Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day has been celebrated in Ghana on 21 September since 2023. It commemorates the first Prime Minister and first President of Ghana, Kwame Francis Nkrumah, who was born on 21 September 1909 in Nkroful, the capital of the Ellembelle district in western Ghana. However, the legacy of the educated teacher, who graduated from several universities in the USA between 1935 and 1945 in various disciplines, is ambivalent.
Nkrumah was a driving force behind the independence of the country then known as the Gold Coast from Great Britain. As one of the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) movement founded in 1947, whose goal was independence, the Secretary-General was arrested by the British in the Gold Coast in 1948 together with five fellow campaigners, the so-called ‘Big Six’, against the backdrop of unrest. The Big Six are immortalised today on the 10,000 cedi note.
The leadership of the UGCC fell out over the goals, so that in 1949 the Convention People's Party (CPP) was finally founded, with Nkrumah as chairman of the central committee. A constitution was now drafted in the country, accompanied by strikes. The British imprisoned Nkrumah for three years, but this hardly diminished his influence. In 1952 he became Prime Minister, and in 1953 he graced the cover of an issue of ‘Time’. In 1957, the country finally gained its independence and renamed itself Ghana.
Nkrumah served as president between 1 July 1960 and 24 February 1966. As a pan-Africanist, he was also instrumental in the founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the forerunner of the African Union.
After several assassination attempts on his life, the politician, who oscillated between socialism and nationalism and sympathised with the Soviet Union, developed authoritarian and dictatorial traits. Ghana became a one-party state and Nkrumah was declared president of the country and his party for life, which was accompanied by a strong personality cult. While Nkrumah visited North Vietnam and China, a military coup - possibly with the help of the CIA - finally put an end to his regime. Nkrumah went into exile in Guinea and died under unexplained circumstances in Bucharest in 1972.
Nevertheless, Kwame Nkrumah was voted African Man of the Millennium by BBC World Service listeners in 2000 and described by the BBC as a ‘hero of independence’ and ‘an international symbol of freedom as the leader of the first black African country to shake off the chains of colonial rule’.
As Remembrance Day falls on a Saturday this year, Ghanaians have next Monday off to compensate.
All the best, Ghana!
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