Kwame Nkrumah

From Philosopedia

Nkrumah, Kwame (21 September 1909 - 27 April 1972)

Nkrumah, who was born in Nkroful, Gold Coast (now Ghana), was educated at Achimota School, Accra, and the Roman Catholic Seminary. He taught at the Catholic school in Axim.

In 1935 he left Africa for the America, receiving in 1939 a BA from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. He also earned a Master of Science in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and a Master of Arts in philosophy the following year. While lecturing in political science at Lincoln he was elected president of the African Students Organization of America and Canada.

During his time in the United States, Nkrumah visited and preached in black Presbyterian Churches in Philadelphia and New York City. He read books about politics and divinity. He encountered the ideas of Marcus Garvey. He also tutored other students in philosophy.

He arrived in London in 1945 intending to study at the London School of Economics, but following a meeting with George Padmore he helped to organize the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England. After that he began to work for the decolonization of Africa and became Vice-President of the West African Students Union. He has been called the most influential Pan-Africanist of the 20th century.

Later, he was awarded honorary doctorates by Lincoln University; Moscow State University; Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt; Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland; and Humboldt University in the former East Berlin.

Winning a 1960 election in the Gold Coast, he became the first President of Ghana. In 1962, the Soviet Union awarded him the Lenin Peace Prize.

While Ghana’s president (1960 to 1966), he wrote Consciencism (1964), in which he outlined what he called a humanistic philosophy.

However, in 1964 Ghana was declared a one-party state and he became its Life President. Serious political and economic problems led to unrest, and although he was committed to the country's industrial development, he borrowed money to construct a hydroelectric power plant on the Volta River in the northern part of Ghana. Cocoa farmers in the south complained that their part of the country was being unfairly taxed and regional differences increased.

While on a trip to Peking in 1966, his government was overthrown in what allegedly was an American Counter Intelligence Agency (CIA) coup, and he took refuge in Guinea, becoming the guest of Sekou Toure, who made him honorary co-president of Guinea. His final years were spent in fearing foreign agents planned to kill him or that he would be abducted or assassinated. Flown in 1971 to Bucharest, Romania, for medical treatment, he died the following year of skin cancer.

Influence

As president of the new nation, Nkrumah initiated a process of nation-building in which his use of Christianity was central, according to political theorists who follow Antonio Gramsci, the onetime leader of Italy's Communist Party. Gramsci favored the concept of cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining the state in a capitalist society. Gramscians hold that Nkrumah was a non-denominational Christian as well as a Marxist socialist. They hold that in some respects Nkrumah used Christianity in a way that confirms Gramsci; however, in others he employed the Judeo-Christian faith in a manner that informs the ideas of the Italian Marxist.

A nominal Catholic, he was a radical and Pan-Africanist who was vilified in life but in death, according to Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, has been vindicated and many of his ideas are only now in 2007 coming to fruition.

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