Kwame Nkrumah was born on 21 September 1909 at the village of Nkroful in the Gold Coast now modern Ghana, during the birth and childhood of Kwame the Gold Coast was under British colonial rule .Nkrumah grew up and was educated at catholic mission due to his outstanding intellectual capacity he rose through academic ranks and eventually qualified to be a teacher and later headmaster .During his tenure as headmaster at Roman Catholic junior school at Amissano ,Nkurumah developed a abiding interest in his country s past this was latter instigated by the Pan Africanist ideologies he received during his studies abroad , Nkurumah obtained a scholarship to go and further his studies in America it was during his studies in America that Kwame was equipped with the ideals of Pan Africanism and Africa s past According to Y Smertin during the the duration of his studies in USA he devoted a good time to the study of Africa s past .In 1947 he returned to the gold Coast heavily armed with the anti-colonial forces of Pan Africanism and nationalism respectively he joined the newly formed GOLD COAST CONVENTION PARTY and proved his gifts of Oratory he lead successful strikes and preached Pan Africanism ,this lead to his arrest and he was later released in February 1949 Upon release he formed the Convention People Party CPP .AS leader of the CPP he proved his eloquence and forced the colonialists to grant the gold coast independence on March 6 1957 Kwame becoming the first Prime minister of the first independent African state .
The analysis from a 21st century perspective
Upon becoming the first Prime minister of the first independent African state the international community especially the west had an expectation on Kurumah s leadership. They expected him to fail rather to prove a point that black majority rule was a failure since most African states were still under colonial rule ‘ . Rather Nkurumah embarked on Major economic advanced policies for Ghana and Africa as a whole .It is well said that Kwame is one of the founding fathers of African history as a discipline this shows the Passionate man who loved his continent to such an extent of going against the Eurocentric perspective of that time which suggested that Africa had no history ,moreover the founding of African history by Nkurumah bought about a new thinking of Black emancipation which has lasted to this decade . Nkurumah was the brainchild of the formation of the Organisation of African union OAU ,hence he fosterd everlasting unity and co-operation in the African continent which has lasted till to date in his own words he said Africa must unite .If his dream of a united states of Africa was not mistakenly interpreted Africa today would have been steps ahead other continent’s .in his home country he was mistaken to be a dictator when he was rather implementing an African form of government which involves only the control of one central party On a concluding remark it can be noted that a great African lived amongst us who implemented ideas that can never get outdated due to the fact that they address the problems of Africa
About Writer
Itayi Mudavanhu is an undergraduate candidate in the Department of History at the University of Zimbabwe studying B. A. Honours in History.
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