This past Wednesday, September 21 was a holiday across Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday is celebrated each year as Founder’s Day in Ghana. He was a main agitator for Ghana’s independence from Britain and elected as Ghana’s first president, but in a global context, he was so much more than that.
Nkrumah’s Early Life and Education
Nkrumah was born in 1909 in the far southwest of what was then known as the Gold Coast. He was enrolled in a Catholic elementary school, where he excelled, and became a student teacher. He was noticed by the principal of the Government Training College, who then brought him there to train. While there, he learned about Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, which planted the seeds in his mind for self-governance.
After graduating, he became a teacher and got more involved in politics. After meeting Nnamdi Azikiwe, the future president of Nigeria and an alumnus of the historically black college Lincoln College in Pennsylvania, Nkrumah decided to further his education by also enrolling in Lincoln College.
Nkrumah ultimately spent 10 years in the United States, earning multiple degrees, working menial jobs, engaging in activism and solidifying his Pan-African beliefs. He played a major role in the 1944 Pan-African conference in New York, where attendants urged the US to make sure that Africa developed and maintained freedom.
Activism in London
He then moved to London, where he enrolled in a few Ph.D. programs, but never completed them. While in London, he continued political organizing around Pan-Africanism, with a particular focus on ending colonialism and replacing it with African socialism without tribalism. Nkrumah also pursued activism among the African diaspora to organize in London for independence in West Africa. Because of the focus and ties to socialism and communism, he was watched by both the U.S. State Department and MI5, and ultimately was arrested with a document that stated the goal of creating a Union of African Socialist Republic on him.
Ghana’s Path Toward Independence
In 1946, a new constitution in the Gold Coast gave Africans a majority in legislative branch for the first time, and the first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention, formed the following year. Their main goal was self-governance as quickly as possible and they asked Nkrumah to be the leader of the party, which he accepted after being questioned by the police in Britain.
Widespread discontent led to riots in 1948; the colonial government blamed the UGCC for them and jailed six leaders, including Nkrumah, known as the Big Six (they can be seen on Ghana’s bills today). Nkrumah’s more radical beliefs clashed with the more conservative UGCC and ultimately, he split to form the Convention People’s Party.
Responding to the the UGCC, the colonial government organized a commission to write a new constitution for the Gold Coast, but did not include Nkrumah. He agitated for more involvement of the people upon learning that the new constitution would not grant total self-governance, and after being rebuffed, organized a general strike, for which he was arrested and imprisoned.
However, that did not stop his political organizing; the CPP contested every seat in the first election under the new constitution, including Nkrumah running for a seat representing Accra. The CPP won in a landslide, including Nkrumah winning his race. He was released from prison and became prime minister, where he set the new government on the path toward independence, which was gained in 1957 and he was inaugurated as Ghana’s first president three years later.
Nkrumah’s Presidency
Nkrumah’s tenure as president was not without it’s faults. While Ghana today is often held up as an example against the “presidents for life” that seem to rule the continent, Nkrumah’s time in office was more similar to them than the politics of today. Pan-Africanism informed much of his policies, and even in the constitution he ensure that there was a clause that ensured Ghana would submit to an Union of African States, should one be formed. The beliefs in Pan-Africanism lead to repressive policies towards the tribes and ethnic groups within Ghana, in an effort to discourage tribalism. Nkrumah’s devotion to Pan-Africanism attracted numerous Black intellectuals to Ghana, including W.E.B. DuBois and Kwame Ture who are buried here today.
In 1966, while on a state visit to North Vietnam, Nkrumah’s government was overthrown in a coup. The new government cut the socialist ties that Nkrumah was building and realigned with the Western bloc. This pivot negatively affected Ghana’s reputation in the eyes of African nationalists. Because of this, Nkrumah never returned to Ghana and lived in exile in Guinea, where he was made honorary co-president.
The End of Nkrumah’s Life
Since his death in 1972, his efforts for African nationalism, independence and Pan-Africanism have been celebrated and honored, with his writings and thinking informing much of the Black liberation struggle today.