On the anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah’s birth, a look at the honours, the family disputes and the authoritarian turn that shaped Ghana’s first president.
Kwame Nkrumah was born on 21 September 1909 in Nkroful, in what was then the Gold Coast. He became Ghana's first president and one of the central figures in Africa's struggle against colonial rule. More than half a century after his removal from office, his name still carries weight in Ghanaian politics and in Ghanaian homes abroad.
To mark the anniversary of his birth, Asaase Radio compiled a set of lesser-known details about his life. Here is what stands out.
Schooling and the Pan-African turn
Nkrumah studied at Achimota School before continuing his education in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was abroad that he joined the Pan-African movement, which pushed for unity among African nations and an end to colonial rule. That thinking shaped everything he did later in office.
Honorary doctorates from five universities
He collected honorary doctorates from institutions on several continents: Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Moscow State University in the then Soviet Union, Cairo University in Egypt, Jagiellonian University in Poland and Humboldt University in East Germany. The spread of countries says a good deal about where his political sympathies lay during the Cold War.
A state-building presidency
In power, Nkrumah pushed schools, hospitals and roads, and set up a national airline and a national shipping line. On the continental stage, he was one of the drivers behind the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the body created to promote cooperation among African states and the forerunner of today's African Union.
A marriage his mother-in-law did not bless
Nkrumah married Fathia Ritzk, an Egyptian Coptic bank worker and former teacher, on the evening she arrived in Ghana at the turn of 1957 into 1958. Her mother refused to bless the union, having already seen another of her children leave with a foreign husband.
The couple had three children: Gamal, born 1958, a newspaper journalist; Samia, born 1960; and Sekou, born 1964. Samia and Sekou both went into politics. Nkrumah also had a son, Francis, born 1962, who became a paediatrician. A claim by a man named Onsy Anwar Nathan Kwame Nkrumah to be his son is disputed by Nkrumah's other children.
Voted African Man of the Millennium
In 2000, listeners of the BBC World Service voted Nkrumah African Man of the Millennium. The BBC described him as a "Hero of Independence".
The one-party turn
The harder side of the record is also part of the story. His government repressed opposition and ran elections that were not free and fair. A 1964 constitutional amendment made Ghana a one-party state with Nkrumah as life president of both country and party. He took the title "Osagyefo Dr" and put his image on the currency.
Exile in Guinea
In 1966, while he was on a state visit to China, the National Liberation Council removed him in a coup. He spent the rest of his life in Guinea, where he was named honorary co-president.
