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Kwame Nkrumah’s quest for Pan Africanism: from independence leader to deposed despot
Lawson, Autumn Anne
Lawson, Autumn Anne
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2010-12
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Electronic dissertations
Electronic dissertations
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Abstract
On February 12, 1951, Francis Nwia-Kofi “Kwame” Nkrumah walked out of James Fort
Prison to become the first Prime Minister of the Gold Coast. After a landslide election, Nkrumah
and his Convention People’s Party (CPP) sought to end British imperial rule in the Gold Coast
and create a socialist Pan African union on the continent. In six years the highly educated and
charismatic Nkrumah gained independence for the Gold Coast, which he promptly renamed
Ghana, on March 6, 1957. Both Nkrumah and Ghana entered independence with a great deal of
potential and possibility for success. However, Nkrumah’s desire for a United States of Africa
became an obsession that prevented the leader from attending to Ghana’s crucial economic and
development needs. As national opposition to Nkrumah’s leadership rose, he responded with
oppressive laws and increased centralized authority over the people who came to view Nkrumah
more as an egotistical dictator than a savior.
The majority of the literature surrounding the biography and legacy of Kwame Nkrumah
focuses on the leader’s shortcomings in an attempt to negate Nkrumah’s early accomplishments.
This work explores Nkrumah’s legacy from a middle ground perspective by examining how
Nkrumah successfully introduced Pan Africanism to Ghana and fought for the potential of
African unity. The composition also demonstrates how Nkrumah’s intoxication with his own
image and clear decline into dictatorship shattered his dreams of a United States of Africa.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History.
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Wichita State University
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Copyright Autumn Anne Lawson, 2010. All rights reserved