Samia Nkrumah

Samia Nkrumah carries one of the most storied names in African political history. The daughter of Ghana's founding president Kwame Nkrumah, she became a politician in her own right, and the first woman to lead a major political party in the country.

Early life

She was born Samia Yaba Nkrumah on 23 June 1960, the only daughter of Kwame Nkrumah and his Egyptian wife, Fathia. After her father's overthrow in 1966, the family moved to Egypt, and she spent much of her life abroad, studying Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and working for years as a journalist and media consultant, fluent in Arabic, Italian and English.

Return to Ghana and politics

She returned to Ghana permanently in 2008, declaring her intention to rekindle her father's vision. That year she joined the Convention People's Party, the party Nkrumah founded, and won the Jomoro parliamentary seat decisively, entering parliament under the family banner.

Leading the CPP

In 2011 she was elected chairperson of the Convention People's Party, becoming the first woman to head a major political party in Ghana. She positioned herself as a champion of Nkrumahist and pan-African ideals, seeking to revive a political tradition that had faded since her father's era.

Standing

Though the CPP has struggled to regain its former strength, Samia Nkrumah remains a significant symbolic figure in Ghanaian politics, a keeper of her father's pan-African flame and a pioneer for women in the country's political leadership.