By Edward Acquah, GNA
Accra, Sept. 21, GNA – Ghanaians and Pan-Africans worldwide are commemorating the 117th birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, with renewed calls to examine and apply his development ideas to address contemporary challenges.
The occasion, observed as Founder’s Day, is a statutory public holiday following Parliament’s restoration of September 21 as Founder’s Day on 25th June 2025.
The commemoration offers an opportunity to reflect on Dr Nkrumah’s contribution to Ghana’s independence, nation-building and the Pan-African movement, while examining the relevance of his ideas to Africa’s development.
Professor Samuel Ntewusu, Director of African Studies at the University of Ghana, said the significance of Nkrumah’s legacy should be assessed beyond political affiliations and contemporary partisan debates.
He urged political parties and citizens to critically examine Nkrumah’s policies and identify ways to apply relevant aspects to Ghana’s development and the advancement of Africa.
“Celebration is not an event,” Prof Ntewusu said, arguing that the true measure of honouring Nkrumah lay in the extent to which his development ideas and policies were studied and applied.
Born on September 21, 1909, at Nkroful in the then Gold Coast, Dr Nkrumah trained as a teacher before travelling to the United States in 1935 for further studies.
He later moved to Britain, where he helped organise the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945, an important gathering in the struggle against colonialism and racial discrimination.
Dr Nkrumah returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 and became actively involved in the independence movement.
In 1949, he formed the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and launched the “Positive Action” campaign, mobilising workers and citizens around the demand for self-government.
Following the CPP’s victory in the 1951 elections, Dr Nkrumah became Leader of Government Business and subsequently Prime Minister in 1952.
Under his leadership, the Gold Coast attained independence from Britain on March 6, 1957, becoming Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from colonial rule.
He became the country’s first Prime Minister and, following the establishment of the republic in 1960, its first President.
His administration pursued an ambitious programme of education, industrialisation, infrastructure development and social transformation, including investments in roads, schools, health facilities and energy.
The Akosombo Dam and the Volta River project became enduring symbols of that development agenda.
Beyond Ghana, Dr Nkrumah was a leading advocate of Pan-Africanism and played a key role in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, the precursor to the African Union (AU).
He maintained that Ghana’s independence was inseparable from the liberation and advancement of the wider African continent.
Prof Ntewusu said Ghana’s political identity was “directly linked to the persona of Kwame Nkrumah”, acknowledging that although several individuals contributed to the independence struggle, Nkrumah’s strategies were central to its success.
He said the commemoration should extend beyond ceremonies to a critical examination of how Nkrumah’s ideas could inform present-day development policies.
Prof Ntewusu identified economic independence, natural resource extraction, education, urbanisation, agriculture and energy as areas in which Nkrumah’s thinking continued to merit attention.
He also urged stakeholders to consider Nkrumah’s ideas on African unity and liberation in the context of contemporary challenges facing the continent.
“I think that as we celebrate Nkrumah, all parties, all parties, I don’t care anybody of any political persuasion, let’s put that aside, look at Nkrumah’s policies critically and see the way in which we are able to mine some of his policies for the betterment of this country and then global Africa,” he said.
In 2000, listeners of the BBC World Service voted Dr Nkrumah the “African Man of the Millennium”, reflecting his continuing international recognition for his role in Africa’s independence and liberation struggles.
He founded the Ghana News Agency on the eve of Ghana’s independence to help tell the African story from the African perspective, while fostering sustainable national development and social cohesion.
Kwame Nkrumah authored 15 major books and published collections of political writings and pamphlets during his lifetime and posthumously.
They include:
- Towards Colonial Freedom (1947/1962)
- Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (1957)
- I Speak of Freedom (1961)
- Africa Must Unite (1963)
- Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization (1964)
- Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965)
- Dark Days in Ghana (1968)
- Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (1968)
- Challenge of the Congo (1967)
- Class Struggle in Africa (1970)
- The Struggle Continues (1973)
- Rhodesia File (1975)
- Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah (1967)
- Voice from Conakry (1967)
- Revolutionary Path (1973 – published.
Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup on February 24, 1966, while on a state visit abroad, and spent his final years in Guinea.
He died in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27, 1972.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey / Beatrice Asamani Savage
Reporter: Edward Acquah
[email protected]