Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary.
Nkrumah lived the rest of his life in Guinea, of which he was named honorary co-president. ==Early life and education== === Gold Coast === Kwame Nkrumah was born on 21 September 1909 in Nkroful, Gold Coast (now in Ghana) to a poor and illiterate family.
Although his mother, whose name was Elizabeth Nyanibah (1876/77–1979), later stated his year of birth was 1912, Nkrumah wrote that he was born on 21 September 1909.
Although his mother, whose name was Elizabeth Nyanibah (1876/77–1979), later stated his year of birth was 1912, Nkrumah wrote that he was born on 21 September 1909.
By about 1925 he was a student-teacher in the school, and had been baptized into the Catholic faith.
He died in 1927. Kwame was the only child of his mother.
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. His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942 Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside.
In 1933, he was appointed a teacher at the Catholic seminary at Amissano.
He arrived in the United States, in October 1935. === 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 would have a lingering effect on the rest of his life." Nkrumah had sought entry to Lincoln University some time before he began his studies there.
On 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 in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the full semester.
The show's portrayal of the historical significance of the Queen's dance with Nkrumah has been refuted as exaggerated. A golden statue of Nkrumah is a center piece in Ghanaian rapper Serious Klein's 2021 video "Straight Outta Pandemic". ==Works by Kwame Nkrumah== "Negro History: European Government in Africa", The Lincolnian, 12 April 1938, p. 2 (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) – see Special Collections and Archives, Lincoln University Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957).
On Sundays, he visited black Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and in New York. Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939.
In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at Lincoln University.
In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity at Lincoln University.
Nkrumah gained a Bachelor of Theology degree from Lincoln in 1942, the top student in the course.
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. His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942 Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside.
In 1943 Nkrumah met Trinidadian Marxist C.
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. His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942 Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside.
He later changed his name to Kwame Nkrumah in 1945 in the UK, preferring the name "Kwame".
He had adopted the forename Francis while at the Amissano seminary; in 1945 he took the name Kwame Nkrumah. Nkrumah read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy.
Federal Bureau of Investigation files on Nkrumah, kept from January to May 1945, identify him as a possible communist.
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." === London === Nkrumah returned to London in May 1945 and enrolled at the London School of Economics as a PhD candidate in anthropology.
He and Padmore were among the principal organizers, and co-treasurers, of the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester (15–19 October 1945).
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. ==Return to the Gold Coast== === United Gold Coast Convention === The 1946 Gold Coast constitution gave Africans a majority on the Legislative Council for the first time.
Seen as a major step towards self-government, the new arrangement prompted the colony's first true political party, founded in August 1947, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
After being questioned by British officials about his communist affiliations, Nkrumah boarded the MV Accra at Liverpool in November 1947 for the voyage home. After brief stops in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, he arrived in the Gold Coast, and after a brief stay and reunion with his mother in Tarkwa, began work at the party's headquarters in Saltpond on 29 December 1947 where he worked as a general secretary.
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.
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. ==Return to the Gold Coast== === United Gold Coast Convention === The 1946 Gold Coast constitution gave Africans a majority on the Legislative Council for the first time.
Postwar inflation had caused public anger at high prices, leading to a boycott of the small stores run by Arabs which began in January 1948.
Nkrumah and Danquah addressed a meeting of the Ex-Service men's Union in Accra on 20 February 1948, which was in preparation for a march to present a petition to the governor.
When that demonstration took place on 28 February, there was gunfire from the British, prompting the 1948 Accra riots, which spread throughout the country.
They were freed in April 1948.
The recommendations following the 1948 riots had included elected local government rather than the existing system dominated by the chiefs.
Oquaye, he claimed 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. === Convention People's Party === Beginning in April 1949, there was considerable pressure on Nkrumah from his supporters to leave the UGCC and form his own party.
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".
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 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.
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.
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. In the February 1951 legislative election, the first general election to be held under universal franchise in colonial Africa, the CPP was elected in a landslide.
From 1951 to 1956, the number of pupils being educated at the colony's schools rose from 200,000 to 500,000.
That party's majority in the 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 were imposed. Nkrumah's re-titling as prime minister had not given him additional power, and he sought constitutional reform that would lead to independence.
Many of the new outside workers came not from the United Kingdom but from the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Italy. ===Education=== In 1951, the CPP created the Accelerated Development Plan for Education.
He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957.
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.
In 1952, he consulted with the visiting 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.
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 amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a de facto legal dictatorship. === Civil service === After substantial Africanization of the civil service in 1952–60, the number of expatriates rose again from 1960 to 1965.
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. Nkrumah's title was Leader of Government Business in a cabinet chaired by Arden-Clarke.
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.
In the election on 15 June 1954, the CPP won 71, with the regional Northern People's Party forming the official opposition. A number of opposition groups formed the National Liberation Movement.
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. The Gold Coast Broadcasting Service was established in 1954 and revamped as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah initiated the Ghana 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. ==== Cocoa ==== In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton.
Powell returned to Ghana in January 1955 to be Nkrumah's private secretary, a position she held for ten years.
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.
From 1951 to 1956, the number of pupils being educated at the colony's schools rose from 200,000 to 500,000.
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.
The results of the 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.
Discussions took place through late 1956 and into 1957.
Kumasi Technical Institute was founded in 1956.
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. ==== Armed forces ==== In 1956, Ghana took control of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF), Gold Coast Regiment, from the British War Office.
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.
He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957.
He became Prime Minister in 1952 and retained the position when Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957.
In September, the Colonial Office announced independence day would be 6 March 1957. 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.
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. ==Ghanaian independence== Ghana became independent on 6 March 1957.
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.
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. Queen Elizabeth II remained sovereign over Ghana from 1957 to 1960.
He oversaw the opening of the 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.
Most women remained in agriculture and trade; some received assistance from the Co-operative Movement. 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 Nkrumahist personality cult. ==== Media ==== In 1957 Nkrumah created a well-funded Ghana News Agency to generate domestic news and disseminate it abroad.
This rallied the nation in a nationalistic movement. ==Personal life== Kwame Nkrumah married Fathia Ritzk, an Egyptian Coptic bank worker and former teacher, on the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year's Eve, 1957–1958.
These repressive actions concerned the opposition parties, who came together to form the United Party under Kofi Abrefa Busia. In 1958, an opposition MP was arrested on charges of trying to obtain arms abroad for a planned infiltration of the Ghana Army (GA).
Acts passed in 1958 and 1959 gave the government more power to dis-stool chiefs directly, and proclaimed government of stool land – and revenues.
He oversaw the opening of the 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.
In ten years time the GNA had 8045 km of domestic telegraph line, and maintained stations in Lagos, Nairobi, London, and New York City. Nkrumah consolidated state control over newspapers, establishing the Ghanaian Times in 1958 and then in 1962 obtaining its competitor, the Daily Graphic, from the Mirror Group of London.
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." Ghana invoked assistance from the United States, Israel, and the World Bank in constructing the dam. Kaiser Aluminum agreed to build the dam for Nkrumah, but restricted what could be produced using the power generated.
The Ghanaian military budget rose each year, from $9.35 million (US dollars) in 1958 to $47 million in 1965. The first international deployment of the Ghanaian armed forces was to Congo (Léopoldville/Kinshasa), where Ghanaian troops were airlifted in 1960 at the beginning of the Congo crisis.
When in 1958 the Harlem Lawyers Association had an event in Nkrumah's honour, diplomat Ralph Bunche told him: We salute you, Kwame Nkrumah, not only because you are Prime Minister of Ghana, although this is cause enough.
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. Queen Elizabeth II remained sovereign over Ghana from 1957 to 1960.
Acts passed in 1958 and 1959 gave the government more power to dis-stool chiefs directly, and proclaimed government of stool land – and revenues.
Cudjoe was eventually demoted with the consolidation of national women's groups, and marginalized within the Party structure. Laws passed in 1959 and 1960 designated special positions in parliament to be held by women.
He reasoned that if Ghana escaped the colonial trade system by reducing dependence on foreign capital, technology, and material goods, it could become truly independent. 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. 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.
Preparation began in April 1959 with assistance from India and Israel. The Ghanaian Navy received two inshore minesweepers with 40- and 20-millimeter guns, the Afadzato and the Yogaga, from Britain in December 1959.
Fathia's mother refused to bless their marriage, due to reluctance to see another one of her children leave with a foreign husband. As a married couple, the Nkrumah family had three children: Gamal (born 1959), Samia (born 1960), and Sekou (born 1963).
In 1960, Ghanaians approved a new constitution and elected Nkrumah President. His administration was primarily socialist as well as nationalist.
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. Queen Elizabeth II remained sovereign over Ghana from 1957 to 1960.
On 6 March 1960, Nkrumah announced plans for a new constitution which would make Ghana a republic, headed by a president with broad executive and legislative powers.
On 19, 23, and 27 April 1960 a presidential election and plebiscite on the constitution were held.
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.
The amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a de facto legal dictatorship. === Civil service === After substantial Africanization of the civil service in 1952–60, the number of expatriates rose again from 1960 to 1965.
In September 1960, it added the Technical Teacher Training Center.
Cudjoe was eventually demoted with the consolidation of national women's groups, and marginalized within the Party structure. Laws passed in 1959 and 1960 designated special positions in parliament to be held by women.
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. The Gold Coast Broadcasting Service was established in 1954 and revamped as the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
In 1960 one ton of cocoa sold for £250 in London.
Immediately there formed a women's group called Women of the Union of African States. 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 Organization of African Unity (OAU). Nkrumah was instrumental in the creation of the OAU in Addis Ababa in 1963.
Instead, Nkrumah advocated, in a speech given on 7 April 1960, 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.
The Ghanaian military budget rose each year, from $9.35 million (US dollars) in 1958 to $47 million in 1965. The first international deployment of the Ghanaian armed forces was to Congo (Léopoldville/Kinshasa), where Ghanaian troops were airlifted in 1960 at the beginning of the Congo crisis.
Fathia's mother refused to bless their marriage, due to reluctance to see another one of her children leave with a foreign husband. As a married couple, the Nkrumah family had three children: Gamal (born 1959), Samia (born 1960), and Sekou (born 1963).
The plan also stated that religious schools would no longer receive funding, and that some existing missionary schools would be taken over by government. 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 1961, the CPP passed the Apprentice Act, which created a general Apprenticeship Board along with committees for each industry. ==== Culture ==== Nkrumah promoted pan-African culture, calling for international libraries and cooperative efforts to study history and culture.
He oversaw the opening of the 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.
In 1961, the GBC formed an external service broadcasting in English, French, Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese, and Hausa.
This plan called for the development of manufacturing: 600 factories producing 100 varieties of product. 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.
The State Enterprises Secretariat office was located in Flagstaff House and under the direct control of the president. 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. Nkrumah's time in office began successfully: forestry, fishing, and cattle-breeding expanded, production of cocoa (Ghana's main export) doubled, and modest deposits of bauxite and gold were exploited more effectively.
The construction of a dam on the Volta River (launched in 1961) provided water for irrigation and hydro-electric power, which produced enough electricity for the towns and for a new aluminum plant.
The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah initiated the Ghana 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. ==== Cocoa ==== In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton.
In 1961, the Navy ordered two 600-ton corvettes, the Keta and Kromantse, from Vosper & Company and received them in 1967.
On 19 January 1961 the Third Infantry Battalion mutinied.
On 28 April 1961, 43 men were massacred in a surprise attack by the Congolese army. Ghana also gave military support to rebels fighting against Ian Smith's white-minority government in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965. ==== Relationship with Communist world ==== In 1961, Nkrumah went on tour through Eastern Europe, proclaiming solidarity with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
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. In 1961, Nkrumah delivered a speech called "I Speak Of Freedom".
An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962. After twelve years abroad pursuing higher education, developing 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.
These policies alienated the chiefs and led them to looking favorably on the overthrow of Nkrumah and his Party. ==== 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.
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 in 1962.
In 1962, Nkrumah opened the Institute of African Studies. A campaign against nudity in the northern part of the country received special attention from Nkrumah, who reportedly deployed Propaganda Secretary Hannah Cudjoe to respond.
In ten years time the GNA had 8045 km of domestic telegraph line, and maintained stations in Lagos, Nairobi, London, and New York City. Nkrumah consolidated state control over newspapers, establishing the Ghanaian Times in 1958 and then in 1962 obtaining its competitor, the Daily Graphic, from the Mirror Group of London.
Nkrumah's clothing changed to the Chinese-supplied Mao suit. In 1962 Kwame Nkrumah was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. == Overthrow == 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 military and police forces, with backing from the civil service.
Nkrumah also has another son, Francis, a paediatrician (born 1962).
Before celebrations of May Day, 1963, Nkrumah went on television to announce the expansion of Ghana's Young Pioneers, 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.
The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah initiated the Ghana 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. ==== Cocoa ==== In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton.
Immediately there formed a women's group called Women of the Union of African States. 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 Organization of African Unity (OAU). Nkrumah was instrumental in the creation of the OAU in Addis Ababa in 1963.
Fathia's mother refused to bless their marriage, due to reluctance to see another one of her children leave with a foreign husband. As a married couple, the Nkrumah family had three children: Gamal (born 1959), Samia (born 1960), and Sekou (born 1963).
Under Nkrumah, Ghana played a leading role in African international relations during the decolonization period. In 1964, a constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state, with Nkrumah as president for life of both the nation and its party.
Shortly afterward, the constitution was amended to give the president the power to summarily remove judges at all levels. In 1964, Nkrumah proposed a constitutional amendment which would make the CPP the only legal party, with Nkrumah as president for life of both nation and party.
In 1964, all students entering college in Ghana were required to attend a two-week "ideological orientation" at the institute.
Nkrumah remarked that "trainees should be made to realize the party's ideology is religion, and should be practiced faithfully and fervently." 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.
He oversaw the opening of the 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.
This plan called for the development of manufacturing: 600 factories producing 100 varieties of product. 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.
The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah initiated the Ghana 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. ==== Cocoa ==== In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton.
The amendment transformed Nkrumah's presidency into a de facto legal dictatorship. === Civil service === After substantial Africanization of the civil service in 1952–60, the number of expatriates rose again from 1960 to 1965.
By August 1965 this price had dropped to £91, one fifth of its value ten years before.
The Ghanaian military budget rose each year, from $9.35 million (US dollars) in 1958 to $47 million in 1965. The first international deployment of the Ghanaian armed forces was to Congo (Léopoldville/Kinshasa), where Ghanaian troops were airlifted in 1960 at the beginning of the Congo crisis.
On 28 April 1961, 43 men were massacred in a surprise attack by the Congolese army. Ghana also gave military support to rebels fighting against Ian Smith's white-minority government in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which had unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965. ==== Relationship with Communist world ==== In 1961, Nkrumah went on tour through Eastern Europe, proclaiming solidarity with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
Nkrumah was deposed in 1966 by the National Liberation Council which under the supervision of international financial institutions privatized many of the country's state corporations.
The dam was completed and opened by Nkrumah amidst world publicity on 22 January 1966. Nkrumah initiated the Ghana 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. ==== Cocoa ==== In 1954 the world price of cocoa rose from £150 to £450 per ton.
Nkrumah's clothing changed to the Chinese-supplied Mao suit. In 1962 Kwame Nkrumah was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union. == Overthrow == 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 military and police forces, with backing from the civil service.
"The Development of Kwame Nkrumah's Political Thought in Exile, 1966–1972." Journal of African History 50.1 (2009): 81–100. Bretton, Henry L.
Ghana Under Military Rule 1966–1969.
In 1961, the Navy ordered two 600-ton corvettes, the Keta and Kromantse, from Vosper & Company and received them in 1967.
He specifically addresses these issues and his politics in a 1967 essay entitled "African Socialism Revisited": We know that the traditional African society was founded on principles of egalitarianism.
After the coup, Nkrumah stayed in Beijing for four days and Premier Zhou Enlai treated him with courtesy. 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.
In failing health, he flew to Bucharest, Romania, for medical treatment in August 1971.
Kwame Nkrumah (21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary.
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.
He died of prostate cancer in April 1972 at the age of 62 while in Romania. Nkrumah was buried in a tomb in the village of his birth, Nkroful, Ghana.
In 1978 John Stockwell, former Chief of the Angola Task Force of the U.S.
government] interests than any other black African." In September 2009, President John Atta Mills declared 21 September (the 100th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah's birth) to be Founders' Day, a statutory holiday in Ghana to celebrate the legacy of Kwame Nkrumah.
Onsy's claim to be Nkrumah's son is disputed by Nkrumah's other children. ==Cultural depictions== In the 2010 book The Other Wes Moore, Nkrumah, when living 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. Nkrumah is played by Danny Sapani in the Netflix television series The Crown (season 2, episode 8 "Dear Mrs Kennedy").
In April 2019, President Akufo-Addo approved the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019 which changed 21 September from Founders' Day to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day. He generally took a non-aligned Marxist perspective on economics, and believed capitalism had malignant effects that were going to stay with Africa for a long time.
The show's portrayal of the historical significance of the Queen's dance with Nkrumah has been refuted as exaggerated. A golden statue of Nkrumah is a center piece in Ghanaian rapper Serious Klein's 2021 video "Straight Outta Pandemic". ==Works by Kwame Nkrumah== "Negro History: European Government in Africa", The Lincolnian, 12 April 1938, p. 2 (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania) – see Special Collections and Archives, Lincoln University Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957).
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