Nkrumah

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A prominent Ghanaian leader who played a significant role in the country's independence and was its first Prime Minister and President
2. An influential figure in African politics, known for advocating for Pan-Africanism and anti-colonialism during the mid-20th century
3. A key political personality credited with shaping modern Ghana's identity and promoting socialist policies in the newly independent nation

Etymology: Kwame Nkrumah was born in 1909 in Nkroful, in the British Gold Coast. After organising the Convention People's Party in 1949 to press for self-government, he led the colony to independence on 6 March 1957. It took the name Ghana, though the medieval West African empire of that name lay hundreds of miles north, in what is now Mali and Mauritania. The choice was a deliberate claim to a great African past. As Ghana's first president from 1960, he pursued state-led industrialisation, socialist economic planning and pan-African unity. He was overthrown in a military coup in 1966 while travelling abroad, and he died in exile in Romania in 1972.