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's Vision of Africa | BBC World Service Thursday 14 September, 2000 Kwame Nkrumah's Vision of Africa Last December, BBC listeners in Africa voted Kwame Nkrumah, the first head of an independent Ghana their "Man of the Millennium". But although Nkrumah triumphantly led Ghana to independence in 1957, by February 1966 he had been overthrown in a coup and spent the remaining six years of his life languishing in exile. Omnibus explores what lay behind the coup and Nkrumah's untimely death. Listen to the programme here Hero of Independence Nkrumah became an international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule.

As midnight struck on March 5, 1957 and the Gold Coast became Ghana, Nkrumah declared: '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.' But over the next few years he was increasingly regarded as an authoritarian and remote leader. In 1964 he declared himself president for life and banned opposition parties. Justifying his actions he wrote: 'Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of a totalitarian kind.' Many Ghanaians celebrated when their former hero was overthrown by the police and military while he was on a visit to China in 1966. There was little response to Nkrumah's broadcasts calling for the nation to rise against the coup leaders. He died in exile in Romania in 1972. An End to Colonialism Nkrumah was born Kwame Francis Nwia Kofie in the south-west of the Gold Coast in 1909.

In 1939 he left to study economics and sociology in America. There and in London he was active in the Pan African movement which was demanding freedom and independence for the colonies. Nkrumah returned to his homeland in 1947 and became Secretary General of the United Gold Coast Convention which was campaigning to end British rule. However, in 1948 he was expelled from the organisation for leading a campaign of civil disobedience. He responded by founding the Convention People's Party in 1949, the first mass political party in black Africa. Imprisoned by the British in 1950, he was released the next year after the CPP's landslide election victory. In 1952 Nkrumah became the country's first prime minister. After independence in 1957 Ghana became a republic in 1960. But while Nkrumah worked to improve living standards at home his ambitions extended beyond national boundaries to the creation of a federal union of African states.

'Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent' All For One and One For All Explaining his vision in his 1961 book, I Speak of Freedom, Nkrumah wrote: 'Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.' However, few of the newly independent African countries were persuaded of the need to give up some of the power they had recently won, to a central parliament for the continent. Ghana was one of 30 nations that founded the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

But Nkrumah regarded it as inadequate as it was not the United States of Africa he longed for. Letters to Milne Contributing to the Omnibus report is June Milne, Kwame Nkrumah's British Literary executrix. She was the person who was closest to Nkrumah during his long, bitter years in exile, visiting him no less than 16 times. They wrote intimate letters daily that covered every conceivable topic form Ghana to jam, from vests to Vietnam. She was by his bedside in Bucharest when he died. Immediately following the coup in 1966 Nkrumah wrote to Milne: '11th March 1966. You shouldn't worry about me now June. I am safe and well. I did not write earlier because I was trying to get myself sorted out. I know very soon I shall be back in Ghana and I don't think that you should bother about the criticism, abuse, vilification and the lies being told about me. The truth will out.' Nkrumah died in exile five years later.

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 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: 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. 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. Kwame Nkrumah: Africa's Man of the Millenium" His Rise and Fall Prelude Kwame Nkrumah became an international symbol of freedom, as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule. As midnight struck on March 5, 1957 and the Gold Coast became Ghana, Nkrumah declared: '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.' Explaining his vision in his 1961 book, I Speak of Freedom, Nkrumah wrote: 'Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.' However, few of the newly independent African countries were persuaded of the need to give up some of the power they had recently won, to a central parliament for the continent. Ghana was one of 30 nations that founded the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

But Nkrumah regarded it as inadequate as it was not the United States of Africa he longed for. But over the next few years, Nkrumah was increasingly regarded as an authoritarian and remote leader. In 1964 he declared himself president for life and banned opposition parties. Justifying his actions he wrote: 'Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of a totalitarian kind.' Many Ghanaians celebrated when their former hero was overthrown by the police and military, while he was on a visit to China in 1966. There was little response to Nkrumah's broadcasts calling for the nation to rise against the coup leaders. He died in exile in Romania in 1972. NKRUMAHï¿½S LEGACY: Economic Philosophy: Industrialization. Nkrumah believed that it was only through industrialization, not agriculture, that Ghana and the rest of independent Africa could catch up with the developed nations of the world. Rural development was thus neglected. Political: He began the move to dismantle colonial rule in Africa. He advocated Pan-Africanism, to fight neo-colonialism on the continent.

He was the architect of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). He became a symbol of hope and emancipation for Blacks and all oppressed peoples everywhere in the world. Economic: He built factories and industries in Ghana, the Tema City Harbor, new roads, and expanded the Civil Service. He constructed the Akosombo Dam to provide electricity both for Ghana and the neighboring states. He broke the monopoly of the multinational corporations in the Ghanaian economy, through nationalization policies. He created more jobs in the economy and increased wages. He set up the main Ghana Shipping Line - the Black Star Line. Social: He built new hospitals and pipe-borne water He encouraged and financed sports to introduce Ghana to the world. Africans took charge of their own affairs and reclaimed their dignity in the world. However, social inequalities persisted in Ghana. Education: He manitained the colonial educational structures geared towards European degrees and values. He introduced free basic education for all children in Ghana by abolishing school fees at this level. He expanded education by building more schools to increase enrollments. He built teacher colleges to train teachers for the schools. He built several secondary schools (high schools).

He built three universities: The University of Ghana, Cape Coast University, and the University of Science & Technology. Kwame Nkrumah · Ohio University Press / Swallow Press By David Birmingham “This is a biographical study of one of the most complex African leaders of the twentieth century colonial era. The book admirably traces the problems Nkrumah faced as a student and aspiring politician…. The book is a colorful biography and assists the reader in understanding the tribulations and aspirations of Third World leaders in guiding their countries through the uncertain transition from colonialism to independence.” African Studies Quarterly The first African statesman to achieve world recognition was Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), who became president of the new Republic of Ghana in 1960. He campaigned ceaselessly for African solidarity and for the liberation of southern Africa from white settler rule. His greatest achievement was to win the right of black peoples in Africa to have a vote and to determine their own destiny. He turned a dream of liberation into a political reality. He was the leader of Ghana who urged Africa to shed the colonial yoke and who inspired black people everywhere to seek their freedom.

This revised edition of Birmingham's fine and accessible biography chronicles the public accomplishments of this extraordinary leader, who faced some of the century's most challenging political struggles over colonial transition. African nationalism, and pan-Africanism. It also relates some of the personal trials of a complex individual. As a student in America in the late 1930s, Nkrumah, shy, disorganized, but ambitious and persistent, earned four degrees in ten years. For political training he then went to England. Nkrumah found writing difficult throughout his lifetime, but once back in his African homeland, with its oral heritage, Nkrumah blossomed as a charming conversationalist, a speechmaker, and eventually a visionary and inspiring leader. Nkrumah's crusades were controversial, however, and in the 1960s he gradually lost his heroic stature both among his own people and among his fellow leaders. He lived his last years in exile. This remarkable life story, which touches on many of the issues facing modern Africa, will open a window of understanding for the general leader as well as for graduate and undergraduate classes.

In this new edition, Birmingham also examines Nkrumah's exile and provides insight into the image of Nkrumah that has emerged in the light of research recently published. David Birmingham lived in Switzerland from 1947 to 1954 as a child and returned there in the 1990s as a visiting historian. From 1980 to 2001 he held the chair of Modern History in the University of Kent at Canterbury in England. He is the author of many books, including Portugal and Africa. Order a print copy BBC News | Africa at 40 | Nkrumah - an African visionary with feet of clay Tuesday, November 4, 1997 Published at 08:28 GMT Special Report: Africa at 40 Nkrumah - an African visionary with feet of clay Kwame Nkrumah's dream of a free, united and prosperous Africa made him an icon of the post-colonial era. Generations of policiticians have claimed to be inspired by his Pan African ideals - though some have not always put them into practice.

They will get the chance to examine his vision afresh at the Africa at 40 conference called to consider their progress since the milestone of Ghanaian independence. However, Dr Nkrumah was not without faults. And not all of his ideas - such as his desire for a kind of United States of Africa - remain in fashion. Hero of independence Dr Nkrumah became an international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule. As midnight struck on March 5, 1957 and the Gold Coast became Ghana, Dr Nkrumah declared: "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." But over the next few years he was increasingly regarded as an authoritarian and remote leader. In 1964 he declared himself president for life and banned opposition parties.

Justifying his actions he wrote: "Even a system based on a democratic constitution may need backing up in the period following independence by emergency measures of a totalitarian kind." Many Ghanaians celebrated when their former hero was overthrown by the police and military while he was on a visit to China in 1966. There was little response to Dr Nkrumah's broadcasts calling for the nation to rise against the coup leaders. He died in exile in Romania in 1972. An end to colonialism Dr Nkrumah was born Kwame Francis Nwia Kofie in the south-west of the Gold Coast in 1909. In 1939 he left to study economics and sociology in America. There and in London he was active in the Pan African movement which was demanding freedom and independence for the colonies. Dr Nkrumah returned to his homeland in 1947 and became Secretary General of the United Gold Coast Convention which was campaigning to end British rule. However, in 1948 he was expelled from the organisation for leading a campaign of civil disobedience.

He responded by founding the Convention People's Party in 1949, the first mass political party in black Africa. Dr Nkrumah during his year in jail Imprisoned by the British in 1950, he was released the next year after the CPP's landslide election victory. In 1952 Dr Nkrumah became the country's first prime minister. After independence in 1957 Ghana became a republic in 1960. But while Dr Nkrumah worked to improve living standards at home his ambitions extended beyond national boundaries to the creation of a federal union of African states. United for the good of all Explaining his vision in his 1961 book, I Speak of Freedom, he wrote: "Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.

" I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind." However, few of the newly independent African countries were persuaded of the need to give up some of the power they had recently won, to a central parliament for the continent. Ghana was one of 30 nations that founded the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. The OAU remains the leading mouthpiece for African opinion. But Dr Nkrumah regarded it as inadequate as it was not the United States of Africa he longed for. �

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