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Kwame Nkrumah
Historical figureGhana1909-1972

Kwame Nkrumah

President of Ghana (1960-1966) · Prime Minister of the Gold Coast and Ghana (1952-1960)

Leader of Ghana's drive for independence and its first president, who pushed African unity and scientific socialism, then built a one-party state before soldiers removed him in 1966.

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Profile on 12 axes10 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stood

Kwame Nkrumah, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership-70
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets-70
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare-50
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority+75
    DemocraticStrong leader

    Elections took Ghana to independence, but he went on to use detention without trial from 1958 and set up a one-party state in 1964 with himself as president for life.

  5. 05Security+65
    LibertyOrder
  6. 06Structure+70
    LocalCentral
  7. 07MoralityNo clear record
    ProgressiveTraditional

    The sources used record no stand on social or moral questions, so the axis is left null.

  8. 08ReligionNo clear record
    SecularReligious
  9. 09Technology-50
    EmbraceCaution

    Big industrial and energy projects, above all the Akosombo dam, were the core of his development plan. The score leans toward embracing technology.

  10. 10Culture+30
    MulticulturalNational identity

    He outlawed tribal parties and flags so as to build one national identity. The score leans only mildly to national identity, since his larger aim was pan-African, not ethnic.

  11. 11Trade+45
    GlobalProtected
  12. 12Foreign policy-50
    CooperationStrength

    He championed a union of African states, the Organisation of African Unity and the Non-Aligned Movement, which puts him toward cooperation.

2 axes have no clear record, so matching leaves them out.

Who was Kwame Nkrumah?

The Gold Coast village of Nkroful was Kwame Nkrumah's birthplace, in 1909. He studied in the United States and then spent time in London. In 1949 he started his own party, the Convention People's Party, and three years later he was running the colonial government as prime minister. Ghana became independent under him in 1957, one of the first African countries to break free. As president from 1960 he paid for state industry and the Volta River dam, while his rule grew harsher. Soldiers overthrew him in 1966 as he traveled abroad. He spent his last years in exile in Guinea and died in Bucharest in 1972.

Political views

  • He believed African problems needed African answers, and that the continent would only be strong under one political union.Source: marxists.org
  • He wanted the continent's mineral wealth and water power developed by joint planning across Africa, not handed over to foreign investors.Source: marxists.org
  • He warned that a country could be independent on paper while outsiders still controlled its economy, and he named this neo-colonialism.Source: marxists.org
  • He denied that traditional Africa had been free of classes, and he called for the main means of production to be owned in common, following scientific socialism.Source: marxists.org
  • The 1958 Preventive Detention Act allowed the state to hold people without trial for as long as five years.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • By the official count of a 1964 referendum, 99.91 percent voted to make the Convention People's Party the sole legal party.Source: en.wikipedia.org

Legacy

Many people honor Nkrumah as a giant of African freedom and pan-Africanism. Listeners to the BBC World Service picked him as Africa's Man of the Millennium in 2000. Admirers point to more schools, big projects like the Akosombo dam, and his part in creating the Organisation of African Unity. Critics start with the Preventive Detention Act, which his biographer David Birmingham thought did more harm to his name than anything else. They add the one-party state, a 1964 referendum that was plainly rigged, and a personality cult built on the title Osagyefo. Heavy borrowing, steep levies on cocoa growers and a crash in cocoa prices left Ghana indebted and cost him rural support. Claims that the CIA took part in the 1966 coup have never been fully verified.

In their own words

“Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.”
I Speak of Freedom, 1961

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Kwame Nkrumah: questions

Was Kwame Nkrumah a socialist?

Yes. He called for scientific socialism and for common ownership of the main means of production. He also argued that Africa's economies had to be planned across the continent, not left to foreign investors.

How did Nkrumah define neo-colonialism?

He used the word for a country that is formally independent while outside powers still steer its economy and so its policy. He developed the idea in his 1965 book.

Why was Kwame Nkrumah overthrown?

In February 1966 the National Liberation Council, made up of army and police officers, took power while he was abroad. Debt, a weak economy and anger at one-party rule lay behind the coup.

Sources