Kwame Nkrumah

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Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the independence celebration in Ghana
1st Prime Minister of Ghana First Republic
In office March 6, 1957 – July 1, 1960
President	Queen Elizabeth II (colonial head) represented by the following: Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke (March 6 - June 24, 1957) Lord Listowel (24 June 1957 - 1 July 1960)
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	Position abolished
1st President of Ghana First Republic
In office July 1, 1960 – February 24, 1966
Preceded by	Queen Elizabeth II
Succeeded by	Lt. Gen. J. A. Ankrah (Military coup d'état)
Born	September 21, 1909 Nkroful, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
Died	April 27, 1972 Bucharest, Romania
Political party	Convention Peoples' Party
Spouse	Fathia Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah (September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972) was the founder and first president of modern Ghana and emerged as one of the most influential Pan-Africanists of the 20th century.

Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Return to the Gold Coast 3 Independence 4 Politics 5 Economics 6 Decline and Fall 7 Exile, death and tributes 8 Works by Kwame Nkrumah 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Early life and education

He was born Francis Nwia Kofi Ngonloma^[1] in Nkroful, Gold Coast (now Ghana). Educated at Achimota School, Accra and the Roman Catholic Seminary, Nkrumah taught at the Catholic school in Axim. In 1935 he left Africa for the USA, receiving a BA from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania in 1939. He also 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.

During his time in the United States, Nkrumah visited and preached in black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City. He read books about politics and divinity. He encountered the ideas of Marcus Garvey. He also tutored other students in philosophy. He also met the Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James in 1943, and later described how it was from James, then a Trotskyist, that he learnt 'how an underground movement worked'.

He arrived in London in 1945 intending to study at the LSE. But following a meeting with George Padmore he helped to organize the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England. After that he began to work for the decolonisation of Africa and became Vice-President of the West African Students Union.

Nkrumah was later 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 other universities.

[edit] 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. This political convention was exploring paths to independence. Nkrumah accepted the position and set sail for the Gold Coast. After brief stops in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, he arrived in the Gold Coast in December 1947.

In February 1948 police fired upon a protest by African ex-servicemen who were protesting the rapidly rising cost of living. The shooting spurred a series of riots in Accra, Kumasi and other towns. The government suspected the UGCC was behind the protests and therefore arrested Nkrumah and other leading members of the party. Realizing their error, the British soon released the convention leaders. After his imprisonment by the colonial government, he emerged as the leader of the youth movement in 1948.

After his release, Nkrumah began to hitchhike around the countryside. In community after community he proclaimed that the Gold Coast needed "self-government now." He built a large power base. The cocoa farmers rallied to his cause because they disagreed with British policy concerning the containment of swollen shoot disease. He appealed to women to be a part of the political process at a time when women’s suffrage was new to Western Democracy. The Unions also allied with his movement. By 1949, he had organized these groups into a new political party called The Convention People’s Party.

Making moves towards self-government, the British called for the drafting of a New Constitution that gave some responsibility for policy decisions. Under the new Constitution, drawn up by a selected commission of middle class Africans, wage and property requirements were the basis for suffrage. Nkrumah brought together his own “People’s Assembly” composed of representatives of party members, youth organizations, trade unions, farmers, and veterans. Their proposals called for a universal franchise without property qualifications, a separate house of chiefs, and self-governing status under the Statute of Westminster. These amendments, known as the Constitutional Proposals of October 1949, were rejected by the colonial administration.

The colonial administration’s rejection of the People’s Assembly’s recommendations led directly to Nkrumah’s call for “Positive Action” in January 1950. Positive Action included Civil Disobedience, Non-Cooperation, Boycotts, and Strikes. The colonial administration retaliated by arresting Nkrumah and many of his supporters in the CPP. Nkrumah was sentenced to three years in prison.

Facing international protests and internal resistance the British decided to leave the Gold Coast. Britain organized the first general election to be held in Africa under universal franchise in 1951. Though in jail, Nkrumah won the election by a landslide and his party gained 34 out of 38 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Now the Leader of Government Business, Nkrumah was released from prison on February 12, 1951. The British Governor Charles Arden-Clarke asked him to head a new government that would eventually lead to Ghanian Independence; Nkrumah agreed. In 1952, upon the withdrawal of the British Governor, he was appointed to the office of Prime Minister. Finally, winning the election of 1960, Nkrumah became the first President of Ghana. In 1962 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union.

[edit] Independence

As a leader of this government, Nkrumah faced three serious challenges. First, he needed to learn the art of government. Second, he needed to create a unified nation of Ghana from the four territories of the Gold Coast. Third, he needed to win his nation’s independence. Nkrumah was successful at all three goals. Within nine years of his release from prison, he was the executive president of a unified nation with complete political freedom.

Under Nkrumah’s leadership, Ghana took enormous steps forward. To lift the nation out of poverty, Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various community programs, and established schools. He ordered the construction of roads and bridges to further commerce and communication. In the interest of the nation’s health, he had tap water systems installed in the villages and ordered the construction of concrete drains for latrines.

At 12 AM on March 6, 1957 Ghana was declared independent. Nkrumah was now hailed as "Osagyefo" - which means "the victorious one" in the Akan language. Ghana was declared a republic in 1960 and became a charter member of the Organization of African Unity in 1963.

[edit] Politics

He generally took a non-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believed capitalism's malign effects 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":

"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."^[2]

Nkrumah was also perhaps best known politically for his strong commitment to and promotion of Pan-Africanism. Having been inspired by the writings and his relationships with black intellectuals like Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, and George Padmore; Nkrumah went on to himself inspire and encourage Pan-Africanist positions amongst a number of other African independence leaders and activists from the African diaspora. With perhaps Nkrumah's biggest success in this area coming with his significant influence in the founding of the Organization of African Unity.

[edit] Economics

See also: Economy of Ghana

Nkrumah attempted to move Ghana’s economy toward a more industrial model. His reasoning was that moving Ghana out of the colonial trade system by reducing its dependence on foreign capital, technology, and material goods would allow it to become truly independent. Unfortunately, he moved to industrialization at the expense of his country’s cocoa growing sector, which had been a strong economic sector until then. In the end, the various economic projects that he undertook were generally unsuccessful and, especially in the case of the Akosombo Dam, hugely expensive. (However, even today, Ghana still relies on the hydroelectric power produced by the Akosombo Dam for most of its electricity). Neither did they remove Ghana from dependence on Western imports. By the time he was deposed in 1966, Ghana had gone from being one of the richest countries in Africa to one of the poorest.

[edit] Decline and Fall

The year 1954 was a pivotal year in the life of Kwame Nkrumah. In that year, he won the Independence Election with an astonishing (but quite legitimate) 80% of the vote. However, that same year saw the beginning of his ultimate political demise. In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton. Rather than allowing cocoa farmers to waste the benefit from this windfall, Nkrumah decided to use the additional profit to national development. This new policy caused him to fall into disfavor with one of the major constituencies that had helped him originally come to power.

The year 1958 saw the introduction of two pieces of legislation that would restrict the freedoms of the people of Ghana. In the wake of the Gold Miners' Strike of 1955, Nkrumah introduced the Trade Union Act, which made strikes illegal. In reaction to a suspected plot on the part of an opposition member of parliament, the Preventive Detention Act made it possible to arrest and detain anyone charged with treason without the involvement of the nation’s court system.

When the railway workers went on strike in 1961, Nkrumah ordered strike leaders and opposition politicians arrested under the Trade Union Act of 1958. Though Nkrumah himself had organized strikes a few years before, there was no longer any place for them in his plan for rapid industrial development. He told the unions that their days as advocates for the safety and just compensation of miners was over. Their new job was to work with management in the mobilization of human resources. Wage incentives must give way to patriotic duty. In his eyes, the good of the nation as a whole superseded the good of individual workers.

The Preventive Detention Act led to widespread disaffection with Nkrumah’s administration. Some of his men used the law to have innocent people arrested so that they could acquire their political offices and business assets. Advisers close to Nkrumah became reluctant to discuss Ghana’s true situation for fear that they might be seen as being critical. When the nation’s clinics ran out of pharmaceuticals, no one notified him. Some people believed he no longer cared, the advisers trembled, and the police came to resent their role in society. Meanwhile, a quite justifiable fear of assassination meant Nkrumah became less accessible. Ghana was declared a one-party state with Nkrumah as Life President in 1964.

Nkrumah’s commitment to industrial development at any cost led to his decision to construct a hydroelectric power plant on the Volta River in northern Ghana. American companies would build the dam for Nkrumah, but they would also place numerous restrictions on what could be produced using the power that it generated. It was a bad deal, but Nkrumah did not back away from it. He used borrowed money to build the dam, placing Ghana in serious debt. Financing the debt required higher taxation of the cocoa farmers in the south. This accentuated regional differences and jealousy. The dam project was completed and officially opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on January 22, 1966. Nkrumah appeared to be at the zenith of his power. In reality, the end of his regime was only days away.

Nkrumah wanted Ghana to have modern armed forces. He acquired aircraft and ships and introduced conscription. He also gave military support to those fighting the white dictatorship then ruling Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). In February 1966, while Nkrumah was away on a state visit to Beijing, China, his government was overthrown in a CIA backed^[3] military coup. Today, Nkrumah is still one of the most respected leaders in African history. Indeed in 2000, he was voted Africa's man of the millennium by listeners to the BBC World Service.

[edit] Exile, death and tributes

Nkrumah never returned to Ghana, but he did continue to push for his vision of African unity. Nkrumah went into exile in Conakry, Guinea where he was the guest of Sekou Toure, who made him honorary co-president of Guinea. He spent his time reading, writing, corresponding, gardening, and entertaining guests. Despite his retirement from public office, his fear of western intelligence agencies did not abate. When his cook died, he began to fear that someone would poison him and he took to hoarding food in his room. He suspected that foreign agents were going through his mail. He lived in constant fear of abduction and assassination. In failing health, he was flown to Bucharest, Romania for medical treatment in August 1971. He died of skin cancer in April 1972. He was buried in Ghana in a tomb (still present) at the village of his birth, Nkroful, but his remains were later transferred to a large national memorial tomb and park in Accra.

[edit] Works by Kwame Nkrumah

• Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957) ISBN 0-901787-60-4
• Africa Must Unite (1963) ISBN 0-901787-13-2
• African Personality (1963)
• Neo-Colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism (1965) ISBN 0-901787-23-X
• Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (1967) ISBN 0-901787-54-X
• African Socialism Revisited (1967)
• Voice From Conakry (1967) ISBN 90-17-87027-3
• Handbook for Revolutionary Warfare (1968)
• Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation (1970) ISBN 0-901787-11-6
• Class Struggle in Africa (1970) ISBN 0-901787-12-4
• The Struggle Continues (1973) ISBN 0-901787-41-8
• I Speak of Freedom (1973) ISBN 0-901787-14-0
• Revolutionary Path (1973) ISBN 0-901787-22-1

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Excerpt from Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
• Timeline of events related to the overthrow of Kwame Nkruma

Preceded by Position created	Prime Minister of Ghana 1957–1960	Succeeded by Position abolished
Preceded by Position created	President of Ghana 1960–1966	Succeeded by Military Head of State Joseph Arthur Ankrah

Presidents/Military Chairmans of Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah • Joseph Arthur Ankrah * • Akwasi Afrifa * • Nii Amaa Ollennu † • Edward Akufo-Addo • Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong * • Fred Akuffo * • Jerry Rawlings* • Hilla Limann • Jerry Rawlings • John Kufuor *military     †interim