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Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

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One of Africa’s most visionary leaders, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was instrumental in Ghana’s development and the struggle for African independence.

The name Kwame Nkrumah is closely associated with Ghanaian history. Nkrumah was born in Nkroful, Gold Coast (now Ghana), on September 21, 1909. He went on to become Ghana’s first president and a significant player in the struggle for African independence.

7 Facts About Dr. Kwame Nkrumah You Probably Didn’t Know

7 Facts About Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

Focused on economic development

Nkrumah’s presidency was marked by a focus on economic development and social welfare, with initiatives such as the construction of schools, hospitals, and roads, as well as the establishment of a national airline and shipping line.

Nkrumah was also a vocal advocate for pan-Africanism, calling for unity among African nations to fight against imperialism and colonialism. He played a key role in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which aimed to promote cooperation and solidarity among African countries.

Thirst for knowledge

Nkrumah’s early life was marked by a thirst for knowledge and a passion for politics. He studied at the prestigious Achimota School and later went on to pursue higher education in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was during this time that Nkrumah became involved in the Pan-African movement, which sought to unify African nations and fight against colonial rule.

Was voted ‘African Man of the Millennium

In 2000, he was voted African Man of the Millennium by listeners to the BBC World Service, being described by the BBC as a “Hero of Independence”, and an “International symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule.”

Received honorary awards from five universities

Over his lifetime, Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorates by many universities, including Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), Moscow State University (USSR), Cairo University (Egypt), Jagiellonian University (Poland) and Humboldt University (East Germany).

Alleged controversial rule

However, Nkrumah’s rule was not without controversy. His government was criticised for its authoritarian tendencies and the suppression of political dissent. In 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup while on a state visit to China.

Despite his ousting, Nkrumah’s legacy as the founding father of Ghana and a champion of African independence remains strong. His vision of a united and prosperous Africa continues to inspire generations of leaders and activists across the continent.

His bride price to his wife’s family was rejected

Kwame Nkrumah married Fathia Ritzk, an Egyptian Coptic bank worker and former teacher, on the evening of her arrival in Ghana on New Year’s Eve, 1957–1958. Fathia’s mother refused to bless their marriage after another one of her children left with a foreign husband.

As a married couple, the Nkrumah family had three children: Gamal (born 1958), Samia (born 1960) and Sekou (born 1964). Gamal is a newspaper journalist, while Samia and Sekou are politicians. Nkrumah also has another son, Francis, a pediatrician (born in 1962). There may be another son, Onsy Anwar Nathan Kwame Nkrumah, born to an Egyptian mother and an additional daughter, Elizabeth. Onsy’s claim to be Nkrumah’s son is disputed by Nkrumah’s other children.

Nkrumah was honorary co-president of Guinea

Nkrumah’s government became authoritarian in the 1960s, as he repressed political opposition and conducted elections that were not free and fair. In 1964, a constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state, with Nkrumah as president for life of both the nation and its party. He fostered a personality cult, forming ideological institutes and adopting the title of ‘Osagyefo Dr.’, while adorning currency with his images. Nkrumah was deposed in 1966 by the National Liberation Council in a coup d’état, under whose supervision the country’s economy was privatised. Nkrumah lived the rest of his life in Guinea, where he was named honorary co-president.

Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy lives on in the hearts and minds of the Ghanaian people, as well as in the history books that document his remarkable life and achievements.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah | Biography, Education, Life -knowafricaofficial.com

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, (came into this world on September 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast [now Ghana]—passed on April 27, 1972, Bucharest, Romania), Ghanaian patriot pioneer who drove the Gold Coast’s drive for freedom from Britain and directed its rise as the new country of Ghana. He headed the country from autonomy in 1957 until he was ousted by an overthrow in 1966.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Early Life 

Kwame Nkrumah’s dad was a goldsmith and his mom a retail merchant. Purified through water a Roman Catholic, Nkrumah went through nine years at the Roman Catholic grade school close by Half Assini. After graduation from Achimota College in 1930, he began his profession as an educator at Roman Catholic junior schools in Elmina and Axim and at a theological school.

Progressively attracted to governmental issues, Nkrumah chose to seek additional examinations in the United States. He entered Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1935 and, subsequent to graduating in 1939, acquired graduate degrees from Lincoln and from the University of Pennsylvania. He examined the writing of communism, prominently Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, and of patriotism, particularly Marcus Garvey, the Black American head of the 1920s. In the long run, Nkrumah came to portray himself as a “nondenominational Christian and a Marxist communist.” He likewise submerged himself in political work, revamping and turning out to be the leader 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 coordinated the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.

In the meantime, in the Gold Coast, J.B. Danquah had shaped the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to work for self-government by established methods. Welcome to fill in as the UGCC’s overall secretary, Nkrumah got back in late 1947. As broad secretary, he tended to gatherings all through the Gold Coast and started to make a mass base for the new development. At the point when broad uproars happened in February 1948, the British momentarily captured Nkrumah and different heads of the UGCC.

At the point when a split created between the working class heads of the UGCC and the more extreme allies of Nkrumah, he framed in June 1949 the new Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), a mass-based gathering that was focused on a program of prompt self-government. In January 1950, Nkrumah started a mission of “positive activity,” including peaceful fights, strikes, and noncooperation with the British provincial specialists.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah | Biography, Education, Life -knowafricaofficial.com

 

From Prison To Prime Ministry

In the resulting emergency, administrations all through the nation were upset, and Nkrumah was again captured and condemned to one year’s detainment. Be that as it may, the Gold Coast’s first broad political race (February 8, 1951) showed the help the CPP had effectively won. Chosen for Parliament, Nkrumah was delivered from jail to become head of government business and, in 1952, leader of the Gold Coast.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah | Biography, Education, Life -knowafricaofficial.com

At the point when the Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust an area turned into a free state inside the British Commonwealth—as Ghana—in March 1957, Nkrumah turned into the new country’s first leader. In 1958 Nkrumah’s administration legitimized the detainment without preliminary of those it viewed as security hazards. It before long became evident that Nkrumah’s style of government was to be a tyrant. Nkrumah’s fame in the nation rose, be that as it may, as new streets, schools, and wellbeing offices were constructed and as the approach of Africanization set out better vocation open doors for Ghanaians.

By a plebiscite of 1960, Ghana turned into a republic and Nkrumah turned into its leader, with wide administrative and chief forces under another constitution. Nkrumah at that point focused his consideration on lobbying for the political solidarity of Black Africa, and he started to put some distance between real factors in Ghana. His organization got engaged with superb however frequently ruinous improvement projects, so a once-prosperous nation got injured with the unfamiliar obligation. His administration’s Second Development Plan declared in 1959, must be deserted in 1961 when the shortage yet to be determined of installments rose to more than $125 million. Compression of the economy prompted broad work agitation and an overall strike in September 1961. From that time Nkrumah started to advance a substantially more thorough mechanical assembly of political control and to go progressively to the socialist nations for help.

The endeavoured death of Nkrumah at Kulugungu in August 1962—the first of a few—prompted his expanding segregation from public life and to the development of a character faction, just as to a monstrous development of the country’s interior security powers. Right off the bat in 1964 Ghana was formally assigned a one-party state, with Nkrumah as life leader of both country and gathering. While the organization of the nation passed progressively under the control of self-serving and degenerate gathering authorities, Nkrumah busied himself with the philosophical training of another age of Black African political activists. In the meantime, the monetary emergency in Ghana declined and deficiencies of groceries and different merchandise got ongoing. On February 24, 1966, while Nkrumah was visiting Beijing, the military and police in Ghana held onto power. Getting back to West Africa, Nkrumah discovered refuge in Guinea, where he spent the rest of his life. He kicked the bucket of disease in Bucharest in 1972.