The leader I am going to talk about is Kwame Nkrumah. The name Kwame means "born on Saturday." Kwame Nkrumah, the son of a goldsmith, was born Francis Nwia Nkrumah on September 21, 1909, into the small Nzima ethic group in Nkroful, Gold Coast. Nkroful refers to the village where Nkrumah was born, but can also refer to the people. The Nkroful speak both Akan and English. Kwame Nkrumah was taught in Ghana, and was a very good student. He worked as a teacher until 1935 when he left for the United States. He was accepted into University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University. Nkrumah graduated from Lincoln in 1939 with a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Sociology. He worked as an Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy to support himself. He also enrolled in graduate classes at the Lincoln Theological Seminary and at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1942 he graduated as the top student from the seminary in the Bachelor of Theology program. He also earned Master's degrees in Philosophy and Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
While working during summer vacations, he studied in Harlem; where he sold fish and worked at a soap factory. He studied for 10 years from 1935 to 1945 in the United States and then went to England. While there in 1945 he helped to organize and co-chair the fifth Pan-African Congress in Britain in Manchester, England.
In 1947, Nkrumah was invited to come home to Ghana to help lead the liberation movement, called the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). He served as General Secretary to the UGCC as they started a positive action program against their British colonizers. After a violent confrontation with the British colonial police, Nkrumah and other UGCC leaders were arrested. After being released, Nkrumah was not happy with the goals and slow pace of the UGCC. He left the party and formed his own new party. On June 12, 1949, Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party (CPP), it's slogan was, Independence Now. Throughout his life, Nkrumah fought for his dream of Afrikan people's world wide liberation.
Nkrumah as Prime Minister, declared the independence of the Gold Coast on March 6, 1957. He renamed the country Ghana after an ancient empire. He tried to modernize the country and started with his plan to unite Afrika into one country. In 1960, Kwame Nkrumah became the first president of Ghana. Ghana was a former British colony of the Gold Coast and the first of the European colonies in Africa to gain independence with majority rule. Nkrumah held many conferences in Ghana to help unite the Afrikan continent. His goal was to have a union government of Afrika which would mean one government for all of the countries of Afrika. Nkrumah worked feverishly with the liberation movements and heads of state to obtain the goal of a united Afrika.
On December 31, 1957, Nkrumah married an Egyptian woman, named Fathia Rizk. She was the niece of the president of Egypt. Nkrumah married Fathia to unite the countries of Egypt and Ghana. They had two sons and a daughter.
In 1958, Ghana and Guinea formed the Union of Afrikan States. In 1960, Nkrumah signed a secret agreement with Patrice Lumumba joining Ghana, Guinea and the Congo. In 1961, Mali joined the Union of Afrikan states. In 1966, when Nkrumah was in China trying to stop the Vietnam War, soldiers from both the CIA and MI6 (British CIA) set to overthrew the country. On February 24, 1966, Nkrumah's Ghana was overthrown by Ghanian agents of the CIA. The soldiers arrested his wife and children. While they were in custody, a soldier's gun accidentally fired and Nkrumah's son was shot in the ear. The soldier's panicked because they shot a child. It was during this distraction that Nkrumah's wife escaped with her children. She ran down the street to the Egyptian embassy which gave her safe passage back to Egypt.
Nkrumah spent his final years as co-president of the Republic of Guinea with Sekou Toure. This was first time in history that a leader was overthrown and became co-president of another country. His goal from Guinea was to liberate his country of Ghana from the western powers. Nkrumah also continued to work for the United states of Afrika. He died in May of 1972 of throat cancer in Romania, but he was still living in Guinea.
Over his lifetime, Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorates by Lincoln University, Moscow State University; Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt; Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland; Humboldt University in the former East Berlin; and other universities. Kwame Nkrumah wrote many papers, speeches and great books. Here are some of his writings:
Rhodesian File
Towards Colonial Freedom, Heinemann, 1962.
Challenge of the Congo, Panaf, 1967.
Dark Days in Ghana, Panaf, 1968.
"Negro History: European Government in Africa," The Lincolnian, April 12, 1938, p. 2 (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) - see Special Collections and Archives, Lincoln University
Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957) ISBN 0-901787-60-4
Africa Must Unite (1963) ISBN 0-901787-13-2
African Personality (1963)
Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965) ISBN 0-901787-23-X
Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (1967) ISBN 0-901787-54-X
African Socialism Revisited (1967)
Voice From Conakry (1967) ISBN 90-17-87027-3
Handbook for Revolutionary Warfare (1968) - first introduction of Pan-African pellet compass
Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation (1970) ISBN 0-901787-11-6
Class Struggle in Africa (1970) ISBN 0-901787-12-4
The Struggle Continues (1973) ISBN 0-901787-41-8
I Speak of Freedom (1973) ISBN 0-901787-14-0
Revolutionary Path (1973) ISBN 0-901787-22-1
This was just some of information on Kwame Nkrumah. I believe Kwame Nkrumah was a great man, who did great things and deserves recognition for his work. Some refer to him as the founder of the Pan-Afrikan revolutionary movement. I know I would not have tried to stop a war, but again a great man was Kwame Nkrumah. He could do great things, and sacrificed so much to gain freedom for his country; and to unite Afrika and it's people as one.
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