What pioneers of Ghana's independence envisaged about Nkrumah versus what they got – Historian narrates

Historian Yaw Anokye Frimpong has asserted that the people who started Ghana’s fight for independence would not have invited the first president of the country, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, to join them if they had studied him better.

According to him, the elites who fought for Ghana’s independence at that time thought Dr. Nkrumah was just like them, but he had a very different personality from the very first day he arrived in the country from the US, where he was trained.

Speaking in an interview with broadcaster Kafui Dey, Anokye Frimpong said these elites only heard of Dr Nkrumah and saw a refined picture of him wearing spectacles but in reality, he was totally different in the way he carried himself and his duties.

To some extent, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah even refused to dress like them.

“The underlying disagreement between them was the fact that Nkrumah was the odd one from the moment he appeared on the scene… When Nkrumah came here, among the white people he met, nobody was his mate because he was trained in the US. So, from the very word go, they didn't like him.

“If they had studied him very well, they would have asked him to go back. Yes. Do you know why? You see, the moment he appeared on the scene, we are told that they gave him a cap to wear, and he said, ‘No, I never wear a cap in my life’,” he narrated.

He added, “And the spectacles they saw him wearing in the picture, when Nkrumah arrived in Ghana, he never wore the spectacles they knew him for. Nkrumah would not tuck in; he didn't want to be like a gentleman the British would want to see. And then also, all of them spoke English, the way the British spoke English. And Nkrumah spoke English in a manner that would offend every listener, the one Mandela copied. Look at the way he spoke”.

The historian, to buttress his points further, disclosed that Dr. Nkrumah also did not agree with the capitalist ideology the independence fighters had accepted from the British.

He said, because of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's extensive training in the US, he became a proponent of socialism and not capitalism.

“… Nkrumah did not believe in capitalism. So, it means, in fact, through and through, he hated the colonial system and was never ready to work with them. Unlike, as I said, (JB) Danquah and others who had been incorporated into their system as legislators,” he said.

Watch the interview below:

Kwame Nkrumah told the people who brought him into Ghana 'I no be gentleman at all' in a very subtle way ????

Check first comment for full video pic.twitter.com/Y9e8pVknA6

— Kafui Dey (@KafuiDey) April 3, 2024

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