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 Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Infobank Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of Ghana and the first black African postcolonial leader. Nkrumah led his country to independence from Britain in 1957 and was a powerful voice for African nationalism, but he was overthrown by a military coup nine years later after his rule grew dictatorial. II.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Kwame Nkrumah was born in the town of Nkroful in the southwestern corner of the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Nkrumah was an excellent student in local Catholic missionary schools. While still a teenager, he became an untrained elementary school teacher in the nearby town of Half Assini. In 1926 Nkrumah entered Achimota College in Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast. After earning a teacher's certificate from there in 1930, Nkrumah taught at several Catholic elementary schools. In 1935 he sailed to the United States to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lincoln University with B.A. degrees in economics and sociology in 1939, earned a theology degree from the Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942, and received M.A. degrees in education and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and 1943. III.

NATIONALIST LEADER Nkrumah Leads Ghana to Independence Kwame Nkrumah’s years of efforts to bring independence to the British West African colony of the Gold Coast came to fruition on March 6, 1957, when the colony gained independence as the nation of Ghana and he was declared prime minister. Nkrumah went on to support nationalist movements in other African colonies and to champion total African independence and the union of the entire continent as the United States of Africa. Encarta Encyclopedia Archive Films/ABCNews VideoSource While studying in the United States, Nkrumah was influenced by the socialist writings of German political philosopher Karl Marx, German political economist Friedrich Engels, and Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Nkrumah formed an African students organization and became a popular speaker, advocating the liberation of Africa from European colonialism. He also promoted Pan-Africanism, a movement for cooperation between all people of African descent and for the political union of an independent Africa. In 1945 he went to London, England, to study economics and law. That year he helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress, in Manchester, England.

This congress brought together black leaders and intellectuals from around the world to declare and coordinate opposition to colonialism in Africa. At the congress, Nkrumah met many important African and African American leaders, including black American sociologist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, future president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta, and American actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. In 1946 Nkrumah left his academic studies to become secretary general of the West African National Secretariat, which had been formed at the fifth Pan-African Congress to coordinate efforts to bring about West African independence. That same year, Nkrumah became vice president of the West African Students Union, a pro-independence organization of younger, more politically aggressive African students studying in Britain. Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 when the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), a nationalist party, invited him to serve as its secretary general. In this capacity he gave speeches all over the colony to rally support for the UGCC and for independence.

In 1948 a UGCC-organized boycott of foreign products led to riots in Accra, and Nkrumah and several other UGCC leaders were arrested by British colonial authorities and briefly imprisoned. In 1948 Nkrumah split with the UGCC leadership, which he viewed as too conservative in its efforts to win independence, and formed his own political party, the Convention People's Party (CPP). After organizing a series of colony-wide strikes in favor of independence that nearly brought the colony’s economy to a standstill, Nkrumah was again imprisoned for subversion in 1950. However, the strikes had convinced the British authorities to establish a more democratic colonial government and move the colony toward independence. In 1951 elections for the colonial legislative council, the CPP won most of the seats and Nkrumah, while still in prison, won the central Accra seat by a landslide. The British governor of the Gold Coast released Nkrumah from prison and appointed him leader of government business. The following year he named Nkrumah prime minister.

Reelected in 1954 and 1956, Nkrumah guided the Gold Coast to independence in 1957 under the name Ghana, after an ancient West African empire. IV. RULER OF GHANA Nkrumah built a strong central government and attempted to unify the country politically and to muster all its resources for rapid economic development. As a proponent of Pan-Africanism, he sought the liberation of the entire continent from colonial rule, offered generous assistance to other African nationalists, and initially pursued a policy of nonalignment with either the United States or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). When most other African colonies became independent in the early 1960s, Nkrumah urged them to unite with Ghana to form a United States of Africa. His goal was never realized, but his efforts helped bring about the African Union, which promotes peace and cooperation between African nations. In 1960 Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah was elected president. Between 1961 and 1966 Nkrumah spearheaded an ambitious and very expensive hydroelectric project on the Volta River that was highly successful.

He was accused of economic mismanagement in the Volta River project and several other expensive developmental schemes over this same period. Nkrumah did not hesitate to use strong-arm methods in implementing his domestic programs. These measures included passing laws allowing the imprisonment of political opponents without charge, and dismissing the nation’s supreme court and pronouncing judgments himself. Although he remained popular with the masses, his tactics made enemies among civil servants, judges, intellectuals, and army officers. Nkrumah also fell out of favor with Western powers in the mid-1960s by courting development aid from the USSR and other Communist states. He was accused of fostering a personality cult, as his supporters called him Osagyefo (“the redeemer” or “warrior”), and became increasingly influenced by government ministers and businesspeople who used flattery to obtain favorable decisions from him. Assassination attempts in 1962 and 1964 made him grow more and more paranoid; he had numerous critics of his regime arrested, and in 1964 he declared the CPP the only legal party. While Nkrumah was visiting China in 1966, his government was overthrown in an army coup.

Nkrumah lived in exile in Guinea, where Guinean president Sékou Touré appointed him honorary co-president of Guinea. He died in 1972 in Romania while receiving treatment for throat cancer. Nkrumah's remains were returned to Ghana for burial in his home town of Nkroful. V. EVALUATION Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy in African history is an uneasy dichotomy. On the one hand, he was a hero of African nationalism; on the other, he was one of Africa’s first postcolonial dictators. Despite the authoritative tone his regime took on, Nkrumah’s positive achievements of guiding Ghana to independence and helping other African colonies achieve the same are undeniable. Nkrumah was also a prolific writer; his published books include Autobiography (1957), Towards Colonial Freedom (1962), Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965), and Dark Days in Ghana (1968). Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Nkrumah, Kwame Nkrumah, Kwame I. Introduction Nkrumah, Kwame (1909-1972), first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of Ghana and the first black African postcolonial leader. Nkrumah led his country to independence from Britain in 1957 and was a powerful voice for African nationalism, but he was overthrown by a military coup nine years later after his rule grew dictatorial. II. Early Life and Education Kwame Nkrumah was born in the town of Nkroful in the southwestern corner of the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Nkrumah was an excellent student in local Catholic missionary schools. While still a teenager, he became an untrained elementary school teacher in the nearby town of Half Assini. In 1926 Nkrumah entered Achimota College in Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast. After earning a teacher's certificate from there in 1930, Nkrumah taught at several Catholic elementary schools.

In 1935 he sailed to the United States to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lincoln University with B.A. degrees in economics and sociology in 1939, earned a theology degree from the Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942, and received M.A. degrees in education and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and 1943. III. Nationalist Leader While studying in the United States, Nkrumah was influenced by the socialist writings of German political philosopher Karl Marx, German political economist Friedrich Engels, and Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin. Nkrumah formed an African students organization and became a popular speaker, advocating the liberation of Africa from European colonialism. He also promoted Pan-Africanism, a movement for cooperation between all people of African descent and for the political union of an independent Africa. In 1945 he went to London, England, to study economics and law. That year he helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress, in Manchester, England. This congress brought together black leaders and intellectuals from around the world to declare and coordinate opposition to colonialism in Africa.

At the congress, Nkrumah met many important African and African American leaders, including black American sociologist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, future president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta, and American actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. In 1946 Nkrumah left his academic studies to become secretary general of the West African National Secretariat, which had been formed at the fifth Pan-African Congress to coordinate efforts to bring about West African independence. That same year, Nkrumah became vice president of the West African Students Union, a pro-independence organization of younger, more politically aggressive African students studying in Britain. Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 when the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), a nationalist party, invited him to serve as its secretary general. In this capacity he gave speeches all over the colony to rally support for the UGCC and for independence. In 1948 a UGCC-organized boycott of foreign products led to riots in Accra, and Nkrumah and several other UGCC leaders were arrested by British colonial authorities and briefly imprisoned.

In 1948 Nkrumah split with the UGCC leadership, which he viewed as too conservative in its efforts to win independence, and formed his own political party, the Convention People's Party (CPP). After organizing a series of colony-wide strikes in favor of independence that nearly brought the colony's economy to a standstill, Nkrumah was again imprisoned for subversion in 1950. However, the strikes had convinced the British authorities to establish a more democratic colonial government and move the colony toward independence. In 1951 elections for the colonial legislative council, the CPP won most of the seats and Nkrumah, while still in prison, won the central Accra seat by a landslide. The British governor of the Gold Coast released Nkrumah from prison and appointed him leader of government business. The following year he named Nkrumah prime minister. Reelected in 1954 and 1956, Nkrumah guided the Gold Coast to independence in 1957 under the name Ghana, after an ancient West African empire. IV.

Ruler of Ghana Nkrumah built a strong central government and attempted to unify the country politically and to muster all its resources for rapid economic development. As a proponent of Pan-Africanism, he sought the liberation of the entire continent from colonial rule, offered generous assistance to other African nationalists, and initially pursued a policy of nonalignment with either the United States or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). When most other African colonies became independent in the early 1960s, Nkrumah urged them to unite with Ghana to form a United States of Africa. His goal was never realized, but his efforts helped bring about the Organization of African Unity, which promotes peace and cooperation between African nations. In 1960 Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah was elected president. Between 1961 and 1966 Nkrumah spearheaded an ambitious and very expensive hydroelectric project on the Volta River that was highly successful. He was accused of economic mismanagement in the Volta River project and several other expensive developmental schemes over this same period. Nkrumah did not hesitate to use strong-arm methods in implementing his domestic programs.

These measures included passing laws allowing the imprisonment of political opponents without charge, and dismissing the nation's supreme court and pronouncing judgments himself. Although he remained popular with the masses, his tactics made enemies among civil servants, judges, intellectuals, and army officers. Nkrumah also fell out of favor with Western powers in the mid-1960s by courting development aid from the USSR and other Communist states. He was accused of fostering a personality cult, as his supporters called him Osagyefo ("the redeemer" or "warrior"), and became increasingly influenced by government ministers and businesspeople who used flattery to obtain favorable decisions from him. Assassination attempts in 1962 and 1964 made him grow more and more paranoid; he had numerous critics of his regime arrested, and in 1964 he declared the CPP the only legal party. While Nkrumah was visiting China in 1966, his government was overthrown in an army coup. Nkrumah lived in exile in Guinea, where Guinean president Sékou Touré appointed him honorary co-president of Guinea. He died in 1972 in Romania while receiving treatment for throat cancer.

Nkrumah's remains were returned to Ghana for burial in his home town of Nkroful. V. Evaluation Kwame Nkrumah's legacy in African history is an uneasy dichotomy. On the one hand, he was a hero of African nationalism; on the other, he was one of Africa's first postcolonial dictators. Despite the authoritative tone his regime took on, Nkrumah's positive achievements of guiding Ghana to independence and helping other African colonies achieve the same are undeniable. Nkrumah was also a prolific writer; his published books include Autobiography (1957), Towards Colonial Freedom (1962), Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965), and Dark Days in Ghana (1968). Contributed By: A. B. Assensoh, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Associate Professor of History, Indiana University. Author of African Political Leadership: Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius K. Nyerere and other books.

HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE "Nkrumah, Kwame," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Kwame Nkrumah at Penn: A Digital Exhibition from the of the Penn African Studies Center Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), M.S. in Educ. 1943, M.A. 1944, was born in Africa's Gold Coast (now Ghana). As a young man, he was a school teacher before leaving his homeland to further his education in American universities. He later traveled to England where he worked for the decolonization of Africa and in the Pan-African movement before returning to Africa to lead his country's independence movement. After the 1957 British withdrawal from his country, Nkrumah became Prime Minister and then, in 1960, the first president of the modern nation of Ghana. Despite his early studies of Marxism, Nkrumah's political views tended toward socialism rather than to capitalism or communism. During his early years in office, Nkrumah did much to modernize his country.

Despite high hopes, however, the difficulties of financing power plants and organizing armies in a poor African country led to corruption, police tactics and wide-spread dissatisfaction. In February 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown while on a state visit to China. He never returned to Ghana but from his exile in Guinea, Nkrumah gained worldwide recognition for his continued efforts on behalf of Pan-African unity. Kwame Nkrumah arrived in Philadelphia in 1935 to begin undergraduate study at Lincoln University. After completing a bachelor's degree in Sociology magna cum laude, Lincoln admitted him to its Theological Seminary in 1939 for an additional degree in Sacred Theology. It was at this time, however, that Nkrumah began concurrent enrollment at the University of Pennsylvania in the hopes of acquiring multiple degrees simultaneously. Supporting himself through a precarious combination of scholarships and seasonal work in the segregated shipyards of Philadelphia, Nkrumah regularly visited Harlem and Washington to speak on anti-imperial themes in churches, on street corners, at political rallies, and in classrooms. In so doing, he managed to meet such prominent intellectuals of the African diaspora as C.L.R.

James, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Marcus Garvey. As he later recalled in his autobiography, "Life would have been so much easier if I could have devoted all my time to study. As things were, however, I was always in need of money." After receiving his Master's degree from Penn's Graduate School of Education in 1941, Nkrumah began another program of study with the Department of Philosophy on a University Scholarship. His advisor Glen Morrow noted that he satisfied the requirements for a Master's degree in Philosophy in 1943, and by 1944 it appears that he had passed his preliminary exams for a doctorate. He then began working as a Twi instructor for Zelig Harris in a new African Studies graduate group, and in 1945 he left the United States for London and Manchester. He finally returned to the Gold Coast in 1947. We have some more tangible traces of his intellectual life during this time.

While his theses in education and philosophy have unfortunately been lost by the University, he did publish two articles in Penn's Educational Outlook that give some indication of the extent to which he was already developing the Pan-Africanist challenge to colonialism that we now associate with him. His first article was in 1941, when he was most probably completing his education degree, and it is not surprisingly titled "Primitive Education in West Africa." In it, Nkrumah suggested that the traditional educational institutions of Africa conformed to the prevailing educational theories of the mid-20th century. He notes that ..the education of a child is largely a process of acquiring, in the first place, conditioned reflexes, and then, the more permanent associations and systems of conditioned reflexes that we call habits. The leaders of primitive West Africa, for a long time, consciously or unconsciously, have been aware of this psychological fact. He also proposes that African teachers rightly understood the importance of early childhood in the learning process, and thus began education at a very young age, and he pointedly observes that the colonial-era need for African orphanages was a consequence of the destruction of traditional educational institutions, which unlike the European model, integrated "infant welfare" and schooling.

His conclusion: West African education "gave efficient preparation for the activities of life and so it fulfilled its purpose," an implicit suggestion that it was the equal ofand in some ways superior toits colonial counterparts. His other article, which appeared in 1943, is a more explicit connection of colonialism and the struggle over African educational institutions. In " Education and Nationalism in Africa ," Nkrumah presents a focused discussion of the tensions between European colonial rule, education, and national emancipation. After referring his reader to the previous discussion of traditional education in West Africa, Nkrumah presents a short history of European mission schools in Africa, which he suggests were the primary educational institutions of colonial Africa. After noting that their Eurocentric curricula carefully excluded African religion, culture, and history, he observed that ..under such a system of education the youth of Africa is not prepared to meet any definite situations of the changing community except those of the clerical activities and occupations for foreign commercial and mercantile concerns.

In his view, ..any educational program which fails to furnish criteria for the judgment of social, political, economic, and technical progress of the people it purports to serve has completely failed in its purpose, and has become an educational fraud. Pointing to the hypocrisy of a civilizing educational mission that permanently delayed graduation, the moment when Europeans would deem Africans capable of managing their own affairs, Nkrumah ultimately concluded that "Higher education is incompatible with colonial status." Two dissertation-length manuscripts from this period of Nkrumah's life can now be found in the Ghana National Archives, one entitled "The History and Philosophy of Imperialism with Special Reference to Colonial Problems," and another, "Mind and Thought in Primitive Society: a study in Ethno-Philosophy with Special Reference to the Akan Peoples of the Gold Coast, West Africa." While these texts are not readily available to the researcher, their titles suggest the Educational Outlook articles of Nkrumah's time in Philadelphia were closely tied to both his dissertation plans and his more general political development. We are pleased to make these Educational Outlook articles available to the general public through the links in the bibliography below.

For inquiries about the University's archived materials relating to Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), M.S. in Educ. 1942, A.M. 1943, please contact: Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah [kwah' mE n kroo' muh] first Prime Minister and President of Ghana Early Years Kwame Nkrumah was born at Nkroful in the Western Region of the Gold Coast in September 1909 (he celebrated September 18 as his birthday, but many sources say he was born on the 21st). He attended a Catholic missionary school in Half Assini, graduated from Achimota College in 1930, and spent a few years teaching in elementary schools along the coast before going to the United States for further studies in 1935. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Lincoln University in 1939, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Lincoln in 1942, a Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Pennsylvania in 1943.

Nkrumah's exposure to African politics began while he was at Lincoln (the oldest black college in the United States), where he was elected president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada. His political activity continued after he moved to England (in 1945), where he helped organize the the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester. He also founded the West African National Secretariat to work for decolonization of Africa and served as vice-president of the West African Students' Union. In 1947, Nkrumah was invited to serve as General Secretary to the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), under Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah. He accepted, and returned to the Gold Coast on November 15, 1947 to take up the position. Independence Movement Leader In February 1948, police fired on ex-servicemen protesting the rising cost of living in the Gold Coast, spurring riots in Accra, Kumasi, and elsewhere. The colonial government suspected that the UGCC was behind the protests and arrested many of its leaders, including Nkrumah. The government quickly realized that it had made a mistake, however, and released the leaders.

Nkrumah emerged from his brief imprisonment as the leader of a movement that wanted nothing less than immediate self-government for the Gold Coast. On June 12, 1959, Nkrumah led the formation of the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP), at an arena in Accra before a crowd of some 60,000. He was made Chairman of the Party, with Komla Agbeli Gbedemah as Vice Chairman and Kojo Botsio as Secretary. On January 8, 1950, he called for a campaign of "positive action" involving nonviolent protests, strikes, and non-cooperation with British colonial authorities. In response, the colonial government declared a state of emergency effective January 12 and prohibited the holding of processions, imposed curfews, and disconnected public services in certain areas. On January 21, Nkrumah was arrested for inciting an illegal strike and sedition for an article in the Cape Coast Daily Mail. Convicted of both crimes, he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment.

Gbedemah ran the CPP while Nkrumah served his sentence at the James Fort Prison, from which Nkrumah routinely smuggled out messages written on toilet paper. Despite being in prison, Nkrumah led the CPP to a stunning victory in the Gold Coast's first general election, on February 8, 1951. Elected to Parliament in that election, the colonial government released Nkrumah and installed him as the "leader of government business," a title that was changed to Prime Minister of Gold Coast in 1952. On March 6, 1957, Gold Coast became the first African colony to achieve full independence, as Ghana, and Nkrumah became its first Prime Minister. Prime Minister In 1958 Nkrumah's government legalized the imprisonment without trial of those it regarded as security risks, and it soon became apparent that his style of government was to be authoritarian. His popularity in the country rose, however, as new roads, schools, and health facilities were built, and as his policy of Africanization created better career opportunities for Ghanaians.

President By a plebiscite, Ghana became a republic, with Nkrumah as President, on July 1, 1960. The plebiscite also gave the President wide legislative and executive powers under a new constitution, and Nkrumah began taking advantage of those powers immediately. His administration became involved in magnificent but often ruinous development projects, so that a once-prosperous country became crippled with foreign debt. Contraction of the economy led to widespread labor 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 Communist countries for financial support. As internal problems sprang up across Ghana, Nkrumah gave more and more of his personal attention to a personal campaign for the political unity of black Africa, and he played a key role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity in 1963. The attempted assassination of Nkrumah at Kulugungu in August 1962, the first of several, led to his increasing seclusion from public life.

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." Fall from Power and Later Life On February 24,1966, 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. 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 of cancer in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27, 1972.

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. Kwame Nkrumah March 5, 1957: First Black Colonies in Africa Win Independence The Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust territory in Western Africa become the first black colonies in Africa to win their independence. The two British colonies become the independent state of Ghana with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as the country’s first prime minister. In leading the colonies to independence, Dr. Nkrumah becomes an international symbol of freedom, spearheading the struggle for independence in much of sub-Saharan Africa. [ BBC, 11/4/1997 ; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004 ] Celebrating the country’s independence, Nkrumah declares, “We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity….

We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; For our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.” 1961-Early 1966: Soviet-Style Economic Reforms Unsuccessful in Ghana; Foreign Debt Grows Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah introduces his Soviet-inspired Seven-Year Plan to establish state-owned factories and public authorities. The projects are financed by foreign loans and taxes, saddling the country with debt and stifling certain sectors of the economy. Cocoa production in Ghana drops dramatically when farmers, whose income has been reduced by the government marketing board’s price controls, begin smuggling cocoa to neighboring countries or switch to other crops. As a result, Ghana ceases to be the world’s largest cocoa producer. Burdened with debt, the Ghanaian economy contracts, undermining the Nkrumah government’s popularity. The downturn brings widespread unrest which is exacerbated by criticisms that Nkrumah is focusing too much on the promotion of his vision of African-unity (see 1960-1966 ).

(3.00pm-3:30pm) March 22, 1965: President of Ghana Suspects US Behind Assassination Attempts In a telegraph to the US Department of State, US ambassador to Ghana William P. Mahoney recounts a meeting he had that morning with President Kwame Nkrumah. He says he told the president that the US government resented the anti-US statements he had made in his March 22 speech (see (3.00pm-3:30pm) March 22, 1965 ), in which he had laid blame on the US for many of Africa’s problems. “I said I would never have believed that [a] man of his sophistication and refinement would use language like that against my country, and it shock[ed] [me] to hear him do so.” Mahoney says that Nkrumah conceded that the rhetoric in his speech was “loaded and slanted throughout,” but insisted that “he had special purpose in mind.” After Mahoney further criticized Nkrumah’s speech, defending US policy in Africa, he saw that the president was crying. “I looked up and I saw he was crying.

With difficulty he said I could not understand [the] ordeal he had been through during [the] last month. [He [r]ecalled that there had been seven attempts on his life…]” In comments listed at the end of his telegraph, Mahoney says that Nkrumah seems “convinced as ever [that the] US is out to get him” and “still suspects US involvement” in the recent assassination attempts. He explains that Nkrumah appears to be a “badly frightened man” whose “emotional resources seem [to] be running out” and predicts that there will be “more hysterical outbursts” from Nkrumah against the US. October 1965: President of Ghana Publishes Book Claiming World Powers Will Continue Meddling in Africa Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah publishes his famous work, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, in which he predicts, quite accurately, that Africa will suffer persistent meddling by the intelligence agencies of foreign governments, particularly the CIA and KGB. He accuses American intelligence of being behind several of the crises being experienced by the Third World.

His book introduces the term “neo-colonialism,” whereby a state is theoretically independent, but in reality, has its economic system and political policies directed from outside. He again calls on Africans to be united against imperialism and global capitalism. [ Stockwell, 1978 ; BBC, 11/4/1997 ; Yergin and Stanislaw, 1998 ] A weak economy (see 1961-Early 1966 ), exacerbated by the deliberate actions of Western governments to destabilize the country (see (3.00pm-3:30pm) March 11, 1965 ) (see March 27, 1965 ), had severely damaged the president’s popularity among the masses. Additionally, the military was upset with Nkrumah’s cuts to the defense budget and the declining real wage of army officers. The coup itself was supported by the CIA, which had maintained intimate contact with the plotters for at least a year (see (3.00pm-3:30pm) March 11, 1965 ).

The CIA’s involvement in the plot was so close that it managed to recover some classified Soviet military equipment as the coup was happening. Ghana Through The Years: All Presidents And Head Of States Since Independence – OMGVoice News 3. Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa Brigadier Afrifa was born on 24 April 1936. He was a soldier and a traditional ruler. He was known popularly as Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was instrumental in the 1966 coup that ousted Kwame Nkrumah. Afrifa was made Head of State after General Ankrah was forced to resign in 1969. He ruled and suppervised the general elections in the same year and handed over power to his friend, Kofi Abrefa Busia. After the overthrow of the Busia government, Afrifa, a known supporter of Busia was arrested on 15 January 1972 and detained until December 1972. He went to his Mampong hometown and busied himself with farming. He was executed on 26 June, 1979 after he had won the Mampong North parliamentary seat. PeaceFMOnline 4.

Kofi Abrefa Busia Busia was born on 11 July 1913. He was the first Prime Minister in the 2nd Republic. He won the general elections in 1969 with his Peoples Party. He was however removed from office through a coup on 13 January 1972. He died from a heart attack in 1979 and left behind three children, Abena Busia, Akosua Busia and Kofi Amaniampong Busia. SankofaOnline.com 5. General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup d’etat that brought the presidency of Kofi Abrefa Busia to an end. He was born on 23 September 1931. Acheampong tool over the ruling of Ghana from 13 January 1972 to 9 October 1975 under the National Redemption Council and from 9 October 1975 to 5 July 1978 under the Supreme Military Council (SMC).

During his stay in power he implemented major the changes like, changing from driving on the left to right-hand drive in “Operation Keep Right”, “Operation Feed Yourself”, “National Reconstruction” etc etc. Acheampong was overthrown on 5 July 1978 and executed in June 1979. GhanaNation.com 6. General Frederick William Kwasi Akuffo He was born on 21 March 1937. He led the palace coup to overthrow the then Head of state, General Kutu Acheampong on July 5, 1978. He continued with ongoing preparations to return Ghana to constitutional rule but unfortunately, his government was overthrown on 4 June 1979 by a military uprising led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. He was executed in June 1979 together with other senior military officers. HowGhana.com 7. Flight Lieutenant Rawlings He was 22 June 1947 and is a retired pilot of the Ghana Armed Forces. He took over the reigns of leadership on 4 June 1979 after successfully ousting the government of General Akuffo.

He put in place measures to bring the country back to constitutional rule. He supervised a general election which was won by Dr. Hilla Limann and on 24 September, 1979, he handed over power to the Limann Government. GettyImages 8. Dr. Hilla Limann Dr.Limann was born on 12 December, 1934. He was the first and only President of the 3rd Republic. Dr. Limann who was virtually unknown, came to power after winning the 1979 general election on the ticket of the People’s National Convention. He won 62% of the popular votes in the second round of voting. He assumed office on 24 September, 1979. After enjoying some years in power coupled with issues, he was toppled by the man who handed over power to him, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings in a coup on 31 December, 1981. With that came the end of the 3rd Republic. TodayGh.com 9. Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings After taking power from Dr.

Limann in 1981, Jerry John Rawlings established the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) with himself as Chairman and ruled Ghana as it’s Head of State. He later gave in to mounting public pressure and began the process of bringing the country back under constitutional rule. In 1992, Jerry Rawlings retired from the army and set up the National Democratic Congress which will go on to win the 1992 general elections. Image: NigeriaDailyNews 10. Jerry John Rawlings He is the first president of the 4th Republic. He won the 1992 general elections as the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress. He won with 58.3% of total votes. After his first term, he stood for reelection and won again in 1996. In 2000, he couldn’t contest again since the constitution allowed only two terms for each president. He endorsed his Vice president, late John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills as his successor but they were not successful as they lost to the New Patriotic Party’s John Agyekum Kuffour. Biography.com 11.

John Agyekum Kuffour He was born on 8 December 1938. He came to power after beating the incumbent National Democratic Congress candidate, John Evans Atta Mills in the 2000 general elections. He became the second president of the 4th Republic. President Kuffour ruled Ghana for eight years, which translates to two terms. He supervised the 2008 elections but his party’s candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, lost to the National Democratic Congress’ Professor Mills. He handed over power to President Mills on 7 January 2009 YouTube 12. Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mils (Late) Born on 21 July 1944, John Mills was a university professor, a lawyer and legal scholar came into politics when he was chosen by then President Rawlings to be his running mate ahead of the 1996 elections. They won the election and he became Ghana’s Vice president. He remained in that until 2000 when he was endorsed as the ruling National Democratic Congress’ candidate for the 2000 general elections.

Unfortunately, he lost to the opposition NPP’s John Agyekum Kuffour. He contested President Kuffour again in 2004 and lost once again as President Kuffour won with 52.45% of total valid votes. However, in 2008, President Mills became victorious as he defeated the ruling NPP’s candidate, Nana Akuffo Addo. He was sworn into office on 7 January, 2012 and became the third president of the 4th Republic. Death laid it’s icy hands on President Mills on 24 July 2012, just before the end of his first term, making him the first Ghanaian president to die whiles in office. His then Vice president, John Dramani Mahama was sworn in as president and he’ll go on to win the 2012 elections for the NDC. Reuters/Joshua Roberts 13. President Mahama He came to office after the death of his former boss, Prof.Mills. Born 29 November, 1958, John Mahama served as Vice President from 2009-2012.

He is a communication expert, historian and writer. After the demise of then President, John Mills, President Mahama was sworn in as President as specified by the constitution. He was made the flag bearer of his party, the NDC and he went into the 2012 elections against the opposition NPP’s Nana Akuffo Addo. President Mahama won the elections and became Ghana’s fourth President under the 4th Republic. He is seeking a second term this year. 18 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."

Question: In 1960, Kwame Nkrumah became the first President of which country?
Answer: GHANA