“Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them” - Kwame Nkrumah
(Kwame Nkrumah)
Kwame Nkrumah was born on September 18, 1909 in Nkroful, Gold Coast (Ghana). Nkrumah was raised by his mother and extended family. Nkrumah went to a Catholic mission school for elementary school and finished the 10 year program in 8 years. In 1925 he became a teacher at the school. The headmaster of the school taught Nkrumah of the teachings and works of Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois. After graduating from Achimota in 1930 Nkrumah was given a teaching post at the Catholic primary school in Elmina, and after 1 year there, was made headmaster of the school at Axim. In 1933, he was appointed as a teacher at the Catholic seminary at Amissa. Nkrumah went to the US in 1935.
(Nkrumah (Top Right) in 1935)
Nkrumah then enrolled into Lincoln College in Pennsylvania. To pay for his college he worked in menial jobs. In 1939 Nkrumah received his BA in economics and sociology. He was then appointed as an assistant lecturer in philosophy, and he began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in both Philadelphia and New York City. Also in 1939 Nkrumah enrolled both at Lincoln's seminary and at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 1942 he gained a Bachelor of Theology degree from Lincoln. In 1943 Nkrumah earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education from the University of Pennsylvania. Nkrumah spent his summers in Harlem. Nkrumah organized a group of expatriate African students in Pennsylvania and built it into the African Students Association of America and Canada, and became its president. Also in 1943 Nkrumah met Trinidadian Marxist C. L. R. James, Russian expatriate Raya Dunayevskaya, and Chinese American Grace Lee Boggs. In 1944 Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan African conference held in New York City. In 1945 the FBI started surveillance on Nkrumah. Nkrumah then moved to London, England the same year and enrolled at the London School of Economics as a PhD candidate in anthropology. He withdrew after one term and in 1946 enrolled at University College. Nkrumah was the principal organizer of the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester. The congress agreed to pursue a federal United States of Africa, with interlocking regional organizations, governing through separate states of limited sovereignty. They planned to pursue a new African culture without tribalism, democratic within a socialist or communist system, synthesizing traditional aspects with modern thinking, and for this to be achieved by nonviolent means if possible. W.E.B. DuBois, Hastings Banda, and Jomo Kenyatta attended the congress.
(W.E.B. DuBois (Left) with Nkrumah)
The congress sought to establish ongoing African activism in Great Britain in conjunction with the West African National Secretariat (WANS) to work towards the decolonization of Africa. Nkrumah became the secretary of WANS. Both the U.S. State Department and MI5 watched Nkrumah and the WANS, focusing on their links with Communism. In 1947 Nkrumah ran the United Gold Coast Convention. Nkrumah quickly submitted plans for branches of the UGCC to be established colony wide, and for strikes if necessary to gain political ends. In 1948 Nkrumah organized a march for Ex Servicemen to march to the governor to address their grievances.The march was fired upon by the British which prompted the 1948 Accra riots. In 1948 Nkrumah was arrested in Accra, Ghana for planning to create a Union of African Socialist Republic and for inciting the Accra riots, 5 other leaders of the UGCC were arrested. After they were released Nkrumah using his own funds, began the Ghana National College. Nkrumah became the honorary treasurer. Nkrumah then founded the Accra evening news. In 1949 he announced the formation of the Convention People's Party (CPP). CPP operatives drove red white and green vans across the country, playing music and rallying public support for the party and especially for Nkrumah. In 1950 Nkrumah demanded a constituent assembly to write a constitution and since the governor wouldn't commit to it Nkrumah called for Positive Action, with the unions beginning a general strike. The strike quickly led to violence, and Nkrumah and other CPP leaders were arrested. Nkrumah was sentenced to a total of three years in prison. Nkrumah did not serve the 3 year sentence.
(Nkrumah (Middle Left) in the US)
In the February 1951 legislative election, the first general election to be held under universal franchise in colonial Africa, the CPP was elected in a landslide. Nkrumah was elected for his Accra constituency. Nkrumah faced multiple challenges as he assumed office. The colony was in good financial shape, with reserves from years of cocoa profit held in London, and Nkrumah was able to spend freely. In 1951 Nkrumah earned an honorary degree from Lincoln College. In 1952, the governor withdrew from the cabinet, leaving Nkrumah as his prime minister. In 1953 Nkrumah announced that though Africans would be given preference, the country would be relying on expatriate European civil servants for several years. In June of 1953 the new constitutional proposals were accepted both by the assembly and by the British. In 1956 an assembly voted for independence under the name of Nkrumah. In 1957 the British prime minister, Harold Macmillan, announced that Ghana would be a full member of the Commonwealth of Nations. On March 6th, 1957 Ghana became independent. Nkrumah spoke at the first session of the Ghana Parliament that Independence Day.
(Nkrumah on Ghana’s independence day)
Nkrumah was hailed as the “Osagyefo” which means "redeemer". Ghanaian independence became one of the most internationally reported news events in modern African history. Nkrumah designed the new national flag of Ghana. Nkrumah opened Black Star Square near Osu Castle in the coastal district of Osu, Accra. This square would be used for national symbolism and mass patriotic rallies. Under Nkrumah's leadership, Ghana adopted some socialist policies and practices. Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various community programs, and established schools. Nkrumah's response to riots within the country was to repress local movements by the Avoidance of Discrimination Act, which banned regional or tribally based political parties. Another strike at tribalism fell in Ashanti, where Nkrumah and the CPP got most local chiefs who were not party supporters de stooled. These repressive actions concerned the opposition parties, who came together to form the United Party under Kofi Abrefa Busia. In 1958 an opposition MP was arrested on charges of trying to obtain arms abroad for a planned infiltration of the Ghana Army. Nkrumah was convinced there had been an assassination plot against him, and his response was to have the parliament pass the Preventive Detention Act, allowing for incarceration for up to five years without charge or trial, with only Nkrumah empowered to release prisoners early. Nkrumah intended to bypass the British trained judiciary, which he saw as opposing his plans when they subjected them to constitutional scrutiny. 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. In 1960 Nkrumah announced plans for a new constitution which would make Ghana a republic, headed by a president with broad executive and legislative powers.
(Nkrumah in 1960)
Nkrumah was then elected the president of Ghana. Nkrumah also sought to eliminate "tribalism", a source of loyalties held more deeply than those to the nation state. Nkrumah succeeded in reducing the political importance of the local chieftaincy. In 1960 Nkrumah negotiated the creation of a Union of African States, a political alliance between Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. In 1961 Nkrumah laid the first stones in the foundation of the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute created to train Ghanaian civil servants as well as promote Pan Africanism. Also in 1961 Nkrumah visited the USSR and China.
(Nkrumah (Left) with Mao Zedong)
Nkrumah initiated the Ghana Nuclear Reactor Project in 1961 also. In 1962 Nkrumah opened the Institute of African Studies. Nkrumah was instrumental in the creation of the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa in 1963. Nkrumah opposed entry of African states into the Common Market of the European Economic Community. Nkrumah also became a symbol for black liberation in the United States.
(Nkrumah (Left) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Right))
Also in 1963 Nkrumah was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the USSR. In 1964 he proposed a constitutional amendment which would make the CPP the only legal party and himself president for life of both nation and party. The amendment passed with 99.91% of the vote. The amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a de facto legal dictatorship. Also 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. In 1966 the country was $1 Billion in debt. Also in 1966 while Nkrumah was visiting Asia his government was overthrown in a military coup.
(Nkrumah in 1966)
President Nkrumah alluded to possible US complicity in the coup. Following the coup, Ghana also realigned itself internationally, cutting its close ties to Guinea and accepting a new friendship with Western countries. Ghana lost a good deal of its stature in the eyes of African nationalists. Nkrumah never returned to Ghana, but he continued to push for his vision of African unity. He was exiled to Conakry, Guinea. He became honorary co president of Guinea. Nkrumah then moved to Romania due to his failing health.
(Nkrumah in 1972)
On April 27th, 1972 Kwame Nkrumah died of prostate cancer in Bucharest, Romania. He was 62 years old.
(Statue of Nkrumah)
Today is the 45th anniversary of his death. Take time to remember this great leader today.
Books by Kwame Nkrumah
- Negro History: European Government in Africa (1938)
- Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957)
- Africa Must Unite (1963)
- African Personality (1963)
- Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)
- Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (1967)
- African Socialism Revisited (1967)
- Voice From Conakry (1967)
- Dark Days in Ghana (1968)
- Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968)
- Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonisation (1970)
- Class Struggle in Africa (1970)
- The Struggle Continues (1973)
- I Speak of Freedom (1973)
- Revolutionary Path (1973)
Videos of Kwame Nkrumah
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foDlCCudcsE “THE UNITED STATES OF AFRICA, Kwame Nkrumah Speaks!”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTTdi8AjZg8 “Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Speech on 6th march 1957 at the independence square”
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHjK7sZYkMQ “Kwame Nkrumah Speaks of the ILLUMINATI”
