1909 –1972

Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the newly independent Ghana was a politician, political theorist and revolutionary.  He played a major part in the country’s struggle for independence from British colonial rule.  After being educated in the Prince of Wales College, he went to college in the United States and the United Kingdom.  This is where he developed a strong interest in the pan-african movement and socialism.  In 1939, he finished a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology.  Lincoln University gave him a position as an assistant lecturer in philosophy.

He began to receive invites to speak in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York.  He enrolled at Lincoln’s seminary and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma a fraternity at Lincoln University. After obtaining a Bachelor of Theology from Lincoln in 1942, emerging as the top student in the class, he also got a Master of Arts degree as well as a Master of Science in Education.  He worked with William Everett Welmers, a linguist, and contributed the first descriptive grammar of the Fanti dialect of the Akans.

Returning to the Gold Coast in 1947, Nkrumah became actively involved in the nationalist movement.  With several other politicians, they founded the Conventions People Party (CPP) in 1949.  The party received massive support from the voters and were victorious in the country’s first general elections which were held in 1951.  He became the Leader of Government Business of the Gold Coast in 1952 and then its first President in 1957 when the country gained its independence from the British.

President Nkrumah’s aim was to make Ghana a leader in Africa and he followed a policy of modernization and industrialization. Nkrumah advocated for pan African unity, playing a strong role in the establishment and implementation of the Organization  of African Unity (OAU), advocated for pan-African unity and played a leading role in the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which later became the African Union. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and received the Lenin Peace Prize 1962.

Nkrumah’s vision was put together in a Seven Year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development.  This looked at the educational sector as the main source of development for the nation and the expansion of secondary technical schools.  This was in 1964.  The Second Development focused on manufacturing with the goal of setting up 600 factories producing 100 products.

In 1961, the president initiated the Ghana Nuclear Reactor Project creating the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission in 1963.  A year later in 1964, he was overthrown in a military coup whilst on a  state trip to China.  His legacy is controversial, but he is regarded as one of Africa’s most inspirational and influential leaders.  Nkrumah never came back to Ghana, living his life in exile in Conakry, Guinea where President Ahmed Sekou Toure made him an honorary co-president of the country.  He died of prostate cancer aged 62 in 1972, whilst seeking medical treatment in Romania.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwame_Nkrumah