Kwame
Nkrumah (21 September 1909 - 27 April 1972) was the leader of Ghana and its
predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. He was the first
President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana. An influential
20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, he was a founding member of the
Organization of African Unity and was the winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in
1963.
In 1909, Kwame Nkrumah was born to Madam Nyaniba in Nkroful, Gold Coast.
Nkrumah graduated from the Achimota School in Accra in 1930, studied at a
Roman Catholic seminary, and taught at a Catholic school in Axim. In 1935 he
left Ghana for the United States, receiving a BA from Lincoln University,
Pennsylvania in 1939, where he pledged the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma
Fraternity, and received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1942. Nkrumah
earned a Master of Science in education from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1942, and a Master of Arts in philosophy the following year. While
lecturing in political science at Lincoln he was elected president of the
African Students Organization of America and Canada. As an undergraduate at
Lincoln he participated in at least one student theater production and
published an essay on European government in Africa in the student
newspaper, The Lincolnian.
During his time in the United States, Nkrumah preached at black Presbyterian
Churches in Philadelphia and New York City. He read books about politics and
divinity, and tutored students in philosophy. Nkrumah encountered the ideas
of Marcus Garvey and in 1943 met and began a lengthy correspondence with
Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James, Russian expatriate Raya Dunayevskaya, and
Chinese-American Grace Lee Boggs, all of whom were members of a US based
Trotskyist intellectual cohort. Nkrumah later credited James with teaching
him 'how an underground movement worked'.
He arrived in London in May 1945 intending to study at the LSE. After
meeting with George Padmore, he helped organize the Fifth Pan-African
Congress in Manchester, England. Then he founded the West African National
Secretariat to work for the decolonization of Africa. Nkrumah served as
Vice-President of the West African Students' Union (WASU).
In the autumn of 1947, Nkrumah was
invited to serve as the General Secretary to the United Gold Coast
Convention (UGCC) under Joseph B. Danquah. This political convention was
exploring paths to independence. Nkrumah accepted the position and sailed
for the Gold Coast. After brief stops in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the
Ivory Coast, he arrived in the Gold Coast in December 1947.
In February 1948, police fired on African ex-servicemen protesting the
rising cost of living. The shooting spurred riots in Accra, Kumasi, and
elsewhere. The government suspected the UGCC was behind the protests and
arrested Nkrumah and other party leaders. Realizing their error, the British
soon released the convention leaders. After his imprisonment by the colonial
government, Nkrumah emerged as the leader of the youth movement in 1948.
After his release, Nkrumah hitchhiked around the country. He proclaimed that
the Gold Coast needed "self-government now", and built a large power base.
Cocoa farmers rallied to his cause because they disagreed with British
policy to contain swollen shoot disease. He invited women to participate in
the political process at a time when women's suffrage was new to Africa. The
trade unions also allied with his movement. By 1949, he organized these
groups into a new political party: The Convention People's Party.
The British convened a selected commission of middle class Africans to draft
a new constitution that would give Ghana more self-government. Under the new
constitution, only those with sufficient wage and property would be allowed
to vote. Nkrumah organized a "People's Assembly" with CPP party members,
youth, trade unionists, farmers, and veterans. They called for universal
franchise without property qualifications, a separate house of chiefs, and
self-governing status under the Statute of Westminster. These amendments,
known as the Constitutional Proposals of October 1949, were rejected by the
colonial administration. When the colonial administration rejected the
People's Assembly's recommendations, Nkrumah organized a "Positive Action"
campaign in January 1950, including civil disobedience, non-cooperation,
boycotts, and strikes. The colonial administration arrested Nkrumah and many
CPP supporters, and he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Facing international protests and internal resistance, the British decided
to leave the Gold Coast. Britain organized the first general election to be
held under universal franchise on 5–10 February 1951. Though in jail,
Nkrumah's CPP was elected by a landslide taking 34 out of 38 elected seats
in the Legislative Assembly. Nkrumah was released from prison on 12
February, and summoned by the British Governor Charles Arden-Clarke, and
asked to form a government on the 13th. The new Legislative Assembly met on
20 February, with Nkrumah as Leader of Government Business, and E.C. Quist
as President of the Assembly. A year later, the constitution was amended to
provide for a Prime Minister on 10 March 1952, and Nkrumah was elected to
that post by a secret ballot in the Assembly, 45 to 31, with eight
abstentions on 21 March. He presented his "Motion of Destiny" to the
Assembly, requesting independence within the British Commonwealth "as soon
as the necessary constitutional arrangements are made" on 10 July 1953, and
that body approved it.
As a leader of this government, Nkrumah
faced many challenges: first, to learn to govern; second, to unify the four
territories of the Gold Coast; third, to win his nation’s complete
independence from the United Kingdom. Nkrumah was successful at all three
goals. Within six years of his release from prison, he was the leader of an
independent nation.
At 12 a.m. on 6 March 1957, Nkrumah declared Ghana independent. He was
hailed as the Osagyefo - which means "redeemer" in the Twi language.
On 6 March 1960, Nkrumah announced plans for a new constitution which would
make Ghana a republic. The draft included a provision to surrender Ghanaian
sovereignty to a union of African states. On 19, 23, and 27 April 1960 a
presidential election and plebiscite on the constitution were held. The
constitution was ratified and Nkrumah was elected president over J. B.
Danquah, the UP candidate, 1,016,076 to 124,623.
In 1961, Nkrumah laid the first stones in the foundation of the Kwame
Nkrumah Ideological Institute created to train Ghanaian civil servants as
well as promote Pan-Africanism. In 1964, all students entering college in
Ghana were required to attend a two-week "ideological orientation" at the
Institute. Nkrumah remarked that "trainees should be made to realize the
party's ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and
fervently."
In 1963, Nkrumah was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union.
Ghana became a charter member of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.
The Gold Coast had been among the wealthiest and most socially advanced
areas in Africa, with schools, railways, hospitals, social security and an
advanced economy. Under Nkrumah’s leadership, Ghana adopted some socialist
policies and practices. Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various
community programs, and established schools.
The year 1954 was a pivotal year during
the Nkrumah era. In that year's independence elections, he tallied some of
the independence election vote. However, that same year saw the world price
of cocoa rise from £150 to £450 per ton. Rather than allowing cocoa farmers
to maintain the windfall, Nkrumah appropriated the increased revenue via
federal levies, then invested the capital into various national development
projects. This policy alienated one of the major constituencies that helped
him come to power. In 1958 Nkrumah introduced legislation to restrict
various freedoms in Ghana. After the Gold Miners' Strike of 1955, Nkrumah
introduced the Trade Union Act, which made strikes illegal. When he
suspected opponents in parliament of plotting against him, he wrote the
Preventive Detention Act that made it possible for his administration to
arrest and detain anyone charged with treason without due process of law in
the judicial system. Prisoners were often held without trial, and their only
legal method of recourse was personal appeal to Nkrumah himself.
When the railway workers went on strike in 1961, Nkrumah ordered strike
leaders and opposition politicians arrested under the Trade Union Act of
1958. While Nkrumah had organized strikes just a few years before, he now
opposed industrial democracy because it conflicted with rapid industrial
development. He told the unions that their days as advocates for the safety
and just compensation of miners were over, and that their new job was to
work with management to mobilize human resources. Wages must give way to
patriotic duty because the good of the nation superseded the good of
individual workers, Nkrumah's administration contended.
The Detention Act led to widespread disaffection with Nkrumah’s
administration. Some of his associates used the law to arrest innocent
people to acquire their political offices and business assets. Advisers
close to Nkrumah became reluctant to question policies for fear that they
might be seen as opponents. When the clinics ran out of pharmaceuticals, no
one notified him. Some people believed that he no longer cared. Police came
to resent their role in society, particularly after Nkrumah superseded most
of their duties and responsibilities with his personal guard - the National
Security Service and presidential Guard regiments. Nkrumah disappeared from
public view out of a justifiable fear of assassination following multiple
attempts on his life. In 1964, he proposed a constitutional amendment making
the CPP the only legal party and himself president for life of both nation
and party. The amendment passed with over 99 percent of the vote. In any
event, Ghana had effectively been a one-party state since independence. The
amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a de facto legal
dictatorship.
Nkrumah's advocacy of industrial development at any cost, with help of long
time friend and Minister of Finance, Komla Agbeli Gbedema, led to the
construction of a hydroelectric power plant, the Akosombo Dam on the Volta
River in eastern Ghana. Kaiser Aluminum agreed to build the dam for Nkrumah,
but restricted what could be produced using the power generated. Nkrumah
borrowed money to build the dam, and placed Ghana in debt. To finance the
debt, he raised taxes on the cocoa farmers in the south. This accentuated
regional differences and jealousy. The dam was completed and opened by
Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah appeared to be at
the zenith of his power, but the end of his regime was only days away.
Nkrumah wanted Ghana to have modern armed forces, so he acquired aircraft
and ships, and introduced conscription. He also gave military support to
those fighting the Smith administration in Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia.
In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit to North Vietnam and
China, his government was overthrown in a military coup led by Emmanuel
Kwasi Kotoka and the National Liberation Council. Several commentators, such
as John Stockwell, have claimed the coup received support from the CIA. In
2000, he was voted Africa's man of the millennium by listeners to the BBC
World Service.
Nkrumah never returned
to Ghana, but he continued to push for his vision of African unity. He lived
in exile in Conakry, Guinea, as the guest of President Ahmed Sékou Touré,
who made him honorary co-president of the country. He read, wrote,
corresponded, gardened, and entertained guests. Despite retirement from
public office, he was still frightened of western intelligence agencies.
When his cook died, he feared that someone would poison him, and began
hoarding food in his room. He suspected that foreign agents were going
through his mail, and lived in constant fear of abduction and assassination.
In failing health, he flew to Bucharest, Romania, for medical treatment in
August 1971. He died of skin cancer in April 1972 at the age of 62.
Nkrumah was buried in a tomb in the village of his birth, Nkroful, Ghana.
While the tomb remains in Nkroful, his remains were transferred to a large
national memorial tomb and park in Accra.
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