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e. Francis Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain. [1] He was then the first Prime Minister and then the President of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966.
- Lenin Peace Prize (1962)
- Overview
- Early years
- From prison to prime ministry
- President of Ghana and afterward
Kwame Nkrumah spearheaded the Gold Coast’s independence movement and its transformation into modern-day Ghana. He inspired subsequent independence movements throughout Africa. He became Ghana’s first prime minister in 1952 and later its first president. His focus on public works and Pan-Africanism was initially popular, but an economic crisis and corruption sparked a coup in 1966.
What was Kwame Nkrumah’s educational background?
Raised a Roman Catholic, Kwame Nkrumah attended Catholic day schools and graduated from Achimota College in 1930. A few years later, he moved to the United States to pursue master’s degrees at Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania. While in the U.S., Nkrumah’s exposure to Marxist, socialist, and Black nationalist thought influenced his politics.
How did Kwame Nkrumah help lead Ghana to independence?
In 1947 Kwame Nkrumah became secretary-general of the United Gold Coast Convention, a party with a moderate, gradualist approach to Gold Coast independence. Citing ideological differences, he splintered from the UGCC in 1949 to form the populist Convention People’s Party, which consolidated the Gold Coast and British Togoland into an independent Ghana by 1957.
What issues did Kwame Nkrumah’s government focus on?
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.
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African Leaders: Part One
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 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.
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 (February 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.
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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.
The attempted assassination of Nkrumah at Kulugungu in August 1962—the first of several—led to his increasing seclusion from public life and to the growth of a personality cult, as well as to a massive buildup of the country’s internal security forces. Early in 1964 Ghana was officially designated a one-party state, with Nkrumah as life president o...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 14, 2009 · Kwame Nkrumah, the first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of the Republic of Ghana, was the leader of the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence. He subsequently became a leading figure in the campaign for the United States of Africa. Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, in Nkroful, Gold Coast.
Nkrumah, Kwame. September 21, 1909 to April 27, 1972. The first African-born Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah was a prominent Pan-African organizer whose radical vision and bold leadership helped lead Ghana to independence in 1957. Nkrumah served as an inspiration to Martin Luther King, who often looked to Nkrumah’s leadership as an ...
Kwame Nkrumah, (born September 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast—died April 27, 1972, Bucharest, Rom.), Nationalist leader and president of Ghana (1960–66). Nkrumah worked as a teacher before going to the U.S. to study literature and socialism (1935–45). In 1949 he formed the Convention People’s Party, which advocated nonviolent protests ...
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Jul 31, 2019 · Flickr. Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana to in 1957 – the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve this feat. He’s still remembered for his unrepentant anti-colonial stance and strident . Above ...
May 8, 2018 · Kwame Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) was the first president of Ghana. Though he effected Ghana's independence and for a decade was Africa's foremost spokesman, his vainglory and dictatorial methods brought about his downfall in 1966, with him a discredited and tragic figure in African nationalism.
