On This Day In TCXPI History – We Celebrate The Life Of Kwame Nkrumah, Former Prime Minister and President Of Ghana. At an early age, he formed an African student’s organization and became a popular speaker, advocating the liberation of Africa from European colonialism. He also promoted Pan-Africanism, a movement for cooperation between all people of African descent and for the political union of an independent Africa. In 1945 he went to London, to study economics and law. That year he helped organize the fifth Pan-African Congress, in Manchester; with black American sociologist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois, future president of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta, and American actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson. In 1946 Nkrumah left his academic studies to become secretary general of the West African National Secretariat. That same year, Nkrumah became vice president of the West African Students Union, a pro-independence organization of younger, more politically aggressive African students studying in Britain. As a proponent of Pan-Africanism, he sought the liberation of the entire continent from colonial rule, offered generous assistance to other African nationalists, and initially pursued a policy of nonalignment with the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). His goal was never realized, but his efforts helped bring about the Organization of African Unity, which promotes peace and cooperation between African nations. In 1960 Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah was elected president. #tcxpi For Further Reading: aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/kwame-nkrumah-fathered-pan-africanism pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/prof_kwamenkrumah.html
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:36:02 +0000
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