Ghana History - Kwame Nkrumah
Ghana was declared a republic in 1960 and Nkrumah elected its first president. Nkrumah saw Ghana as the "Star of Black Africa." He believed that Ghana should lead the effort to free- Africa from the shackles of Western colonialism and envisioned a union of independent African states that would command respect in the world. Nkrumah also helped found the Non-Aligned Movement, a grouping of world states that attempted to pursue policies independent of East and West. His ideas about African unity proved immensely appealing in the late 1950s and early 1960s; indeed, the Pan-Africanist dream still resonates across Africa.
Initially, the country was the world's biggest exporter of cocoa but lacked plant and machinery for the industrial processing of its natural resources. Nkrumah found numerous state-run companies, launched the construction of a huge dam for the generation of hydroelectric power, built schools and universities and backed liberation movements in African colonies that had yet to achieve independence.
After independence, the CPP government under Nkrumah sought to develop Ghana as a modern, semi-industrialized, unitary socialist state. The government emphasized political and economic organization, endeavoring to increase stability and productivity through labor, youth, farmers, cooperatives, and other organizations integrated with the CPP. The government, according to Nkrumah, acted only as "the agent of the CPP" in seeking to accomplish these goals.
When Ghana gained independence from Britain in 1957, Nkrumah was cheered on by masses of his supporters. "At long last, the battle has ended. Ghana, our beloved country is free forever," Nkrumah declared to chants of "Viva" from the crowd.
In the first years after independece, his government started an ambitious economic program aimed at industrializing the country which heavily depended on agriculture. The Volta River hydropower project is still a main electricity provider in Ghana. But many other projects have failed and the large state-owned enterprises he created amassed huge debts due to corruption and mismanagement.
Ghana's public also soon saw the other side of the firebrand politican who had so strongly advocated for freedom. Nkrumah's pursuit of Pan-Africanism proved expensive and ultimately futile, and it partially accounts for the economic problems that Ghana encountered during the early 1960s. More important, however, were Nkrumah's domestic policies. He believed in centralization, both political and economic. Constitutional safeguards against authoritarianism were abolished, political opposition was stifled, and, shortly after the 1960 elections, Nkrumah was declared president for life.
Nkruma's rule became increasingly authoritarian. In 1964, he turned Ghana into a one-party state and later declared himself president for life. Some 10,000 Ghanaians, many of them members of the countrie's elite, sought refuge abroad. With the economy in free fall, simmering anger at his rule was growing. His government was finally toppled by soldiers while he was on a trip to China in 1966.
The CPP's control was challenged and criticized, and Prime Minister Nkrumah used the Preventive Detention Act (1958), which provided for detention without trial for up to 5 years (later extended to 10 years). On July 1, 1960, a new constitution was adopted, changing Ghana from a parliamentary system with a prime minister to a republican form of government headed by a powerful president. In August 1960, Nkrumah was given authority to scrutinize newspapers and other publications before publication. This political evolution continued into early 1964, when a constitutional referendum changed the country to a one-party state.
Nkrumah, who described himself as a socialist and a Marxist, campaigned tirelessly for his vision of a united Africa with a single parliament. "Unlike many other African heads of state, Nkrumah's primary concern really was the good of the nation," German political scientist Christian Kohrs later said. Ghanaians, in particular the poor and underprivileged, revered Nkrumah as a messiah. They wrote hymns and prayers praising him. Politics was his life, he neither smoked, nor drank. Asked in an interview what he did in order to relax, he replied that he worked.
Yet despite his popularity, Nkrumah was a lonely, suspicious and increasingly embittered man. In a letter written to his British secretary Erica Powell in 1965, he said: "I suffer from intense loneliness which makes me sometimes burst into tears. (...) Did I ever tell you that I married not for myself but for the presidency?"
His style of government turned increasingly authoritarian. In 1961, one year after independence, he introduced legislation which allowed the government to send people to prison for five years without trial.
Being disrespectful of the president became a criminal offence. Nkrumah controlled the media and his party's influence extended into almost all civil society organizations. Nkrumah turned Ghana into a one-party state in 1964.
The country's economic problems multiplied. Most of the 50 state-run companies were poorly managed and lost money. Many of Nkrumah's pet projects were huge buildings built to boost national prestige. They were hardly ever used. In Accra, he built a vast conference complex which was to be the seat of a future government of African unity. But in 1963, the newly-founded Organization of African Unity (OAU), precursor to the African Union, rejected Nkrumah's visions of pan-Africanism. The first AOU summit was held in Addis Abba, Ethiopia, not in Accra.
On 24 February, 1966, Ghana's military staged a coup while Nkruma was on a state visit to China. The coup plotters had the backing of the United States. Jubilant crowds greeted the soldiers on the streets of Accra. Nkrumah was granted asylum in Guinea where he was appointed co-president. He died in the Romanian capital Bucharest while being treated for cancer in 1972.
Kwame Nkrumah's name remains popular with many people in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2004, the "New African" magazine asked its readers to choose the greatest Africans of all times. Nkrumah came in second behind South Africa's former president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. Nkrumah was greatly influenced by the concept of pan-Africanism during his stay in the United States. He was one of the continent's most influential political leaders at his time.
Nkrumah's political outfit, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), which he established in 1949, now plays only a minor role in Ghana's political arena. His politics contributed to the fact that Ghana remains a largely stable country. It never disintegrated into civil strife like many of its neighbors, despite a series of military take-overs in the 1970s and 1980s. "His legacy is the nationalism and patrotism he brought in when he was in power," the University of Ghana's Atsu Aryee said in 2017. "This sense of that we are all Ghanaians, that we have one country and that the country must be stable."
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