Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician and political theorist who led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain on 6 March 1957, the first sub-Saharan African colony to break free. He was Prime Minister from 1952, President from 1960 until he was overthrown in 1966, and one of the most influential advocates of Pan-Africanism. In 1999 BBC listeners voted him African of the Millennium.

Early life

He was born on 21 September 1909 in Nkroful, in the Nzema area of the Western Region, and was christened Francis Nwia Kofi. His father was a goldsmith and his mother, Elizabeth Nyanibah, a trader. He went to the Catholic mission school at Half Assini, trained as a teacher at the Government Training College at Achimota, where Kwegyir Aggrey introduced him to the ideas of Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois, and taught at Elmina, Axim and the seminary at Amissano.

Twelve years abroad

Encouraged by Nnamdi Azikiwe, he sailed to the United States in 1935. At Lincoln University in Pennsylvania he earned a BA in economics and sociology in 1939 and a Bachelor of Theology in 1942, and at the University of Pennsylvania an MA in philosophy and an MSc in education in 1943, while working menial jobs to pay his way. In 1945 he moved to London, where he took the name Kwame and helped organise the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.

Road to independence

He returned home in 1947 as general secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention, then broke away in 1949 to found the Convention People's Party with the slogan "Self-Government Now". Jailed for his Positive Action campaign, he won a seat in the 1951 election from prison, was released to become Leader of Government Business and became Prime Minister in 1952. On 6 March 1957 he declared Ghana's independence.

President

Ghana became a republic in 1960 with Nkrumah as President. His government built the Akosombo Dam, the port and new town at Tema and a national education system, and he helped found the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. He won the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962. After an assassination attempt his rule became increasingly authoritarian, and in 1964 Ghana was made a one-party state with him as president for life.

Coup, exile and death

On 24 February 1966, while he was abroad, the military and police overthrew him and set up the National Liberation Council. He lived the rest of his life in Guinea, where Sékou Touré made him honorary co-president. He died of cancer in Bucharest, Romania, on 27 April 1972. His remains were later brought home to Nkroful and, in 1992, to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.

Family

In 1957 he married Fathia Rizk of Egypt, and they had three children, Gamal, Samia and Sekou. He also had an elder son, Francis.

Film legacy

Much of the film record of Nkrumah's years in power survives because of his official cameraman, Chris Tsui Hesse, who kept more than 1,300 reels after the 1966 coup government burned many of the regime's films. Hesse and the reels are the subject of The Eyes of Ghana, a documentary by Ben Proudfoot backed by Barack and Michelle Obama, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 and was set for a cinema release in North America on 28 October 2026. His eldest son with Fathia, Gamal, died in Cairo on 14 October 2026.