Remembering a global luminary: Kwame Nkrumah revisited

Action without thought is empty. Thought without action is blind.

Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.

It is clear that we find an African Solution to our problems and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; United, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. – Kwame Nkrumah

Francis Nwiaa Kofi Nkrumah [popularly known as Kwame Nkrumah] was born to Kofi Ngonloma and Elizabeth Nyaniba on Saturday, September 21, 1909, in Nkroful, the current administrative capital of Ellembelle District in the Western Region.

Kwame Nkrumah commenced his early education at the Roman Catholic Elementary School in Awiane [Half-Assini], now the administrative capital of Jomoro Municipality in the Western Region, where his father, Kofi Ngonloma, operated as a goldsmith. He proved to be an adept student. At the age of sixteen years, Kwame Nkrumah became a student –teacher at the same institution he started his academic life. In 1927, whilst on an educational tour, Kwame Nkrumah was identified by the Rev. Alec Garden Fraser, Principal of the Government Training College in Accra for advanced studies. Later the Government Training College amalgamated with the Prince of Wales College at Achimota in Accra which meant Kwame Nkrumah had to pursue and complete his studies at the Achimota College.

At Achimota College, Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey introduced Kwame Nkrumah to the ideas of Marcus Garvey and Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois. Kwame Nkrumah later admitted that of all the literature he studied, the book that did more than any other to fire his enthusiasm was Philosophy And Opinions of Marcus Garvey, an influence which gave him a great exposure to his political career, a career which would place him among a pantheon of global iconic figures such as Alexander the Great of Greece, Peter the Great of Russia, George Washington of the USA, Otto von Bismarck of Germany, Lee Kuan Yuan of Singapore, Napoléon Bonaparte of France, etc.

UNMISSABLE DATES IN KWAME NKRUMAH’S LIFE

1930: He was awarded a Teacher’s Certificate from the Prince of Wales College, Achimota

1931: He became a tutor at the Roman Catholic school in Edina [Elmina] and later became a Tutor at another Catholic Educational Institution in Axim.

1932: He took up a teaching appoint at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Amissano in Elmina.

1935: He gained admission to Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, USA.

1939: He was awarded with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology.

1942: He was once more awarded with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology at Lincoln University

1943: He further pursued a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Art programme in Philosophy and completed these programmes in 1945.

1945: He was adjudged the Most Outstanding Professor of the Year by the Lincolnian.

1945: He left the USA for the UK with the sole aim of reading Law and to complete his thesis for a Doctoral Degree. In the UK [London] Kwame Nkrumah came into contact with George Padmore. Nkrumah and Padmore were subsequently appointed as joint Political Secretaries to aid in the promotion and organization of the Sixth Pan African Congress in Manchester, UK

1947: On the counsel of Dr. Ebenezer Ako Adjei, George Alfred Kaku Nwonda Ekyi Grant provided passage money of one hundred pound sterling to Kwame Nkrumah to return to the Gold Coast to take up an appointment as the General Secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention [UGCC].

1948: Kwame Nkrumah together with five other Central Committee Members of the United Gold Coast Convention [UGCC] was arrested and detained following the Riots and Disturbances of February 28. They later came to known and referred to as the BIG SIX.

1949: Kwame Nkrumah broke away from the UGCC and formed the Convention People’s Party [CPP] on June 12.

1950: On January 8, Kwame Nkrumah declared Positive Action, the corollary was that he was arrested and detained by the British administrators in the Gold Coast.

1951: Kwame Nkrumah contested and won an Election whilst in prison with a vote of 22,780 from a total ballot cast of 23,122 to win the Accra Central Seat, now known as the Odododiodioo Constituency in the Greater Accra Region. He was subsequently released from prison to become the Leader of Government Business.

1956: Kwame Nkrumah contested and won an Election on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party [CPP] that led to the Gold Coast’s political liberation.

1957: On March 6, Kwame Nkrumah declared the then Gold Coast as an independent state with the new nomenclature Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah was hailed as Osagyefo which literally means the REDEEMER.

1958: Kwame Nkrumah got married to Helena Ritz Fathia, a relative of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The union was blessed with three children namely Gorke, Samia Yaaba [2016 CPP Parliamentary Candidate of Jomoro Constituency] and Sekou.

1959: In November, the All-African Trade Union Federation met to co-ordinate the African Labour Movement

1960: On July 1, Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana as a Republic.

1961: Kwame Nkrumah extended the Ghana-Guinea Union of 1958 to include Mali under the Presidency of Modibo Keita to become Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union.

1962: There was an assassination attempt on the life of Kwame Nkrumah at Kulungugu in the Northern Region of Ghana.

1963: Kwame Nkrumah’s Organization of African Unity [OAU] now African Union [AU] was inaugurated with a conference attended by thirty-two [32] independent African countries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s National capital city.

1964: With the other political parties disbanded by Parliament except the CPP, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became the Life President and the CPP was to be the only political force in Ghana.

1966: On February 24, Kwame Nkrumah was ousted in a joint military and police coup d’état whilst on a trip to Hanoi in North Vietnam. He stayed in Conakry, the Guinean National Capital city as Co-President with President Sekou Toure.

1972: On April 27, Kwame Nkrumah passed away in Bucharest the Romanian National Capital at the age of Sixty-two [62].

1972: On May 13 and 14, Sekou Toure and Guinea organized an elaborate Final Funeral Rites in Conakry for a comrade, an educationist, a liberator, a writer, a philosopher, a socialist, a motivational speaker, the visionary, a true Pan Africanist, an astute politician and a legendary statesman, the late Kwame Nkrumah.

1972: On July 7, upon an appeal from General Ignatius kutu Acheampong, Kwame Nkrumah’s mortal remains was flown to Ghana and re-interred in Nkroful, the Original birthplace of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah at the very spot he was born.

1992: On July 1, under the leadership of Flt. Lt. John Jeremiah Rawlings, Kwame Nkrumah’s body was re-interred at the very scene where he declared Ghana as an emancipated country at the current Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in the National Capital of Ghana, Accra.

In his lifetime, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah authored so many literature and the collections include the following;

1947: Towards Colonial Freedom

1957: Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah

1963: Africa Must Unite

1963: African Personality

1965: Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

1967: Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah

1967: Challenge of the Congo

1967: African Socialism Revisited

1968: Dark Days in Ghana

1968: Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare

1970: Consciencism: Philosophy and ideology for De-Colonization

1970: Rhodesia File

1970: Class Struggle in Africa

1973: The Struggle Continues

1973: I speak of Freedom

1973: Revolutionary Path

As the First Ghanaian President, Kwame Nkrumah chalked extraordinary successes in infrastructural projects and his accomplishments are monumental and most of these projects include:

Tema Township/Metropolis

Tema Motorway

Tema Harbour

Akosombo Dam

Peduase Lodge (Presidential Retreat)

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH)

Adomi Bridge

University of Cape Coast

Asuatuare Sugar Factory

Kumasi Shoe Factory, etc.

A number of Universities around the World decorated Kwame Nkrumah with honorary doctorate degrees and some of them include Lincoln University [USA], Moscow State University [Russia], Cairo University [Egypt], Jagellonian University in Krakow [Poland] and Humboldt University, in Berlin, [Germany].

In 2009, His Excellency Professor John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills of blessed memory declared September 21, the 100th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah’s birth to be the Founder’s Day, and was to be observed as a statutory holiday to commemorate the life, works and legacy Kwame Nkrumah.

Kwame Nkrumah has perfectly immortalized his name in gold in the political compendium of the World. Kwame Nkrumah is undoubtedly, a reputable institution; the present and future leaders must always strive to learn from and aspire to be. Indeed the World must eternally be grateful to the words, works and worth of Kwame Nkrumah.

Happy Birthday to you, Osagyefo Dr. Francis Nwia Kwame Nkrumah!!!!

COMPILED BY:

KOAME ADONLE MIEZA

GENERAL SECRETARY/ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER

KARELA UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB

00233 20 62 36 808