Kwame Nkrumah Extended Biography
Kwame NkrumahExtended BiographyYou may wish to share this biography with students, or just to read it for your own information.In early August of 1965, the President of the United States was visited by a Ghanaian diplomat carrying a message of peace from Kwame Nkrumah, the President of Ghana. Nkrumah was an important leader not only because he was the first to lead an independent African nation out of colonialism but also because he carefully articulated a vision of pan-Africanism and was an example and ally to other anti-colonial leaders. In his message to U.S. President, Lyndon B. Johnson, Nkrumah urged him to cease bombing Vietnam. The United States was at war with Vietnam in an effort to contain the spread of Communism. The war effort was, of course, violent, and Nkrumah’s message was delivered during Operation Starlite, a major bombing offensive towards the middle of the war. While the bombs were dropping, Nkrumah was in Hanoi attempting to broker peace. The following year, 1966, Nkrumah would be removed from office in a coup. Nkrumah’s life began in either 1909 or 1912. According to the priest who baptized him he was born in 1909, but according to his mother he was born in 1912. Because time is so central to our worldviews it may be hard to immediately accept that different people reckon time differently. But Nkrumah’s family, like many African families, as well as cultures around the world, considered major events, and signs associated with birth, as far more important than chronological time. So, it is no coincidence that the church and his mother offer different dates for his birth. One based on a written source, the baptismal record, another perhaps based on significant events like the founding of the African National Congress in South Africa and the sinking of the Titanic (1912); these were symbols of African resistance and the vulnerability of the British empire. One thing is for sure, Nkrumah would become a major figure in decolonization and the Cold War. Even in his early years he stood out by completing English primary education, a feat only three percent of his peers were able to accomplish. Colonial education, like the one Nkrumah received, was difficult for many reasons. It was conducted in a foreign language, students typically lived away from home, and the rules were very strict. Students could be beaten for speaking their home language or even for getting an answer wrong. No wonder so many left or were removed by their parents. Despite these challenges, Nkrumah was able to persevere and became a teacher. After some years of teaching Nkrumah was inspired to go to the United States and continue his education, enrolling at Lincoln College in 1935. In the United States, moving between Harlem and Pennsylvania, Nkrumah became intimately acquainted with American racism and grassroots organizing. He read the works of the Communists Marx and Lenin, and George Padmore, a radical thinker from Trinidad. In 1945, Nkrumah and Padmore convened a Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England. This was a gathering of African, Caribbean, and African American intellectuals who criticized colonialism and discussed theories of black unity. Nkrumah carried these lessons with him to Ghana (Gold Coast at the time), which he returned to in 1947. When he arrived back home, he feared he might be questioned or even arrested by colonial authorities. After all both U.S. and British intelligence agencies had files on him and monitored his activities. Instead, he was greeted warmly. This would prove to be the key to his power.Nkrumah used this power to mobilize Ghanaians in what he termed positive action, a combination of peaceful protest and civil disobedience. He teamed up with miners, railway workers, and unemployed veterans, among others, to stage protests and boycotts, demanding more services and better jobs. In 1949, Nkrumah founded the Convention People’s Party (CPP). The CPP rallied the rural and urban population and was extremely successful at
2Kwame Nkrumah - Extended Biographygaining support. The British colonial government recognized the CPP as a threat and arrested Kwame Nkrumah in 1950 for his political activism. In 1951, in response to massive unrest, the British held an election thinking that their candidate would win. To their surprise, Kwame Nkrumah was elected in a landslide and moved out of prison and into the office of the Prime Minister. Nkrumah served as Prime Minister under the colonial government for six years, pushing for independence in Ghana and beyond. In 1957, his efforts succeeded and Ghana became independent. In 1958, Nkrumah organized the All Africa People’s Conference which brought delegates from around the world together in Accra, the capital of Ghana. These delegates pledged to support anti-colonial causes, such as the war for independence in Algeria and decolonization efforts in Cameroon and the Belgian Congo. Two years later, in 1960, the Ghanaian Constitution was ratified and Nkrumah became Ghana’s first President. He was also the first leader of a decolonized African nation and as a result colonized people continued to look to him as an example and ally. However, Nkrumah’s fame seems to have been double edged. After consolidating power, he banned opposition political parties. He poured large amounts of money into the Volta Dam, a giant hydro-electric project, and a program to build up the Ghanaian Airforce. Both of these projects lost money. He also failed to diversify the local economy, so when cocoa prices dropped throughout the 1950s and 60s much of the population suffered. Finally, Nkrumah struggled to realize a peaceful and prosperous middle ground between East and West in the climate of the Cold War. This last struggle, in particular, was shared by many African nations at the time. Ultimately, Nkrumah would not return to Ghana until his burial. While his foreign minister was delivering his letter to the U.S. President and bombs dropped around him in Hanoi, the Ghanaian military and foreign intelligence agents were plotting his overthrow. As Nkrumah continued his tour of Southeast Asia and China, a coup was hatched in Ghana in 1966 and he was removed from power and barred from the country. He lived in exile, mostly in Guinea, and died in Romania in 1972 (or the year of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, the Munich Olympics terrorist attack, and Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians from Uganda).