The first African leader to defeat colonialism and lead his people to independence
The African Formation
Kwame Nkrumah grew up under in a village under British rule. His papa worked in the city so he was raised by strong African women. Kwame would have lived a simple life, but a German priest and British vicar who ran the local schools saw his potential and encouraged Kwame in academic pursuits.
Just one problem G.
The White folk running education (the “good” ones) taught that Black and White should work together in support of the British colony. But Black Christian missionaries at those schools were spreading Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, preaching Black self-determination.
You can guess which got young Kwame interested.
A chance to meet Nnamdi Azikiwe (then just a journalist) led Kwame to commit to Black Nationalism. Nnamdi encouraged Kwame to further his education at an HBCU in America. So at 23 he left for the States.
The Social Education
Kwame spent a decade in America and picked up three degrees, but profs noted he was not interested in his schoolwork. Kwame was there to study freedom. He wanted to find the key to lead his people to independence, so he embedded himself among Harlem’s activists and ate up the writings of DuBois, Garvey, Marx, and Gandhi. Through careful study and reflection Kwame became a socialist as well as an avid pan-African.
White Supremacy was already starting to get concerned. The FBI opened a file on Kwame and like Paul Robeson and MLK he was ID’d as a potential communist.
In 1945 Kwame Nkrumah and Greg Padmore organized the Fifth Pan-Africanist Congress, supported by a host of Black excellence including W.E.B. DuBois, Jomo Kenyatta, Soyemi Coker, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, M.I. Faro and Amy Garvey. There the delegates discussed Gandhi’s nonviolent activism and endorsed it as “the only effective means of making alien rulers respect the wishes of an unarmed subject people”
The Positive Action
When Kwame returned to the Gold Coast (the British name for Ghana) he created a sensation. The independence movement had been populated by professionals, disconnected from the people. Their motto was “Self-government within the shortest possible time.” Kwame was passionate to broaden the movement to all Ghanians and brought effective Gandhian strategies as the means to make it work.
He insisted that they change the motto to “Self-government NOW.”
White Supremacy was watching.
In addition to the FBI, MI5 began building a file.
Kwame was an effective organizer in the towns and countryside. But just two months after he arrived, rioting occurred when several ex-servicemen were killed by British-directed soldiers during a protest march. Kwame and five other leaders (the “Big Six”) were immediately arrested and accused of being communists.
The colonizers meant to intimidate, but it didn't do shyt to slow him down. Immediately upon release Kwame formed a political youth movement, a newspaper, and a college. His insistence on immediate independence distanced him from the other leaders, and he formed his own party.
In June 1949, just 1.5 years after he had arrived in Ghana and a year after Gandhi had won India's independence, Kwame announced a Gandhian “Positive Action Campaign” to force the British to give up the Gold Coast and return rule to the African people. He created a pamphlet for the people,
“What I Mean by Positive Action.”
In December 1949 Kwame declared that the time for Positive Action had come and used newspaper articles and rallies to prepare the people. The Colonizers responded with repression, jailing Kwame and most of the other party members as well as the newspaper editors.
When the arrests did nothing whatsoever to dissuade the people, Britain realized they were fukked.
The colonial government attempted to back off, released Kwame and tried to negotiate. They falsely announced that the Positive Action had been called off. Kwame knew they were shook and the time was at hand.
On 8th January 1950, Kwame declared Positive Action Day. All Ghanians except those working for the hospitals, police, and utilities were to go on strike. For the second time in its history, the British Empire was faced with full-on nonviolent resistance.
Unfortunately the action did not remain fully nonviolent. On the tenth day of the strike ex-servicemen again clashed with government forces, and two police officers were killed. That gave the colonialists an excuse to arrest all party members including Kwame, charging them with instigating riots and sedition. Kwame was sentenced to 3 years in prison and locked up with common criminals in Fort James.
White Supremacy ain’t so smart. He was ready for that shyt.
Kwame directed the independence movement from prison, writing instructions on toilet paper which was then smuggled out to his assistant, who ran the party in his absence. The British announced new elections in an attempt to compromise with the people, and after discussing a boycott Kwame and the party chose to instead to prove their power.
In February 1951, Kwame’s Convention People's Party swept to victory winning 34 of 38 seats. Kwame himself won 98.5% of the vote in his district. The embarrassed colonial rulers saw that their case was hopeless, released Kwame and gave him permission to form a government. He was given the position “Leader of Government Business”, a title that otherwise could only be filled by a White man.
The National Liberation
Kwame and the Ghanian people were still only running government under British rule. The MI5 tapped Kwame’s phones and intercepted his mail, trying to figure out how to disrupt his movement.
But the power of complete public support was too much. Britain didn’t have the manpower to suppress the unanimous will of the people, and Kwame had shown that he could call the entire nation to his cause if necessary. They admitted defeat, and just five years after attaining office, Kwame negotiated Ghana’s full independence from British rule.
Black Americans were hugely supportive of the first African country to gain freedom from colonialism. Ralph Bunche attended Ghana’s independence ceremony as the UN delegate. Martin Luther King and Coretta came as Kwame’s personal guests. Bill Sutherland and Bayard Rustin met with Kwame to speak on how to further the struggle, a direct parallel to what he had done in America just a few years earlier. King stated in a sermon, ‘‘It reminds us of the fact that a nation or a people can break loose from oppression without violence’’.
Kwame returned the admiration. A month later after King had returned to the States, Kwame sent him a message of support.
The Capitalist Reaction
While governing Ghana Kwame continued the fight for Black independence everywhere. At the Positive Action Conference for Peace and Security in Africa, he said:
White Supremacy was still watching.
Missteps by Kwame, the consolidation of power under his hands alone and jailing of political opponents, contributed to an environment that allowed his support to diminish among other power brokers and the public. In 1966, while Kwame was on an official state visit to North Vietnam and China, his government was overthrown in a violent military coup sponsored by the CIA. After the coup the military government dropped Kwame’s socialist orientation, aligned itself with the West, and invited the IMF and World Bank to come in and play a role in the economy.
Kwame was taken in by Guinea and named honorary co-president. From there he continued to write and fight for African unity. In 1972 he died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. He had not once stepped foot in his country since the coup.
50 years later, the US State Department’s Office of the Historian released internal documents stating:
"Nkrumah was doing more to undermine U.S. government interests than any other black African."
The African Formation
Kwame Nkrumah grew up under in a village under British rule. His papa worked in the city so he was raised by strong African women. Kwame would have lived a simple life, but a German priest and British vicar who ran the local schools saw his potential and encouraged Kwame in academic pursuits.
Just one problem G.
The White folk running education (the “good” ones) taught that Black and White should work together in support of the British colony. But Black Christian missionaries at those schools were spreading Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois, preaching Black self-determination.
You can guess which got young Kwame interested.
A chance to meet Nnamdi Azikiwe (then just a journalist) led Kwame to commit to Black Nationalism. Nnamdi encouraged Kwame to further his education at an HBCU in America. So at 23 he left for the States.
The Social Education
Kwame spent a decade in America and picked up three degrees, but profs noted he was not interested in his schoolwork. Kwame was there to study freedom. He wanted to find the key to lead his people to independence, so he embedded himself among Harlem’s activists and ate up the writings of DuBois, Garvey, Marx, and Gandhi. Through careful study and reflection Kwame became a socialist as well as an avid pan-African.
White Supremacy was already starting to get concerned. The FBI opened a file on Kwame and like Paul Robeson and MLK he was ID’d as a potential communist.
In 1945 Kwame Nkrumah and Greg Padmore organized the Fifth Pan-Africanist Congress, supported by a host of Black excellence including W.E.B. DuBois, Jomo Kenyatta, Soyemi Coker, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, M.I. Faro and Amy Garvey. There the delegates discussed Gandhi’s nonviolent activism and endorsed it as “the only effective means of making alien rulers respect the wishes of an unarmed subject people”
The Positive Action
When Kwame returned to the Gold Coast (the British name for Ghana) he created a sensation. The independence movement had been populated by professionals, disconnected from the people. Their motto was “Self-government within the shortest possible time.” Kwame was passionate to broaden the movement to all Ghanians and brought effective Gandhian strategies as the means to make it work.
He insisted that they change the motto to “Self-government NOW.”
White Supremacy was watching.
In addition to the FBI, MI5 began building a file.Kwame was an effective organizer in the towns and countryside. But just two months after he arrived, rioting occurred when several ex-servicemen were killed by British-directed soldiers during a protest march. Kwame and five other leaders (the “Big Six”) were immediately arrested and accused of being communists.
The colonizers meant to intimidate, but it didn't do shyt to slow him down. Immediately upon release Kwame formed a political youth movement, a newspaper, and a college. His insistence on immediate independence distanced him from the other leaders, and he formed his own party.
In June 1949, just 1.5 years after he had arrived in Ghana and a year after Gandhi had won India's independence, Kwame announced a Gandhian “Positive Action Campaign” to force the British to give up the Gold Coast and return rule to the African people. He created a pamphlet for the people,
“What I Mean by Positive Action.”
In December 1949 Kwame declared that the time for Positive Action had come and used newspaper articles and rallies to prepare the people. The Colonizers responded with repression, jailing Kwame and most of the other party members as well as the newspaper editors.
When the arrests did nothing whatsoever to dissuade the people, Britain realized they were fukked.
The colonial government attempted to back off, released Kwame and tried to negotiate. They falsely announced that the Positive Action had been called off. Kwame knew they were shook and the time was at hand.
On 8th January 1950, Kwame declared Positive Action Day. All Ghanians except those working for the hospitals, police, and utilities were to go on strike. For the second time in its history, the British Empire was faced with full-on nonviolent resistance.
Unfortunately the action did not remain fully nonviolent. On the tenth day of the strike ex-servicemen again clashed with government forces, and two police officers were killed. That gave the colonialists an excuse to arrest all party members including Kwame, charging them with instigating riots and sedition. Kwame was sentenced to 3 years in prison and locked up with common criminals in Fort James.
White Supremacy ain’t so smart. He was ready for that shyt.
Kwame directed the independence movement from prison, writing instructions on toilet paper which was then smuggled out to his assistant, who ran the party in his absence. The British announced new elections in an attempt to compromise with the people, and after discussing a boycott Kwame and the party chose to instead to prove their power.
In February 1951, Kwame’s Convention People's Party swept to victory winning 34 of 38 seats. Kwame himself won 98.5% of the vote in his district. The embarrassed colonial rulers saw that their case was hopeless, released Kwame and gave him permission to form a government. He was given the position “Leader of Government Business”, a title that otherwise could only be filled by a White man.
The National Liberation
Kwame and the Ghanian people were still only running government under British rule. The MI5 tapped Kwame’s phones and intercepted his mail, trying to figure out how to disrupt his movement.
But the power of complete public support was too much. Britain didn’t have the manpower to suppress the unanimous will of the people, and Kwame had shown that he could call the entire nation to his cause if necessary. They admitted defeat, and just five years after attaining office, Kwame negotiated Ghana’s full independence from British rule.
Black Americans were hugely supportive of the first African country to gain freedom from colonialism. Ralph Bunche attended Ghana’s independence ceremony as the UN delegate. Martin Luther King and Coretta came as Kwame’s personal guests. Bill Sutherland and Bayard Rustin met with Kwame to speak on how to further the struggle, a direct parallel to what he had done in America just a few years earlier. King stated in a sermon, ‘‘It reminds us of the fact that a nation or a people can break loose from oppression without violence’’.
Kwame returned the admiration. A month later after King had returned to the States, Kwame sent him a message of support.
The Capitalist Reaction
While governing Ghana Kwame continued the fight for Black independence everywhere. At the Positive Action Conference for Peace and Security in Africa, he said:
White Supremacy was still watching.
Missteps by Kwame, the consolidation of power under his hands alone and jailing of political opponents, contributed to an environment that allowed his support to diminish among other power brokers and the public. In 1966, while Kwame was on an official state visit to North Vietnam and China, his government was overthrown in a violent military coup sponsored by the CIA. After the coup the military government dropped Kwame’s socialist orientation, aligned itself with the West, and invited the IMF and World Bank to come in and play a role in the economy.
Kwame was taken in by Guinea and named honorary co-president. From there he continued to write and fight for African unity. In 1972 he died of prostate cancer at the age of 62. He had not once stepped foot in his country since the coup.
50 years later, the US State Department’s Office of the Historian released internal documents stating:
"Nkrumah was doing more to undermine U.S. government interests than any other black African."
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