Kwame Nkrumah - The African Mirror

Sep

2023

Kwame Nkrumah: memorials to the man who led Ghana to independence have been built, erased and revived again

KWAME Nkrumah Memorial Park lies at the centre of Ghana’s capital, Accra. Recently renovated, it is dedicated to the memory of Kwame Nkrumah, the leader of Ghana’s independence struggle and its first president. Marking the spot of his final resting place at the park is a massive statue. CAROLA LENTZ, Professor of Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz The statue has been continuously contested since its original commission in 1956 and its unveiling at the first anniversary of independence in 1958. As a social anthropologist who has researched and written about Kwame Nkrumah themed monuments, I have explored the contradiction…

May

2023

By KEITH GOTTSCHALK

60 years of African unity: what’s failed and what’s succeeded

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AFRICA Day this year marks 60 years since the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The anniversary begs the question: How much of the vision of the OAU’s founding fathers has been realised 60 years on? What would not be there but for the efforts of the organisation and its successor the African Union? Author KEITH GOTTSCHALK, Political Scientist, University of the Western Cape There were two competing visions lobbying at the founding. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s president, in his Africa Must Unite speech, argued the pan-African case for continental federalism, for a Union of African States, with one…

Mar

2022

By The African Mirror

How Kwame Nkrumah’s midnight speech set a tradition for marking the moment of liberation

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

AS Ghana celebrates the 65th anniversary of its independence from Britain, it is worth revisiting the landmark speech Kwame Nkrumah delivered at midnight to mark the event of Ghana’s birth. Nkrumah had led a mass movement demanding self-government in the anti-colonial struggle and was, with independence, poised to become the first Prime Minister of independent Ghana. Author ERIK JOHNSON, Assistant Professor, Media and Communications Studies, Stetson University Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from colonial rule. Accordingly, Nkrumah’s speech at the moment of liberation set a tone of pride in Ghana’s accomplishment along with hope…