Dr Kwame Nkrumah

• DR KWAME NKRUMAH

The Rt. Hon. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972), P.C.,^[1] was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1951 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah 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.

 Early life and education

Kwame Nkrumah was born in 1909 to Madam Nyaniba^[2][3] in Nkroful, Gold Coast.^[4][5] Nkrumah trained to be a teacher at Achimota School in Accra from 1927 to 1930 ^[1]. For the following 5 years he worked as a teacher in several schools in the Gold Coast including a Catholic school in Axim, whilst saving money to continue his education in the USA. In 1935 he sailed from Takoradi, the Gold Coast's main port, to Liverpool in England, and made his way to London where he obtained his student visa from the US Embassy. It was while he was in London in late 1935 that he heard the news of Fascist Italy's invasion of Abyssinia, an event that outraged the young Nkrumah and influenced his political development. In October 1935 Nkrumah sailed from Liverpool to the United States and enrolled in Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He graduated with a BA in 1939, 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.^[6]

During his time in the United States, Nkrumah preached at black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City.^[7] 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'. Nkrumah's association with these radicals drew him to the attention of the FBI and he was under surveillance by early 1945.

He arrived in London in May 1945 intending to study at the LSE.^[7] 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). Nkrumah's association with left wing radicals meant that he was watched by Special Branch whilst he was in England between 1945 and 1947.

Return to the Gold Coast

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.^[8] 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 on 10 December 1947.

On 28 February 1948, police fired on African ex-servicemen protesting the rising cost of living, killing or injuring sixty eight. The shooting spurred riots in Accra, Kumasi, and elsewhere. The government suspected the UGCC was behind the protests and on 12 March 1948 arrested Nkrumah and other party leaders. Realizing their error, the British released the convention leaders on 12 April 1948. 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. On 12 June 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 1931. 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 on 01 January 1950, including civil disobedience, non-cooperation, boycotts, and strikes. That day the colonial administration immediately arrested Nkrumah and many CPP supporters, and he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Prime Minister of the Gold Coast Dr. Kwame Nkrumah with Egyptian Egyptologist Pahor Labib at the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt, in 1956.

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. Komla Agbeli Gbedemah is credited with organizing Nkrumah's entire campaign while he (Nkrumah) was still in prison at Fort James.^[9] Nkrumah was released from prison on 12 February and was summoned by Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, the Governor, 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.

Independence

President John F. Kennedy with President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, March 1961.

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. The country became independent as a Commonwealth realm. He was hailed as the Osagyefo - which means "redeemer" in the Twi language.^[10]

President John F. Kennedy Attends the Arrival Ceremonies for Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana, March 1961.

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.^[11] Nkrumah remarked that "trainees should be made to realize the party's ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and fervently."^[12]

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.

Nkrumah’s time in office was initially successful, with forestry, fishing, and cattle-breeding expanded, production of cocoa (Ghana’s main export) doubled, and modest deposits of bauxite and gold exploited more effectively. The construction of a dam on the Volta River (launched in 1961) provided water for irrigation and hydro-electric power, which produced enough electricity for the towns as well as for a new aluminimum plant. Government funds were also provided for village projects in which local people built schools and roads,^[13] while free health care and education were introduced.^[14]

Politics

He generally took a non-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believed capitalism had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time. Although he was clear on distancing himself from the African socialism of many of his contemporaries, Nkrumah argued that socialism was the system that would best accommodate the changes that capitalism had brought, while still respecting African values. He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled "African Socialism Revisited":

Billboard in Zambia with Nkrumah's non-alignment quote: "We face neither East nor West; We face forward" (Taken in May 2005)

"We know that the traditional African society was founded on principles of egalitarianism. In its actual workings, however, it had various shortcomings. Its humanist impulse, nevertheless, is something that continues to urge us towards our all-African socialist reconstruction. We postulate each man to be an end in himself, not merely a means; and we accept the necessity of guaranteeing each man equal opportunities for his development. The implications of this for socio-political practice have to be worked out scientifically, and the necessary social and economic policies pursued with resolution. Any meaningful humanism must begin from egalitarianism and must lead to objectively chosen policies for safeguarding and sustaining egalitarianism. Hence, socialism. Hence, also, scientific socialism."^[15]

Paulin Hountondji has emphasized the breaks in the thinking of Nkrumah. During the early Nkrumah on the continuity of socialism in relation to, communalism 'of the' traditional Africa's insistence, an idealized image of pre-colonial Africa (draws no exploitation of man by man) and himself a disciple of Gandhi understands, sees the late Nkrumah necessity of a violent break with the neo-colonial relations, the struggle against imperialism and its African allies. In African Socialism Revisited Nkrumah therefore rejects the idea of an "African socialism" in the sense Nyerere, one of the "ideology of continuity" (Hountondji left) was arrested from.

During the early works of Nkrumah, he emphasize that in the pre-colonial Africa there is no class struggle have been made, rejects the late Nkrumah, the fetishization of pre-colonial Africa. "Nkrumah will never have imagined back Africa as a special world, but he accepted that our societies to the same laws are subject like any other country in the world, and that the African revolution, if properly understood, is inextricably linked to the world revolution."

In Africa Must Unite (1963) Nkrumah called for the immediate formation of a pan-African government. Later he sat on a unification movement that emanates from the base, while anti-imperialist governments and between the Western-backed "puppet regime" could be no common ground.

Nkrumah was also best known politically for his strong commitment to and promotion of Pan-Africanism. He was inspired by the writings of black intellectuals like Marcus Garvey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and George Padmore, and his relationships with them. Nkrumah's biggest success in this area was his significant influence in the founding of the Organization of African Unity.

Decline and fall

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 central government 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.

Nkrumah Hall at the University of Dar es Salaam in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

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 fear of assassination following multiple attempts on his life. In 1964, he proposed a constitutional amendment which would make the CPP the only legal party and himself president for life of both nation and party. The amendment passed with 99.91 percent of the vote, an implausibly high total that led observers to condemn the vote as "obviously rigged."^[17] 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.

Akosombo hydroelectric dam

Nkrumah's advocacy of industrial development at any cost, with help of longtime 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 wanted Ghana to have modern armed forces, so he acquired aircraft and ships, and introduced conscription.

He also gave military support to guerrillas fighting against the government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which had illegally declared independence from Britain in 1964 to preserve white minority rule. 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.^[18][19][20]

Exile, death and tributes

Memorial to Kwame Nkrumah in Accra

Kwame Nkrumah's grave inside the Kwame Nkrumah memorial in Accra

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.

Accra Memorial Close Up

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.

Over his lifetime, Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorates by Lincoln University, Moscow State University; Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt; Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland; Humboldt University in the former East Berlin; and many other universities.^[7]

In 2000, he was voted Africa's man of the millennium by listeners to the BBC World Service.^[21]

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah & Ghana's Independence

OSAGYEFO DR. KWAME NKRUMAH (1909-72) Founder and Father of the Nation OsagyefoDr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, stands out not only among the Big Six but also among the greatest statesmen of history. It was he who canalized the discontent of the people of the Gold Coast Colony into the highly organized movement of protest against British rule, and within a relatively short period won political independence for Ghana on March 6, 1957. With Ghana independent, Nkrumah worked to liberate the whole of the African Continent. He supported and financed liberation struggles and nationalist movements throughout the continent. His efforts soon yielded dividends as the majority of countries on the continent gained independence. Then he turned his efforts to forging a common union of African states.

He supported and financed liberation struggles and nationalist movements throughout the continent. His efforts soon yielded dividends as the majority of countries on the continent gained independence. Then he turned his efforts to forging a common union of African states.

This he believed was the key to giving a strong voice to the whole continent and pride of place to the Blackman. Indeed Nkrumah's contributions are legion Apart from being a brilliant leader of the ordinary people and a great champion of their cause, he is remembered as an outstanding statesman of Ghana and Africa who stands shoulder to shoulder with such great leaders of the twentieth century as V.I. Lenin of USSR, Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) of China, Fidel Castro of Cuba, J.F.K. Kennedy of USA and Winston Churchill of Britain. Kwame Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, at Nkroful in the Western Region. His father had many wives and children but he was his mother's only child. Throughout his life his mother, Elizabeth Nyaniba, served as a tower of strength to him. "I never cared for any woman as much as I cared for her. We are both alike in one thing. We seem to draw strength from each other.

In the same way I feel better for seeing her, she gets better if she is ill and I visit her," Nkrumah wrote about his mother. When Nkrumah was about three years old his mother brought him to HalfAssini, where his father worked as a Goldsmith. He began his schooling at the local Catholic School where he was also baptized and named Francis. On completing his course as a top student in his class, he was given a pupil-teaching appointment at a Primary School in Half Assini. In 1926, the Rev. A.G. Fraser, an educationist, visited Nkrumah's school. So impressed was he about Nkrumah's output that he recommended that he should go for further studies at the Accra Government Training College. At that College, Nkrumah came under the influence of Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey who helped him tremendously to come out of his depression and financial crisis which had been commissioned by the death of his father in that same al year. When in 1928, the Accra Training College was moved to Achimota and made part of p the Prince of Wales College, Nkrumah was enrolled and began working hard to catch up with his new mates most of whom had finished secondary school. Among his favorite subjects c were history and psychology.

Outside the classroom, he was active in the Aggrey Students' Society (a debating society). He was also very active in sports and ran for the College in I the 100 and 200 yards dashes. He graduated j from the College in 1930 and his career in 1 teaching began at the Roman Catholic Junior ! School in Elmina. ' As a teacher, he was reckoned to have pedagogical gifts. Basil Davidson, a biographer of Nkrumah, quotes a former school inspector who once sat in a lesson given by the young Nkrumah to prove that point: I have never forgotten our meeting since I was suddenly made aware that here was no ordinary teacher.

Lincoln University Football Squad of 1939 -1941

Sitting: 2nd from Left Dr. Ebenezer Ako Adjei Standing: 1st from left Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

Despite a frieze of noisy spectators at the open windows, the pupils reacted to his calm, dignified and "magnetic" manner whole-heartedly. It was an unforgettable inspectorial experience. While teaching at Elmina, Nkrumah used much of his spare time to help found the Teachers' Association.
This Association aimed at improving the status of teachers, supplying them with the means of airing some of their grievances and getting them remedied by the authorities. After one year in Elmina, he was transferred to Axim and made the headmaster of the local Roman Catholic Junior School. While there, he took a private course to prepare himself for the University of London Matriculation . He, however, failed the Latin and Mathematics papers of that examination. In 1933 the Roman Catholic Mission in Ghana opened a seminary at Amissano near Elmina to train its priests. As one of the brilliant young teachers of the Church, he was invited to teach there. Amissano was to have considerable influence on him as he regained his religious fervor, which he had almost abandoned. He even formed the idea of joining the Jesuit Order and taking the vocation of priesthood.

This idea lingered on in him for a whole year but eventually it was replaced by the old desire of furthering his education. For the place to go overseas, Nkrumah chose the USA . He had around that period come into contact with the views of a foremost African nationalist, Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik), who was then editor of The African Morning Post. Zik's ideas greatly influenced him. So just like Azikiwe; who schooled in the USA, he saw USA as an ideal place to go in order to get a first hand knowledge of liberty and equality At the close of 1934, he applied for admission to Lincoln University, the first institution of higher learning for blacks. His passage money was provided by two relatives: the Chief of Nsuaem in the Wassa Fiase State (northwest ofTarkwa), and another who had moved to Lagos, Nigeria .

Nkrumah arrived in New York towards the end of October 1934 and began his studies in Economics and Sociology at the Lincoln University . In 1939 he obtained his B.A. degree with major in Economics and Sociology, and in 1942 qualified as Bachelor of Theology. He proceeded to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he obtained an M.Sc. degree in Education and an M.A. in Philosophy. While at the University of Pennsylvania , he helped to set up the African Studies section there. He also helped to organize African students in America and Canada into an African Students Association of America and Canada . At the first congress of the Association, he was , elected its president.

In the course of his organizational work, he met C.L.R. James, a historian of note from Trinidad, then living in 'the USA . Through James, he learned about political organizations and took deep interest in the writings of Marxists and other revolutionary philosophers. He was particularly inspired by the thoughts of Marcus Garvey, the charismatic Jamaican who initiated a Back-to-Africa movement, and of Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois who in his capacity as one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was writing authoritatively on African Affaires.