Kwame Nkrumah | president of Ghana | Britannica.com president of Ghana Ho Chi Minh Kwame Nkrumah, (born Sept. 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast [now Ghana]—died April 27, 1972, Bucharest , Rom.), Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast’s drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana . He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in 1966. Kwame Nkrumah, 1962. Marc and Evelyne Bernheim/Woodfin Camp and Associates Early years Kwame Nkrumah’s father was a goldsmith and his mother a retail trader. Baptized a Roman Catholic, Nkrumah spent nine years at the Roman Catholic elementary school in nearby Half Assini. After graduation from Achimota College in 1930, he started his career as a teacher at Roman Catholic junior schools in Elmina and Axim and at a seminary. Increasingly drawn to politics, Nkrumah decided to pursue further studies in the United States .

He entered Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1935 and, after graduating in 1939, obtained master’s degrees from Lincoln and from the University of Pennsylvania . He studied the literature of socialism , notably Karl Marx and Vladimir I. Lenin, and of nationalism , especially Marcus Garvey , the black American leader of the 1920s. Eventually, Nkrumah came to describe himself as a “nondenominational Christian and a Marxist socialist.” He also immersed himself in political work, reorganizing and becoming president of the African Students’ Organization of the United States and Canada. He left the United States in May 1945 and went to England, where he organized the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester. Meanwhile, in the Gold Coast, J.B. Danquah had formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to work for self-government by constitutional means. Invited to serve as the UGCC’s general secretary, Nkrumah returned home in late 1947. As general secretary, he addressed meetings throughout the Gold Coast and began to create a mass base for the new movement.

When extensive riots occurred in February 1948, the British briefly arrested Nkrumah and other leaders of the UGCC. When a split developed between the middle-class leaders of the UGCC and the more radical supporters of Nkrumah, he formed in June 1949 the new Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), a mass-based party that was committed to a program of immediate self-government. In January 1950, Nkrumah initiated a campaign of “positive action,” involving nonviolent protests, strikes, and noncooperation with the British colonial authorities. From prison to prime ministry In the ensuing crisis, services throughout the country were disrupted, and Nkrumah was again arrested and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. But the Gold Coast’s first general election (Feb. 8, 1951) demonstrated the support the CPP had already won. Elected to Parliament, Nkrumah was released from prison to become leader of government business and, in 1952, prime minister of the Gold Coast. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent When the Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust territory became an independent state within the British Commonwealth—as Ghana—in March 1957, Nkrumah became the new nation’s first prime minister. In 1958 Nkrumah’s government legalized the imprisonment without trial of those it regarded as security risks. It soon became apparent that Nkrumah’s style of government was to be authoritarian . Nkrumah’s popularity in the country rose, however, as new roads, schools, and health facilities were built and as the policy of Africanization created better career opportunities for Ghanaians. By a plebiscite of 1960 Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah became its president, with wide legislative and executive powers under a new constitution. Nkrumah then concentrated his attention on campaigning for the political unity of black Africa, and he began to lose touch with realities in Ghana. His administration became involved in magnificent but often ruinous development projects, so that a once-prosperous country became crippled with foreign debt.

His government’s Second Development Plan, announced in 1959, had to be abandoned in 1961 when the deficit in the balance of payments rose to more than $125 million. Contraction of the economy led to widespread labour unrest and to a general strike in September 1961. From that time Nkrumah began to evolve a much more rigorous apparatus of political control and to turn increasingly to the communist countries for support. President of Ghana and afterward BBC ON THIS DAY | 6 | 1957: Ghana celebrates independence About This Site | Text Only 1957: Ghana celebrates independence The people of Ghana have been celebrating the end of colonial rule and the dawn of their independence. Most workers have been given the day off - tens of thousands have gathered in the capital, Accra, to greet the independent country's first prime minister, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The Duchess of Kent has been attending the celebrations. Last night, she opened the Independence Monument, erected near the spot where in 1948 members of the Ghanaian ex-servicemen's union were shot when marching to present a petition to the British Governor.

The Gold Coast Legislative Assembly was prorogued at midnight to cheers from the waiting crowd outside. This morning the Legislative Assembly building, now the building of the Ghana parliament was packed with members dressed in their national costumes. The first Governor-General of Ghana, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke has been sworn in. Message from the Queen The Duchess gave a speech, setting out the Ghana Government policy. She also read out a personal message from the Queen to the people of Ghana. In it she said: "The hopes of many, especially in Africa, hang on your endeavours. It is my earnest and confident belief that my people in Ghana will go forward in freedom and justice." In reply, Dr Nkrumah said: "My government fully realises both the advantages and the responsibilities involved in the achievement of independence. It intends to make full use of these advantages to increase the prosperity of the country." Earlier, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, made a speech welcoming Ghana's move to independence. "The government and people of Ghana have set their hands to a great task. We are confident whatever may be the difficulties which will face them they will maintain and develop the principles of tolerance and freedom which are inherent in our parliamentary system.

We shall give them all the help we can." Political History of Ghana 1957 - independence, Nkrumah of CPP is PM, 2 key parties 1960 - declared republic, one party system, presidential system 1966 - military overthrow of 1st republic 1969 - 2nd republic, Busia of PP is PM, 2 key parties 1972 - military overthrow of 2nd republic 1978 - palace coup to restructure military government 1979 - junior officer uprising and military housecleaning 1979 - ushered third republic, Limann of PNP is President, 3 parties 1981 - overthrow of the constitutional PNP gov't by the PNDC military junta 1983 - Attempted overthrow of the PNDC junta by other junior army men 1992 - Rawlings of NDC is Dem elected as President, 2 parties ** 1996 - Rawlings of NDC is re-elected, 2 parties 2001 - Kuffour (NPP) is President 2005 - Kufuor begins second-term in

 office 2009 - John Evans Atta Mills (NDC) is President 2012 - John Dramani Mahama (NDC) is sworn in as President following death of President Mills Summary: multiparty system 20 years military system 21 years oneparty system 6 years ** fraud allegations led to an electoral boycott resulting in an effective one party system.

Also, marks the first time when the head of a military regime had contested in an election. Ghana lies at the heart of a region which has been leading sub-Saharan African culture since the first millenium BC in metal-working mining, sculpture and agriculture. Modern Ghana takes its name from the ancient kingdom of Ghana, some 800 km. (500 miles) to the north of present-day Accra, which flourished up to the eleventh century AD. One of the great sudanic states which dominate African history, the kingdom of Ghana controlled the gold trade between the min- ing areas to the south and the Saharan trade routes to the north. Ancient Ghana was also the focus for the export trade in Saharan copper and salt. The coming of Europeans altered the trading patterns, and the focus of economic power shifted to the West African coast- line. The Portuguese came first, seeking the source of the African gold. It lay too far inland for them to reach; but on the Gold Coast they found a region where gold could be obtained, exported along established trade paths from the interior.

Their fort at Elmina ("the mine") was the first in a series of forts along the Gold Coast designed to repel the other European seafarers who followed in their wake, all struggling for their share of the profitable Gold Coast trade. In due course, however, slaves replaced gold as the most lucrative trade along the coast, with the European slave buy- ers using the forts and adjoining buildings for their own accommodation and protection, as well as for storing the goods, mainly guns and gunpowder, which they would barter for slaves. Some of the forts were also used for keeping newly acquired slaves pending the arrival of the ships sent to collect them. The history of the various forts, given later in this guide, graphically expresses how the various European trading nations fought for our gold, ivory and later, slaves. But while Europeans quarrelled over access to the coastal trade, and despite the appalling depredations of the slave traders, which left whole regions destroyed and depopulated, the shape of modern Ghana was being laid down.

At the end of the 17th century, there were a number of small states on the Gold Coast; by 1750, these had merged, by conquest or diplomacy, into two: the Asante empire, and the Fantes. By the 19th century, the Asantes were seeking mastery of the coast, and especially access to the trading post of Elmina. By this time the British had won control of the coastal trade from the other European nations, and their interests could not tolerate further Asante expansion - more so since the Asante Empire was known for its sophisticated admin- istrative efficiency and would have been difficult or im- possible to best at trade. Nevertheless it took a series of military campaigns over some 50 years before the British were finally able to force the Asantes to give up sovereignty over their southern possessions. In a final campaign in 1874 the British attempted, without success, to seize Asante; they were however able to take Kumasi and exact a huge ransom for it in gold; and the vast Asante empire shrunk to the Asante and Brong-Ahafo regions of modern Ghana.

Meanwhile, the Fantes too had been uniting and organiz- ing, and in 1868 formed themselves into a confederacy under a king-president with a 15,000 strong army, a civil service and a constitution. In 1871 the British arrested the Fante leaders for "treason". They were however freed a month later, but the con- federacy never recovered from the blow. In 1874 the British for- mally established the British Crown Colony of the Gold Coast, "legalizing" a colonial policy which had in fact been in force since the signing of the bond between the coastal Chiefs and the British in 1844, despite the fact that the Chiefs never ceded sovereignty to the British under the bond, though some of them allowed British intervention in judicial matters. The Asante and Fante traditions of education and organ- ization, and their urge for autonomy, remained throughout the years of British colonial rule. The Gold Coast was regarded as the showpiece of Britain's colonies: the richest, the best educat- ed, the first to have an elected majority in the legislature and with the best organized native authorities.

The Gold Coast riots in 1948, which marked the start of the people's agitation for independence, were instrumental in changing British policy and drove home the point that colonialism had no future. But a long struggle still lay ahead - and the man who was the catalyst of that struggle was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Born in 1909, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah trained as a teacher at Achimota College in Ghana and then in the United States and Britain, where he obtained his degrees. He became prominent as a leader of West African organiza- tions in London and was invited to return to Ghana as general secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention. In 1949 he broke away to from the Convention People's Party with the slo- gan Self-Government Now. In February 1951 the party swept to victory in the polls and became the leaders of Govermnent business in the colony's first African government. The Gold Coast had become the first British colony in Africa to achieve self-government. On 6 March 1957 Ghana achieved independence - again, the first British colony in Africa to do so - with Osagyefo Dr.

Kwame Nkrumah as its first Prime Minister. On 1st July,1960 it became a republic with Kwame Nkrumah as its first President. Ghana spearheaded the political advancement of Africa and Dr. Nkrumah laid the foundations for the unity later expressed in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He was a firm supporter of the Commonwealth and the Non-Aligned movement. On 24th February 1966, the government of Dr. Nkrumah was overthrown by the Ghana armed forces and the police. A National Liberation Council (NLC), headed by Lt. General Joseph Arthur Ankrah, was formed to administer the country. General Ankrah was removed from office in April 1969 and Lt. General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa became the Chairman of the NLC, which later gave way to a three-man Presidential Commission with General Afrifa as chairman. The Commission paved the way for a general election in 1969 which brought into power the Progress Party government, with Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia as Prime Minister and Mr. Edward Akufo Addo as president.

The Ghana armed forces again took over the reins of gov- ernment on 13th January 1972, and Colonel (later General) Ignatius Kutu Acheampong became the Head of State and Chairman of the National Redemption Council (NRC). The name of the NRC was later changed to the Supreme Military Council (SMC). General Acheampong was replaced by General F.W.K. Akuffo in a palace coup in July 1978. The SMC was overthrown on 4th June 1979, in a mass revolt of junior officers and men of the Ghana armed forces. Following the uprising, an Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was set up under the chairmanship of Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings. The AFRC carried out a house-cleaning exercise in the armed forces and society at large, while restoring a sense of moral responsibility and the principle of accountability and pro- bity in public life. The AFRC was in office for only three months and, in pursuance of a programme already set in motion before the uprising, allowed general elections to be held.

On 24th September 1979, the AFRC handed over power to the civilian administration of Dr. Hilla Limann, leader of the People's National Party which had won the elections. In the wake of the continuing downward plunge of the coun- try, the Limann administration was overthrown on 31st December 1981, ushering in a new revolutionary era of far-reach ing reforms and rehabilitation at all levels. Flt.-Lt. Rawlings became the Chairman of a nine-member Provisional National Defence Ruling Council, (PNDC) with Secretaries of State in charge of the various ministries being responsible to the PNDC . Immediately on assumption of office, the PNDC set up a National Commission for Democracy (NCD) charged with for- mulating a programme for the more effective realisation of true democracy. The Govemment of the PNDC also provided for the establishment of elected District Assemblies to bring local government to the grassroots.

In 1990, the NCD, at the prompting of the PNDC, organised forums in all the 10 regions of the country at which Ghanaians of all walks of life advanced their views as to what form of gov- ernment they wanted. These views were collated and analysed by the NCD whose final report indicated that the people want- ed a multi-party system of government. This led to the appointment of a Committee of Experts to draw up constitutional proposals for the consideration of a Consultative Assembly. The Assembly prepared a draft consti- tution based on proposals submitted to it by the PNDC, as well as previous constitutions of 1957,1969 and 1979, and the report of the Committee of Experts. The final draft constitution was unanimously approved by the people in a referendum on April 28,1992. Among other things, the Constitution provides for an Executive President elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of four years and eligible for re-election for only one addi- tional term.

In the presidential elections held on November 3, 1992, Flt.-Lt- Rawlings who stood on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), garnered 58.8% of the 3,989,020 votes cast to beat to second place his closest rival Prof. Albert Adu Boahen representing the New Patriotic Party who polled 30.4% of the votes. Other contestants for the presidency were former president Dr. Hilla limann of the People's National Convention (6.7%), Mr. Kwabena Darko of the National Independence Party (2.8%) and Lt-Gen. Emmanuel Erskine representing the People's Heritage Party (1.7%). In the parliamentary elections held on December 29,1992, the Progressive Alliance made up of the National Democratic Congress, the National Convention Party and the Egle Party won 198 seats out of a total of 200, within the Alliance the NDC won 189 seats, the NCP had 8, the Egle Party 2, and Independents 2.

Four parties - the NPP, PNC, NIP and PHP - boycotted the parliamentary elections, disatisfied with the pro posed election strategy. The Fourth Republic was inaugurated on January 7,1993 with the swearing-in of Flt. Lt. Rawlings as President and his running mate, Mr.K.N. Arkaah as Vice President. The newly elected Parliament was opened on the same day and elected, Mr. Justice D.F. Annan as Speaker. 1996: Rawlings was re-elected for a second term In the December 7, 2000 elections, John A. Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), won the largest share of the presidential vote with 48.17% of the vote, compared to 44.54.% for Rawlings vice-president and hand-picked successor, John Atta Mills of the NDC. The NPP also won 100 of the 200 seats in Parliament. The NDC won 92 seats, while independent and small party candidates won eight seats.

In the December 28 run-off election, with pledges of support form the other five opposition parties, Kufuor defeated Mills by winning 56.73% of the vote and the NPP picked up one additional MP by winning a by-election, giving them 100 seats and a majority in Parliament. Both rounds of the election were observed, and declared free and fair by a large contingent of domestic and international monitors. President Kufuor took the oath of office on January 7, 2001, becoming the first elected president in Ghanas history to succeed another elected president. He was re-elected in December 2004 for a second four-year term, becoming the first civilian president (without a military background) to fully serve his tenure and go ahead to be re-elected. In the December 7, 2008 elections, John Evans Atta Mills won the majority of votes after two rounds of voting and a final decidal at Tain and community in the Brong Ahafo region and was declared president and accordingly sworn-in in 2009.

President Atta Mills died on July 24, 2012 having served three and half years of his four year mandate as an elected president. By this tragic incident, President Atta Mills becomes the first sitting president to have died whiles still serving. According to the Constitution of Ghana, Vice President John Dramani Mahama was sworn in as the President of the Republic of Ghana. He is expected to serve the remaining term of the Late President. Political outlook Under Jerry Rawlings' rule, Ghana became the most politically stable and prosperous nation in West Africa and provided a model of development for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. This may continue under President Kufuor if the new government and opposition remain mindful of the turbulence in neighbouring Cte d'Ivoire and try to quell some of the grassroots violence seen during the last general election and in Dagbon in 2002. Political instability and the intervention of the military is unlikely, particularly given Kufuor's ability to turn the Ghanaian economy around since he came to power. Despite his outbursts, Rawlings' career as a serial coup maker appears to be over.

Nevertheless, following his inauguration in January 2001, President Kufuor appeared to backtrack on many popular policies which brought him electoral success. Apparently more interested in appeasing Western donors and international financial institutions than bolstering his own popularity, Kufuor pledged a period of austerity measures. He claims he is fully aware of the dangers this could pose to Ghana's political stability. In his swearing-in ceremony he warned that the ailing economy would 'put severe strains on our people's beliefs and enthusiasm for the democratic process' unless donors step up their assistance. Culled from the booklet "GHANA - a brief guide" a publication of the Ghana Information Services Department 1994. Ghanaweb added more info Political and Economic History of Ghana USA Political and Economic History of Ghana The history of Ghana is one of sadness and tragedy, of unnecessary tragedy. The post-independence history is that not uncommon case of a charismatic leader feeding the populace on a fantasy that it takes decades to recover from. In Argentina it was Juan Peron. In Ghana it was Kwame Nkrumah.

Before going into the details of the Nkrumah era it is helpful to get some perspective on the nature of the fantasy that has entrapped so many countries. A major legacy and burden of tribal and feudalistic societies is the notion that leaders have the power to solve problems and bring justice. The village chieftain takes resources from the villagers and to the powerless villagers the chieftain seems like a potential foundation of wealth and luxury. To those who aspire to be chieftain it seems that if only they could achieve that status they could not only have a pleasant living but could do good for the villagers. In the American idiom they could be fairy godmothers, solving all problems with the waive of a magic wand. So the possibility of becoming a fairy godmother is a powerful motivation for those who seek leadership. On the other hand, for the powerless who have no hope of becoming a leader the notion of there being fairy godmothers who can solve all problems is likewise a powerful influence. But of course there are no fairy godmothers and can be no fairy godmothers. The resources that the village chieftain dispenses come only from the productive efforts of the people themselves.

If the people neglect their own productive efforts in seeking benefits from the chieftain then soon even the chieftain has no resources. The romance of Third World leaders with socialism is just an attempt to create the status of the village chieftain on a larger scale. Socialism's main function ideologically is to provide a rationale for having all power concentrated in the hands of the central government. The charismatic leader of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Felix Houphouet Boigny, remarked, "Don't make the mistake of thinking that socialism will feed the people." Boigny was associated with socialist and communist political parties early in his career but he had the good sense not to be deluded by the rhetoric and established sound economic policies in Cote d'Ivoire that led to economic success, The Ivory Coast Miracle. In contrast, Kwame Nkrumah took a much more promising economy and basically destroyed it. The only thing that can be said in his defense is that he pursued policies that the British had initiated. He took bad policies and drove them to their logical conclusions. The social democratic policies that nearly destroyed the British economy did destroy the Ghanaian economy.

However, Kwame Nkrumah did not get all of his bad policies from the British. He created many of the worst elements on his own, such as the one-party state. Before going into the details, here is what happened under Nkrumah. What is now Ghana developed a prosperous industry of growing cacao (cocoa). It started in the 1870's with the importation of cacao growing by native farmers. Cacao is native to Mexico and it took some foresight to recognize that cacao could be successfully grown in West Africa. Polly Hill in her study emphasizes that the development of the cacao industry was the result of the efforts of individual native farmers. By the 20th century the British government took note of the industry and decided to take control. The rationale was the following. Since the amount of cacao that was put on the market at any time was the result of uncoordinated decisions of small-scale farmers the price fluctuated substantially. A government marketing board could buy the cacao from the farmers and carefully control when it was marketed and thus maintain a steady price. This may have been true but the government did not intend to act as middleman in cacao marketing for free.

The price paid by the marketing board to the farmers was substantially less than the price it received for the cacao on international markets. In effect, this price differential was a tax on the cacao industry. Substantial funds accrued to the government. At the time of independence the funds accumulated as a result of this tax on the cacao industry had a value of hundreds of millions of dollars. In the long run this taxation of the cacao industry had a number of undesirable side effects. The low price paid by the government compared to the international price made it worthwhile to smuggle cacao out of the country. Second the market power of government marketing board enabled it raise the price above levels that would have prevailed in its absence. This higher price encouraged other countries such as Brazil to develop a cacao industry. This ultimately drove the price of cacao down. The end result is that the Ghanaian cacao industry lost market share and faced a substantcomodaially lower price. But these events came years after Kwame Nkrumah came to power. When Kwame Nkrumah came to power he had large reserves of funds and a cacao industry that was generating more funds. He decided to undertake a program of industrialization on a massive scale.

It was to be a Big Push industrialization; i.e., a pervasive industrialization in a broad front of industries. Not only would his industrialization replace the imports but it would produce products that Ghana was too poor to have imported. Multi-year plans were drawn up and investments undertaken. For example, a shoe industry was to be created. This required a leather industry and a leather industry required adequate levels of production in the cattle industry. The only problem is that the economic planning got muddled up with political decision-making. The leather production plants were located at great distance from the cattle industry of the north. The shoe production plants were not located where the supplies of leather were available. One of the most outrageous economic blunders of Nkrumah's industrialization plan was the building of a plant to can mangoes. The plant had the capacity to process 7,000 tons of mangoes a year but after it was built at a cost 80 percent over the original budget it was found that there were hardly any wild mango trees near the plant and it would take seven years to grow bearing mango trees. Soon the whole effort was bogged down in blunders and mistakes and the economy was collapsing. Corruption was rampant.

For example, some purchasing agents were paying the cacao farmers for their production with phony checks and keeping the real payments for themselves. Finally the Big Push became the Big Putsch when a group of military officers deposed Nkrumah while he was, appropriately enough, headed to a state visit to North Viet Nam. Kwame Nkrumah joking with Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Both leaders implemented policies which destroyed the economies of their countries. The Geography of Ghana Nkrumah's Big Push for Industrialization in Ghana Although overall Nkrumah's Big Push was overall a disasterous fiasco there were some worthwhile elements of his program. These generally came in the early days before the Big Push per se was initiated. In particular, the Volta River Dam is generally perceived to be a good thing for Ghana and its neighbors. In part the Dam was more beneficial than anticipated because of the unexpected increase in petroleum prices in the 1970's. The harbor and port at Tema has also been a boon to Ghana. Nkrumah at first focused on infrastructure projects and these tended to be small, worthwhile projects.

For example, until 1957 the only way to cross the Volta River was by way of ferries such as the one shown here. In 1957 the first bridge was built for crossing the Volta. Later Nkrumah and his planners began to think in terms of grandiose programs of economic development. Parallel with these grandiose plans Nkrumah permitted (or even encouraged) a personality cult to develop such that a person could be punished for doubting that Nkrumah was immortal. Nkrumah used his political domination to create a one-party, totalitarian state. His political rivals were imprisoned or escaped into exile. Some of those he imprisoned died in prison. Government officials took bribes and embezzled state funds. This included Nkrumah himself. He was found to have about $5 million in hidden bank accounts. The rhetoric of his regime was socialism, but the officials who were spouting socialist slogans were acquiring expensive foreign cars. One official's wife was found to have ordered a gold-plated bed costing about five thousand dollars.

Some of the more notorious fiascoes of the Big Push The sugar plant at Asuatuare was built without a water system and remained idle for a year before this flaw was corrected. A tomato and mango canning plant was built at Wenchi (in western Ghana) with a capacity to process 5,000 tons of tomatoes and 7,000 tons of mangoes each year. After it was built at a cost 80 percent above budget and ready to begin operations the authorities discovered there were hardly any mango trees in the area of the plant and it would take seven years for newly planted mango trees to start bearing. There was to be a cattle hide-leather-shoe complex. The slaughter house was sited in the north at Bolgatanga, a not unreasonable decision since the north is the cattle-raising area of Ghana. However the market for cattle in pre-Nkrumah times were not in the north, probably for good reason. The tannery for turning the hides into leather was sited in the south at Aveyime. The plant in the north could not supply enough hides so the tannery had to import hides.

The leather to be produced at Aveyime was to go to a footwear factory in Kumasi in western Ghana. The Kumasi plant was supplied with machinery from Czechoslovakia that could only produce a poor quality product. The footwear was to be shipped to the major consumer market at Accra. After the excessive transporting of the raw materials and final product around the country the government found the Ghanaian consumers were not willing to buy such a shoddy product. The government then tried to give the boots produced by the plant to the police force. The chief of police pleaded that the boots not be given to the police because they would rebel at having to wear such uncomfortable, poor quality footwear. Ghana Airways chose Soviet Ilyushin planes which could only be serviced in the Soviet Union. Ghana Airways had to maintain service from North Africa to the Soviet Union to accommodate this servicing requirement. Those lines had hardly any passengers at all and most of the ones they did have were government passengers flying for free.

The Political Corruption of the Nkrumah Regime The planning fiascoes and the financial corruption of the Nkrumah regime were probably less significant than the corruption of the politics of Ghana, the institution of a one-party totalitarian state and the ruthless persecution of anyone who was less than a devoted worshiper of Nkrumah and even some of those that were. Soon after independence Nkrumah began restricting political freedoms in Ghana. When regional/ethnic based parties in the northern territories and in Ashantiland presented a political challenge to Nkrumah's Convention Peoples Party (CPP) he used his party's overwhelming majority in the legislature to outlaw regional and ethnic based parties. When this action brought the disparate regional and ethnic parties together into a United Party he then had laws passed that effectively banned all opposition parties. When political activity continued he had the prominent opposition politicians arrested and imprisoned. People who had helped gain independence for Ghana, such as J.G. Danquah, died in prison. J.B. Danquah had invited Nkrumah back to Ghana and made him the general secretary of a political party. Even Nkrumah's closest associates in the CPP were not immune from Nkrumah's political vengeance.

Komla Gbedemah was founder of the CPP and an able administrator. He objected Nkrumah's lack of financial discipline and soon found himself dismissed from the government by Nkrumah in a radio broadcast at dawn in April of 1961. The Dawn Broadcast of April 1961 was the culmination of Nkrumah's shift to a militant Marxist Socialism. He had chosen Tawia Adamafio as General Secretary of the CPP and Adamafio made unswerving loyalty to Nkrumah and Socialism his guiding principles. Sycophants such as Adamafio began to talk of the immortality of Nkrumah and publically attacked any one publically doubted that Nkrumah would live forever. The personality cult surrounding Nkrumah seemed thoroughly entrenched, but even the leftist such as Adamafio were not safe from State persecution in Ghana. In August of 1962 someone tossed a grenade at Nkrumah. He was injured but recovered soon. But long after he recovered from the physical injuries he seemed psychologically affected. He had about 500 arrested and detained indefinitely.

He had the legislature pass the Preventive Detention Act which permitted the government to detain anyone or any reason. He closed the borders of Ghana. And finally Nkrumah took it into his head that Adamafio and his cohorts were behind the attempted assassination. He had them tried for treason, but the court under the Chief Justices of Ghana found them not guilty. Nkrumah was outraged and had legislation passed which gave him the right to overturn any court verdicts. They were retried with new judges and found guilty and sentenced to death, but Nkrumah commuted the death sentences. Visits from Soviet and Chinese Communist dignitaries became more frequent. But there was a more sinister side to these contacts. In April of 1965 a terrorist tried to assassinate the president of Niger. Evidence came out that the terrorist had been trained in Ghana. Nkrumah denied this and asserted that it was all part of a neocolonialist plot. Felix Houphouet-Boigny challenged Nkrumah's denial and released evidence of guerrilla training camps in Ghana staffed by Chinese Communist instructors.

At a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of African Unity Nkrumah in June of 1965 tried to, through his representative, to divert criticism but the representative from Niger made public the existence of seven guerrilla training camps operating in Ghana with Chinese and East German instructors. In February of 1966 Nkrumah left Ghana to visit Hanoi in North Vietnam. He was at a stopover in Beijing on February 23rd when military officers took control of the government. Some people now say that Nkrumah was a visionary, but his was ultimately a hideous vision of absolute, ruthless control. Bibliography H.T. Alexander, African Tightrope: My Two Years as Nkrumah's Chief of Staff, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1965, John Alex-Hamah, Farewell Africa: Life and Death of Nkrumah, Times Press Ltd., Lagos, Nigeria, 1972. Dennis Austin and Robin Luckham (eds.), Politicians and Soldiers in Ghana 1966-1972, Frank Cass, London, 1975. George B.N.

Ayittey, Africa Betrayed, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992. LaVerle Berry (ed.), Ghana: A Country Study, Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 1995. E.A. Boateng, A Geography of Ghana (2nd ed.), University Printing House, Cambridge, 1967. David Rooney, Kwame Nkrumah: The Political Kingdom in the Third World, SSt. Martin's Press, New York, 1988. W.J. Varley and H.P. White, The Geography of Ghana, Longmans, Green and Co., London, 1958. Jon Woronoff, West African Wager: Houphouet versus Nkrumah, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, N.J., 1972.

A Brief History of Ghana Since Independence Date of Independence: March 6,1957 Formerly: the Gold Coast, a British colony Flag: the three colors (red, green, and black)and the black star in the middle are all symbolic of the pan-Africanist movement, which was a key theme in the early history of Ghana's independence About Ghana: Information on Travel Summary of Ghana's history: Much was expected and hoped for from Ghana at independence, but like all new countries during the Cold War, Ghana faced immense challenges. Ghana's first President, Kwame Nkrumah, was ousted nine years after independence, and for the next twenty-five years, Ghana was typically governed by military rulers, with varying economic impacts. The country returned to stable democratic rule in 1992, however, and has built a reputation as a stable, liberal economy. Government officials carry Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah on their shoulders after Ghana obtains its independence from Great Britain. Bettman/Getty Images Independence: Pan-Africanist Optimism Ghana’s independence from Britain in 1957 was widely celebrated in the African diaspora.

African-Americans, including Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X visited Ghana, and many Africans still struggling for their own independence looked on it as a beacon of the future to come. Within Ghana, people believed they would finally benefit from the wealth generated by the country's cocoa farming and gold mining industries. Much was also expected of Kwame Nkrumah, the charismatic first President of Ghana. He was an experienced politician. He had led the Convention People's Party during the push for independence and served as Prime Minister of the colony from 1954 to 1956, as Britain eased toward independence. He was also an ardent pan-Africanist, and helped found the Organization of African Unity . 17 December 1963: Protesters against the government of Kwame Nkrumah outside the offices of the Ghana High Commission in London. Reg Lancaster/Express/Getty Images Nkrumah's Single Party State Initially, Nkrumah rode a wave of support in Ghana and the world. Ghana, however, faced all the same, daunting challenges of Independence that would soon be felt across Africa. Among these was its economic dependence on the West.

Nkrumah tried to free Ghana from this dependence by building the Akosambo Dam on the Volta River, but the project put Ghana deeply in debt and created intense opposition. His own party worried the project would increase Ghana's dependence rather than lesson it, and the project also forced the relocation of some 80,000 people. Additionally, to help pay for the dam, Nkrumah raised taxes, including on cocoa farmers, and this exacerbated tensions between him and the influential farmers. Like many new African states, Ghana also suffered from regional factionalism, and Nkrumah saw the wealthy farmers, who were regionally concentrated, as a threat to social unity. In 1964, faced with growing resentment and afraid of internal opposition, Nkrumah pushed a constitutional amendment that made Ghana a one party state, and himself the life president. The desolation of lost power, a shattered statue of Kwame Nkrumah, with a forlorn arm pointed skyward in Ghana, 3/2/1966.

Express/Archive Photos/Getty Images 1966 Coup: Nkrumah Toppled As opposition grew, people also complained that Nkrumah was spending too much time building networks and connections abroad and too little time paying attention to his own people's needs. ​On 24 February 1966, while Kwame Nkrumah was in China, a group of officers led a coup, overthrowing Nkrumah. (He found refuge in Guinea, where fellow pan-Africanist Ahmed Sékou Touré made him honorary co-President). The military-police National Liberation Council that took over after the coup promised elections, and after a constitution was drafted for the Second Republic, elections were held in 1969. Ghana's Debt Conference in London, 7 July 1970. From left to right, John Kufuor, Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Kerr, Marquess of Lothian, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and chairman of the conference, J. H. Mensah, Ghanaian Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, and James Bottomley, deputy to Lord Lothian.

Mike Lawn/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Troubled Economy: the Second Republic and Acheampong Years (1969-1978) The Progress Party, headed by Kofi Abrefa Busia, won the 1969 elections. Busia became the Prime Minister, and a Chief Justice, Edward Akufo-Addo became the President. Once again people were optimistic and believed the new government would handle Ghana's problems better than Nkrumah's had. Ghana still had high debts, though, and servicing the interest was crippling the country's economy. Cocoa prices were also slumping, and Ghana's share of the market had declined. In an attempt to right the boat, Busia implemented austerity measures and devalued the currency, but these moves were deeply unpopular. On 13 January 1972, Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong successfully overthrew the government. Acheampong rolled back many of the austerity measures, which benefited many people in the short term, but the economy worsened in the long term.

Ghana's economy had negative growth, meaning the gross domestic product declined, throughout the 1970s as it had in the late 1960s. Inflation ran rampant. Between 1976 and 1981, the inflation rate averaged around 50%. In 1981, it was 116%. For most Ghanaian, the basic necessities of life were getting harder and harder to obtain, and minor luxuries were out of reach. Amidst rising discontent, Acheampong and his staff proposed a Union Government, which was to be a government ruled by the military and civilians. The alternative to the Union Government was continued military rule. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that the contentious Union Government proposal passed in a 1978 national referendum. In the lead up to the Union Government elections, Acheampong was replaced by Lieutenant General F. W. K. Affufo and restrictions on political opposition were lessened. Jerry Rawlings Addressing a Crowd, 1981.

Bettmann / Getty Images The Rise of Jerry Rawling As the country prepared for elections in 1979, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings and several other junior officers launched a coup. They weren't successful at first, but another group of officers broke them out of jail. Rawlings made a second, successful coup attempt and overthrew the government. The reason Rawlings and the other officers gave for taking power just weeks before national elections was that the new Union Government would be no more stable or effective than previous governments. They were not stopping the elections themselves, but they did execute several members of the military government, including the former leader, General Acheampong, who had already been unseated by Affufo. They also purged the higher ranks of the military. After the elections, the new president, Dr. Hilla Limann, forced Rawlings and his co-officers into retirement, but when the government was unable to fix the economy and corruption continued, Rawlings launched a second coup. On December 31, 1981 he, several other officers, and some civilians seized power again. Rawlings remained Ghana's head of state for the next twenty years.

A billboard with election posters for President Jerry Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress party on a street in Accra, Ghana ahead of the December 1996 Presidential election. Jonathan C. Katzenellenbogen/Getty Images Jerry Rawling's Era (1981-2001) Rawlings and six other men formed a Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) with Rawlings as the chair. The "revolution" Rawlings led had Socialist leanings, but it was also a populist movement. The Council set up local Provisional Defense Committees (PDC) throughout the country. These committees were supposed to create democratic processes at the local level. They were tasked with overseeing the work of administrators and ensuring the decentralization of power. In 1984, the PDCs were replaced by Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. When push came to shove, however, Rawlings and the PNDC balked at decentralizing too much power. Rawlings' populist touch and charisma won over crowds, and initially he enjoyed support.

There was opposition from the beginning, though, and just a few months after the PNDC came to power, they executed several members of an alleged plot to overthrow the government.The harsh treatment of dissidents is one of the primary criticisms made of Rawlings, and there was little freedom of the press in Ghana during this time. As Rawlings moved away from his socialist colleagues he gained enormous financial support from Western governments for Ghana. This support was also based on Rawlings' willingness to enact austerity measures, which showed how far the "revolution" had moved from its roots. Eventually, his economic policies brought improvements, and he is credited with having helped save Ghana's economy from collapse. In the late 1980s, the PNDC, facing international and internal pressures, began exploring a shift toward democracy. In 1992, a referendum for returning to democracy passed, and political parties were permitted again in Ghana. In late 1992, elections were held. Rawlings ran for the National Democratic Congress party and won the elections. He was thus the first President of Ghana's Fourth Republic. The opposition had boycotted the elections, though, which undercut the triumph.

The 1996 elections that followed, however, were deemed free and fair, and Rawlings won those as well. The shift to democracy led to further aid from the West and Ghana's economic recovery continued to gain steam in the 8 years of Rawlings' presidential rule. PriceWaterhouseCooper and ENI buildings, Accra, Ghana. Self-published work by jbdodane (originally posted to Flickr as 20130914-DSC_2133 ), CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Ghana's Democracy and Economy Today In 2000, the true test of Ghana's fourth republic came. Rawlings was prohibited by term limits from running for President a third time, and it was the opposition party's candidate, John Kufour, who won the Presidential elections. Kufour had run and lost to Rawlings in 1996, and the orderly transition between parties was an important sign of the political stability of Ghana's new republic. Kufour focused much of his presidency on continuing to develop Ghana's economy and international reputation. He was reelected in 2004.

In 2008, John Atta Mills, Rawlings' former Vice-President who had lost to Kufour in the 2000 elections, won the election and became Ghana's next president. He died in office in 2012, and was temporarily replaced by his Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, who won the subsequent elections called for by the constiution. Amidst the political stability, however, Ghana's economy has stagnated. In 2007, new oil reserves were discovered, adding to Ghana's wealth in resources, but these have not yet brought a boost to Ghana's economy. The oil discovery has also increased Ghana's economic vulnerability, and the 2015 crash in oil prices decreased revenues. Despite Nkrumah's efforts to secure Ghana's energy independence through the Akosambo Dam, electricity remains one of Ghana's hurdles more than fifty years later. Ghana's economic outlook may be mixed,but analysts remain hopeful, pointing to the stability and strength of Ghana's democracy and society. Ghana is a member of ECOWAS, the African Union, the Commonwealth, and the World Trade Organization. Sources CIA, " Ghana ," The World Factbook.

(Accessed 13 March 2016). Library of Congress, " Ghana-Historical Background ," Country Studies, (Accessed 15 March 2016). Ghana profile - Timeline - BBC News Ghana profile - Timeline A chronology of key events: 1482 - Portuguese set up trading settlement. Kwame Nkrumah Independence leader was an advocate of Pan-Africanism 1874 - British proclaim coastal area a crown colony. Late 1400s - mid-1800s - Millions of West Africans are captured and sent as slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean. 1925 - First legislative council elections take place. 1948 - Rioting after British colonial police kill three Ghanaian Second World War veterans during a protest march demanding compensation for their war service. It becomes a milestone in Ghana's struggle for independence. 1957 - Independence for the state now called Ghana, the first country in black sub-Saharan Africa to shake off colonial rule, inspiring liberation struggles around the continent. Kwame Nkrumah is prime minister. 1960 - Ghana proclaimed a republic; Nkrumah elected president.

1964 - Ghana becomes a one-party state. 1966 - Nkrumah overthrown in military coup; Russian and Chinese technicians expelled. 1969 - New constitution facilitates transfer of power to civilian government led by Kofi Busia. 1972 - Busia ousted in military coup led by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong. Fallen hero 1978 - Acheampong forced to resign; General Frederick Akuffo takes over. Rawlings era 1979 - Akuffo deposed in coup led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Acheampong and Akuffo executed. 1979 September - Rawlings hands over power to an elected president, Hilla Limann. 1981 - Limann ousted in military coup led by Rawlings after two years of weak government and economic stagnation. 1983 - Rawlings adopts conservative economic policies, abolishing subsidies and price controls, privatising many state enterprises and devaluing the currency. 1992 - Referendum approves new constitution introducing a multiparty system. Rawlings elected president.

1994 - One thousand people are killed and a further 150,000 are displaced in the Northern Region following ethnic clashes between the Konkomba and the Nanumba over land ownership. Image caption Jerry Rawlings, r, seen with US President Bill Clinton, came to power in a coup but won subsequent elections 1994 June - Seven ethnic groups involved in violence in Northern Region sign peace agreement. 1995 - Government imposes curfew in Northern Region as renewed ethnic violence results in a further 100 deaths. 1996 - Jerry Rawlings re-elected president. Kufuor elected 2000 - December - John Kufuor beats Vice-President John Atta Mills in the presidential election. 2001 February - Petrol prices rise by 60% following the government's decision to remove fuel subsidies. 2001 April - Ghana accepts debt relief under a scheme designed by the World Bank and the IMF. 2001 May - National day of mourning after football stadium stampede leaves 126 dead. Inquiry blames police for overreacting to crowd trouble.

2001 June - Government scraps public holiday celebrating Rawling's military coup in an effort to wipe out the legacy of his rule. 2001 June - Floods hit Accra, causing 10 deaths and forcing 100,000 to flee their homes. 2002 April - State of emergency is declared in the north after a tribal chief and more than 30 others are killed in clan violence. State of emergency is lifted in August 2004. 2002 May - President Kufuor inaugurates reconciliation commission to look into human rights violations during military rule. 2003 October - Government approves merger of two gold-mining firms, creating new gold-mining giant. 2004 February - Former President Jerry Rawlings testifies at commission investigating human rights offences during the early years of his rule. 2004 October - Group of current and former military personnel detained on suspicion of planning to destabilise government ahead of elections. 2004 December - Presidential poll: Incumbent John Kufuor wins a second term. 2005 April-May - Thousands of Togolese refugees arrive, fleeing political violence in their home country.

2006 April - A boat capsizes on Lake Volta reservoir; more than 100 passengers are feared drowned. 2006 June - Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promises to lend Ghana about $66m to fund development projects. He is on an African tour aimed at opening new export markets for China's booming economy and at securing energy and mineral supplies. 2007 March - Ghana celebrates 50 years of independence from Britain. Oil discovered 2007 June - Major off-shore oil discovery announced. President Kufuor says oil will turn Ghana into an "African tiger". 2007 September - The worst floods for more than 30 years cause widespread devastation, destroying much of the annual harvest. 2007 December - President Kufuor says off-shore oil reserves total 3 billion barrels. 2008 December - John Atta Mills elected president. 2009 July - US President Barack Obama visits. Ghana secures a $600m three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption President Mills ceremonially launches Ghana's oil production 2009 October - Controversy over sale of national communications network Ghana Telecom, allegedly for less that it was worth. 2010 December - Offshore oil production begins. 2011 July - President John Atta Mills chosen as ruling National Democratic Congress party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election, defeating Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, wife of former President Jerry Rawlings. 2011 August - UK-based oil exploration company Tullow Oil, says it will spend at least $4bn to develop oil fields off the coast of Ghana. 2012 June - Thousands are displaced by communal violence in the east, sparked by the exhumation of the body of a Muslim cleric. 2012 July - President Mills dies. John Mahama becomes interim head of state. Image copyright Getty Images 'Illegal gold miners' rounded up 2012 September-October - Ivory Coast closes its borders with Ghana for two weeks after a deadly attack on an army checkpoint blamed on exiled supporters of ousted President Laurent Gbagbo.

2012 October - Ghana becomes embroiled in a row with Argentina after impounding an Argentine naval training vessel on behalf of creditors. A Chinese boy is killed and some 100 Chinese are detained in an operation against illegal gold mining. 2012 December - President John Mahama wins re-election. 2013 Authorities arrest hundreds of Chinese and other migrants working in unlicensed gold mines. The government says around 4,700 illegal miners, most of them Chinese, were deported in 2013. 2013 August - The supreme court rejects an appeal by the main opposition NPP against President Mahama's 2012 election victory. 2013 December - Ghana says Ivory Coast sent hit squads into the country to try to kidnap or kill exiled supporters of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo. Ivory Coast denies the accusation. 2014 July - Thousands take to the streets to protest against the government's alleged mishandling of the economy. 2015 April - Two Ghanaian men appear in court in Accra on charges of planning to import nearly six tonnes of cocaine from Bolivia.

2015 June - Three days of national mourning are declared after 175 people were killed by flooding and a petrol station explosion. 2015 December - Twenty judges are sacked after being implicated in a high-profile bribe-taking scandal. Commanding Heights : Kwame Nkrumah | on PBS Kwame Nkrumah (1889-1979) Kwame Nkurmah, the leader of the Gold Coast's movement toward independence from Britain during the 1940s and '50s, headed the new nation of Ghana following its independence in 1957 until 1966, when he was overthrown by a coup. Excerpt from Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, 1998 ed., pp. 83-88. Profile In the period of [African colonial independence] the beacon country from Africa was Ghana, first to achieve independence in 1957. The new nation's most influential figure was its prime minister, later president, Kwame Nkrumah.

When Nkrumah was born in 1910, Ghana was still the Gold Coast, a British colony known for its plantations and for being the world's largest producer of cocoa. Its frontiers were the result of bargains among the colonial powers -- Britain, France, and Germany -- that did not correspond to the historical boundaries of the kingdoms that preceded colonization, particularly the once-mighty Ashanti empire. Nkrumah, who came from a modest, traditional family, received his early education at the hands of Catholic missionaries. He went on to train as a teacher and for a few years taught elementary school in towns along the coast. He was popular and charismatic, and earned a decent living. But exposure to politics and to a few influential figures sparked in him a greater interest -- to go to America. He applied to universities in the United States, and with money raised from relatives, he set out on a steamer in 1935. He reached New York almost penniless, and took refuge with fellow West Africans in Harlem. He then presented himself at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and enrolled; a small scholarship and a campus job helped him make ends meet.

In the United States, Nkrumah saw alternatives to the British tradition of government. He also became suffused with an acute consciousness of the politics of race relations. Unlike many new African leaders, who sought to emulate their European instructors, Nkrumah plunged into America's black communities. Founded before the Civil War, Lincoln University was America's oldest black college, and its special atmosphere inspired and comforted Nkrumah. In the summers, he worked at physically demanding jobs -- in shipyards and construction at sea. He studied theology as well as philosophy; he frequented the black churches in New York and Philadelphia and was sometimes asked to preach. He also forged ties with black American intellectuals, for whom Africa was becoming, in this time of political change, an area of extreme interest. Moving to London after World War II, Nkrumah helped organize Pan-African congresses, linking the emergent educated groups of the African colonies with activists, writers, artists, and well-wishers from the industrial countries. It was a time of great intellectual ferment, excitement, and optimism. India's achievement of independence in 1947 stirred dreams of freedom for the other colonies.

"If we get self-government," Nkrumah proclaimed, "we'll transform the Gold Coast into a paradise in 10 years." Returning to the Gold Coast in 1949, Nkrumah found that India's independence had set in motion a process of gradual transfer of power in Britain's other colonies. The terms and timing were highly unsettled, and indeed would provoke conflict and violent clashes, but the basic principle of self-government was becoming the consensus. Nkrumah was dissatisfied with the existing nationalist grouping, finding it staid and conservative, overly tied to colonial business interests. With several associates he set up a new party, the Convention People's Party (CPP), in the process demonstrating his supreme organizational abilities. Within two years the CPP had won limited self-rule elections, and Nkrumah became "Leader of Government Business" -- a de facto prime minister, responsible for internal government and policy. He set his sights firmly on independence. No amount of autonomy or self-rule, he argued, could match the energy, commitment, and focus of a government and people in a truly independent country. It was a precondition for growth.

He summarized his philosophy in a slogan that became famous and influential across Africa: "Seek ye first the political kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you...." Ghana's route to independence became the model for the rest of the continent. By the mid-1960s, over 30 African countries were independent and many had charismatic leaders, including Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, and Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia. Their economic views were very much those of the time, in line with the consensus among development economists. Here again, only the state could mobilize the funds and coordinate the activities of economic transformation if it was to be achieved in the leaders' lifetime -- let alone during their time in office. Indeed, pessimism about markets was even greater in Africa than elsewhere. After all, the colonization of Africa had come with little regard for local education, health, or infrastructure. It was tainted with racism and contempt. As a result, people were not equipped to participate in markets, or so it seemed. Instead, the new leaders hatched schemes for "African socialism" that could somehow combine modern growth and traditional values.

"Capitalism is too complicated a system for a newly independent nation," Nkrumah argued. "Hence the need for a socialistic society." Few disagreed. It was, after all, the received wisdom of the time. Ironically, the economic device in which Africa's new leaders invested their trust was itself a colonial invention -- the marketing board, a public agency responsible for buying crops from farmers and reselling them for export. Seemingly innocuous and indeed almost boring in name, marketing boards were in fact powerful tools of control for the new governments. They were born of necessity, when the Great Depression drove down world commodity prices and the wartime boom drove them up again. African farmers lived on a shoestring and were highly vulnerable to such volatile swings in world markets. They might overplant in times of high prices and abandon crops when prices fell. Meanwhile, the state would lose both tax revenue and its ability to plan ahead. The marketing boards were set up to correct this situation. They would purchase crops at stable prices. In times of high world prices, they would accumulate a surplus of money; in times of low world prices, they would use that financial surplus to support the local price.

This would protect farmers from the tumult of markets, over which they had no control. Because the marketing boards deliberately paid farmers prices other than the world-market prices, they could not function in a competitive market. Hence, they were granted monopolies. Virtually all crops for export had to go through the marketing board. This was the prevailing system at independence in almost every African country. All that varied from country to country was the exact number and range of crops concerned. For Nkrumah and his peers, retaining the colonial marketing boards seemed the expedient, indeed the sensible, thing to do. The boards would provide the mechanism both to capture the "surplus" generated by agriculture and to raise revenues. The resources levied this way could be combined with investment and foreign aid to jump-start industrial development and the "great transformation" away from rural-based economies toward industrialization. There were some problems, to be sure. When the marketing board imposed prices lower than world prices, how would it stop crops from slipping away into a black market or crossing borders into neighboring countries? Frontiers were artificial and porous, and there was, after all, a considerable history of long-distance African trade.

Moreover, if the marketing board did accumulate a cash surplus, who would oversee its sound management and investment? But amid the enthusiasm for independence and the overriding concern with market failure, these questions seemed of little import. Governments instead threw their energy into enlarging the existing marketing boards and creating new ones for commodities that were hitherto unregulated. They ran their economies through the boards. In Ghana, the Cocoa Marketing Board grew in size, staffing, and power. It was joined in short order by marketing boards for timber and diamonds, and a host of other state organizations aimed not only at exports but also at regulating local trade in foodstuffs, fish, and household goods. This pervasive, confident -- or, as some would say, intrusive -- involvement of the state in almost every aspect of investment and commerce made Ghana a case of "development economics in action." The same confidence extended as well to the other half of the process -- industrialization. Nkrumah very much believed that the "big push" was necessary and could be rapidly achieved. He harnessed his hopes to a dramatic plan for a huge multipurpose undertaking known as the Volta River Project. Ghana had large reserves of bauxite and hence the potential to become a major exporter of aluminum.

But this required building a smelter and a very large dam and power plant to feed it. That, in turn, would support a national electricity grid; and the cheap, abundant power would jump-start industrialization all over the country. It was a grand vision that accorded perfectly with development theory. The dam would set in motion the "forward and backward linkages" that the economists sought, and it would give Ghana economic independence. It would also create the world's biggest manmade lake, forcing the resettlement of tens of thousands of people. When it was all added up, the Volta River Project was the most ambitious and complicated development project of its day, and certainly one of the most prominent. It also gave rise to lengthy and arduous negotiations between the government of Ghana and its would-be partners -- the World Bank, the governments of Britain and the United States, and the aluminum firms Kaiser and Reynolds, which agreed to build the smelter. Several years of frustrating discussion culminated in a series of contract documents that one participant described as the world's "most complex since Queen Marie was selling Romanian bonds." But the deal was not yet done. As the negotiations dragged on, the stakes grew higher.

Nkrumah's views were hardening, reflecting an increasing attraction to "scientific socialism" and a mounting preoccupation with control. Already in 1960, he had made Ghana a republic and proclaimed himself its president. In April 1961, he delivered a "Dawn Broadcast" in which he lashed out at "self-seeking" and "careerism," and which he used to force the resignation of potential rivals. Soon there were political arrests. He also threw out the British officers assigned to train his army. . All this occurred shortly before Queen Elizabeth II was scheduled to make a state visit to Ghana in November 1961 to celebrate the new area of decolonization. But then, after several bombs went off in the capital of Accra, sentiment mounted in Britain's House of Commons that the trip should be canceled, because it was too unsafe. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan feared, however, that cancellation would provoke Nkrumah into leaving the Commonwealth and moving into Moscow's arms. To prevent such a turn, he appealed to President John Kennedy to confirm that the United States would help underwrite the Volta River Project.

When, on the eve of the queen's departure, it became apparent that the House of Commons might vote to cancel the trip, Macmillan made clear that he would resign that very evening -- even if it meant having to awaken the queen. The vote against the trip did not eventuate, and the queen took off. As it turned out, the trip was a great success. The local press in Ghana hailed the queen as "the greatest socialist monarch in the world." With the conclusion of the visit and the queen safely back in Britain, Macmillan immediately telephoned Kennedy. "I have risked my Queen," Macmillan said. "You must risk your money." Gallantly, Kennedy replied he would match the queen's "brave contribution" with his own. The United States signed on to the Volta River Project. In the same year, Nkrumah visited the Soviet Union and returned much impressed at the pace of industrialization there. He came back with a rigid Seven-Year Plan. "We must try and establish factories in large numbers at great speed," he argued. State-owned companies and public authorities mushroomed in all fields. So did mismanagement and graft.

The price was most painfully felt in the countryside as Nkrumah used cocoa revenues, controlled by the official marketing board, to cover the growing losses of public companies. The imposition of unrealistically low cocoa prices on farmers, combined with the bloated organization of the marketing board, devastated the industry. Many farmers switched crops altogether; others found ways to smuggle their cocoa through neighboring countries, where better prices were offered. Ghana lost its mantle as the world's largest cocoa producer. Its currency reserves depleted, it fell back on barter trade and loans from the Soviet bloc. Nkrumah became increasingly remote, preferring to focus on grand schemes of African unity than on running the country. He turned the country into a one-party state in 1964, and took to indulging in a sordid cult of personality, dubbing himself Osagyefo, "the Redeemer." It did not take long for resentment to set in. He evaded several assassination attempts. On January 22, 1966, he inaugurated the Volta Dam, proudly pressing the button that released power into the new national grid unaware that even this project would be only half a success.

Ghana's bauxite mines would never be developed; the smelter found it more economic to process bauxite imported from Jamaica. The inauguration would be his last moment of glory. On February 24, as he stopped in Burma on his way to China at the start of a grand tour aimed at solving the Vietnam conflict, army officers intervened at home and took power. "The myth surrounding Kwame Nkrumah has been broken," announced an army colonel on the radio. Nkrumah did not learn of the coup until he arrived in China. Premier Zhou Enlai, unsure of the protocol to follow, went ahead and hosted an eerie state banquet in his honor. Nkrumah ended up taking up exile in Guinea, where another experiment in "African socialism" was in progress. Guinea's president, Sekou Toure, his own rule increasingly repressive and arbitrary, endowed Nkrumah with the title of "co-president." Nkrumah made regular shortwave broadcasts to Ghana, published ideological treatises, and plotted a triumphal return to power until he grew ill and died in 1972, still in exile. The "political kingdom" had crumbled as fast as it had been built.

"The Redeemer," who had once inspired a continent, had fallen far from grace. From Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. Copyright © 1998 by Daniel A. Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc., N.Y.

Question: From 1960 to 1966 who was the first President of independent Ghana?
Answer: KWAME NKRUMAH