Kwame Nkrumah, his leading role in achieving the independence of Ghana as a Nationalist country. His contributions towards other African countries independence.
He was born about 1909; Francis Nwia Kofia Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana was until his fall from power on February 21 1966, one of the greatest leaders black Africa has ever produced. After his primary and secondary school in Ghana (former Gold Coast), Nkrumah left for United States in 1935. After graduation he lectured at Lincoln University.
During his stay in the United States, he was inspired by Marcus garvey's philosophy of “no other salvation for the negro but through a free and independentAfrica” with the determination to emancipate Africa from colonial rule and unite her in a common aspiration. Thus when he arrived in London from the united states in 1945,he soon got involved in active politics, becoming the ice president of west African student union (W.A.S.U) and one of the organizers of the Fifth Pan-Africa congress of 1945. it was at this congress that the plan to use mass party organization and “positive action” to achieve independence of African states was first mooted.
Nkrumah's connection with Ghana's nationalist movement began in 1947 when he was recalled to become General Secretary of United Gold Coast Convention (U.G.C.C). he soon revealed the radical nature of his leadership which alienated him from moderate U.G.C.C intellectuals. In September 1948, he founded the “Accra Evening News” as the official mouthpiece of nationalist movement and also formed the committee on Youth Organization. On June 12, 1949, Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party (C.P.P) after breaking away from the U.G.C.C.
The achievement of “Self-Government Now” was of top priority in C.P.P programme. To accomplish this Nkrumah lunched “positive action”. The January 1950 disturbances which followed it landed him and some other C.P.P leaders in detention at James fort Prison. But when the C.P.P won the 1951 elections and Nkrumah was elected in Accra Central constituency, he was released from prison to from the Government as leader of Government Business. This was the beginning of Nkrumah's speedy rise to power in Ghana. In 1952, he became prime Minster. From now on, he put persistent pressure on the British Government to grant independence of Gold Coast. In spite of opposition from the National Liberation Movement (N.L.M) and its demand for Federal system for Ghana, it is to the eternal credit of Nkrumah that he led his country to independence as a united country on March, 1957.
Nkrumah has been very severely criticized for developing totalitarian tendencies soon after Ghana's independence. No doubt, political development in Ghana between 1957 and 1965 showed an increasing tendency on his part to turn the country into a on-party socialist state and to concentrate all power in his hands. The deportation Act, the preventive Detention Acts, the dismissal of Chief Justice Arku Korsh for acquitting some of those accused of involvement with attempted assassination of Nkrumah in 1963, his nationalization of several public utilities in Ghana and his obvious friendly overtures to the communist block are quoted as evidence of his totalitarian and communist inclinations. These developments in him were regrettable for they made him many enemies at home and in the capitalist west, and eventually led to his being ousted from power in a bloodiness Coup D'etat On February 21, 1966.
However, it would appear that he was forced to this line of policy by the peculiar circumstances of the time in order to safe-guard his country's hard-worn independence. He believed that the post-independence strains experience by Ghana required measures as stringent as those of a country at war. He felt that Ghana being the first Negro country in Africa to achieve independence from colonial rule must succeed in order to explode the myth that Africans were incapable of self-government. It should be noted that only few government parties in independent African States have not treated their opposition party leaders in the way Nkrumah did in Ghana.
In any case, Nkrumah's place in African history is important. Ghana's independence of which he was chief architect inspired the whole black African to struggle out of colonial rule. Addressing the Ghana parliament on July 10, 1953, he said, “our aim is to make this country a worthy place for all its citizens, a country that will be a shining light throughout the whole continent of Africa, giving inspiration far beyond its frontiers” Ghana's independence did achieve that aim.
Ghana's emergence on the world stage posed a big threat to the racist regime of South Africa. Nkrumah consistently condemned the apartheid regime in world forums and played an important role in forcing it out of the British Commonwealth Nations.
Nkrumah has done more than most African leaders in furthering the cause of Pan-African unity. In 1958, he summoned a conference of independence African states in Accra, and also the first all African Peoples Conference in the same year. A practical Pan-Africanist, he offered a loan of ₤10 million to Guinea when that country broke with France in September 1958, and in May 1959, he inaugurated the Ghana-Guinea union with President Sekou Toure. In December 1960, this union was joined by the republic of Mali. He believed strongly that the political union of African states should be the ultimate goal of Pan-Africanism because according to him, “unless and until the independent States of Africa are united in a single nation, the exploitation of Africa by Europe will never end.” He refused to see eye to eye with those who believed that economic co-operation was the most realistic road to African unity. This difference of views caused spit in the Pan-African movement.
Again, although he was not the originator, Nkrumah was the greatest exponent of the concept of “African Personality” especially it's political rather than its cultural aspect. At first Conference of independent African States referred to above, Nkrumah said, “for too long in our history, Africa has spoken through the voice of others. Now, what I have called an “African personality” in international affairs will have a chance of making proper impact through the voices of Africa's own sons”
Thus, through Nkrumah earned for himself in Ghana an inglorious dismissal from power, he remains a great son of Ghana and Africa. Many without bias will easily agree with Ronald Segal who said, “Nkrumah has already contributed more to the continent that he so patently loves than any of those- inside and outside of Africa---who find it so easy at the moment to belittle him” This great son of African passed to his reward on Thursday April 27, 1972, in a hospital in Bucharest, Romania.
