s.n.ISBN90-5485-995-4.OCLC782888250.
^Kolavalli, Shashi, and Marcella Vigneri. COCOA IN GHANA: SHAPING THE SUCCESS OF AN ECONOMY – World Bank. World Bank, World Bank/AFRICAEXT/Resources/258643-1271798012256/ghana_cocoa.pdf.
^Hofstadter, Richard (1958).Great issues in American history: a documentary record. Vintage Books.OCLC265633.
^"Conference in Athens: A Speech at a Conference in Athens attended by Representatives from all Greek Parties December 26, 1944",The Dawn of Liberation : War Speeches, Cassell and Company Ltd, 1945,doi:10.5040/9781472582935.0061,ISBN978-1-4725-8293-5{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Pierre Englebert & Kevin C. Dunn (2013),Inside African Politics, London: Lynne Reinner, pp. 320–321.
^"Appendix Ii . The Republican Constitution of Ghana. Government Proposals for a Republican Constitution . Selected Legislation",Law and Social Change in Ghana, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 390–448, 31 December 1966,doi:10.1515/9781400875580-012,ISBN978-1-4008-7558-0{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Pardo, Sharon (20 June 2013). "The Year that Israel Considered Joining the European Economic Community".JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies.51 (5):901–915.doi:10.1111/jcms.12036.ISSN0021-9886.S2CID142802033.
^Seck, Diery (2016), "Impact of Common Currency Membership on West African Countries' Enhanced Economic Growth",Accelerated Economic Growth in West Africa, Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 3–18,doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16826-5_1,ISBN978-3-319-16825-8
^"Butler, Captain John Fitshardinge Paul, ((20 Dec. 1888 – 4 Sept. 1916), KRRC; attached Pioneer Company, Gold Coast Regiment, West African Frontier Force",Who Was Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007,doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u194250
^abcdeEboe Hutchful, "The Development of the Army Officer Corps in Ghana, 1956–1955",Journal of African Studies 12.3, Fall 1985.
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, pp. 22–32.
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, p. 75.
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, p. 74.
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, pp. 67–68.
^abBaynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, p. 93. "Within a week, 1,193 Ghanaian soldiers were in Léopoldvile and 192 more were waiting for transport in Accra with 156 trucks and 160 tons of stores. In terms of its resources, Ghana made one of the heaviest manpower contributions to the Congo. By the end of August 1960, she had 2,394 army officers and men in the country. The Ghana contingent remained for three of the four years of the UN operations, contributing a total of more than 39,000-man-months."
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, p. 94.
^Baynham (1988),Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana, pp. 95–97.
^Keith Lamont Scott's Disability May Have Gotten Him Killed, and He's Not The Only One.American Civil Liberties Union (Report).doi:10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9970-2016059.
^Hersh, Seymour (9 May 1978), "CIA Said to Have Aided Plotters Who Overthrew Nkrumah in Ghana",The New York Times. Reprinted in:Ray, Ellen; Schaap, William; Van Meter, Karl; Wolf, Louis (1979).Dirty Work 2: The CIA in Africa. Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart Inc. pp. 159–162.ISBN0-8184-0294-6.
^Dutfield, Graham (27 November 2017), "If we have never been modern, they have never been traditional",Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law, Routledge, pp. 276–290,doi:10.4324/9781315530857-18,ISBN978-1-315-53085-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^"How, when he had besieged Chambly, another castle of the same Matthew, a sudden storm forced his host to flee, so that if Louis himself had not bravely fought back, the host would have nearly been destroyed; and how Matthew himself gave satisfaction to him with humility",The Deeds of Louis the Fat, Catholic University of America Press, pp. 32–34, 2012,doi:10.2307/j.ctt3fgq60.12,ISBN978-0-8132-2094-9{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
^Afari-Gyan, Kwadwo. "Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore and W. E. B. Du Bois",Research Review (NS) vol. 7 (1991): 1–5. Print.
^Sheehan, Michael (1990). "Organisation of African Unity 25 years on: essays in honour of Kwame Nkrumah".International Affairs.66 (2): 426.doi:10.2307/2621454.ISSN1468-2346.JSTOR2621454.
^Nkrumah, Kwame (1975).Handbook of revolutionary warfare: a guide to the armed phase of the African revolution (1st U.S. ed.). New York: International Publishers.ISBN0-7178-0226-4.OCLC8095708.
^Nkrumah, Kwame (1970).The Way Out, "Civilian Rule" Fraud and A Call for Positive Action and Armed Struggle (Reprinted ed.). University of London, Senate House Library: Panaf Books.
^Nkrumah, Kwame (1978).Consciencism: philosophy and ideology for decolonisation. London: Panaf.ISBN0-901787-11-6.OCLC16613918.
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