Nomad_Africa_Edition12

Kwame Nkrumah
KWAME NKRUMAH:
AN ICON OF PAN-AFRICANISM
As midnight struck on March 6, 1957, the formidable Gold Coast became
the Ghana we know today, Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah declared:
'We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity.
We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in
Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total
liberation of the African continent.'
Words: KRISTIE OMAR
retail trader for parent, Nkrumah spent nine
years at a Roman Catholic elementary
school in the area.
Dedicated to the institute of education,
Kwame managed to capture the attention
of Dr Kwegyir Aggrey, Assistant Vice-Principal
and the first African member of staff at
the then Prince of Wales’ College at Achimota,
securing him as a childhood mentor,
while looking up to him for inspiration. All
this happened, as he was pursuing his
teaching qualification at the school.
Dr Aggrey was the first African member of
the college staff and his presence at the
school did much to spark the flames of nationalism
in the young Nkrumah. After Aggrey’s
death in 1929, Nkrumah decided to
further his education in the United States of
America. Despite facing five years of financial
challenges in order to leave, he successfully
managed to leave and secure a BA
degree from Lincoln University in 1939.
He also received an STB (Bachelor of Sacred
Theology) in 1942, a Master of Science in education
from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1942, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy
the following year. During his lifetime,
Nkrumah was awarded honorary doctorthe
anticipation, fear and excitement
that the then Gold
Coast citizens had can be felt
in Kwame Nkrumah’s words
when he spoke. Ghana was
free. Free from colonialism,
ready to take on the world.
But what of the man who
had pioneered this country’s
independence, making it the first African
country to achieve independence? Who exactly
was this man commanding the attention
of millions of Ghanaians on that defining
day of March 6 1957:
‘Seeing you in this… It doesn’t matter how
far my eyes go, I can see that you are here
in your millions. And my last warning to you
is that you are to stand firm behind us so that
we can prove to the world that when the
African is given a chance, he can show the
world that he is somebody!’
We often hear of pioneers of Pan–Africanism,
its fathers and originators. It is commonly
forgotten what the original meaning
is, and the impact and necessity it has on the
continent. Pan-Africanist ideals emerged in
the late nineteenth century in response to
European colonisation and exploitation of
the African continent. These destructive beliefs
in turn gave birth to intensified forms of
racism, the likes of which Pan-Africanism
sought to eliminate.
Minkah Makalani of Rutgers University described
Pan–Africanism as:
‘…. actually reflecting a range of political
views. At a basic level, it is a belief that
African peoples, both on the African continent
and in the Diaspora, share not merely
a common history, but a common destiny.
This sense of interconnected pasts and futures
has taken many forms, especially in the
creation of political institutions.’
THE BIRTH OF AN ICON – Kwame Nkrumah
And one such great political institution that
was created was that of Ghana. The face behind
this first of its kind greatness was that
of Kwame Nkrumah. Every mother hopes
for greatness when they first hold their child
in their arms. One tends to wonder what the
simple retail trader Elizabeth Nyanibah
(Kwame Nkrumah’s mother) imagined her
son to be on the 21st of September 1909
when she gave birth to him. Born Francis
Nwia Kofi Ngonloma in Nkroful, formely
Gold Coast (now Ghana) to a goldsmith and
Issue 12 | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | www.nomadafricamag.com | 51