Today in History, Africa lost one of its greatest leaders

on April 27, 1972, Kwame Nkrumah, the deposed President of Ghana and a great Pan-Africanist died in Bucharest, Romania after six years in exile in Guinea

Nkrumah started the wave of independence movement that swept across Africa in the sixties

He led Ghana to attain its independence in 1957, but did not stop with Ghana, he had big visions for the whole Africa. He inspired a wave of independence movement across Africa.

Kwame Nkrumah played a pivotal role in the formation of the organisation of African Union (O. A.U) now called African union, the objective was the total liberation of All African States and to rid itself of all forms of Neo colonialism.

The organisation of African Union was created and its founding members met in 1963

In front of 31 other African heads of state who met in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on 24 May 1963, He gave a riveting speech, some excerpts below.

We have already reached the stage where we must unite or sink.

As a continent, we have emerged into independence in a different age, with imperialism grown stronger, more ruthless and experienced, and more dangerous in its international associations. Our economic advancement demands the end of colonialist and neo-colonialist domination of Africa.

excerpts from Kwame Nkrumah speech at the formation of the OAU

Our continent is probably the richest in the world for minerals and
industrial and agricultural primary materials. From the Congo alone,Western firms exported copper, rubber, cotton, and other goods to the value of 2, 773 billion dollars in the ten years between 1945 and 1955, and from South Africa, Western gold mining companies have drawn a profit, in the four years, between 1947 to 1951, of 814 billion dollars.

excerpts from Kwame Nkrumah speech OAU

For centuries Africa has been the milk cow of the Western world. It
was our continent that helped the Western world to build up its
accumulated wealth.

excerpts from Kwame Nkrumah speech OAU

Nkruma tried to industrialize Ghana building many state-owned factories producing every need of the population— shoes, textiles, furniture, lorry tires, canned fruits, vegetables, beef, glass, radio , TV; to books, steel, to educated manpower, virtually everything, unfortunately his dream for Africa and Ghana did not come to pass.

The colonial powers wanted him out badly, in 1966 they were successful…

There were about 7 attempts to assassinate him, at one point a loyal body guard took a bullet for him. the assassination attempts which included bomb blasts claimed the lives of many and created a general sense of insecurity in Ghana.

The US government was determined to depose Nkrumah before he managed to unite Africa under a united African government. As it turned out, the US government and some of its allies, including Britain, had financed, masterminded, and tele-guided the coup.

The involvement of the US in the assassination attempt of Nkrumah was exposed by a former CIA agent in his book In search of the enemies

After the coup, the IMF sent a delegation to Accra to tell the military junta to discontinue Nkrumah’s industrialization programme. And they did!

There is so much in between that happened to this great man after the successful coup plot: staying in exile in Guinea as co president. allegations that he was not safe and still Under the radar of the CIA, allegations that he was poisoned.

He died six years later in exile, on this day 27th march 1972 of Cancer at a hospital in Budapest. Even though he died alone in a hospital in Budapest, his death started another firestorm between Guinea and Ghana , but thats a story for another day.