Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah | |
|---|---|
Nkrumah in 1961 | |
| 1st President of Ghana | |
| In office 1 July 1960 – 24 February 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Arthur Ankrah as Chairman of the NLC |
| 3rd Chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity | |
| In office 21 October 1965 – 24 February 1966 | |
| Preceded by | Gamal Abdel Nasser |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Arthur Ankrah |
| 1st Prime Minister of Ghana | |
| In office 6 March 1957 – 1 July 1960 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governors‑General |
|
| Preceded by | Himself as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast |
| Succeeded by | Himself as President |
| 1st Prime Minister of the Gold Coast | |
| In office 21 March 1952 – 6 March 1957 | |
| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Governor‑General | Charles Arden-Clarke |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Himself as Prime Minister of Ghana |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Francis Kwame Nkrumah 21 September 1909 Nkroful, Colony of the Gold Coast |
| Died | 27 April 1972 (aged 62) Bucharest, Romania |
| Political party |
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| Spouse |
Fathia Rizk (m. 1957) |
| Children | 3, including Gamal and Samia |
| Education |
|
| Awards | Lenin Peace Prize (1962) |
| Part of a series on |
| Pan-Africanism |
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| Part of a series on |
| Leninism |
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| Part of a series about |
| Imperialism studies |
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Francis Kwame Nkrumah (Nzema: [kʷame nkruma], 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from Britain.[1] He was then the first prime minister and then the president of Ghana, from 1957 until 1966. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.[2]
After twelve early years abroad pursuing higher education, developing his political philosophy, and organizing with other diasporic pan-Africanists, Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast to begin his political career as an advocate of national independence.[3] He formed the Convention People's Party, which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter.[4] He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when he led Ghana to independence from Britain in 1957, a first in sub-Saharan Africa at the time. In 1960, Ghanaians approved a new constitution and elected Nkrumah as president.[5]
His administration was primarily socialist as well as nationalist. It funded national industrial and energy projects, developed a strong national education system and promoted a pan-Africanist culture.[6] Under Nkrumah, Ghana played a leading role in African international relations and the pan-africanist movement during Africa's decolonization period, supporting numerous liberation struggles.[7]
After an alleged assassination plot against him,[8] coupled with increasingly difficult local economic conditions, Nkrumah's government became authoritarian in the 1960s, as he repressed political opposition and conducted elections that were neither free nor fair.[9] In 1964, a constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state, with Nkrumah as president for life of both the nation and its party.[10] He fostered a personality cult, forming ideological institutes and adopting the title of 'Osagyefo Dr.'[11] Nkrumah was deposed in 1966 in a coup d'état by the National Liberation Council. Claims of CIA involvement in his overthrow have never been verified.[12] [13][14] Nkrumah lived the rest of his life in Guinea, where he was named honorary co-president. In 1999, he was voted BBC African of the millennium.[15]
- ^ o'Hara, Glen (11 April 2012), "President Kennedy, Prime Minister Macmillan and the Gold Market, 1960–63", Governing Post-War Britain, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 53–72, doi:10.1057/9780230361270_4, ISBN 978-0-230-36127-0
- ^ Rathbone, Richard (23 September 2004). "Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31504. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Hsü, Leonard Shihlien (5 November 2013), "Political Progress", The Political Philosophy of Confucianism, Routledge, pp. 258–273, doi:10.4324/9781315018775, ISBN 978-1-315-01877-5
- ^ Proceedings of the convention at which the American federation of arts was formed. B. S. Adams. 1909. doi:10.5479/sil.380651.39088006011662.
- ^ "Prime Minister 1957–60", Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy, Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 192–214, 15 November 2007, doi:10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.17, ISBN 978-9988-647-81-0
- ^ Stanek, Łukasz (2020). Architecture in global socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-19455-4. OCLC 1134854794.
- ^ Nkrumah, Kwame (1953). [Letter: Kwamé Nkrumah to Richard Wright]. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:4was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^
- Mazrui, Ali (1966). "Nkrumah: The Leninist Czar". Transition (26): 9–17. doi:10.2307/2934320. ISSN 0041-1191. JSTOR 2934320.
- Kilson, Martin L. (1963). "Authoritarian and Single-Party Tendencies in African Politics". World Politics. 15 (2): 262–294. doi:10.2307/2009376. ISSN 1086-3338. JSTOR 2009376. S2CID 154624186. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- Bretton, Henry L. (1958). "Current Political Thought and Practice in Ghana*". American Political Science Review. 52 (1): 46–63. doi:10.2307/1953012. ISSN 1537-5943. JSTOR 1953012. S2CID 145766298. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- Fischer, Hilke (2016). "Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah: visionary, authoritarian ruler and national hero". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- "Portrait of Nkrumah as Dictator". The New York Times. 3 May 1964. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- ^ Zolberg, Aristide R. (31 December 1964). "VII. The Reluctant Nation". One-Party Government in the Ivory Coast. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 219–249. doi:10.1515/9781400876563-012. ISBN 978-1-4008-7656-3.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ Commanding Heights, 1998
- ^ "Shadows of Empire: The CIA, Kwame Nkrumah, and the Struggle for Ghanaian Sovereignty". AccraStreetJournal. 1 September 2025. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
- ^ "CIA's Role in the Struggles of Kwame Nkrumah and Africa's Visionary Leaders". ModernGhana. 2 September 2025. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Kwame Nkrumah's Vision of Africa" Archived 25 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, BBC World Service, 14 September 2000.