View source for Kwame Nkrumah

{{Short description|Ghanaian politician (1909–1972)}}
{{Use Ghanaian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[His Excellency]] [[The Right Honourable]]<br>{{lang|ak|[[Osagyefo]]}}
| image               = Kwame Nkrumah Portrait, The National Archives UK.jpg
| caption             = Portrait of Nkrumah
| order               = 1st
| office              = President of Ghana
| term_start          = 1 July 1960
| term_end            = 24 February 1966
| predecessor         = ''Office established''
| successor           = [[Joseph Arthur Ankrah]] ''as Chairman of the [[National Liberation Council|NLC]]''
| order1              = 3rd
| office1             = Chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity
| term_start1         = 21 October 1965
| term_end1           = 24 February 1966
| predecessor1        = [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]
| successor1          = Joseph Arthur Ankrah
| governor-general2   = {{ubl|[[Charles Arden-Clarke]]|[[William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel|The Lord Listowel]]}}
| monarch2            = [[Elizabeth II]]
| order2              = 1st
| office2             = Prime Minister of Ghana
| term_start2         = 6 March 1957
| term_end2           = 1 July 1960
| predecessor2        = ''Himself as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast''
| successor2          = ''Himself as President''
| office3             = 1st Prime Minister of the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]]
| monarch3            = Elizabeth II
| governor-general3   = Charles Arden-Clarke
| term_start3         = 21 March 1952
| term_end3           = 6 March 1957
| predecessor3        = ''Office established''
| successor3          = ''Himself as Prime Minister of Ghana''
| birth_name          = Francis Kwame Nkrumah
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1909|9|21|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Nkroful]], Colony of the Gold Coast
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1972|4|27|1909|9|21|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Bucharest]], Romania
| party               = {{ubl|[[United Gold Coast Convention|UGCC]] (1947–1949)|[[Convention People's Party|CPP]] (1949–1966)}}
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Fathia Nkrumah|Fathia Rizk]]|1957}}
| children            = 3, including [[Gamal Nkrumah|Gamal]] and [[Samia Nkrumah|Samia]]
| education           = {{ubl||[[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Theology|BTh]])|[[University of Pennsylvania]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[Master of Science|MS]])}}
| awards              = [[Lenin Peace Prize]] (1962)
}}

{{Pan-African|People}}
{{Leninism sidebar|people}}
{{Imperialism Studies sidebar|People}}

'''Francis Kwame Nkrumah''' ({{ipa|nzi|kʷame nkruma|lang|link=yes}}, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] from 1952 until 1957, when it gained independence from [[United Kingdom|Britain]].<ref>{{Citation|title=President Kennedy, Prime Minister Macmillan and the Gold Market, 1960–63|work=Governing Post-War Britain|date=11 April 2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9780230361270_4 |isbn=978-0-230-36127-0 |last1=o'Hara |first1=Glen |pages=53–72 }}</ref> He was then the first [[Prime Minister of Ghana|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 [[Organisation of African Unity|Organization of African Unity]] (OAU) and winner of the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] from the [[Soviet Union]] in 1962.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Rathbone|first=Richard|title=Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana|date=23 September 2004|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31504}}</ref>

After twelve early years abroad pursuing higher education, developing [[Nkrumaism|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.<ref>{{Citation|date=5 November 2013|work=The Political Philosophy of Confucianism|pages=258–273|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315018775| url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781315018775-12/political-progress-leonard-shihlien-hs%C3%BC|isbn=978-1-315-01877-5|title=Political Progress  |last1=Hsü |first1=Leonard Shihlien |url-access=subscription}}</ref> He formed the [[Convention People's Party]], which achieved rapid success through its unprecedented appeal to the common voter.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Proceedings of the convention at which the American federation of arts was formed|date=1909|publisher=B. S. Adams|doi=10.5479/sil.380651.39088006011662}}</ref> 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 [[1960 Ghanaian constitutional referendum|approved a new constitution]] and [[1960 Ghanaian presidential election|elected Nkrumah as president]].<ref>{{Citation|date=15 November 2007|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=192–214|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.17|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Prime Minister 1957–60}}</ref>

His administration was primarily [[African socialism|socialist]] as well as [[African nationalism|nationalist]]. It funded national industrial and energy projects, developed a strong national education system and promoted a [[Pan-Africanism|pan-Africanist]] culture.<ref name="Stanek 2020">{{Cite book|last=Stanek|first=Łukasz|title=Architecture in global socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War|date=2020|isbn=978-0-691-19455-4|location=Princeton|oclc=1134854794 |publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> Under Nkrumah, Ghana played a leading role in African international relations and the pan-africanist movement during Africa's [[Decolonisation of Africa|decolonization]] period, supporting numerous liberation struggles.<ref name="Nkrumah 1953">{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah|first=Kwame|url=https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Nkrumah,+Kwame,+1909-1972|title=[Letter: Kwamé Nkrumah to Richard Wright]|date=1953|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803062728/https://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Author?author=Nkrumah,+Kwame,+1909-1972|url-status=live}}</ref>

After an alleged assassination plot against him,<ref name=":4" /> 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.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{Cite journal |last=Mazrui |first=Ali |date=1966 |title=Nkrumah: The Leninist Czar |journal=Transition |issue=26 |pages=9–17 |doi=10.2307/2934320 |jstor=2934320 |issn=0041-1191}}
| {{Cite journal |last=Kilson |first=Martin L. |date=1963 |title=Authoritarian and Single-Party Tendencies in African Politics |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/authoritarian-and-singleparty-tendencies-in-african-politics/C06E363B216E1DC2324E77AABDE4FE40 |journal=[[World Politics]] |language=en |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=262–294 |doi=10.2307/2009376 |jstor=2009376 |s2cid=154624186 |issn=1086-3338 |access-date=19 February 2022 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201210711/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/world-politics/article/abs/authoritarian-and-singleparty-tendencies-in-african-politics/C06E363B216E1DC2324E77AABDE4FE40 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}
| {{Cite journal |last=Bretton |first=Henry L. |date=1958 |title=Current Political Thought and Practice in Ghana* |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/current-political-thought-and-practice-in-ghana/01D51435240B4DD2FFCDF67F554FA682 |journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |language=en |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=46–63 |doi=10.2307/1953012 |jstor=1953012 |s2cid=145766298 |issn=1537-5943 |access-date=19 February 2022 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201201816/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/current-political-thought-and-practice-in-ghana/01D51435240B4DD2FFCDF67F554FA682 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}
| {{Cite news |last=Fischer |first=Hilke |date=2016 |title=Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah: visionary, authoritarian ruler and national hero |url=https://www.dw.com/en/ghanas-kwame-nkrumah-visionary-authoritarian-ruler-and-national-hero/a-19070359 |work=[[Deutsche Welle]] |language=en-GB |access-date=19 February 2022 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201182454/https://www.dw.com/en/ghanas-kwame-nkrumah-visionary-authoritarian-ruler-and-national-hero/a-19070359 |url-status=live}}
| {{Cite news |date=3 May 1964 |title=Portrait of Nkrumah as Dictator |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/03/archives/portrait-of-nkrumah-as-dictator.html |access-date=19 February 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201205439/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/03/archives/portrait-of-nkrumah-as-dictator.html |url-status=live}}
}}</ref> In 1964, a [[1964 Ghanaian constitutional referendum|constitutional amendment]] made Ghana a [[one-party state]], with Nkrumah as [[president for life]] of both the nation and its party.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zolberg |first=Aristide R. |chapter=VII. The Reluctant Nation |date=31 December 1964 |title=One-Party Government in the Ivory Coast |pages=219–249 |place=Princeton |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |doi=10.1515/9781400876563-012 |isbn=978-1-4008-7656-3}}</ref> He fostered a [[personality cult]], forming ideological institutes and adopting the title of 'Osagyefo Dr.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yergin |first=Daniel |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Commanding_Heights.html?id=uNYzPUhXhJYC&redir_esc=y |title=The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy |last2=Stanislaw |first2=Joseph |date=2002-06-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-2963-0 |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=November 2025}} Nkrumah was deposed in 1966 in a [[coup d'état]] by the [[National Liberation Council]]. Claims of [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] involvement in his overthrow have never been verified.<ref name=":3" /> 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.<ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Vision of Africa">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/000914_nkrumah.shtml "Kwame Nkrumah's Vision of Africa"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725113031/http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/000914_nkrumah.shtml |date=25 July 2013 }}, [[BBC World Service]], 14 September 2000.</ref>

==Early life and education==

=== Gold Coast ===
Kwame Nkrumah was born on Tuesday, 21 September 1909<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Kwame Nkrumah: Non-Violence of Mahatma Gandhi in Ghana |url=https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html |website=www.mkgandhi.org |access-date=26 May 2020 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803020635/https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="LSE">{{Cite web |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/10/10/kwame-nkrumah-lse/ |title=Dr Kwame Nkrumah's History & LSE Application Form. |publisher=[[London School of Economics]] |date=10 October 2018 |access-date=22 November 2019 |archive-date=22 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191122230822/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/10/10/kwame-nkrumah-lse/ |url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Nkroful]], [[Nzema East Municipal District|Nzema East]], (now [[Ellembelle District|Ellembele]]), [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] (now Ghana).<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/03/archives/man-in-the-news-an-african-enigma-kwame-nkrumah.html |title=Man in the News; An African Enigma; Kwame Nkrumah |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=3 January 1964 |access-date=19 February 2020 |archive-date=1 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101020947/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/03/archives/man-in-the-news-an-african-enigma-kwame-nkrumah.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcTC2eDx5ZsC&pg=PA1 |title=Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution |last=Botwe-Asamoah |first=Kwame |date=2005 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-94833-3 |page=1 |access-date=12 February 2020 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090708/https://books.google.com/books?id=OcTC2eDx5ZsC&pg=PA1 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nkroful]] was a small village in the [[Nzema people|Nzema]] area,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berry |first1=LaVerle Bennette |last2=Library of Congress |first2=Federal Research Division |title=Ghana: a country study |date=1995 |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |location=Washington DC |isbn=0844408352 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ghanacountrystud00berr/page/27 27] |url=https://archive.org/details/ghanacountrystud00berr/page/27 |access-date=21 January 2018}}</ref> in the southwest of the Gold Coast, close to the frontier with the French colony of the [[Ivory Coast]]. His father did not live with the family, but worked in [[Half Assini]] where he pursued his goldsmith business until his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} University of Education, Winneba |url=https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |access-date=29 September 2023 |website=www.uew.edu.gh |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205164542/https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |url-status=dead}}</ref> Kwame Nkrumah was raised by his mother and his extended family, who lived together traditionally and had more distant relatives often visiting.<ref>{{Citation |title=Athelstan 'Half King' and his Family |work=The Danelaw |year=1992 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |doi=10.5040/9781472598837.ch-021 |isbn=978-1-4725-9883-7}}</ref> He lived a carefree childhood, spent in the village, in the bush, and on the nearby sea.{{sfn|Rooney|p=7}} 

During his years as a student in the [[United States]], he was known as Francis Nwia Kofi Nkrumah, Kofi being the [[Akan names|Akan name]] given to males born on Fridays.<ref>{{Citation |title=Annan, Kofi Atta, (born 1938), President, Kofi Annan Foundation, since 2007; Secretary-General, United Nations, 1997–2006 |date=1 December 2007 |work=Who's Who |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u5557}}</ref> He later changed his name to Kwame Nkrumah in 1945 in the [[United Kingdom|UK]], preferring the name "Kwame".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yakubu |first=Mutala |date=21 September 2019 |title=Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day: Dr Kwame Nkrumah 'A son of the soil' |work=Prime New Ghana |url=https://www.primenewsghana.com/politics/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-day-dr-kwame-nkrumah-a-son-of-the-soil.html |access-date=26 May 2020 |archive-date=24 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924034747/https://www.primenewsghana.com/politics/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-day-dr-kwame-nkrumah-a-son-of-the-soil.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Graphic Online Article" /> According to Ebenezer Obiri Addo in his study of the future president, the name "Nkrumah", a name traditionally given to a ninth child, indicates that Kwame probably held that place in the house of his father, who had several wives.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kwame Nkrumah|url=http://www.tvafrique.com/kwame-nkrumah/ |last=Service|first=Support |website=TV Afrique |language=en-US |access-date=26 May 2020 |archive-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018205429/http://www.tvafrique.com/kwame-nkrumah/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>

His father, Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah, came from Nkroful and belonged to the Asona clan  of the Akan  Tribe.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 September 2021 |title=Details of Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah, father of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Details-of-Opanyin-Kofi-Nwiana-Ngolomah-father-of-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-1362364 |access-date=29 September 2023 |website=GhanaWeb |language=en |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021024909/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Details-of-Opanyin-Kofi-Nwiana-Ngolomah-father-of-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-1362364 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sources indicated that Ngolomah stayed at [[Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal District|Tarkwa-Nsuaem]] and dealt in the goldsmith business.<ref name="Peace FM Article">{{cite web |url=http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/200909/27258.php |title=From Ngolomah To Nkrumah |date=21 September 2009 |publisher=Peace FM |access-date=20 August 2017 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820160658/http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/200909/27258.php |url-status=live}}</ref> Ngolomah was respected for his wise counsel by those who sought his advice on traditional issues and domestic affairs. He died in 1927.<ref name="Nkrumah's Family">{{cite web|url=http://nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=100&c=11|title=Nkrumah's Family|publisher=Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Infobank|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817034351/http://www.nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=100&c=11|archive-date=17 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution" />

Kwame was his mother's only child.{{efn|Nyanibah survived her son, watching over him throughout his life. For a time after his death, she guarded his tomb. See {{harvnb|Birmingham|p=3}}.}}{{sfn|Addo|pp=50–51}} She sent him to the elementary school run by a Catholic [[mission (Christianity)|mission]] at [[Half Assini]], where he proved an adept student.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=7–8}}

Although his mother, whose name was [[Elizabeth Nyanibah]] (1877–1979),<ref name="Graphic Online Article" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2000/499/profile.htm|title=Fathia Nkrumah: Farewell to all that|work=Al-Ahram Weekly|date=20 September 2009|quote=Grandmother Nyaneba, then well into her 90s, waited patiently for her son. Mother stood by her side. Grandmother was determined to remain alive to witness Nkrumah's triumphant return to Ghana. Only after her hand was placed on his coffin did the old woman at last accept that he was dead. Grandmother was to pass away seven years later in my mother's arms, aged 102.|issue=499|access-date=21 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821212904/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2000/499/profile.htm|archive-date=21 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> later stated his year of birth as 1912, Nkrumah wrote that he was born on 21 September 1909. His mother hailed from Nsuaem and belonged to the [[Agona Clan|Agona family]]. She was a [[fishmonger]] and petty trader when she married his father.<ref>{{Citation|title=Nkrumah, Dr Kwame, ((21 Sept. 2009 – 27 April 1972)|date=1 December 2007|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u158013}}</ref> Eight days after his birth, his father named him as Francis Nwia-Kofi after a relative<ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution" /> but later his parents named him as Francis Kwame Ngolomah.<ref name="Peace FM Article" /> 

He progressed through the ten-year elementary programme in eight years. In 1925, he was a student-teacher in the school and was [[baptism|baptized]] into the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] faith.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brooks|first=E. C.|date=1913|title=Seven, Eight, and Nine Years in the Elementary School|journal=The Elementary School Teacher|volume=14|issue=1|pages=20–28|doi=10.1086/454260|s2cid=144643192|issn=1545-5858|doi-access=free}}</ref> While at the school, he was noticed by the Reverend [[Alec Garden Fraser]], principal of the Government Training College (soon to become [[Achimota School]]) in the Gold Coast's capital, [[Accra]]. Fraser arranged for Nkrumah to train as a teacher at his school.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=239}} Here, [[Columbia University|Columbia]]-educated deputy headmaster [[James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey|Kwegyir Aggrey]] exposed him to the ideas of [[Marcus Garvey]] and [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]. Aggrey, Fraser, and others at Achimota thought that there should be close co-operation between the races in governing the Gold Coast, but Nkrumah, echoing Garvey, soon came to believe that only when the black race governed itself could there be harmony between the races.{{sfn|Rooney|p=9}}{{sfn|Addo|pp=53–54}}

After obtaining his teacher's certificate from the Prince of Wales' College at Achimota in 1930,<ref name="Graphic Online Article" /> Nkrumah was given a teaching post at the Roman Catholic primary school in [[Elmina, Ghana|Elmina]] in 1931.<ref name="Graphic Online Article">{{cite web|url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html|title=Biography of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah|date=8 March 2016|publisher=Graphic Online|access-date=21 August 2017|archive-date=19 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619140316/https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During his years at Achimota, Nkrumah was noted for his debating and leadership skills, traits that later shaped his role as a nationalist leader.<ref>{{cite news |last=Quartey |first=Kwesi |date=21 September 2019 |title=Kwame Nkrumah's formative years revisited |url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/kwame-nkrumah-s-formative-years-revisited.html |access-date=5 September 2025 |work=Graphic Online}}</ref>

After a year there, he was made headmaster of the school at [[Axim]]. In Axim, he started to get involved in politics and founded the Nzema Literary Society. In 1933, he was appointed a teacher at the Catholic seminary at [[Amissano]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28819/1/10672987.pdf|last=Biney|first=Barbara Ama|date=April 2007|website=University of London|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=15 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615140618/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28819/1/10672987.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="africanakua.com">{{Cite web|title=WOMEN, TRUE FIGHTERS OF FREEDOM – AFRICA NAKUA|url=https://africanakua.com/2019/05/22/women-true-fighters-of-freedom/|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421220037/https://africanakua.com/2019/05/22/women-true-fighters-of-freedom/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although life there was strict, he liked it, and considered becoming a [[Jesuit]]. Nkrumah had heard journalist and future [[Nigerian]] president [[Nnamdi Azikiwe]] speak while a student at Achimota; the two men met and Azikiwe's influence increased Nkrumah's interest in black nationalism.<ref>{{Citation|title=Azikiwe, Nnamdi|date=7 April 2005|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.40103|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}}</ref> The young teacher decided to further his education.<ref name="africanakua.com" /> Azikiwe had attended [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]], a [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black college]] in [[Chester County, Pennsylvania]], west of [[Philadelphia]], and he advised Nkrumah to enroll there.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rahman|first=Ahmad A.|date=2007|title=The Regime Change of Kwame Nkrumah|language=en-gb|doi=10.1057/9780230603486|isbn=978-1-349-52903-2}}</ref> 

Nkrumah, who had failed the entrance examination for [[London University]], gained funds for the trip and his education from relatives. He travelled by way of [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where he learned, to his outrage, of Italy's invasion of [[Ethiopia]], one of the few independent African nations. He arrived in the [[United States]], in October 1935.<ref name="africanakua.com"/><ref name="newtimes.co.rw">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana's first president and a revered panafrican|url=https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/222725|date=31 October 2017|website=The New Times {{!}} Rwanda|language=en|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803031204/https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/222725|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=9–12}}

=== United States ===

According to historian [[John Henrik Clarke]] in his article on Nkrumah's American sojourn, "the influence of the ten years that he spent in the [[United States]] had a lingering effect on the rest of his life."{{sfn|Clarke|pp=9–10}} Nkrumah had sought entry to [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] some time before he began his studies there. On Friday, 1 March 1935, he sent the school a letter noting that his application had been pending for more than a year. When he arrived in [[New York City|New York]] in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the full [[semester]].{{sfn|Clarke|p=10}} He soon won a scholarship that provided for his tuition at Lincoln University. He remained short of funds through his time in the US.{{sfn|Rooney|p=12}} To make ends meet, he did menial jobs on roles such as a wholesaler of fish and poultries, cleaner, dishwasher and others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} University of Education, Winneba |url=https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |access-date=2 October 2023 |website=www.uew.edu.gh |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205164542/https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |url-status=dead }}</ref> On Sundays, he visited black [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] churches in Philadelphia and in New York.{{sfn|Birmingham|p=4}}

Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939. Lincoln then appointed him an assistant lecturer in philosophy. He began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Rhetoric of Kwame Nkrumah: an analysis of his political speeches |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |last=Opoku Mensah |first=Eric |date=February 2014 |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Cape Town |access-date=26 May 2020 |hdl=11427/9290 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045421/https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah|url=https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/ |work=The Mt Kenya Times |language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=2 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602070935/https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at the [[Ivy League]] institution, the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter of [[Phi Beta Sigma]] fraternity at Lincoln University.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Kwame Nkrumah, His Afro-American Network and the Pursuit of an African Personality |url=https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |last=Amoh |first=Emmanuella |date=March 2019 |type=MS thesis |publisher=Illinois State University |access-date=26 May 2020 |doi=10.30707/ETD2019.Amoh.E |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205195414/https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> Nkrumah gained a [[Bachelor of Theology]] degree from Lincoln in 1942, the top student in the course. He earned from Penn the following year a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=13–14}} While at Penn, Nkrumah worked with the linguist William Everett Welmers, providing the spoken material that formed the basis of the first descriptive grammar of his native [[Fante dialect]] of the [[Akan language]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Descriptive Grammar of Fanti|last=Welmers|first=William Everett|publisher=Linguistic Society of America|year=1946|pages=7}}</ref> Nkrumah was also initiated into [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]] while living in the United States.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Rahman |first=Ahmad |title=African American Freemasonry and African Liberation: An Unknown History |conference=American Historical Association 123rd Annual Meeting |date=January 2009 |location=New York |url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |access-date=31 May 2024 |archive-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902105232/https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sakyi |first=Kwesi Atta |title=Special Tribute to Dr Kwame Nkrumah |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Special-Tribute-to-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-286481 |date=22 September 2013 |website=GhanaWeb}}</ref>

Nkrumah spent his summers in [[Harlem]], a center of black life, thought and culture. He found housing and employment in [[New York City]] with difficulty and involved himself in the community.<ref>{{Cite web|title=US Speaker Nancy Pelosi & members of Congressional Black Caucus lays wreath at Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park – Friends of the African Union|date=31 July 2019 |url=https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045352/https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|url-status=live}}</ref> He spent many evenings listening to and arguing with street orators, and according to Clarke, Kwame Nkrumah in his years in America stated;<ref name="Clarke 1974">{{Cite journal|last=Clarke|first=John Henrik|date=October 1974|title=Kwame Nkrumah: His Years in America|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|journal=The Black Scholar|volume=6|issue=2|pages=9–16|doi=10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|s2cid=141785632|jstor=41065759|issn=0006-4246|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803052005/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

{{blockquote|These evenings were a vital part of Kwame Nkrumah's American education. He was going to a university – the university of the Harlem Streets. This was no ordinary time and these street speakers were no ordinary men&nbsp; ...The streets of Harlem were open forums, presided over [by] master speakers like Arthur Reed and his protege Ira Kemp. The young {{sic|[[Carlos A. Cooks|Carlos Cook]]}}, founder of the Garvey oriented African Pioneer Movement was on the scene, also bringing a nightly message to his street followers. Occasionally {{sic|[[Sufi Abdul Hamid|Suji Abdul Hamid]]}}, a champion of Harlem labour, held a night rally and demanded more jobs for blacks in their own community&nbsp; ...This is part of the drama on the Harlem streets as the student Kwame Nkrumah walked and watched.{{sfn|Clarke|p=11}}}}

Nkrumah was an activist student, organizing a group of expatriate African students in Pennsylvania and building it into the African Students Association of America and Canada, becoming its president.<ref name="Clarke 1974"/> Some members felt that the group should aspire for each colony to [[African independence movements|gain independence]] on its own; Nkrumah urged a [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] strategy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grischow |first=Jeff D. |title=Kwame Nkrumah, Disability, and Rehabilitation in Ghana, 1957—66 |date=2011 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=179–199 |doi=10.1017/S0021853711000260|jstor=23017675|s2cid=162695973|issn=0021-8537}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}} Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan-African conference held in New York in 1944, which urged the United States, at the end of the [[Second World War]], to help ensure Africa became developed and free.{{sfn|Rooney|p=16}}

His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942, Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside. This led to a break between him and Lincoln, though after he rose to prominence in the Gold Coast, he returned in 1951 to accept an honorary degree.{{sfn|Addo|pp=62–65}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=32}} Nevertheless, Nkrumah's doctoral thesis remained uncompleted. He had adopted the forename Francis while at the [[Amissano]] seminary; in 1945, he took the name Kwame Nkrumah.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}}

{{Quote box
| quote = Just as in the days of the Egyptians, so today God had ordained that certain among the African race should journey westwards to equip themselves with knowledge and experience for the day when they would be called upon to return to their motherland and to use the learning they had acquired to help improve the lot of their brethren. ...I had not realised at the time that I would contribute so much towards the fulfillment of this prophecy.
| source = — Kwame Nkrumah, ''The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1957)<ref name=Hagan2>George P. Hagan, "Nkrumah's Leadership Style—An Assessment from a Cultural Perspective", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>
| align = right
| width = 26em
}}

Nkrumah read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 September 2023 |title=Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} Biography, Education, {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |access-date=2 October 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005072546/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943 Nkrumah met [[Trinidadians and Tobagonians|Trinidadian]] Marxist [[C. L. R. James]], Russian expatriate [[Raya Dunayevskaya]], and Chinese-American [[Grace Lee Boggs]], all of whom were members of an American-based [[Marxism|Marxist]] intellectual [[Johnson-Forest Tendency|cohort]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah • Africanglobe|url=https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|date=8 September 2012|website=AfricanGlobe.Net|language=en-US|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803013412/https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|url-status=live}}</ref> Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him "how an underground movement worked".{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}} [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] files on Nkrumah, kept from January to May 1945, identify him as a possible communist.{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=106–107}} Nkrumah was determined to go to London, wanting to continue his education there now that the [[Second World War]] had ended.{{sfn|Addo|p=70}} James, in a 1945 letter introducing Nkrumah to Trinidad-born [[George Padmore]] in London, wrote: "This young man is coming to you. He is not very bright, but nevertheless do what you can for him because he's determined to throw Europeans out of Africa."{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}}

=== London ===

[[File:KWAME NKRUMAH - 60 Burghley Road Kentish Town London NW5 1UN.jpg|thumb|60 Burghley Road, Kentish Town, London, where Nkrumah lived when in London between 1945 and 1947]]

Nkrumah returned to London in May 1945 and enrolled at the [[London School of Economics]] as a PhD candidate in [[Anthropology]]. He withdrew after one term and the next year enrolled at [[University College London]], with the intent to write a philosophy dissertation on "Knowledge and Logical Positivism".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Matera|first=Marc|date=2010|title=Colonial Subjects: Black Intellectuals and the Development of Colonial Studies in Britain|journal=Journal of British Studies|volume=49|issue=2|pages=388–418|doi=10.1086/649838|jstor=23265207|s2cid=143861344|issn=0021-9371}}</ref> His supervisor, [[A. J. Ayer]], declined to rate Nkrumah as a "first-class philosopher", saying, "I liked him and enjoyed talking to him but he did not seem to me to have an analytical mind. He wanted answers too quickly. I think part of the trouble may have been that he wasn't concentrating very hard on his thesis. It was a way of marking time until the opportunity came for him to return to Ghana."{{sfn|Sherwood|p=115}} Finally, Nkrumah enrolled in, but did not complete, a study in law at [[City Law School|Gray's Inn]].{{sfn|Sherwood|p=115}}

Nkrumah spent his time on political organizations. He and Padmore were among the principal organizers, and co-treasurers, of the Fifth [[Pan-African Congress]] in Manchester (15–19 October 1945).<ref name="Martin">{{cite book |last=Martin |first=G. |year=2012 |title=African Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqYEhtONIBgC |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-137-06205-5 |access-date=31 August 2017 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090708/https://books.google.com/books?id=rqYEhtONIBgC |url-status=live }}</ref> The Congress elaborated a strategy for supplanting colonialism with [[African socialism]]. They agreed to pursue a federal United States of Africa, with interlocking regional organizations, governing through separate states of limited sovereignty.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fulcher|first=James|date=1 November 2000|title=Globalisation, the Nation-State and Global Society|journal=The Sociological Review|language=en|volume=48|issue=4|pages=522–543|doi=10.1111/1467-954X.00231|s2cid=145019590|issn=0038-0261}}</ref> They planned to pursue a new African culture without [[tribalism]], democratic within a socialist system, synthesizing traditional aspects with modern thinking, and for this to be achieved by non-violent means if possible.<ref name=Gebe>{{cite journal|first=Boni Yao |last=Gebe |url=http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no3/GhanasForeignPolicyAtIndependenceAnd.pdf |title=Ghana's Foreign Policy at Independence and Implications for the 1966 Coup D'état |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |volume=2 |issue=3 |date=March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611023640/http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no3/GhanasForeignPolicyAtIndependenceAnd.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2014 }}</ref> Among those who attended the congress was the venerable [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] along with some who later took leading roles in leading their nations to independence, including [[Hastings Banda]] of [[Nyasaland]] (which became [[Malawi]]), [[Jomo Kenyatta]] of [[Kenya]] and [[Obafemi Awolowo]] of [[Nigeria]].<ref name="Running away from our own shadows">{{Cite web|title=Running away from our own shadows|url=https://www.ippmedia.com/en/features/running-away-our-own-shadows|website=www.ippmedia.com|date=23 March 2020|language=en|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803001032/https://www.ippmedia.com/en/features/running-away-our-own-shadows|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|p=23}}

The congress sought to establish ongoing African activism in Britain in conjunction with the [[West African National Secretariat]] (WANS) to work towards the [[decolonisation of Africa]]. Nkrumah became the secretary of WANS. In addition to seeking to organize Africans to gain their nations' freedom, Nkrumah sought to succour the many West African seamen who had been stranded, destitute, in London at the end of the war, and established a Coloured Workers Association to empower and succour them.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=24–25}} The [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] and [[MI5]] watched Nkrumah and the WANS, focusing on their links with Communism.{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=173–178}} Nkrumah and Padmore established a group called The Circle to lead the way to West African independence and unity; the group aimed to create a Union of African Socialist Republics. A document from The Circle, setting forth that goal was found on Nkrumah upon his arrest in Accra in 1948, and was used against him by the British authorities.{{sfn|Rooney|p=25}}{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=125–126}}{{efn|Members swore an oath of secrecy, pledging to "irrevocably obey" orders from the group, to "help a member brother of THE CIRCLE in all things and in all difficulties", to avoid the use of violence, to fast on the twenty-first day of the month, and finally, to "accept the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah".  See: "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6wsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA389|2=The Circle}}" in ''Nationalism in Asia and Africa'' by Elie Kedourie, 1970.}}

==Return to the Gold Coast==

=== United Gold Coast Convention ===

The 1946 Gold Coast constitution gave Africans a majority on the [[Legislative council|Legislative Council]] for the first time. Seen as a major step towards self-government,{{sfn|Rooney|pp=26–27}} the new arrangement prompted the colony's first true political party, founded in August 1947, the [[United Gold Coast Convention]] (UGCC).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ghana pays tribute to founders' – Graphic Online|url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ghana-pays-tribute-to-founders.html|access-date=5 August 2020|website=www.graphic.com.gh|date=4 August 2020 |language=en-gb|archive-date=14 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214131116/https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ghana-pays-tribute-to-founders.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The UGCC sought self-government as quickly as possible. Since the leading members were all successful professionals, they needed to pay someone to run the party, and their choice fell on Nkrumah at the suggestion of [[Ebenezer Ako Adjei|Ako Adjei]]. Nkrumah hesitated but realized that the UGCC was controlled by conservative interests and noted that the new post could open huge political opportunities for him and accepted. After being questioned by British officials about his communist affiliations, Nkrumah boarded the MV ''Accra'' at Liverpool in November 1947 for the voyage home.{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=316}}{{sfn|Rooney|pp=27–28}}

After brief stops in [[Sierra Leone]], [[Liberia]], and the [[Ivory Coast]], he arrived in the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] where he briefly stayed and reunited with his mother in [[Tarkwa, Ghana|Tarkwa]]. He began work at the party's headquarters in [[Saltpond, Ghana|Saltpond]] on 29 December 1947 where he worked as a general secretary.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=30–31}} Nkrumah quickly submitted plans for branches of the UGCC to be established colony-wide, and for strikes if necessary to gain political ends. This activist stance divided the party's governing committee, which was led by [[J. B. Danquah]]. Nkrumah embarked on a tour to gain donations for the UGCC and establish new branches.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=36–37}}

Although the Gold Coast was more developed politically than Britain's other [[West Africa]]n colonies, there was considerable discontent. Postwar inflation had caused public anger at high prices, leading to a boycott of small businesses run by Arabs which began in January 1948. Local [[cocoa bean]] farmers were upset because trees exhibiting [[cacao swollen-shoot virus]], but still capable of yielding a crop, were being destroyed by the colonial authorities.<ref>{{Citation|title=VIII. "And although these men were rare and wonderful, they were nevertheless but men, and the opportunities which they had were far less favorable than the present; nor were their undertakings more just or more easy than this; neither was God more a friend of them than of you."|date=31 December 2016|work=How to Choose a Leader|pages=37–41|place=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.1515/9781400880409-009|isbn=978-1-4008-8040-9}}</ref> There were about 63,000 World War II veterans in the Gold Coast, many of whom had trouble obtaining employment and felt the colonial government was doing nothing to address their grievances. Nkrumah and Danquah addressed a meeting of the Ex-Service men's Union in Accra on 20 February 1948, which was made in advance of a planned march to present a petition to the governor. When the march took place on 28 February, three veterans were killed by police gunfire, prompting the [[1948 Accra riots]], which spread throughout the country.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=38–39}} According to Nkrumah's biographer, [[David Birmingham]], "West Africa's erstwhile "model colony" witnessed a riot and business premises were looted. The African Revolution had begun."{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=18–19}}

The colonial government assumed that the UGCC was responsible for the unrest, and arrested six leaders, including Nkrumah and Danquah. [[The Big Six (Ghana)|The Big Six]] were incarcerated together in [[Kumasi]],{{sfn|Addo|p=85}} increasing the rift between Nkrumah and the others, who blamed him for the riots and their detention. After the colonial government learned that there were plots to storm the prison, the six were separated, with Nkrumah sent to [[Lawra]]; all six were freed in April 1948. Many students and teachers had demonstrated for their release and had been suspended; Nkrumah, using his own funds, began the [[Ghana National College]].<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Rathbone|first=Richard|title=Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana|date=23 September 2004|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31504}}</ref> This among other activities, led UGCC committee members to accuse him of acting in the party's name without authority. Fearing he would harm them more outside the party than within, they agreed to make him honorary treasurer. Nkrumah's popularity, already large, was increased with his founding of the ''[[Accra Evening News]]'', which was not a party organ but was owned by Nkrumah and others. He also founded the Committee on Youth Organization (CYO) as a youth wing for the UGCC. It soon broke away and adopted the motto "Self-Government Now".<ref>{{Citation|date=15 November 2007|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=52–72|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.9|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Secretary of the Ugcc}}</ref> The CYO united students, ex-servicemen, and market women. Nkrumah recounted in his autobiography that he knew that a break with the UGCC was inevitable, and wanted the masses behind him when the conflict occurred.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=40–43}}{{sfn|Addo|pp=86–87}} Nkrumah's appeals for "Free-Dom" appealed to the great numbers of underemployed youths who had come from the farms and villages to the towns. "Old hymn tunes were adapted to new songs of liberation which welcomed traveling [[Public speaking|orators]], and especially Nkrumah himself, to mass rallies across the Gold Coast."{{sfn|Birmingham|p=24}}

According to a public speech delivered by [[Aaron Mike Oquaye]], a meeting occurred in [[Saltpond]], a town in the Central region, between Nkrumah and the members of UGCC where Nkrumah was said to have rejected a proposal for the promotion of fundamental human rights.<ref>{{Cite web|date=6 August 2020|title=Sekou Nkrumah Fights Oquaye Over Founders' Day|url=https://dailyguidenetwork.com/283102-2/|access-date=7 August 2020|website=DailyGuide Network|language=en-US|archive-date=26 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926110957/https://dailyguidenetwork.com/283102-2/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Convention People's Party ===

[[File:CPP ‒ Convention People's Party logo.jpg|thumb|249px|Red cockerel, "Forward Ever, Backward Never": Convention People's Party logo and slogan]]

Beginning in April 1949, there was considerable pressure on Nkrumah from his supporters to leave the UGCC and form his own party.<ref name="mkgandhi.org">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: Non-Violence of Mahatma Gandhi in Ghana {{!}} Articles : On and By Gandhi|url=https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html|website=www.mkgandhi.org|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803020635/https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html|url-status=live}}</ref> On 12 June 1949, he announced the formation of the [[Convention People's Party]] (CPP), with the word "convention" chosen, according to Nkrumah, "to carry the masses with us".{{sfn|Addo|p=88}} There were attempts to heal the breach with the UGCC; at one July meeting, it was agreed to reinstate Nkrumah as secretary and disband the CPP. But Nkrumah's supporters would not have it, and persuaded him to refuse the offer and remain at their head.{{sfn|Addo|pp=88–89}}

The CPP adopted the red [[cockerel]] as its symbol – a familiar icon for local ethnic groups, and a symbol of leadership, alertness, and masculinity.<ref name=Hagan2 />{{sfn|Fuller|pp=24–26}} Party symbols and colours (red, white, and green) appeared on clothing, flags, vehicles and houses.<ref name=Hagan2 /> CPP operatives drove red-white-and-green vans across the country, playing music and rallying public support for the party and especially for Nkrumah. These efforts were wildly successful, especially because previous political efforts in the Gold Coast had focused exclusively on the urban intelligentsia.<ref name=Hagan2 />

[[File:Kwame Nkrumah-TIME-1953.jpg|thumb|290x290px|Kwame Nkrumah on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 9 February 1953]]

The British convened a selected commission of middle-class Africans, including all of the Big Six except Nkrumah, to draft a new constitution that would give the Gold Coast more self-government. Nkrumah saw, even before the commission reported, that its recommendations would fall short of full [[dominion]] status, and began to organize a [[Positive Action]] campaign.<ref name="Running away from our own shadows"/> Nkrumah demanded a [[constituent assembly]] to write a constitution. When the governor, [[Charles Arden-Clarke]], would not commit to this, Nkrumah called for positive action, with the unions beginning a [[general strike]] to begin on 8 January 1950. The strike quickly led to violence, and Nkrumah and other CPP leaders were arrested on 22 January, and the ''Evening News'' was banned.<ref name="BIRTH OF THE CPP">{{Citation|date=15 November 2007|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=74–90|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.10|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=Birth of the CPP}}</ref> Nkrumah was sentenced to a total of three years in prison, and he was incarcerated with common criminals in Accra's [[Fort James (Ghana)|Fort James]].{{sfn|Rooney|pp=55–56}}

Nkrumah's assistant, [[Komla Agbeli Gbedemah]], ran the CPP in his absence; the imprisoned leader was able to influence events through smuggled notes written on toilet paper. The British prepared for an election for the Gold Coast under their new constitution, and Nkrumah insisted that the CPP contest all seats.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1 October 1953|journal=Parliamentary Affairs|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a053198|issn=1460-2482|title=The Gold Coast General Election of 1954}}</ref> The situation had become calmer once Nkrumah was arrested, and the CPP and the British worked together to prepare electoral rolls. Nkrumah stood, from prison, for a directly elected Accra seat. Gbedemah worked to set up a nationwide campaign organization, using vans with loudspeakers to blare the party's message. The UGCC failed to set up a nationwide structure, and proved unable to take advantage of the fact that many of its opponents were in prison.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=56–57}}

In the [[1951 Gold Coast legislative election|February 1951 legislative election]], the first general election to be held under universal franchise in colonial Africa, the CPP was elected in a landslide.{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=34–35}} The CPP secured 34 of the 38 seats contested on a party basis, with Nkrumah elected for his Accra constituency. The UGCC won three seats, and one was taken by an independent. Arden-Clarke saw that the only alternative to Nkrumah's freedom was the end of the constitutional experiment. Nkrumah was released from prison on 12 February, receiving a rapturous reception from his followers.{{sfn|Bourret|pp=175–177}} The following day, Arden-Clarke sent for him and asked him to form a government.{{sfn|Rooney|p=61}}

Nkrumah had stolen Arden-Clarke's secretary [[Erica Powell]] after she was dismissed and sent home for getting too close to Nkrumah. Powell returned to Ghana in January 1955 to be Nkrumah's private secretary, a position she held for ten years.<ref name=times>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/erica-powell-50f6gn8q9fb|title=Erica Powell|date=23 June 2007|work=The Times|access-date=2 November 2019|issn=0140-0460|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101142141/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/erica-powell-50f6gn8q9fb|url-status=live}}</ref> Powell was very close to him and during their time together she largely wrote Nkrumah's (auto)biography, although this was not admitted until much later.<ref name=review>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/privatesecretary.htm|title=Private Secretary (Female)/Gold Coast|last=Luscombe|first=Stephen|website=britishempire.co.uk|access-date=2 November 2019|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025081311/https://www.britishempire.co.uk/library/privatesecretary.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Leader of Government Business and Prime Minister ===

Nkrumah faced several challenges as he assumed office. He had never served in government, and needed to learn that art. The Gold Coast was composed of four regions, several former colonies amalgamated into one. Nkrumah sought to unite them under one nationality, and bring the country to independence.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=International Migration Outlook: SOPEMI - 2008 Edition - OECD 2008 – ISBN 9789264045651|title=Table B.1.6. Acquisition of nationality by country of former nationality, Denmark|doi=10.1787/432756801382}}</ref> Key to meeting the challenges was convincing the British that the CPP's programmes were not only practical, but inevitable, and Nkrumah and Arden-Clarke worked closely together.<ref name="mkgandhi.org"/> The governor instructed the civil service to give the fledgling government full support, and the three British members of the cabinet took care not to vote against the elected majority.{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=37–38}}

Prior to the CPP taking office, British officials had prepared a ten-year plan for development. With demands for infrastructure improvements coming in from all over the colony, Nkrumah approved it in general, but halved the time to five years.<ref>{{Cite report |last=Cipriani|first=Ralph J.|date=1 December 2014|title=SNL Five-Year Facilities & Infrastructure Plan FY2015-2019|doi=10.2172/1173199|osti=1173199}}</ref> The colony was in good financial shape, with reserves from years of cocoa profit held in London, and Nkrumah was able to spend freely. Modern trunk roads were built along the coast and within the interior. The rail system was modernized and expanded. Modern water and sewer systems were installed in most towns, where housing schemes were begun.<ref>{{Cite web|title=External Engagement Experiences from Ghana and Mozambique|url=https://media.africaportal.org/documents/REPORT_6_2005_-_EXTERNAL_ENGAGEMENT_-_EXPERIENCES_FROM_GHANA_AND_MOZAMBIQUE.pdf|last=Sidiropoulos|first=Elizabeth|date=2005|website=Media Africa|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=2 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802234800/https://media.africaportal.org/documents/REPORT_6_2005_-_EXTERNAL_ENGAGEMENT_-_EXPERIENCES_FROM_GHANA_AND_MOZAMBIQUE.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Construction began on a new harbour at [[Tema]], near Accra, and the existing port, at [[Sekondi-Takoradi|Takoradi]], was expanded. An urgent programme to build and expand schools, from primary to teacher and trade training, was begun.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} From 1951 to 1956, the number of pupils being educated at the colony's schools rose from 200,000 to 500,000.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=82–83}} Nevertheless, the number of graduates being produced was insufficient to the burgeoning civil service's needs, and in 1953, Nkrumah announced that though Africans would be given preference, the country would be relying on expatriate European civil servants for several years.{{sfn|Bourret|p=178}}

Nkrumah's title was Leader of Government Business in a cabinet chaired by Arden-Clarke. Quick progress was made, and in 1952, the governor withdrew from the cabinet, leaving Nkrumah as his prime minister, with the portfolios that had been reserved for expatriates going to Africans.<ref name=":1">Grimm, Kevin E., Symbol of Modernity: Ghana, African Americans, and the Eisenhower Administration. A dissertation: the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University. 27 May 2020</ref> There were accusations of corruption, and of nepotism, as officials, following African custom, attempted to benefit their extended families and their tribes.{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=40–43}} The recommendations following the 1948 riots had included elected local government rather than the existing system dominated by the chiefs. This was uncontroversial until it became clear that it would be implemented by the CPP. That party's majority in the [[Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast|Legislative Assembly]] passed legislation in late 1951 that shifted power from the chiefs to the chairs of the councils, though there was some local rioting as [[rates (tax)|rates]] were imposed.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=181–182}}

Nkrumah's re-titling as prime minister had not given him additional power, and he sought constitutional reform that would lead to independence. In 1952, he consulted with the visiting [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]], [[Oliver Lyttelton]], who indicated that Britain would look favorably on further advancement, so long as the chiefs and other stakeholders had the opportunity to express their views.<ref name=":0" /> Initially skeptical of Nkrumah's socialist policies, Britain's [[MI5]] had compiled large amounts of intelligence on Nkrumah through several sources, including tapping phones and mail interception under the code name of SWIFT.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Walton |first1=Calder |title=British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the Twilight of Empire |publisher=[[The Overlook Press]] |isbn=978-1468307153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f2cjCQAAQBAJ&q=mi5%20swift%20gold%20coast&pg=PT156 |access-date=18 January 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127091745/https://books.google.com/books?id=f2cjCQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT157&ots=rBl1byBn3w&dq=mi5%20swift%20gold%20coast&pg=PT156 |archive-date=27 January 2017 |date=29 October 2014 }}</ref> Beginning in October 1952, Nkrumah sought opinions from councils and from political parties on reform, and consulted widely across the country, including with opposition groups. The result the following year was a [[White Paper]] on a new constitution, seen as a final step before independence.<ref>{{Citation|last1=Manning|first1=Carrie|title=Political party formation by former armed opposition groups after civil war|date=7 December 2018|work=From Bullets to Ballots|pages=4–21|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-11220-6|last2=Smith|first2=Ian|doi=10.4324/9781315112206-2|s2cid=239577237|url=https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/3187882|access-date=5 September 2021|archive-date=18 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018133341/https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Political_party_formation_by_former_armed_opposition_groups_after_civil_war/3187882|url-status=live}}</ref> Published in June 1953, the constitutional proposals were accepted both by the assembly and by the British, and came into force in April of the following year. The new document provided for an assembly of 104 members, all directly elected, with an all-African cabinet responsible for the internal governing of the colony. In [[1954 Gold Coast legislative election|the election]] on 15 June 1954, the CPP won 71, with the regional [[Northern People's Party]] forming the official opposition.{{sfn|Bourret|pp=183–186}}

A number of opposition groups formed the [[National Liberation Movement (Ghana)|National Liberation Movement]]. Their demands were for a federal, rather than a unitary government for an independent Gold Coast, and for an upper house of parliament where chiefs and other traditional leaders could act as a counter to the CPP majority in the assembly.<ref>{{Citation|last=Ferrell|first=Thomas H.|title=What If There Were a Unitary Rather Than a Federal System?|date=24 February 2015|work=What if the American Political System Were Different?|pages=23–44|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315698212 |isbn=978-1-315-69821-2}}</ref> They drew considerable support in the Northern Territory and among the chiefs in Ashanti, who petitioned the British queen, [[Elizabeth II]], asking for a [[Royal Commission]] into what form of government the Gold Coast should have.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ninsin|first=Kwame A.|title=Ghana'a Transition to Constitutional rule|publisher=Ghana Universities Press|year=1991|isbn=9964-3-0199-5|location=Accra|pages=35–58}}</ref> This was refused by her government, who in 1955 stated that such a commission should only be used if the people of the Gold Coast proved incapable of deciding their own affairs. Amid political violence, the two sides attempted to reconcile their differences, but the NLM refused to participate in any committee with a CPP majority. The traditional leaders were also incensed by a new bill that had just been enacted, which allowed minor chiefs to appeal to the government in Accra, bypassing traditional chiefly authority.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vogel|first=Gretchen|date=19 April 2018|title=A new dengue vaccine should only be used in people who were previously infected, WHO says|journal=Science|doi=10.1126/science.aat9362|issn=0036-8075}}</ref> The British were unwilling to leave unresolved the fundamental question as to how an independent Gold Coast should be governed, and in June 1956, the Colonial Secretary, [[Alan Lennox-Boyd]] announced that there would be another general election in the Gold Coast, and if a "reasonable majority" took the CPP's position, Britain would set a date for independence.{{sfn|Bourret|pp=187–191}} The results of the [[1956 Gold Coast legislative election|July 1956 election]] were almost identical to those from four years before, and on 3 August the assembly voted for independence under the name Nkrumah had proposed in April, [[Ghana]]. In September, the Colonial Office announced independence day would be 6 March 1957.{{sfn|Birmingham|p=58}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=lii}}

The opposition was not satisfied with the plan for independence, and demanded that power be devolved to the regions. Discussions took place through late 1956 and into 1957. Although Nkrumah did not compromise on his insistence on a unitary state, the nation was divided into five regions, with power devolved from Accra, and the chiefs having a role in their governments.<ref>{{Citation|last=Mills|first=James H.|title='The British Compromise': Devolved Power and the Domestic Consumer, 1971–1997|date=29 November 2012|work=Cannabis Nation|pages=155–185|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283422.003.0007|isbn=978-0-19-928342-2}}</ref> On 21 February 1957, the [[British prime minister]], [[Harold Macmillan]], announced that Ghana would be a full member of the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] with effect from 6 March.{{sfn|Bourret|pp=200–201}}

==Ghanaian independence==

{{Multiple image
|position = right
|direction = vertical
|image1 = Flag of the Gold Coast (1877–1957).svg
|caption1 = The old Gold Coast flag, symbolising the supremacy of the British Empire
|image2 = Flag of Ghana.svg
|caption2 = Nkrumah's new [[flag of Ghana]], symbolising African nationalism and abundance
}}

Ghana became independent on 6 March 1957 as the [[Dominion of Ghana]]. As the first of Britain's African colonies to gain majority-rule independence, the celebrations in Accra were the focus of world attention; over 100 reporters and photographers covered the events.<ref>{{Citation|title=Accra, Ghana|date=2019|work=The Statesman's Yearbook Companion|pages=444|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95839-9_890|isbn=978-1-349-95838-2|s2cid=40162723|doi-access=free}}</ref> United States President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] sent congratulations and his vice president, [[Richard Nixon]], to represent the U.S. at the event.<ref name=":1" /> The Soviet delegation urged Nkrumah to visit Moscow as soon as possible. Political scientist [[Ralph Bunche]], an African American, was there for the United Nations, while the [[Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark|Duchess of Kent]] represented Queen Elizabeth II. Offers of assistance poured in from across the world. Even without them, the country seemed prosperous, with cocoa prices high and the potential of new resource development.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=4–6}}

As the fifth of March turned to the sixth, Nkrumah stood before tens of thousands of supporters and proclaimed, "Ghana will be free forever."{{sfn|Rooney|p=5}} He spoke at the first session of the [[Ghana Parliament]] that [[Independence Day (Ghana)|Independence Day]], telling his new country's citizens that "we have a duty to prove to the world that Africans can conduct their own affairs with efficiency and tolerance and through the exercise of democracy. We must set an example to all Africa."{{sfn|Bourret|p=202}}

As part of the ceremony, Nkrumah gave a speech to instill hope and ooze assurance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Agyei |date=6 March 2025 |title=What Exactly Did Kwame Nkrumah Say on the 6th of March 1957? Here's the Full Speech {{!}} Now Accra |url=https://nowaccra.com/2025/03/06/what-exactly-did-kwame-nkrumah-say-on-the-6th-of-march-1957-heres-the-full-speech/ |access-date=6 March 2025 |language=en-US}}</ref>

Nkrumah was hailed as the {{lang|ak|Osagyefo}} – which means "redeemer" in the [[Akan language]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/23/opinion/edzimmerman.php |title=The ghost of Kwame Nkrumah |access-date=23 October 2008 |last=Zimmerman |first=Jonathan |date=23 October 2008 |work=[[International Herald Tribune]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210130004/http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/23/opinion/edzimmerman.php |archive-date=10 February 2009 }}</ref> This independence ceremony included the [[Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent|Duchess of Kent]] and Governor General [[Charles Arden-Clarke]]. With more than 600 reporters in attendance, Ghanaian independence became one of the most internationally reported news events in modern African history.<ref>Rooney (1988), ''Kwame Nkrumah'', pp. 4–5.</ref>

The flag of Ghana was designed by [[Theodosia Okoh]], inverting Ethiopia's green-yellow-red [[Lion of Judah]] flag and replacing the lion with a black star. Red symbolizes bloodshed; green stands for beauty, agriculture, and abundance; yellow represents mineral wealth; and [[Black Star of Africa|the Black Star]] represents African freedom.<ref name=Fuller29>Fuller, ''Building the Ghanaian Nation-State'', pp. 29–33.</ref> [[Coat of arms of Ghana|The country's new coat of arms]], designed by [[Amon Kotei]], includes eagles, a lion, a St. George's Cross, and a Black Star, with copious gold and gold trim.<ref>Fuller, ''Building the Ghanaian Nation-State'', pp. 37–38.</ref> [[Philip Gbeho]] was commissioned to compose the new national anthem, "[[God Bless Our Homeland Ghana]]".<ref>Fuller, ''Building the Ghanaian Nation-State'', pp. 34–37.</ref>

As a monument to the new nation, Nkrumah opened [[Black Star Square]] near [[Osu Castle]] in the coastal district of [[Osu, Accra]].<ref name="Stanek 2020"/> This square would be used for national symbolism and mass patriotic rallies.<ref>Fuller, ''Building the Ghanaian Nation-State'', pp. 121–122.</ref>

Under Nkrumah's leadership, Ghana adopted some social democratic policies and practices. Nkrumah created a welfare system, started various community programs, and established schools.<ref>{{Citation|title=Put Some Clothes On or Nkrumah Will Get You!|work=Undesirable Practices|year=2016|pages=163–190|publisher=UNP – Nebraska|doi=10.2307/j.ctt1d4v0qj.11|isbn=978-0-8032-8696-2}}</ref>

== Ghana's leader (1957–1966) ==
{{Kwame Nkrumah sidebar}}

=== Political developments and presidential election ===

[[File:25 pesewas (1958).jpg|422px|thumb|25 pesewas (Ȼ0.25) coins depicting Nkrumah: "''Civitatis Ghanensis Conditor''" ("Founder of the Ghanaian State")]]

Nkrumah had only a short honeymoon before there was unrest among his country's people. The government deployed troops to [[Volta Region|Togo-land]] to quell unrest following a disputed plebiscite on membership in the new country.<ref>Kofi Amenyo, "[http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Trans-Volta-Togoland-and-the-refuseniks-of-the-union-with-Ghana-143373 Trans Volta Togoland and the refuseniks of the union with Ghana] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161103131317/http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Trans-Volta-Togoland-and-the-refuseniks-of-the-union-with-Ghana-143373 |date=3 November 2016 }}", ''GhanaWeb'', 9 May 2008.</ref> A serious bus [[Strike action|strike]] in Accra stemmed from resentments among the [[Ga people]], who believed members of other tribes were getting preferential treatment in government promotion, and thus resulted in riots there in August.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=25 December 2019|title='I believed that Russians were our friends, that they were brave people who fight huge numbers of Germans'. Interview with R. Inglehart|journal=Historical Expertise|volume=4|issue=21|pages=9–18|doi=10.31754/2409-6105-2019-4-9-18|doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |s2cid=243560299|issn=2409-6105|doi-access=free}}</ref> Nkrumah's response was to repress local movements by the Avoidance of Discrimination Act (6 December 1957), which banned regional or tribal-based political parties. Another strike at tribalism fell in Ashanti, where Nkrumah and the CPP got most local chiefs who were not party supporters [[Golden Stool|destooled]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Biney|first=Ama|title=Nkrumah and the Opposition, 1954–1957|date=2011|work=The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah|pages=65–79|place=New York|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|doi=10.1057/9780230118645_5|isbn=978-1-349-29513-5}}</ref> These repressive actions concerned the opposition parties, who came together to form the [[United Party (Ghana)|United Party]] under [[Kofi Abrefa Busia]].{{sfn|Rooney|pp=138–139}}

In 1958, an opposition MP was arrested on charges of attempting to obtain arms abroad for a planned infiltration of the [[Ghana Army]] (GA).<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kaplan|first1=Frederick I.|last2=Adamovich|first2=Anthony|last3=Winner|first3=Thomas G.|date=1958|title=Opposition to Sovietization in Belorussian literature (1917–1957)|journal=Books Abroad|volume=32|issue=4|pages=442|doi=10.2307/40098174|jstor=40098174|issn=0006-7431}}</ref> Nkrumah was convinced there had been an assassination plot against him, and his response was to have the parliament pass the [[Preventive Detention]] Act, allowing for incarceration for up to five years without charge or trial, with only Nkrumah empowered to release prisoners early.<ref name=":4">{{Citation|last=Ninsin|first=Kwame A.|title=The Nkrumah Government and Its Opposition|date=4 February 2016|work=The Ghana Reader|pages=303–306|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv125jqp2.66|isbn=978-0-8223-7496-1}}</ref> According to Nkrumah's biographer, David Birmingham, "no single measure did more to bring down Nkrumah's reputation than his adoption of internment without trial for the preservation of security."{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=84–87}} Nkrumah intended to bypass the British-trained judiciary, which he saw as opposing his plans when they subjected them to constitutional scrutiny.{{sfn|Birmingham|pp=85–86}}

Another source of irritation was the regional assemblies, which had been organized on an interim basis pending further constitutional discussions. The opposition, which was strong in Ashanti and the north, proposed significant powers for the assemblies; the CPP wanted them to be more or less advisory.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Alawattage, Chandana |author2=Hopper, Trevor |author3=Wickramasinghe, Danture |title=Management accounting in less developed countries|date=2007|publisher=Emerald|isbn=978-1-84663-619-6|oclc=182539917}}</ref> In 1959, Nkrumah used his majority in the parliament to push through the Constitutional Amendment Act, which abolished the assemblies and allowed the parliament to amend the constitution with a simple majority.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=143–144}}

[[File:Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth Nations, at Windsor Castle (1960 Commonwealth Prime Minister's Conference).jpg|thumb|Nkrumah (first in right, back row) at the [[1960 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference|1960 Commonwealth Prime Minister's Conference]]]]

[[Queen Elizabeth II]] remained [[Queen of Ghana|sovereign over Ghana]] from 1957 to 1960. [[William Hare, 5th Earl of Listowel]] was the Governor-General, and Nkrumah remained Prime Minister. On 6 March 1960, Nkrumah announced plans for a new constitution that would make Ghana a republic, headed by a president with broad executive and legislative powers.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Rathbone|first=Richard|title=Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana|date=23 September 2004|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31504}}</ref> The draft included a provision to surrender Ghanaian sovereignty to a [[Union of African States]]. On 19, 23, and 27 April 1960 a [[1960 Ghanaian presidential election|presidential election]] and [[1960 Ghanaian constitutional referendum|plebiscite on the constitution]] were held. The constitution was ratified and Nkrumah was elected president over [[J. B. Danquah]], the UP candidate, 1,016,076 to 124,623. Ghana remained a part of the British-led [[Commonwealth of Nations]].<ref name=Hagan2 />

==== Opposition to tribalism ====

[[File:Flag of Ashanti.svg|thumb|Illegal Asante flag, with colours symbolizing gold, ancestral power, and the forest, and [[Golden Stool]] symbolizing Asante political authority<ref name=Fuller29 />]]

[[File:Ashanti Empire Flag.svg|thumb|Porcupine emblem, symbolising Asante motto, "If you greet us with peace, we will greet you with peace. But if you greet us with war, then we will greet you with war."<ref name=Fuller29 />]]

Nkrumah also sought to eliminate "[[tribalism]]", a source of loyalties held more deeply than those to the nation-state. Thus, as he wrote in ''Africa Must Unite'': "We were engaged in a kind of war, a war against poverty and disease, against ignorance, against tribalism and disunity. We needed to secure the conditions which could allow us to pursue our policy of reconstruction and development."<ref>{{Cite book|date= 2010|title=The Hungry World: America's Cold War Battle against Poverty in Asia|first=Nick|last=Cullather|pages=108–133|publisher=Harvard University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctvjnrv65.9|isbn=978-0-674-05882-8|chapter=We Shall Release the Waters}}</ref> To this end, in 1958, his government passed "An Act to prohibit organizations using or engaging in racial or religious propaganda to the detriment of any other racial or religious community, or securing the election of persons on account of their racial or religious affiliations, or for other purposes in connection therewith."<ref>Kwame Nkrumah, ''Africa Must Unite'' (1983), p. 74; quoted by George P. Hagan, "Nkrumah's Cultural Policy", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref> Nkrumah attempted to saturate the country in national flags, and declared a widely disobeyed ban on tribal flags.<ref name=Fuller29 />

[[Kofi Abrefa Busia]] of the [[United Party (Ghana)]] gained prominence as an opposition leader in the debate over this Act, taking a more classically liberal position and criticizing the ban on tribal politics as repressive. Soon after, he left the country.<ref name=Hagan /> Nkrumah was also a very flamboyant leader. ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1972 wrote: "During his high‐flying days as the leader of Ghana in the 1950s and early 1960s, Kwame Nkrumah was a flamboyant spellbinder.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Rathbone|first=Richard|title=Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana|date=2004-09-23|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31504}}</ref> At home, he created a [[cult of personality]] and gloried in the title of {{langnf|ak|Osagyefo|Redeemer}}. Abroad, he met with the world's leaders as the first man to lead an African colony to independence after World War II."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/30/archives/death-of-the-osagyefo-kwame-nkrumah.html "The World"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201043619/http://www.nytimes.com/1972/04/30/archives/death-of-the-osagyefo-kwame-nkrumah.html |date=1 December 2017 }}, ''The New York Times'' Archive, 30 April 1972.</ref>

During his tenure as Prime Minister and then first President, Nkrumah succeeded in reducing the political importance of the local chieftaincy (e.g., the [[Akan Chieftaincy|Akan chiefs]] and the [[Asantehene]]).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Axworthy|first=Lloyd|date=1 March 2013|title=The Political Actors: President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Foreign Affairs|journal=Oxford Handbooks Online|pages=90–105 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199588862.013.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-958886-2 }}</ref> These chiefs had maintained authority during colonial rule through collaboration with the British authorities; in fact, they were sometimes favored over the local intelligentsia, who made trouble for the British with organizations like the [[Aborigines' Rights Protection Society]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Geschiere|first=Peter|date=1993|title=Chiefs and colonial rule in Cameroon: inventing chieftaincy, French and British Style|journal=Africa|volume=63|issue=2|pages=151–175|doi=10.2307/1160839|jstor=1160839|s2cid=145559044|issn=0001-9720}}</ref> The Convention People's Party had a strained relationship with the chiefs when it came to power, and this relationship became more hostile as the CPP incited political opposition chiefs and criticized the institution as undemocratic. Acts passed in 1958 and 1959 gave the government more power to dis-stool chiefs directly, and proclaimed government of stool land – and revenues.<ref>Kwame Arhin, "The Search For 'Constitutional Chieftancy'", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref> These policies alienated the chiefs and led them to looking favorably on the overthrow of Nkrumah and his Party.<ref>Pinkney (1972), ''Ghana Under Military Rule'', p. 25.</ref>

==== Increased power of the Convention People's Party ====

In 1962, three younger members of the CPP were brought up on charges of taking part in a plot to blow up Nkrumah's car in a motorcade. The sole evidence against the alleged plotters was that they rode in cars well behind Nkrumah's car.<ref name="BIRTH OF THE CPP"/> When the defendants were acquitted, Nkrumah sacked the chief judge of the state security court, then got the CPP-dominated parliament to pass a law allowing a [[Double jeopardy|new trial]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kayaoglu|first=Barin|date=12 April 2017|title=Turkey's last Ergenekon trial ends as all defendants acquitted |work=Al-Monitor |doi=10.26598/auis_ug_is_2017_04_12 |doi-access=free}}</ref> At this second trial, all three men were convicted and sentenced to death, though these sentences were subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Shortly afterward, the constitution was amended to give the president the power to summarily remove judges at all levels.<ref>{{Citation|date=1997|title=Almost a Third of All Convicted State Felons Were Sentenced for Drug Trafficking or Possession|doi=10.1037/e562732006-001}}.</ref>

In 1964, Nkrumah proposed a [[1964 Ghanaian constitutional referendum|constitutional amendment]] that would make the CPP [[One-party state|the only legal party]], with Nkrumah as [[president for life]] of both nation and party. The amendment passed with 99.91 percent of the vote,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wingo |first=Ajume H. |date=2016 |title=A Matter of Unbound Leaders in the Lives of Africans |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44647335 |journal=Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory |volume=63 |issue=148 |pages=53–71 |doi=10.3167/th.2016.6314804 |jstor=44647335 |issn=0040-5817|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Elections in Ghana |url=https://africanelections.tripod.com/gh.html |access-date=25 September 2024 |website=africanelections.tripod.com |archive-date=27 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240427213454/https://africanelections.tripod.com/gh.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=26 January 1964 |title=Ghana Voters Back Nkrumah Proposal For One-Party Rule |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/26/archives/ghana-voters-back-nkrumah-proposal-for-oneparty-rule.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240926112620/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/26/archives/ghana-voters-back-nkrumah-proposal-for-oneparty-rule.html |access-date=25 September 2024 |work=The New York Times |archive-date=26 September 2024 }}</ref> an implausibly high total that led observers to condemn the vote as "obviously rigged".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Anthony |first=S. |year=1969 |title=The State of Ghana |journal=African Affairs |volume=68 |issue=273 |pages=337–39 |jstor=720657 }}</ref> Ghana had effectively been a one-party state since independence. The amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a ''de facto'' legal dictatorship.

=== Civil service ===

[[File:Dolazak predsednika Gane Kvame Nkrumaha na konferenciju nesvrstanih, 1961. god.jpg|thumbnail|Arrival of the president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and president of [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], [[Josip Broz Tito]], to the [[1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement|first conference]] of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], [[Belgrade]], 1961.]]

After substantial Africanization of the [[Ghana Civil Service|civil service]] in 1952–60, the number of [[expatriate]]s rose again from 1960 to 1965. Many of the new outside workers came not from the United Kingdom but from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], and Italy.<ref name=Ayee>Joseph R. A. Ayee, "Public Sector Manpower Development During the Nkrumah Period 1951–1966", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref><ref name="Stanek 2020"/>

===Education===

In 1951, the CPP created the Accelerated Development Plan for Education. This plan set up a six-year primary course, to be attended as close to universally as possible, with a range of possibilities to follow.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Franker|first1=Karen|last2=James|first2=Dennis|date=2016|title=The Course Development Plan: Macro-Level Decisions and Micro-Level Processes|journal=New Directions for Higher Education|volume=2016|issue=173|pages=43–53|doi=10.1002/he.20178|issn=0271-0560}}</ref> All children were to learn arithmetic, as well as gain "a sound foundation for citizenship with permanent literacy in both English and the vernacular." Primary education became [[compulsory education|compulsory]] in 1962. The plan also stated that religious schools would no longer receive funding, and that some existing missionary schools would be taken over by government.<ref name=Haizel />

{{Quote box
| quote = We in Ghana, are committed to the building of an industrialised socialist society.&nbsp; We cannot afford to sit still and be mere passive onlookers.&nbsp; We must ourselves take part in the pursuit of scientific and technological research as a means of providing the basis for our socialist society, Socialism without science is void.…

We need also to reach out to the mass of the people who have not had the opportunities of formal education.&nbsp; We must use every means of mass communication – the press, the radio, television and films – to carry science to the whole population – to the people. ...<br />
It is most important that our people should not only be instructed in science but that they should take part in it, apply it themselves in their own ways.&nbsp; For science is not just a subject to be learned out of a book or from a teacher.&nbsp;&nbsp; It is a way of life, a way of tackling any problem which one can only master by using it for oneself.&nbsp; We must have science clubs in which our people can develop their own talents for discovery and invention.
| source = — Kwame Nkrumah "Speech delivered by Osagyefo the President at the Laying of the Foundation Stone of Ghana's Atomic Reactor at Kwabenya on 25th November, 1964"<ref name=Haizel>E. A. Haizel, "Education in Ghana, 1951 – 1966", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>
| width = 42%
}}

In 1961, Nkrumah laid the first stones in the foundation of the [[Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute]] created to train Ghanaian civil servants as well as promote Pan-Africanism. In 1964, all students entering college in Ghana were required to attend a two-week "[[Indoctrination|ideological orientation]]" at the institute.<ref name="NRCReport">{{Cite report |title=National Reconciliation Commission Report |year=2004 |page=251}}</ref> Nkrumah remarked that "trainees should be made to realize the party's ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and fervently."<ref>{{cite book |title=Nkrumah's Deception of Africa |publisher=Ghana Ministry of Information |year=1967}}</ref>

In 1964, Nkrumah brought forth the Seven Year Development Plan for National Reconstruction and Development, which identified education as a key source of development and called for the expansion of secondary technical schools.<ref>{{Cite report |date=1976 |title=First seven year economic and social development plan, 1355–1361 (Mar. 76-Mar. 83). |doi=10.2458/azu_acku_hc417_a57_1976_v2 |doi-broken-date=1 July 2025 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Secondary education would also include "in-service training programmes". As Nkrumah told Parliament: "Employers, both public and private, will be expected to make a far greater contribution to labour training through individual factory and farm schools, industry-wide training schemes, day release, payment for attendance at short courses and evening classes." This training would be indirectly subsidized with tax credits and import allocations.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1964|title=IN PARLIAMENT|journal=Education + Training|volume=6|issue=3|pages=120|doi=10.1108/eb015403|issn=0040-0912}}</ref><ref name=Haizel />

In 1952, the Artisan Trading Scheme, arranged with the Colonial Office and UK Ministry of Labour, provided for a few experts in every field to travel to Britain for technical education. Kumasi Technical Institute was founded in 1956.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1952|title=Technical Education in Great Britain|journal=Nature|volume=169|issue=4310|pages=952–953|doi=10.1038/169952c0|bibcode=1952Natur.169S.952.|s2cid=37785421|issn=0028-0836|doi-access=free}}</ref> In September 1960, it added the Technical Teacher Training Centre. In 1961, the CPP passed the Apprentice Act, which created a general Apprenticeship Board along with committees for each industry.<ref name=Haizel />

=== Culture ===

[[File:Pahor Labib Watani 0.10 LRcrop1 (2).jpg|thumb|359px|Nkrumah with Egyptian [[Egyptology|Egyptologist]] [[Pahor Labib]] at the [[Coptic Museum]], 1956]]

Nkrumah was an ardent promoter of [[pan-Africanism]], seeing the movement as the "quest for regional integration of the whole of the African continent". The period of Nkrumah's active political involvement has been described as the "golden age of high pan-African ambitions"; the continent had experienced [[African nationalism|rising nationalist movements]] and [[Decolonisation of Africa|decolonization by most European colonial powers]], and historians have noted that "the narrative of rebirth and solidarity had gained momentum within the pan-Africanist movement". Reflecting his African heritage, Nkrumah frequently eschewed [[Western dress codes|Western fashion]], donning a [[Ghanaian smock|fugu]] (a Northern attire) made with Southern-produced [[Kente cloth]], a symbol of his identity as a representative of the entire country.<ref name="books.google.fr">Mkandawire, P. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=4VIAfPNTOkQC&q=nkrumah&pg=PA78 ''African Intellectuals: Rethinking Politics, Language, Gender and Development''], Dakar: Codesria/London: Zed Books, p. 58. Retrieved 23 March 2017. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404071315/https://books.google.com/books?id=4VIAfPNTOkQC&q=nkrumah&pg=PA78 |date=4 April 2023 }}.</ref> He oversaw the opening of the [[National Museum of Ghana|Ghana Museum]] on 5 March 1957; the Arts Council of Ghana, a wing of the Ministry of Education and Culture, in 1958; the Research Library on African Affairs in June 1961; and the Ghana Film Corporation in 1964.<ref name=Hagan>Hagan, George P., "Nkrumah's Cultural Policy", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref><ref>Smith-Asante, E., [http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html "Biography of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113123600/https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html |date=13 January 2022 }}, ''Graphic Online'', 8 March 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2017.</ref><ref name="Legum, C. 1965 p. 41">Legum, C. (1965). ''Pan-Africanism: a short political guide'', New York, etc.: Frederick A. Praeger, p. 41.</ref> In 1962, Nkrumah opened the [[Institute of African Studies]].<ref name=Haizel />

A campaign against nudity in the northern part of the country received special attention from Nkrumah, who reportedly deployed Propaganda Secretary [[Hannah Kudjoe|Hannah Cudjoe]] to respond. Cudjoe also formed the Ghana Women's League, which advanced the Party's agenda on nutrition, raising children, and wearing clothing.<ref>{{Citation|last=Robinson|first=Alonford James|title=Cudjoe|date=7 April 2005|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.40911|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}}</ref> The League also led a demonstration against the [[France and weapons of mass destruction#Saharan experiments centers (1960–66)|detonation of French nuclear weapons in the Sahara]].<ref name=Manuh>Manuh, Takiwah, "Women and their Organisations during the Convention Peoples' Party Period", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref><ref name=Allman>Allman, Jen, [https://history.artsci.wustl.edu/files/history/imce/allman_hannah_kudjoe.pdf "The Disappearing of Hannah Kudjoe: Nationalism, Feminism, and the Tyrannies of History"], ''Journal of Women's History'' 21.3, 2009. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120005/https://history.artsci.wustl.edu/files/history/imce/allman_hannah_kudjoe.pdf |date=2 April 2015 }}.</ref> Cudjoe was eventually demoted with the consolidation of national women's groups, and marginalized within the Party structure.<ref name=Allman />

Laws passed in 1959 and 1960 designated special positions in parliament to be held by [[Women in Ghana|women]]. Some women were promoted to the CPP Central Committee. Women attended more universities, took up more professions including medicine and law, and went on professional trips to Israel, the Soviet Union, and the Eastern Bloc. Women also entered the army and air force. Most women remained in agriculture and trade; some received assistance from the [[Co-operative Movement]].<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=7.2. More Women in Parliaments |title=Trends Shaping Education |publisher=OECD |date=2008 |isbn=9789264046610 |doi=10.1787/404512666002}}</ref><ref name=Hagan2 /><ref name=Manuh />

Nkrumah's image was widely disseminated, for example, on postage stamps and on money, in the style of monarchs – providing fodder for accusations of a [[Nkrumaism|Nkrumahist]] personality cult.<ref>Fuller, ''Building the Ghanaian Nation-State'', pp. 39–80.</ref>

=== Media ===

In 1957, Nkrumah created a well-funded [[Ghana News Agency]] to generate domestic news and disseminate it abroad. In ten years time the GNA had 8045&nbsp;km of domestic telegraph line, and maintained stations in Lagos, Nairobi, London and New York City.<ref>{{Citation|title=CHAPTER TEN. Domestic News and the News Services|date=31 December 1952|work=The News in America|pages=97–105|publisher=Harvard University Press|doi=10.4159/harvard.9780674182578.c10|isbn=978-0-674-18257-8}}</ref><ref name=Ansah>P. A. V. Ansah, "Kwame Nkrumah and the Mass Media", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''. Also see: "Media", in Owusu-Ansah (2014), ''Historical Dictionary of Ghana'', pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RBv2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 211–213] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601130828/https://books.google.com/books?id=RBv2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 |date=1 June 2015 }}.</ref>

{{Quote box|quote=To the true African journalist, his newspaper is a collective organiser, a collective instrument of mobilisation and a collective educator—a weapon, first and foremost, to overthrow colonialism and imperialism and to assist total African independence and unity.|source= — Kwame Nkrumah at the Second Conference of African Journalists; Accra, November 11, 1963<ref name=Ansah /><ref>"[http://nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=441&c=51 Opening of the Second Conference of African Journalists: November 11, 1963] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218205408/http://nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=441&c=51 |date=18 February 2015 }}", ''Osagyefo Dr. Dwame Nkrumah Infobank''.</ref>|align=left|width=28%}}

Nkrumah consolidated state control over newspapers, establishing the ''[[Ghanaian Times]]'' in 1958 and then in 1962 obtaining its competitor, the ''[[Daily Graphic (Ghana)|Daily Graphic]]'', from the [[Mirror Group]] of London.<ref>{{Citation|title=Haines, Joseph Thomas William, (born 29 Jan. 1928), Assistant Editor, The Daily Mirror, 1984–90; Group Political Editor, Mirror Group Newspapers, 1984–90|date=1 December 2007|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.18570}}</ref> As he wrote in ''Africa Must Unite'': "It is part of our revolutionary credo that within the competitive system of capitalism, the press cannot function in accordance with a strict regard for the sacredness of facts, and that the press, therefore, should not remain in private hands." Starting in 1960, he invoked the right of [[pre-publication censorship]] of all news.<ref name=Ansah />

The [[Gold Coast Broadcasting Service]] was established in 1954 and revamped as the [[Ghana Broadcasting Corporation]] (GBC). Many television broadcasts featured Nkrumah, commenting for example on the problematic "insolence and laziness of boys and girls".<ref>{{Citation|title=Lambert, Richard Stanton, (1894–27 Nov. 1981), Supervisor of Educational Broadcasts, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1943–60|date=1 December 2007|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u166154}}</ref> Before celebrations of May Day, 1963, Nkrumah went on television to announce the expansion of Ghana's [[Young Pioneer]]s, the introduction of a National Pledge, the beginning of a National Flag salute in schools, and the creation of a National Training program to inculcate virtue and the spirit of service among Ghanaian youth.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|last=Rathbone|first=Richard|title=Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana|date=23 September 2004|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/31504}}</ref> Nkrumah outlined his views on the role of Ghanaian television to Parliament on 15 October 1963 saying, "Ghana's television will not cater for cheap entertainment or commercialism; its paramount objective will be education in its broadest and purest sense."<ref>{{Citation|date=2014|work=Dictionary Geotechnical Engineering/Wörterbuch GeoTechnik|pages=455|place=Berlin, Heidelberg|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|doi=10.1007/978-3-642-41714-6_50467|isbn=978-3-642-41713-9 |title=Economic(al) geology in its broadest sense }}</ref><ref name=Haizel />

As per the 1965 Instrument of Incorporation of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting had "powers of direction" over the media, and the President had the power "at any time, if he is satisfied that it is in the national interest to do so, take over the control and management of the affairs or any part of the functions of the Corporation," hiring, firing, reorganizing, and making other commands at will.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hirst|first=Homer T.|date=1965|title=Our motive had much to do with self-interest|journal=Journal of Broadcasting|volume=9|issue=3|pages=215–216|doi=10.1080/08838156509386153|issn=0021-938X}}</ref><ref name=Ansah />

Radio programmes, designed in part to reach non-reading members of the public, were a major focus of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. In 1961, the GBC formed an [[international broadcasting|external service]] broadcasting in English, French, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese and [[Hausa language|Hausa]].<ref name="Palgrave Macmillan">{{Citation|title=Theorizing Public Service Broadcasting Online|work=Public Service Broadcasting Online|year=2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137295101_3 |isbn=978-1-137-29510-1 |last1=Brevini |first1=Benedetta |pages=19–29 }}</ref> Using four 100-kilowatt transmitters and two 250-kilowatt transmitters, the GBC External Service broadcast 110 hours of Pan-Africanist programming to Africa and Europe each week.<ref name=Ansah />

He refused advertising in all media, beginning with the ''Evening News'' of 1948.<ref name=Ansah />

===Economic policy===

{{see also|Economy of Ghana}}

[[File:Akosombo Dam hydroelectric plant.jpg|thumb|[[Akosombo Dam|Akosombo]] [[hydroelectric dam]]]]

[[File:ASC Leiden - NSAG - van Es 17-016 - Visiting President Kwame Nkrumah is waving with a tropical hat - Volta Dam, Akosombo, Ghana - late February 1962.tif|thumb|Nkrumah visits the Akosombo Dam under construction with his [[Chevrolet Impala|1961 Chevrolet Impala]] presidential car, February 1962.]]

The Gold Coast had been among the wealthiest and most socially advanced areas in Africa, with schools, railways, hospitals, social security, and an advanced economy.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Employment has been recovering strongly in most advanced economies |type=graph |title=Economic Policy Reforms 2019 |access-date=25 November 2023 |publisher=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |chapter-url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/employment-has-been-recovering-strongly-in-most-advanced-economies_6c55748c-en |doi=10.1787/888933954135 |date=2019 |isbn=9789264842267 |archive-date=25 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125194102/https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/employment-has-been-recovering-strongly-in-most-advanced-economies_6c55748c-en |url-status=live }}</ref>

Nkrumah attempted to rapidly [[industrialization|industrialize]] Ghana's economy. He reasoned that if Ghana escaped the colonial trade system by reducing dependence on foreign [[Capital (economics)|capital]], technology, and material goods, it could become truly independent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nimoh|first1=Fred|last2=Richmond Anaman|first2=R|last3=Asiamah|first3=MT|last4=Yeboah|first4=B|last5=Agyekum|first5=I|last6=Kpe|first6=PDK|last7=Kouao|first7=DK|date=22 July 2020|title=Financial performance and constraints in gari production in Kumasi, Ghana|journal=African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development|volume=20|issue=4|pages=16085–16098|doi=10.18697/ajfand.92.18410|s2cid=225445873|issn=1684-5374|doi-access=free}}</ref>

After the Ten Year Development Plan, Nkrumah brought forth the Second Development Plan in 1959. This plan called for the development of manufacturing: 600 factories producing 100 varieties of product.<ref name=Darko>S. Asamoah Darko, "The Development and Patterns of Manufacturing Industries in Ghana, 1951–1965", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>

The Statutory Corporations Act, passed in November 1959 and revised in 1961 and 1964, created the legal framework for public corporations, which included state enterprises. This law placed the country's major corporations under the direction of government ministers. The State Enterprises Secretariat office was located in [[The Flagstaff House|Flagstaff House]] and under the direct control of the president.<ref>{{Citation|title=Chapter IV. The State Regulates Government Corporations|date=31 December 1939|work=Government Corporations and State Law|pages=95–118|publisher=Columbia University Press|doi=10.7312/wein91324-006|isbn=978-0-231-88317-7}}</ref><ref name=Asante>K. B. Asante, "Nkrumah and State Enterprises", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>

After visiting the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and China in 1961, Nkrumah apparently became still more convinced of the need for state control of the economy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Zwass|first=Adam|date=16 September 2016|title=From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union and China|doi=10.4324/9781315482859|isbn=9781315482859}}</ref><ref name=Asante />

During Nkrumah's time in office, free health care and education were introduced.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Back to Work: Finland |chapter=Figure 1.1. Jobs were destroyed in manufacturing and created in education, social and health care services and public administration |publisher=OECD |doi=10.1787/888933426286}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nhis.gov.gh/?CategoryID=158&ArticleID=1110 "The Road to Ghana's Healthcare Financing – From Nkrumah to Health Insurance"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120602194808/http://www.nhis.gov.gh/?CategoryID=158&ArticleID=1110 |date=2 June 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bouman, Martine  |title=The turtle and the peacock : collaboration for prosocial change: the entertainment-education strategy on television|date=1999|publisher=s.n.|isbn=90-5485-995-4|oclc=782888250}}</ref>

A Seven-Year Plan introduced in 1964 focused on further industrialization, emphasizing domestic substitutes for common imports, modernization of the building materials industry, machine making, [[electrification]] and electronics.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Karotamm|first=N.|date=1959|title=Electrification of Agriculture During the Seven Year Plan|journal=Problems in Economics|volume=2|issue=6|pages=20–21|doi=10.2753/pet1061-199120620|issn=0032-9436}}</ref><ref name=Darko />

==== Energy projects ====

Nkrumah's advocacy of industrial development, with help of longtime friend and Minister of Finance, [[Komla Agbeli Gbedema]], led to the Volta River Project: the construction of a hydroelectric power plant, the [[Akosombo Dam]] on the [[Volta River]] in eastern Ghana.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ly|first=Cheng K|date=1980|title=The role of the Akosombo Dam on the Volta river in causing coastal erosion in central and eastern Ghana (West Africa)|journal=Marine Geology|volume=37|issue=3–4|pages=323–332|doi=10.1016/0025-3227(80)90108-5|bibcode=1980MGeol..37..323L|issn=0025-3227}}</ref> The Volta River Project was the centrepiece of Nkrumah's economic programme. On 20 February 1958, he told the National Assembly: "It is my strong belief that the Volta River Project provides the quickest and most certain method of leading us towards economic independence."<ref>{{Citation|date=15 November 2007|work=Kwame Nkrumah. Vision and Tragedy|pages=216–234|publisher=Sub-Saharan Publishers|doi=10.2307/j.ctvk3gm60.18|isbn=978-9988-647-81-0|title=The Volta River Project}}</ref> Ghana used assistance from the United States, Israel and the World Bank in constructing the dam.<ref>{{Cite book|date=9 February 2015|title=World Bank Group Assistance to Low-Income Fragile and Conflict-Affected States: An Independent Evaulation|doi=10.1596/978-1-4648-0218-8|isbn=978-1-4648-0218-8}}</ref><ref name=Asamoah>Obed Asamoah, "Nkrumah's Foreign Policy, 1951–1966", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>

[[Kaiser Aluminum]] agreed to build the dam for Nkrumah, but restricted what could be produced using the power generated. Nkrumah borrowed money to build the dam, and placed Ghana in debt. To finance the debt, he raised taxes on the cocoa farmers in the south. This accentuated regional differences and jealousy. The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst global publicity on 22 January 1966.

Nkrumah initiated the Ghana [[Nuclear reactor|Nuclear Reactor]] Project in 1961, created the [[Ghana Atomic Energy Commission]] in 1963, and in 1964 laid the first stone in the building of an atomic energy facility.<ref>{{cite book |author=GAEC Documentation Committee |date=July 1998 |title=Ghana Atomic Energy Commission: At a Glance |url=http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/29/061/29061226.pdf |location=Kwabenya |publisher=RPB, GAEC |edition=Third |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820202553/http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/29/061/29061226.pdf |archive-date=20 August 2017}}</ref><ref name=FoundationStone>"[http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=122255 Nkrumah lays foundation for atomic reactor .. in 1964] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403015024/http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=122255 |date=3 April 2015 }}", ''Ghana Review International'' 120, March 2007 (on ''GhanaWeb'', 11 April 2007). Also see {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20150402122553/http://gaecgh.org/dr-kwame-nkrumah-s-ghana-atomic-reactor-foundation-stone-laying-speech/ text of speech]}} hosted by Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.</ref>

==== Cocoa ====

In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton. Rather than allowing cocoa farmers to keep the windfall, Nkrumah appropriated the increased revenue via central government levies, then invested the capital into various national development projects.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pakaya|first1=Abdurrahman|last2=Halid|first2=Amir|last3=Payuyu|first3=Hermanto|date=18 November 2018|title=Development and supply strategy of cocoa commodity effect to cocoa farmers revenue in Boalemo District|journal=Jurnal Perspektif Pembiayaan Dan Pembangunan Daerah|volume=6|issue=2|pages=223–234|doi=10.22437/ppd.v6i2.5212|s2cid=169596736|issn=2355-8520|doi-access=free}}</ref> This policy alienated one of the major constituencies that helped him come to power.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03E3D7173CE03ABC4850DFB467838F649EDE |title=Cocoa Price Issue Splits Gold Coast |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=30 December 1954 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305125816/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E03E3D7173CE03ABC4850DFB467838F649EDE |archive-date=5 March 2016 }}</ref>

Prices continued to fluctuate. In 1960 one ton of cocoa sold for £250 in London. By August 1965 this price had dropped to £91, one fifth of its value ten years before.<ref name=Gebe /> The quick price decline caused the government's reliance on the reserves and forced farmers to take a portion of their earning in bonds.<ref>Kolavalli, Shashi, and Marcella Vigneri. COCOA IN GHANA: SHAPING THE SUCCESS OF AN ECONOMY – World Bank. World Bank, World Bank/AFRICAEXT/Resources/258643-1271798012256/ghana_cocoa.pdf.</ref>

=== Foreign and military policy ===
{{see also|Ghana and the Non-Aligned Movement}}
[[File:Nkrumah, his family and Nasser, 1965.jpg|thumb|309px|Nkrumah and his family meeting Egyptian President [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] during the 1965 [[Organisation of African Unity|Organization of African Unity]] Summit in Accra.]]

Nkrumah actively promoted a policy of Pan-Africanism from the beginning of his presidency. This entailed the creation of a series of new international organizations, which held their inaugural meetings in Accra.<ref>{{Citation|last=Grilli|first=Matteo|title=Kwame Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism in West Africa|date=30 April 2020|work=Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism|pages=289–301|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429020193-19|isbn=978-0-429-02019-3|s2cid=219067589}}</ref> These were:
* the First Conference of Independent States, in April 1958;<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hofstadter, Richard |title=Great issues in American history: a documentary record|date=1958|publisher=Vintage Books|oclc=265633}}</ref>
* the more inclusive [[All-African Peoples' Conference]], with representatives from 62 nationalist organizations from across the continent, in December 1958;<ref>{{Citation|title=Conference in Athens: A Speech at a Conference in Athens attended by Representatives from all Greek Parties December 26, 1944|work=The Dawn of Liberation : War Speeches|year=1945|publisher=Cassell and Company Ltd|doi=10.5040/9781472582935.0061|isbn=978-1-4725-8293-5}}</ref>
* the All-African Trade Union Federation, meeting in November 1959, to coordinate the African labour movement;<ref>{{Cite periodical |title=Trade Union Education and Culture |periodical=South African Labour Bulletin |volume=9 |issue=8 |date=July 1984 |doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-1304-0028}}</ref>
* the Positive Action and Security in Africa conference, in April 1960, discussing Algeria, South Africa, and French [[nuclear weapon]]s testing;<ref>{{Citation|last=Tawfik|first=Rawia|title=South Africa in North Africa: Egypt, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia|date=2018|work=Foreign Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa|publisher=I.B. Tauris|doi=10.5040/9781350986480.ch-010|isbn=978-1-78673-332-0}}</ref>
* the Conference of African Women, on 18 July 1960.<ref name=Gebe /><ref name=Asamoah />

Meanwhile, Ghana withdrew from colonial organizations including West Africa Airways Corporation, the [[West African Currency Board]], the West African Cocoa Research Institute and the [[West African Court of Appeal]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shabaka|date=2016|title=Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa|journal=Journal of West African History|volume=2|issue=1|pages=202–204|doi=10.14321/jwestafrihist.2.1.0202|issn=2327-1868}}</ref><ref name=Gebe />

In the [[Year of Africa]], 1960, Nkrumah negotiated the creation of a [[Union of African States]], a political alliance between Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. Immediately, they formed a women's group called Women of the Union of African States.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1962|title=Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union (Union of African States)|journal=International Organization|volume=16|issue=2|pages=443–444|doi=10.1017/s0020818300011206|s2cid=249407946 |issn=0020-8183}}</ref><ref name=Manuh />

Nkrumah was a leading figure in the short-lived [[Casablanca Group]] of African leaders, which sought to achieve pan-African unity and harmony through deep political, economic, and military integration of the continent in the early 1960s prior to the establishment of the [[Organisation of African Unity|Organization of African Unity]] (OAU).<ref>{{Citation|title=Pan-Africanism and African Unity|work=African Political Thought|year=2012|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1057/9781137062055_5 |isbn=978-1-137-06205-5 |last1=Martin |first1=Guy |pages=55–70 }}</ref><ref>[[Pierre Englebert]] & Kevin C. Dunn (2013), ''Inside African Politics'', London: Lynne Reinner, pp. 320–321.</ref> In 1961, he was a participant in the [[1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement]] in [[Belgrade]], [[FPR Yugoslavia]] making Ghana one of the founding members of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]].

Nkrumah was instrumental in the creation of the OAU in [[Addis Ababa]] in 1963.<ref name=Hagan /> He aspired to create a united military force, the African High Command, which Ghana would substantially lead, and committed to this vision in Article 2 of [[1960 Ghanaian constitutional referendum|the 1960 Republican Constitution]]:<ref>{{Citation|date=31 December 1966|work=Law and Social Change in Ghana|pages=390–448|place=Princeton|publisher=Princeton University Press|doi=10.1515/9781400875580-012|isbn=978-1-4008-7558-0|title=Appendix Ii . The Republican Constitution of Ghana. Government Proposals for a Republican Constitution . Selected Legislation}}</ref>"In the confident expectation of an early surrender of sovereignty to a union of African states and territories, the people now confer on Parliament the power to provide for the surrender of the whole or any part of the sovereignty of Ghana."<ref name=Gebe /><ref>
Egon Schwelb, {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304131000/http://www.francisbennion.com/pdfs/non-fb/1960/1960-001-nfb-ghana-constitution-egon-schwelb.pdf "The Republican Constitution of Ghana"; ''American Journal of Comparative Law'']}}     9.4, Autumn 1960.
</ref>

He was also a proponent of the United Nations, but critical of the Great Powers' ability to control it.<ref name=Asamoah />

Nkrumah opposed the entry of African states into the Common Market of the [[European Economic Community]], a status given to many former French colonies and considered by Nigeria. Instead, Nkrumah advocated, in a speech given on 7 April 1960,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pardo|first=Sharon|date=20 June 2013|title=The Year that Israel Considered Joining the European Economic Community|journal=JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies|volume=51|issue=5|pages=901–915|doi=10.1111/jcms.12036|s2cid=142802033|issn=0021-9886}}</ref>

<blockquote>an African common market, a common currency area and the development of communications of all kinds to allow the free flow of goods and services. International capital can be attracted to such viable economic areas, but it would not be attracted to a divided and balkanized Africa, with each small region engaged in senseless and suicidal economic competition with its neighbours.<ref>{{Citation|last=Seck|first=Diery|title=Accelerated Economic Growth in West Africa |chapter=Impact of Common Currency Membership on West African Countries' Enhanced Economic Growth |date=2016|series=Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development|pages=3–18|place=Cham|publisher=Springer International Publishing|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-16826-5_1|isbn=978-3-319-16825-8}}</ref><ref name=Asamoah /></blockquote>

Nkrumah sought to exploit the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to gain maximum concessions from both sides in their geopolitical attempts to outmanoeuvre one another in West Africa and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gerits |first1=Frank |date=6 August 2015 |title='When the Bull Elephants Fight': Kwame Nkrumah, Non-Alignment, and Pan-Africanism as an Interventionist Ideology in the Global Cold War (1957–66) |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2015.1064465 |journal=[[The International History Review]] |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=951–969 |doi=10.1080/07075332.2015.1064465 |s2cid=153623049 |access-date=8 March 2023 |archive-date=9 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309011949/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2015.1064465 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This was exemplified by the Volta River Dam Project and its back-and-forth oscillation between Soviet and Western financial backing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Byrne |first1=Jeffrey James |date=10 June 2015 |title=Beyond Continents, Colours, and the Cold War: Yugoslavia, Algeria, and the Struggle for Non-Alignment |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2015.1051569 |journal=[[The International History Review]] |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=912–932 |doi=10.1080/07075332.2015.1051569 |s2cid=154033045 |access-date=14 March 2023 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314163352/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07075332.2015.1051569 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==== Armed forces ====

In 1956, the Gold Coast took control of the [[Royal West African Frontier Force]] (RWAFF), [[Gold Coast Regiment]], from the British War Office. This force had formerly been deployed to quell internal dissent, and occasionally to fight in wars: most recently, in World War II, against the Japanese in India and Burma.<ref>{{Citation|title=Butler, Captain John Fitshardinge Paul, ((20 Dec. 1888 – 4 Sept. 1916), KRRC; attached Pioneer Company, Gold Coast Regiment, West African Frontier Force|date=1 December 2007|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u194250}}</ref> The most senior officers in this force were British, and, although training of African officers began in 1947, only 28 of 212 officers in December 1956 were indigenous Africans. The British officers still received British salaries, which vastly exceeded those allotted to their Ghanaian counterparts. Concerned about a possible military coup, Nkrumah delayed the placement of African officers in top leadership roles.<ref name=Hutchful>Eboe Hutchful, "The Development of the Army Officer Corps in Ghana, 1956–1955", ''Journal of African Studies'' 12.3, Fall 1985.</ref><ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', pp. 22–32.</ref>

Nkrumah quickly established the [[Ghanaian Air Force]], acquiring 14 ''[[de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver|Beaver]]'' airplanes from Canada and setting up a flight school with British instructors. ''[[de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter|Otters]]'', ''[[de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou|Caribou]],'' and ''[[de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk|Chipmunks]]'' were to follow.<ref name=Hutchful /> Ghana also obtained four [[Ilyushin Il-18|Ilyushin-18]] aircraft from the Soviet Union. Preparation began in April 1959 with assistance from India and Israel.<ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', p. 75.</ref> Nkrumah also established a gliding school led by [[Hanna Reitsch]] and [[J.E.S. de Graft-Hayford]].

The [[Ghanaian Navy]] received two inshore minesweepers with 40mm and 20mm guns, the ''Afadzato'' and the ''Yogaga'', from Britain in December 1959. It subsequently received the ''Elmina'' and the ''Komenda'', seaward defence boats with 40-millimetre guns.<ref name=Hutchful /> The Navy's flagship, and training ship, was the ''Achimota'', a British yacht constructed during World War II. In 1961, the Navy ordered two 600-ton corvettes, the ''Keta'' and ''Kromantse,'' from [[Vospers|Vosper & Company]] and received them in 1967. It also procured four Soviet patrol boats. Naval officers were trained at the [[Britannia Royal Naval College]] in Dartmouth.<ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', p. 74.</ref> The Ghanaian military budget rose each year, from $9.35 million (US dollars) in 1958 to $47 million in 1965.<ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', pp. 67–68.</ref>

The first international deployment of the Ghanaian armed forces was to the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo (Léopoldville/Kinshasa)]], where Ghanaian troops were airlifted in 1960 at the beginning of the [[Congo Crisis]].<ref name=Hutchful /> One week after Belgian troops occupied the lucrative mining province of [[Katanga Province|Katanga]], Ghana dispatched more than a thousand of its own troops to join a United Nations force.<ref name=Beynahm93>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', p. 93. "Within a week, 1,193 Ghanaian soldiers were in Léopoldvile and 192 more were waiting for transport in Accra with 156 trucks and 160 tons of stores. In terms of its resources, Ghana made one of the heaviest manpower contributions to the Congo. By the end of August 1960, she had 2,394 army officers and men in the country. The Ghana contingent remained for three of the four years of the UN operations, contributing a total of more than 39,000-man-months."</ref> The use of British officers in this context was politically unacceptable, and this event occasioned a hasty transfer of officer positions to Ghanaians.<ref name=Hutchful /><ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', p. 94.</ref> The Congo war was long and difficult.<ref name=Beynahm93 /> On 19 January 1961 the Third Infantry Battalion mutinied. On 28 April 1961, 43 men [[Port Francqui incident|were massacred in a surprise attack]] by the Congolese army.<ref>Baynham (1988), ''Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana'', pp. 95–97.</ref>

Ghana also gave military support to rebels fighting against [[Ian Smith]]'s [[Minority rule|white-minority government]] in [[Rhodesia]] (now [[Zimbabwe]]), which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965.<ref>{{Citation|last=Michel|first=Eddie|title=From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe|date=17 July 2018|work=The White House and White Africa|pages=183–244|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429453632-5|isbn=978-0-429-45363-2|s2cid=188418568}}</ref>

==== Relationship with Communist world ====

[[File:Che Guevara Nkrumah 1965-01 Ghana.jpg|thumb|Nkrumah with [[Che Guevara|Ernesto "Che" Guevara]], January 1965]]

In 1961, Nkrumah went on tour through Eastern Europe, proclaiming solidarity with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.<ref name=Gebe /> Nkrumah's clothing changed to the Chinese-supplied [[Mao suit]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.mofcom.gov.cn/?experience=lwxzdzelzl|title="老外经"心中的周恩来总理|publisher=[[Ministry of Commerce (China)]]|date=12 May 2014|access-date=2 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628181333/http://history.mofcom.gov.cn/?experience=lwxzdzelzl|archive-date=28 June 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>杨明伟; 陈扬勇. 周恩来外交风云. 解放军文艺出版社. 1995. {{ISBN|9787503306907}}. p.357</ref>

In 1962 Kwame Nkrumah was awarded the [[Lenin Peace Prize]] by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Citation|title=European Union Awarded 2012 Nobel Peace Prize: December 10 2012|work=Historic Documents of 2012|year=2013|pages=606–618|place=Washington DC|publisher=CQ Press|doi=10.4135/9781452282046.n66|isbn=978-1-4522-8206-0}}</ref>

[[File:Ghana 3.jpg|thumb|Anti-Nkrumah placard at a demonstration after the coup.]]

== 1966 coup d'état ==
{{Main|National Liberation Council#1966 coup}}
[[File:President John F. Kennedy Meets with the President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (JFKWHP-AR6409-B).jpg|thumb|221px|Kwame Nkrumah with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, 8 March 1961]]

In February 1966, while Nkrumah was on a state visit to [[North Vietnam]] and China, his government was overthrown in a violent ''coup d'état'' led by the national [[Ghana Armed Forces|military]] and [[Ghana Police Service|police]] forces, with backing from the [[Ghana Civil Service|civil service]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kwame Nkrumah, a biography of Ghana's first president |url=https://ghanaremembers.com/stories/people/kwame-nkrumah-a-biography-of-ghanas-first-president.html |access-date=9 May 2025 |website=GhanaRemembers |language=en}}</ref> The conspirators, led by [[Joseph Arthur Ankrah]], named themselves the [[National Liberation Council]] and ruled as a military government for three years. Nkrumah did not learn of the coup until he arrived in China. After the coup, Nkrumah stayed in Beijing for four days, and Premier [[Zhou Enlai]] treated him with courtesy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nkrumah|first=Kwame|date=1972|title=On the Coup in Ghana|journal=The Black Scholar|volume=3|issue=9|pages=23–26|doi=10.1080/00064246.1972.11431232|issn=0006-4246}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.modernghana.com/news/876767/the-confused-moments-of-nkrumah-in-china-after-the-coup.html |title=The Confused Moments of Nkrumah in China After The Coup |access-date=19 August 2018 |work=modernghana.com |archive-date=27 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427041712/https://www.modernghana.com/news/876767/the-confused-moments-of-nkrumah-in-china-after-the-coup.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Nkrumah alluded to American involvement in the coup in his 1969 memoir, ''Dark Days in Ghana''; he may have based this conclusion on documents shown to him by the [[KGB]].<ref>{{Cite report |title=Keith Lamont Scott's Disability May Have Gotten Him Killed, and He's Not The Only One |work=American Civil Liberties Union |doi=10.1163/2210-7975_hrd-9970-2016059}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Andrew|first1=Christopher|last2=Mitrohkin|first2=Vasili|title=The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|year=2006|isbn=978-0465003136|page=437}} cf. {{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/04/25/archives/cia-maker-of-policy-or-tool-survey-finds-widely-feared-agency-is.html |title=C.I.A.: Maker of Policy, or Tool?; Survey Finds Widely Feared Agency Is Tightly Controlled |work=The New York Times |date=25 April 1966 |access-date=27 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512211657/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9400E4DB1639E63BBC4D51DFB266838D679EDE |archive-date=12 May 2016 }}, which cites "authoritative officials outside the CIA" as claiming that allegations of CIA involvement in Nkrumah's ouster, plots to assassinate [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], the [[30 September Movement]], and the assassination of [[Patrice Lumumba]], among others, "are fabrications".</ref> In 1978 [[John Stockwell (CIA officer)|John Stockwell]], former Chief of the Angola Task Force of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] turned critic, wrote that agents at the CIA's Accra station "maintained intimate contact with the plotters as a coup was hatched". Afterward, "inside CIA headquarters the Accra station was given full, if unofficial credit for the eventual coup. ...None of this was adequately reflected in the agency's written records."<ref>{{Cite report |title=Greece ::Implications of the Coup, December 7, 1973, Secret/NOFORN, CIA |work=Central Intelligence Agency |doi=10.1163/9789004287648.useo_b07301}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Stockwell |title=In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofenemie00stoc |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1978 |page=201n |isbn=0-393-00926-2 }}</ref> Later that same year, [[Seymour Hersh]], then at ''[[The New York Times]]'', defended Stockwell's account, citing "first hand intelligence sources". He claimed that "many CIA operatives in Africa considered the agency's role in the overthrow of Dr.&nbsp;Nkrumah to have been pivotal."<ref>{{Citation|last=Murisa|first=Tendai|title=Re-imagining Agency in Africa|date=6 October 2016|work=Claiming Agency|pages=128–143|publisher=Weaver Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctvh8r3dp.12|isbn=978-1-77922-302-9}}</ref><ref>Hersh, Seymour (9 May 1978), "CIA Said to Have Aided Plotters Who Overthrew Nkrumah in Ghana", ''The New York Times''. Reprinted in: {{cite book |first1=Ellen |last1=Ray |first2=William |last2=Schaap |first3=Karl |last3=Van Meter |first4=Louis |last4=Wolf |title=Dirty Work 2: The CIA in Africa |url=https://archive.org/details/dirtyworkciaafri00raye |url-access=limited |location=Secaucus, N.J. |publisher=Lyle Stuart Inc. |year=1979 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/dirtyworkciaafri00raye/page/n172 159]–162 |isbn=0-8184-0294-6 }}</ref> These claims have never been verified.<ref>{{Citation|last=Dutfield|first=Graham|title=If we have never been modern, they have never been traditional|date=27 November 2017|work=Routledge Handbook of Biodiversity and the Law|pages=276–290|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315530857-18|isbn=978-1-315-53085-7}}</ref><ref name=":3">John Prados, ''Safe For Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA'' (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006), p. 329.</ref>

Following the coup, Ghana realigned itself internationally, cutting its close ties to Guinea and the Eastern Bloc, accepting a new friendship with the [[Western Bloc]], and inviting the [[International Monetary Fund]] and [[World Bank]] to take a leading role in managing the economy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Guinea – Joint World Bank-IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis Update|date=August 2019|publisher=World Bank|doi=10.1596/32560|s2cid=242680046|url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32560/Guinea-Joint-World-Bank-IMF-Debt-Sustainability-Analysis-August-2019.pdf?sequence=1|access-date=25 August 2020|archive-date=5 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200705113225/https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/32560/Guinea-Joint-World-Bank-IMF-Debt-Sustainability-Analysis-August-2019.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=live}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2022}} With this reversal, accentuated by the expulsion of immigrants and a new willingness to negotiate with [[apartheid]] South Africa, Ghana lost a good deal of its stature in the eyes of African nationalists.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kihato|first=Caroline|date=August 2007|title=Governing the city? South Africa's struggle to deal with urban immigrants after apartheid|journal=African Identities|volume=5|issue=2|pages=261–278|doi=10.1080/14725840701403556|s2cid=145020873|issn=1472-5843}}</ref><ref name=Gebe />

In assessing Nkrumah's legacy, [[Edward Luttwak]] argued that he was undone by the growth of [[political consciousness]] and his inability to repress potential opponents:

{{Blockquote
|text=Nkrumah, in spite of his eccentricities, was largely defeated by his own success: the by-product of the considerable economic development achieved by Ghana was to stimulate and educate the masses and the new elite; their attitude to Nkrumah's regime became more and more critical in the light of the education the regime itself provided. When this happens, more and more repression and propaganda are needed to maintain political stability. In spite of considerable efforts, Nkrumah was unable to build a sufficiently ruthless police system. The cause of his downfall was not, therefore, the mismanagement of the economy—which was considerable—but rather the success of much of the development effort.
|author=Edward Luttwak
|source=''[[Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook]]'' (1968)
}}

==Exile and death==
{{Main|Death and state funeral of Kwame Nkrumah}}Nkrumah died on 27 April 1972, in [[Bucharest]], the capital of [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]],<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |date=5 January 2024 |title=Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} Biography, Education, {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |access-date=27 February 2024 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005072546/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |url-status=live }}</ref> of an unknown but apparently incurable sickness. Since the coup, he had been living in the Guinean capital of [[Conakry]], lying low.

== Tributes and legacy ==
Over his lifetime, Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorates by many universities including [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)]], [[Moscow State University]] (USSR), [[Cairo University]] ([[Egypt]]), [[Jagiellonian University]] ([[Poland]]), and [[Humboldt University]] ([[East Germany]]).<ref name="Education For Leadership">{{cite web|url=http://www.kwamenkrumahcentenary.org/esi_speech.html |title=Education For Leadership: The Vision of Kwame Nkrumah |publisher=kwamenkrumahcentenary.orgm |access-date=9 January 2012 }}{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=Kandymotownie |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

[[File:Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.jpg|thumb|Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum]]

In 2000, he was voted African Man of the Millennium by listeners to the [[BBC World Service]], being described by the BBC as a "Hero of Independence", and an "International symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule."<ref>{{Cite journal |title=BBC World Service Network Africa |journal=African Studies Companion Online |doi=10.1163/1872-9037_afco_asc_853}}</ref><ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Vision of Africa"/>{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| header = 
| width = 215
| image1 = 
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = Memorial to Kwame Nkrumah in [[Accra]]
| image2 = Kwame nkrumah grave accra ghana.jpg
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = Kwame Nkrumah's grave inside the [[Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum|Kwame Nkrumah memorial]] in Accra
}}According to intelligence documents released by the [[U.S. Department of State]]'s [[Office of the Historian]], "Nkrumah was doing more to undermine [U.S. government] interests than any other black African."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v26/d201 |title=Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXVI, Indonesia; Malaysia-Singapore; Philippines – Office of the Historian |access-date=24 January 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928121816/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v26/d201 |archive-date=28 September 2015 }}</ref>

[[File:Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.jpg|thumb|Statue of Kwame Nkrumah in Owerri, [[Imo State]], Nigeria]]

In September 2009, President [[John Atta Mills]] declared 21 September (the 100th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah's birth) to be [[Public holidays in Ghana|Founders' Day]], a statutory holiday in Ghana to celebrate the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.modernghana.com/news/236431/1/nkrumahs-birthday-declared-a-holiday.html |title=Nkrumah's birthday declared a holiday |publisher=modernghana.com |date=4 September 2009 |access-date=5 January 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131215195150/http://www.modernghana.com/news/236431/1/nkrumahs-birthday-declared-a-holiday.html |archive-date=15 December 2013 }}</ref> In April 2019, President Akufo-Addo approved the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019 which changed 21 September from Founders' Day to [[Founders' Day (Ghana)|Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/President-Akufo-Addo-assents-to-Public-Holidays-Amendment-Act-2019-744767|title=President Akufo-Addo assents to Public Holidays Amendment Act 2019|website=ghanaweb.com|date=9 May 2019|access-date=23 September 2019|archive-date=23 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923132537/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/President-Akufo-Addo-assents-to-Public-Holidays-Amendment-Act-2019-744767|url-status=live}}</ref>

Nkrumah generally took a [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] Marxist perspective on economics, and believed [[capitalism]] had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time.<ref>{{Citation|last=Catephores|first=George|title=Capitalism and crisis|date=1989|work=An Introduction to Marxist Economics|pages=127–146|place=London|publisher=Macmillan Education UK|doi=10.1007/978-1-349-19707-1_6|isbn=978-0-333-46102-0}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ackerman|first=Frank|date=2000|title=If we had a theory of political ecology, what would it look like?|journal=Capitalism Nature Socialism|volume=11|issue=2|pages=77–82|doi=10.1080/10455750009358916|s2cid=143879004|issn=1045-5752}}</ref> He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled "African Socialism Revisited":
<blockquote>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 opportunity|equal opportunities]] for his development. The implications of this for sociopolitical 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]].<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/1967/african-socialism-revisited.htm Kwame Nkrumah, "African Socialism Revisited", 1967.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427045237/http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/nkrumah/1967/african-socialism-revisited.htm |date=27 April 2014 }}</ref></blockquote><!--
  THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN GATHERED FROM THE GERMAN WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE -- it does not make sense as it stands:

[[Paulin J. Hountondji|Paulin Hountondji]] has emphasised the breaks in the thinking of Nkrumah. During the early Nkrumah on the continuity of socialism in relation to, communalism 'of the' traditional Africa's insistence, an idealised image of pre-colonial Africa (draws no exploitation of man by man) and himself a disciple [[Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|of Gandhi]] understands, sees the late Nkrumah necessity of a violent break with the [[Neocolonialism|neo-colonial]] relations, the struggle against [[imperialism]] and its African allies. In ''African Socialism Revisited'' Nkrumah therefore rejects the idea of an "African socialism" in the sense [[Julius Nyerere|Nyerere]], one of the "''ideology of continuity''" ([[Paulin J. Hountondji|Hountondji]] left) was arrested from.{{cn}}

During the early works of Nkrumah, he emphasised that in pre-colonial Africa there is no [[class struggle]] have been made, rejects the late Nkrumah, the fetishisation of pre-colonial Africa. "Nkrumah will never have imagined back Africa as a special world, but he accepted that our societies to the same laws are subject like any other country in the world, and that the African revolution, if properly understood, is inextricably linked to the world revolution."{{cn}}

In ''Africa Must Unite'' (1963) Nkrumah called for the immediate formation of a pan-African government. Later he demanded a unification movement that emanates from the base, arguing that between anti-imperialist governments and Western-backed "puppet regimes" there could be no common ground.{{cn}}
-->

Nkrumah was also best-known politically for his strong commitment to and promotion of [[pan-Africanism]]. He was inspired by the writings of black intellectuals such as [[Marcus Garvey]], [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], and [[George Padmore]], and his relationships with them. Much of his understanding and relationship to these men was created during his years in America as a student.<ref>{{Citation|title=In The Shadow Of His Father|date=31 December 2003|work=S/He Created Them|pages=43–52|place=Piscataway, NJ, USA|publisher=Gorgias Press|doi=10.31826/9781463209193-011|isbn=978-1-4632-0919-3}}</ref> Some would argue that his greatest inspiration was Marcus Garvey,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Getachew|first=Adom|title=Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination|date=2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-17915-5|pages=8|doi=10.2307/j.ctv3znwvg|jstor=j.ctv3znwvg|s2cid=242525007}}</ref> although he also had a meaningful relationship with [[C. L. R. James]]. Nkrumah looked to these men to craft a general solution to the ills of Africa. To follow in these intellectual footsteps Nkrumah had intended to continue his education in London, but found himself involved in direct activism.<ref>{{Citation|title=How, when he had besieged Chambly, another castle of the same Matthew, a sudden storm forced his host to flee, so that if Louis himself had not bravely fought back, the host would have nearly been destroyed; and how Matthew himself gave satisfaction to him with humility|work=The Deeds of Louis the Fat|year=2012|pages=32–34|publisher=Catholic University of America Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctt3fgq60.12|isbn=978-0-8132-2094-9}}</ref> Then, motivated by advice from Du Bois, Nkrumah decided to focus on creating peace in Africa. He became a passionate advocate of the "African Personality", embodied in the slogan "Africa for the Africans", earlier popularised by [[Edward Wilmot Blyden]], and he viewed political independence as a prerequisite for economic independence.<ref name="Martin"/> Nkrumah's dedications to pan-Africanism in action attracted these intellectuals to his Ghanaian projects. Many Americans, such as Du Bois and [[Kwame Ture]], moved to Ghana to join him in his efforts. Du Bois and Ture are buried there today.<ref>Afari-Gyan, Kwadwo. "Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore and W. E. B. Du Bois", ''Research Review (NS)'' vol. 7 (1991): 1–5. Print.</ref> His press officer for six years was the Grenadian anticolonialist [[Sam Morris (activist)|Sam Morris]]. Nkrumah's biggest success in this area was his significant influence in the founding of the [[Organisation of African Unity]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sheehan|first=Michael|date=1990|title=Organisation of African Unity 25 years on: essays in honour of Kwame Nkrumah|journal=International Affairs|volume=66|issue=2|pages=426|doi=10.2307/2621454|jstor=2621454|issn=1468-2346}}</ref>

Nkrumah also became a symbol for black liberation in the United States. When in 1958 the [[Metropolitan Black Bar Association|Harlem Lawyers Association]] had an event in Nkrumah's honour, diplomat [[Ralph Bunche]] told him:

<blockquote>We salute you, Kwame Nkrumah, not only because you are Prime Minister of Ghana, although this is cause enough. We salute you because you are a true and living representation of our hopes and ideals, of the determination we have to be accepted fully as equal beings, of the pride we have held and nurtured in our African origin, of the freedom of which we know we are capable, of the freedom in which we believe, of the dignity imperative to our stature as men.<ref>{{Citation|title=The More We Typed, the Better We Felt|date=2012-09-15|work=Because You Have To|pages=103–106|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctvpj74n2.16|isbn=978-0-268-07984-0}}</ref><ref name=Asamoah /></blockquote>

In 1961, Nkrumah delivered a speech called "I Speak Of Freedom". During this speech he talked about how "Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world".<ref name=1961nkrumah>[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1961nkrumah.html "Modern History Sourcebook: Kwame Nkrumah: I Speak of Freedom, 1961"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170331012334/http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1961nkrumah.html |date=31 March 2017 }}. Fordham University.</ref> He mentions how Africa is a land of "vast riches" with mineral resources from that "range from gold and diamonds to uranium and petroleum".<ref name=1961nkrumah/> Nkrumah says that the reason Africa is not thriving right now is because the European powers have been taking all the wealth for themselves. If Africa could be independent of European rule, he said, then it could truly flourish and contribute positively to the world. In the ending words of this speech Nkrumah calls his people to action by saying "This is our chance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nkrumah|first=Bright|date=2018-12-01|title=Words that Wound: Rethinking Online Hate Speech in South Africa|journal=Alternation: Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of the Arts and Humanities in Southern Africa|volume=SP23|pages=108–133|doi=10.29086/2519-5476/2018/sp23a6|s2cid=187741200|issn=1023-1757|doi-access=free}}</ref> We must act now. Tomorrow may be too late and the opportunity will have passed, and with it the hope of free Africa's survival".<ref name=1961nkrumah/> This rallied the nation in a nationalistic movement.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In his honour, an annual event called "Journey to Nkroful" was set up to celebrate his birthday.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 September 2023 |title=Journey to Nkroful has come to stay - Joana Gyan-Cudjoe declares |first=Ayisah |last=Foster |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Journey-to-Nkroful-has-come-to-stay-Joana-Gyan-Cudjoe-declares-1851419 |access-date=28 September 2023 |website=GhanaWeb |language=en |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021024911/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Journey-to-Nkroful-has-come-to-stay-Joana-Gyan-Cudjoe-declares-1851419 |url-status=live }}</ref> Mausoleum and Museum at [[Nkroful]], Western Region have been named after him that showcase some of the artifacts he used when alive.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Visit Ghana - Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park |url=https://visitghana.com/attractions/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-park/ |access-date=6 March 2024 |website=Visit Ghana |language=en-US |archive-date=26 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226102633/http://visitghana.com/attractions/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-park/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Museum, Accra has been there to keep memory of him. Also, University of Science and Technology was changed to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to recognise his support building a strong education system in the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ferdinand |first=Ellis |date=18 July 2021 |title=History of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) |url=https://educationghana.org/history-of-kwame-nkrumah-university-of-science-and-technology-knust/ |access-date=6 March 2024 |language=en-GB |archive-date=7 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307185449/https://educationghana.org/history-of-kwame-nkrumah-university-of-science-and-technology-knust/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=12 August 2019 |title=A Public University is created and named by an Act of Parliament - MyJoyOnline |url=https://www.myjoyonline.com/a-public-university-is-created-and-named-by-an-act-of-parliament/ |access-date=6 March 2024 |website=www.myjoyonline.com |language=en-US |archive-date=7 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307183946/https://www.myjoyonline.com/a-public-university-is-created-and-named-by-an-act-of-parliament/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=University History {{!}} Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology |url=https://www.knust.edu.gh/about/knust/history |access-date=6 March 2024 |website=www.knust.edu.gh |archive-date=6 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240306182525/https://www.knust.edu.gh/about/knust/history |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Personal life==

Kwame Nkrumah married [[Fathia Nkrumah|Fathia Ritzk]], an [[Copts|Egyptian Coptic]] bank worker and former teacher, on the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year's Eve, 1957–1958.<ref>[http://www.nathanielturner.com/fathiankrumahfarewell.htm Fathia Nkrumah by her son Gamal Nkrumah]. ''Ahram Weekly'', 14 - 20 September 2000. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824222033/http://www.nathanielturner.com/fathiankrumahfarewell.htm |date=24 August 2007 }}</ref> Fathia's mother refused to bless their marriage, after another one of her children left with a foreign husband.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Here are all the First Ladies of Ghana since independence|url=https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/here-are-all-the-first-ladies-of-ghana-since-independence/0l2k3hw|date=2 September 2019|website=Pulse Gh|language=en-US|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610125740/https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/here-are-all-the-first-ladies-of-ghana-since-independence/0l2k3hw|archive-date=10 June 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Fathia: The Rock Of The Nkrumah Family|url=https://www.modernghana.com/lifestyle/1095/fathia-the-rock-of-the-nkrumah-family.html|website=Modern Ghana|language=en|access-date=30 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803010027/https://www.modernghana.com/lifestyle/1095/fathia-the-rock-of-the-nkrumah-family.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

As a married couple, Fathia and Nkrumah had three children: [[Gamal Nkrumah|Gamal]] (born 1958), [[Samia Nkrumah|Samia]] (born 1960) and Sekou (born 1964). Gamal is a newspaper journalist, while Samia and Sekou are politicians. Nkrumah also has another son, Francis, a paediatrician (born 1935).<ref>{{cite web |title=Africa must re-examine, implement Nkrumah's ideas – Francis Nkrumah |url=https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2014/September-22nd/africa-must-re-examine-implement-nkrumahs-ideas-francis-nkrumah.php |first=Nathaniel |last=Yankson |website=MyJoyOnline |publisher=Multimedia Group Ltd |date=22 September 2014 |access-date=19 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019075818/https://www.myjoyonline.com/news/2014/September-22nd/africa-must-re-examine-implement-nkrumahs-ideas-francis-nkrumah.php |archive-date=19 October 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Kwame Nkrumah's unknown son surfaces |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Kwame-Nkrumah-s-unknown-son-surfaces-235004 |website=Ghanaweb |access-date=19 October 2018 |date=4 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406213932/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Kwame-Nkrumah-s-unknown-son-surfaces-235004 |archive-date=6 April 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Onsy">{{cite web |title=Confirmed! Onsy is Kwame Nkrumah's Son |url=http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/local/social/201507/249589.php |website=PeaceFMOnline |publisher=Peace FM |access-date=19 October 2018 |date=31 July 2015 |archive-date=4 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904212017/http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/local/social/201507/249589.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Doe |first1=Esther Eyra |title="My Father Would Not Have Denied Onsy"- Samia Nkrumah |url=https://yen.com.gh/15809-father-not-denied-onsy-samia-nkrumah.html#15809 |website=yen.com.gh |access-date=19 October 2018 |date=31 July 2015 |archive-date=5 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405211114/https://yen.com.gh/15809-father-not-denied-onsy-samia-nkrumah.html#15809 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Sekou Nkrumah threatens to throw 'brother' in jail |url=https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/politics/family-issues-sekou-nkrumah-threatens-to-throw-brother-in-jail-id7365131.html |first=Abu |last=Mubarik |website=pulse.com.gh |publisher=Pulse Ghana |access-date=19 October 2018 |date=24 September 2017 |archive-date=19 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019121858/https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/politics/family-issues-sekou-nkrumah-threatens-to-throw-brother-in-jail-id7365131.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Cultural depictions==

In the 2010 book ''[[The Other Wes Moore]],'' Nkrumah, during his time in the United States, is noted to have served as a mentor to the author's grandfather for several months upon the [[immigration]] of the author's family into the country.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moore, Wes |title=The other Wes Moore: one name, two fates|year=2010|isbn=978-0-385-52819-1|edition=First|location=New York, New York|oclc=430839083 |publisher=Spiegel & Grau}}</ref>

Nkrumah is played by [[Danny Sapani]] in the [[Netflix]] television series ''[[The Crown (TV series)|The Crown]]'' (season 2, episode 8 "Dear Mrs Kennedy"). The show's portrayal of the historical significance of the Queen's visit to Ghana and dance with Nkrumah has been described as exaggerated in one source interviewing Nat Nuno-Amarteifio, later mayor of Accra, who was a teenage student at the time.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/01/21/578674702/netflixs-the-crown-says-one-dance-changed-history-the-truth-isn-t-so-simple |title='The Crown' Says One Dance Changed History. The Truth Isn't So Simple |department=Goats and Soda: Stories of Life in a Changing World (blog) |publisher=NPR |access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-date=29 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529085041/https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/01/21/578674702/netflixs-the-crown-says-one-dance-changed-history-the-truth-isn-t-so-simple |url-status=live }}</ref>

''African's Black Star: The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah'' is a 2011 film about the rise and fall of this colonial rebellion leader.

A golden statue of Nkrumah is a centrepiece in Ghanaian rapper [[Serious Klein]]'s 2021 video "Straight Outta Pandemic".<ref>{{Cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb5bHYQX4Ls| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/rb5bHYQX4Ls| archive-date=11 December 2021 | url-status=live|title=Serious Klein – Straight Outta Pandemic (ft. anaiis)}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Even though the state film archive was ordered to be burned after the coup, Nkrumah's personal cameraman Chris Hesse was able to preserve 1300 rolls of film which weren't revealed to the public until he was in his 90s. Hesse's attempts to screen the footage publicly were made into a documentary film, ''[[The Eyes of Ghana]]'', that was produced by [[Barack Obama|Barack]] and [[Michelle Obama]] and premiered at the [[2025 Toronto International Film Festival]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lodderhose |first=Diana |date=2025-10-20 |title=Oscar-Winning Director Ben Proudfoot Talks Historical Significance Of ‘The Eyes Of Ghana’, Scoring Doc At Abbey Road Studios & Why Project Was A “Full Circle Moment” For Barack Obama |url=https://deadline.com/2025/10/ben-proudfoot-the-eyes-of-ghana-abbey-road-barack-obama-1236591704/ |access-date=2025-11-12 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Honours and awards==

===Foreign honours===

{{Clear}}
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;"
|-
! style="width:90px;"  | Ribbon
! style="width:350px;" | Distinction
! style="width:120px;" | Country
! style="width:120px;" | Date
! Reference
|-
| [[File:EGY Order of the Nile - Grand Cordon BAR.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Grand Cordon of the [[Order of the Nile]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Egypt|1922}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 1957
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref name="GhanaOneYear">{{cite book |editor1-last=Danquah |editor1-first=Moses |title=Ghana: One Year Old. A First Independence Anniversary Review |date=1958 |publisher=Publicity Promotions |location=Accra |page=32 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2008700208/ |access-date=5 May 2025}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:LBN National Order of the Cedar - Grand Cordon BAR.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Grand Cordon of the [[National Order of the Cedar]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Lebanon}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 1957
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref name="GhanaOneYear"/>
|-
| [[File:Order of the Yugoslavian Great Star Rib.png|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | [[Order of the Yugoslav Star|Order of the Yugoslav Great Star]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Yugoslavia|1946}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 2 March 1961
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite news |title=Председник Тито предао председнику Нкрумаху Ореден велике југословенске звезде |url=http://istorijskenovine.unilib.rs/view/index.html#panel:pp%7Cissue:UB_00064_19610303%7Cpage:4%7Cquery:%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%20%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5%20%D1%98%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B5%20%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B5 |access-date=6 May 2025 |work=[[Borba (newspaper)|Borba]] |date=3 March 1961 |language=sr}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:CZE Rad Bileho Lva 3 tridy BAR.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Collar of the [[Order of the White Lion]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Czechoslovakia}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 2 August 1961
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite web |title=Československý řád Bílého lva 1923–1990 |url=https://www.prazskyhradarchiv.cz/file/edee/vyznamenani/cs_rbl.pdf |publisher=Archivu Kanceláře prezidenta republiky |access-date=5 May 2025 |page=130 |language=cs}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:Order of the Elephant Ribbon bar.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | [[Lenin Peace Prize]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Soviet Union|1955}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 30 April 1962
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite news |title=Picasso Gets Lenin Prize |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1873&dat=19620501&id=dsAeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bsoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6210,37008 |access-date=6 May 2025 |work=Daytona Beach Morning Journal |date=1 May 1962}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:Cordone di gran Croce di Gran Cordone OMRI BAR.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the [[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Italy}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 25 September 1963
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite web |title=Elenco dei Cavalieri di Gran Croce, decorati di Gran Cordone dell'Ordine, defunti |url=https://archivio.quirinale.it/materiali-pubblicazioni/onorificenze/ASPR_Onorificenze_Cavalieri_di_Gran_Croce_Gran_Cordone.pdf |publisher=Portale storico della Presidenza della Repubblica |access-date=5 May 2025 |language=it}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:POL Polonia Restituta Wielki BAR.svg|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Grand Cross of the [[Order of Polonia Restituta]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|Poland}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 1965
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite book |last1=Stela |first1=Wojciech |title=Polskie ordery i odznaczenia (Vol. I) |date=2008 |location=Warsaw |page=49}}</ref>
|-
| [[File:Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo (ribbon bar).gif|80px]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | Supreme Companion of the [[Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo]]
| style="font-size:90%;" | {{flag|South Africa}}
| style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;" | 16 June 2004<br>(posthumously)
| style="font-size:90%;" | <ref>{{cite web |title=2004 National Orders awards |url=http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/nationalorders2004.htm |website=SouthAfrica.info |access-date=5 May 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204092331/http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/nationalorders2004.htm#.VrMYl-zP32c |archive-date=4 February 2016}}</ref>
|}

==Works by Kwame Nkrumah==

[[File:1989 CPA 6101.jpg|thumb|right|A postage stamp from the [[Soviet Union]] marking the 80th anniversary of his birth]]

[[File:Independence Arch - Accra, Ghana1.jpg|thumb|Independence Arch in Accra]]

* "Negro History: European Government in Africa", ''The Lincolnian'', 12 April 1938, p.&nbsp;2 (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) – see [http://www.lincoln.edu/library/project.html Special Collections and Archives, Lincoln University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817175003/http://www.lincoln.edu/library/project.html |date=17 August 2009 }}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bontemps|first=Arna|date=20 April 2017|title=Lincoln and the Negro|journal=University of Illinois Press|volume=1|doi=10.5406/illinois/9780252037696.003.0005}}</ref>
* "Primitive Education in West Africa," ''Educational Outlook,'' January 1941 (University of Pennsylvania). [https://archives.upenn.edu/digitized-resources/docs-pubs/nkrumah/nkrumah-primitive-education/ See] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303212548/https://archives.upenn.edu/digitized-resources/docs-pubs/nkrumah/nkrumah-primitive-education/ |date=3 March 2024 }}
* "Education and Nationalism in Africa," ''Educational Outlook,'' November 1943 (University of Pennsylvania). [https://archives.upenn.edu/digitized-resources/docs-pubs/nkrumah/nkrumah-education-nationalism/ See] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303212548/https://archives.upenn.edu/digitized-resources/docs-pubs/nkrumah/nkrumah-education-nationalism/ |date=3 March 2024 }}
* ''Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1957). {{ISBN|0-901787-60-4}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Ghana: the autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah|date=2002|publisher=Panaf|isbn=0-901787-60-4|edition=Africa's 100 best books|location=London|oclc=51932153}}</ref>
* ''Africa Must Unite'' (1963). {{ISBN|0-901787-13-2}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Africa must unite|date=1963|publisher=Panaf|isbn=0-901787-13-2|location=London|oclc=6567302}}</ref>
* ''African Personality'' (1963)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mead, Margaret |title=Technique & personality|date=1963|publisher=Museum of Primitive Art|oclc=603547274}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.|Introduction}}
* ''Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism'' (1965)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tiger|first1=Lionel|last2=Nkrumah|first2=Kwame|date=1966|title=Neo-Colonialism. The Last Stage of Imperialism|journal=International Journal|volume=22|issue=1|pages=161|doi=10.2307/40199801|jstor=40199801|s2cid=143584107 |issn=0020-7020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Neo-colonialism: the last stage of imperialism.|date=1990|publisher=Panaf|oclc=59982527}}</ref>
* ''Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1967). {{ISBN|0-901787-54-X}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Kwame Nkrumah: the Conakry years, his life and letters|date=1990|publisher=PANAF|others=Milne, June 1920–|isbn=0-901787-53-1|location=London|oclc=22733303}}</ref>
* ''African Socialism Revisited'' (1967)<ref>{{Cite journal|date=October 1967|title=African Socialism|journal=International Affairs|volume=43|issue=4|pages=779|doi=10.1093/ia/43.4.779|issn=1468-2346}}</ref>
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nGB1AAAAMAAJ Challenge of the Congo] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405030326/https://books.google.com/books?id=nGB1AAAAMAAJ |date=5 April 2023 }}'' (1967)
*''Voice From Conakry'' (1967). {{ISBN|90-17-87027-3}}
* ''Dark Days in Ghana'' (1968). {{ISBN|0-7178-0046-6}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Dark days in Ghana|date=1972|publisher=Internat. Publ|isbn=0-7178-0046-6|edition=Repr|location=New York|oclc=796074108}}</ref>
* ''Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare'' (1968). {{ISBN|0-7178-0226-4}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Handbook of revolutionary warfare: a guide to the armed phase of the African revolution|date=1975|publisher=International Publishers|isbn=0-7178-0226-4|edition=1st U.S.|location=New York|oclc=8095708}}</ref>
* ''The Way Out, "Civilian Rule" Fraud and A  Call for Positive Action and Armed Struggle'' (1970)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nkrumah |first=Kwame |title=The Way Out, "Civilian Rule" Fraud and A Call for Positive Action and Armed Struggle |publisher=Panaf Books |year=1970 |edition=Reprinted |location=University of London, Senate House Library}}</ref>
* ''Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation'' (1970). {{ISBN|0-901787-11-6}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Consciencism: philosophy and ideology for decolonisation|date=1978|publisher=Panaf|isbn=0-901787-11-6|location=London|oclc=16613918}}</ref>
* ''Class Struggle in Africa'' (1970). {{ISBN|0-901787-12-4}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Class struggle in Africa.|date=1970|publisher=Panaf Books Ltd|isbn=0-901787-12-4|location=London|oclc=153293}}</ref>
* ''The Struggle Continues'' (1973). {{ISBN|0-901787-41-8}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=The struggle continues: six ... pamphlets|date=1973|publisher=Panaf Books Ltd|isbn=0-901787-41-8|location=London|oclc=3073780}}</ref>
* ''I Speak of Freedom'' (1973). {{ISBN|0-901787-14-0}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=I speak of freedom|date=1973|publisher=Panaf Books Ltd|isbn=0-901787-14-0|location=London |oclc=16236424}}</ref>
* ''Revolutionary Path'' (1973). {{ISBN|978-0-901787-22-4}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Nkrumah, Kwame |title=Revolutionary path.|date=1973|publisher=Panaf Books Ltd|isbn=0-901787-22-1|location=London|oclc=764869}}</ref>

== Festival ==

For details see ''[[Kwame Nkrumah Festival]]''

==See also==

* [[Nkrumah government]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

* {{Cite book |last=Addo |first=Ebenezer Obiri |title=Kwame Nkrumah: A Case Study of Religion and Politics in Ghana |publisher=University Press of America|year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7618-0785-8|ref={{sfnRef|Addo}} }}
* {{Cite book |last=Birmingham |first=David |author-link=David Birmingham |title=Kwame Nkrumah: The Father of African Nationalism |publisher=Ohio University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8214-1242-8|ref={{sfnRef|Birmingham}} }}
* {{Cite book |last=Bourret |first=F. M. |title=Ghana—The Road to Independence |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1960|edition=Revised|orig-date=1949 |oclc= 414362 |ref={{sfnRef|Bourret}} }}
* {{cite journal |title=Kwame Nkrumah: His years in America|last=Clarke|first=John Henrik|volume=6|issue=2|date=October 1974|journal=[[The Black Scholar]]|pages=9–16|doi=10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459 |jstor=41065759|s2cid=141785632 |ref={{sfnRef|Clarke}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Fuller|first=Harcourt|year=2014|title=Building the Ghanaian Nation-State|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-44856-9 |ref={{sfnRef|Fuller}} }}
* {{Cite book |last=Mazrui |first=Ali |author-link=Ali Mazrui|title=Nkrumah's Legacy and Africa's Triple Heritage Between Globalization and Counter Terrorism |publisher=Ghana Universities Press|year=2004 |isbn=978-9964-3-0296-2|ref={{sfnRef|Mazrui}} }}
* {{Cite book |last=Owusu-Ansah |first=David |title=Biographical Dictionary of Ghana |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-8108-7242-4|edition=4th|ref={{sfnRef|Owusu-Ansah}} }}
* {{Cite book|last=Rooney|first=David|year=1988|title=Kwame Nkrumah: The Political Kingdom in the Third World|publisher=St. Martin's Press|ref={{sfnRef|Rooney}}|isbn=978-0-312-02479-6|url=https://archive.org/details/kwamenkrumah00davi}}
* {{Cite book|last=Sherwood|first=Marika|author-link=Marika Sherwood|year=1996|title=Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad 1935–1947|publisher=Freedom Publications|isbn=978-9988-7716-0-7|ref={{sfnRef|Sherwood}}|url=https://archive.org/details/kwamenkrumahyear00sher_0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=W. Scott |title=Ghana's Foreign Policy 1957–1966 |url=https://archive.org/details/ghanasforeignpol1969wsco |url-access=registration |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1969 |oclc=2616|ref={{sfnRef|Thompson}} }}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin|40em}}
* Arhin, Kwame (1993). ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, Inc. {{ISBN|9780865433953}} (08543395X)
* Baynham, Simon (1988). ''The Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana''. Westview Special Studies on Africa. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc. (Frederick A. Praeger), {{ISBN|0-8133-70639}}
* Biney, Ama. "The Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah in Retrospect." ''Journal of Pan African Studies'' 2.3 (2008). [http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist247/winter_2014/resources/LegacyOfKwameNkrumah.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205064300/http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist247/winter_2014/resources/LegacyOfKwameNkrumah.pdf |date=5 February 2021 }}, historiography
* Biney, Ama. ''The political and social thought of Kwame Nkrumah'' (2011).
* Biney, Ama. "The Development of Kwame Nkrumah's Political Thought in Exile, 1966–1972." ''Journal of African History'' 50.1 (2009): 81–100.
* Bretton, Henry L. ''The rise and fall of Kwame Nkrumah: a study of personal rule in Africa'' (1967).
* {{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Basil |title=Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah |publisher=James Currey |location=Oxford, UK |orig-date=1973 |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84701-010-0 }}
* [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], "[https://www.governmentattic.org/docs/DIA_AnalysisKwameNkrumahOfGhana1966.pdf Supplement, Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707043023/http://www.governmentattic.org/docs/DIA_AnalysisKwameNkrumahOfGhana1966.pdf |date=7 July 2017 }}", 12-January-1966.
* Gerits, Frank. "'When the Bull Elephants Fight': Kwame Nkrumah, Non-Alignment, and Pan-Africanism as an Interventionist Ideology in the Global Cold War (1957–66)."  ''International History Review'' 37.5 (2015): 951–969.
* Gocking, Roger S.  ''The History of Ghana'' (2005).
* {{cite book |last=James |first=C. L. R. |title=Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution |location=London |publisher=[[Allison & Busby]] |year=1977 |isbn=0-85031-461-5 }}
* {{cite journal
  |last= Mazrui |first= Ali |year= 1966
  |title= Nkrumah: The Leninist Czar
  |journal= [[Transition Magazine|Transition]] |issue= 26 |pages= 8–17
  |jstor= 2934320  |doi= 10.2307/2934320 }}
* Milne, June. ''Kwame Nkrumah: a biography'' (1999).
* {{Cite book |last=Mwakikagile |first=Godfrey |title=Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era |edition=Third |location=Pretoria, South Africa |publisher=New Africa Press |year=2006 |chapter=Nyerere and Nkrumah: Towards African Unity |pages=347–355 |isbn=0-9802534-1-1 }}
* Mwakikagile, Godfrey (2015), ''Western Involvement in Nkrumah's Downfall''. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: New Africa Press. {{ISBN|9789987160044}}
* Omari, T. Peter. ''Kwame Nkrumah: The anatomy of an African dictatorship'' (1970).
* Pinkney, Robert (1972). ''Ghana Under Military Rule 1966–1969''. London: Methuen & Co Ltd. {{ISBN|0-41675080X}}
* {{cite book |last=Poe |first=D. Zizwe |title=Kwame Nkrumah's Contribution to Pan-African Agency |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=0-203-50537-9 }}
* Rooney, David. ''Kwame Nkrumah: The Political Kingdom in the Third World'' (1988).
* Rui Lopes & Víctor Barros (2019) "[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2019.1703118 Amílcar Cabral and the Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: International, Transnational, and Global Dimensions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701214035/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2019.1703118 |date=1 July 2020 }}." The International History Review.
* {{cite magazine |magazine=[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]] |location=USA |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=71nrBoK-ilEC&pg=PA138 |title=Kwame Nkrumah: the Fall of a Messiah |author=Sanders, Charles L. |date=September 1966 |access-date=27 June 2015 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090705/https://books.google.com/books?id=71nrBoK-ilEC&pg=PA138 |url-status=live }}
* Smertin, Yuri. ''[https://archive.org/details/nkrumahsmertin Kwame Nkrumah]''. Moscow: [[Progress Publishers]]. 1987.
* Sonderegger, Arno (2016). "How the Empire Wrote Back: Notes on the Struggle of George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah". In: ''Kwame Nkrumah 1909-1972: A Controversial African Visionary. Edited by Bea Lundt and Christoph Marx''. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag: 19-38.
* {{cite book |last=Tuchscherer |first=Konrad |chapter=Kwame Francis Nwia Kofie Nkrumah |title=Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators |editor-first=Frank J |editor-last=Coppa |location=New York |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2006 |pages=217–20 |isbn=0-8204-5010-3 }}
* {{cite web | title=Godfrey Mwakikagile: Eurocentric Africanist? | url=https://sites.google.com/site/intercontinentalbookcentre/godfrey-mwakikagile-a-eurocentric-pan-africanist | publisher=Intercontinental Book Centre | access-date=8 December 2021 | archive-date=20 February 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220220064832/https://sites.google.com/site/intercontinentalbookcentre/godfrey-mwakikagile-a-eurocentric-pan-africanist | url-status=live }}
* Žák, Tomáš František (2016). "Applying the Weapon of Theory: Comparing the Philosophy of Julius Kambarage Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah". ''Journal of African Cultural Studies''. 28 (2): 147–160. [https://doi.org/10.1080%2F13696815.2015.1053798 doi:10.1080/13696815.2015.1053798] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090711/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2015.1053798?cookieSet=1 |date=18 April 2023 }}. S2CID 146709996.
{{refend}}

==External links==

{{Sister project links|wikt=no|b=no|commonscat=Category:Kwame Nkrumah|n=no|s=no|v=no|voy=no|species=no|d=Q8620|display=Kwame Nkrumah}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY0iTcspNA Faces of Africa Kwame Nkrumah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905004516/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY0iTcspNA |date=5 September 2019 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150205213907/http://kwamenkrumahmausoleumnkroful.ghana-net.net/ Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Museum at Nkroful, Western Region]
* [http://ghana-net.com/accra---kwame-nkrumah-memorial-park Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park & Museum, Accra] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150122034817/http://www.ghana-net.com/accra---kwame-nkrumah-memorial-park |date=22 January 2015 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090212181831/http://www.ghana-pedia.org/org/index.php?option=com_directory&listing=Kwame%20Nkrumah&page=viewListing&lid=10&Itemid=36 Ghana-pedia Kwame Nkrumah]
* [http://www.ghana-pedia.org/org/index.php?option=com_directory&listing=Operation%Cold%Chop&page=viewListing&lid=287&Itemid=36 Ghana-pedia ''Operation Cold Chop'': The Fall Of Kwame Nkrumah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222153413/http://www.ghana-pedia.org/org/index.php?option=com_directory&listing=Operation%25Cold%25Chop&page=viewListing&lid=287&Itemid=36 |date=22 February 2025 }}
<!--dead domain* [http://www.vibeghana.com/ Dr Kwame Nkrumah]--->
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_kwamenkrumah.html Excerpt from ''Commanding Heights''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922050538/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_kwamenkrumah.html |date=22 September 2017 }} by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927190754/http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=kwame_nkrumah Timeline of events related to the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah]
* [http://www.teachinginghana.com/index.php/2007/11/12/kwame-nkrumah-lectures-part-2/ The Kwame Nkrumah Lectures at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, 2007] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627181711/http://www.teachinginghana.com/index.php/2007/11/12/kwame-nkrumah-lectures-part-2/ |date=27 June 2008 }}
* [http://www.nkrumah.net/ Kwame Nkrumah Information and Resource Site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216040945/http://www.nkrumah.net/ |date=16 December 2008 }}
* [http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090925/ghana-honors-nkrumah-statue-moammar-gadhafi Ghana re-evaluates Nkrumah] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305011403/http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ghana/090925/ghana-honors-nkrumah-statue-moammar-gadhafi |date=5 March 2016 }} by ''[[The Global Post]]''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090213044033/http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/podcasts/2007/03/6th-march-1957-midnight-speech Dr Kwame Nkrumah's Midnight Speech on the day of Ghana's independence&nbsp;– 6 March 1957.]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9zYDxbJimw Newsreel on First Conference of Independent African States] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709080810/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9zYDxbJimw |date=9 July 2015 }}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ09mKNRN-8 "Father of Ghana's independence Kwame Nkrumah died 50 years ago • FRANCE 24 English"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240428112349/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ09mKNRN-8 |date=28 April 2024 }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=Leader of the [[Convention People's Party]]|years=1948–66}}
{{s-aft|after=Position abolished}}
|-
{{s-off}}
{{s-new|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Ghana|Prime Minister of the Gold Coast]]|years=1952–57}}
{{s-aft|after=Himself as Prime Minister of Ghana}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=Himself as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Ghana]]|years=1957–60}}
{{s-vac|next=[[Kofi Abrefa Busia]]}}
|-
{{s-new|rows=2|office}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ghana)|Minister for Foreign Affairs]]|years=1957–58}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Kojo Botsio]]}}
|-
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for Defence (Ghana)|Minister for Defence]]|years=1957–60}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Charles de Graft Dickson]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Krobo Edusei]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for the Interior (Ghana)|Minister for the Interior]]|years=1958}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Ashford Emmanuel Inkumsah]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Elizabeth II]]|as=[[Queen of Ghana]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[President of Ghana]]|years=1960–66}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joseph Arthur Ankrah]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Ebenezer Ako-Adjei]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Ghana)|Minister for Foreign Affairs]]|years=1962–63}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Kojo Botsio]]}}
|-
{{s-dip}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity]]|years=1965–66}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Joseph Arthur Ankrah]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Heads of State of Ghana}}
{{The Big Six}}
{{Ghana topics}}
{{African Union chairpersons}}
{{Pan-Africanism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nkrumah, Kwame}}
[[Category:Kwame Nkrumah| ]]
[[Category:1909 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:African revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Chairpersons of the African Union]]
[[Category:African anti-imperialists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Achimota School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Convention People's Party (Ghana) politicians]]
[[Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in Romania]]
[[Category:Ministers for defence of Ghana]]
[[Category:Exiled politicians]]
[[Category:Ministers for foreign affairs of Ghana]]
[[Category:Ghanaian Christian socialists]]
[[Category:Ghanaian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Ghanaian MPs 1951–1954]]
[[Category:Ghanaian MPs 1954–1956]]
[[Category:Ghanaian MPs 1956–1965]]
[[Category:Ghanaian MPs 1965–1966]]
[[Category:Ghanaian pan-Africanists]]
[[Category:Ghanaian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Ministers for the interior of Ghana]]
[[Category:Leaders ousted by a coup]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize]]
[[Category:Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni]]
[[Category:Members of Gray's Inn]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Presidents for life]]
[[Category:Presidents of Ghana]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Ghana]]
[[Category:United Gold Coast Convention politicians]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education alumni]]
[[Category:Ghanaian independence activists]]
[[Category:Ghanaian Marxists]]
[[Category:Ghanaian expatriates in Romania]]
[[Category:Akan people]]
[[Category:Imperialism studies]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:20th-century presidents in Africa]]
[[Category:Ghanaian Freemasons]]