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| Kwame Nkrumah’s Monument |
Though his visionary call for African unity remains, as some would say, elusive, Kwame Nkurumah nonetheless remains a living mirror for Africans and pan-Africans on and off the continent.
Born in 1902, Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana into independence in 1957. He became the first president of Ghana, and was ousted through a military coup d`etat in 1966. He died in exile in 1972 in Guinea, where, under the leadership of a fellow pan-African head of state, Saikou Touray, he was accorded a state burial.
In Accra, the capital of Ghana, there is a museum and memorial park put up in his honour. Today people from around the world visit the monument, located in the main commercial area in Accra, on the High Street. This was where Nkrumah first declared Ghana’s freedom from the British colonial rule.
According to Mr. Yaw Stephen, a historian at the park, Nkrumah was buried three times after his death. He said in July 1972 Nkrumah’s body was brought to Ghana from Conakry in a metallic coffin and placed at Nkroful, his birth village.
In 1991 he said the park where he declared independence was built and named after him. And in 1992 his body was brought at the park for final burial. Nkrumah’s wife Fathia who died in 2007 laid beside him inside the monument.
“We are completing the foundation,” he laid, “because through him we got independence.”
“Beloved wife of a great man she face adversity with courage” the writings on her grave board reads.
Mr Kingsley Asare, a journalist with the Ghanaian Times, has a different view. ““He struggles to end colonialism but he did not do it alone. There was others struggling when he was in the United Kingdom,” he noted.
Born in 1902, Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana into independence in 1957. He became the first president of Ghana, and was ousted through a military coup d`etat in 1966. He died in exile in 1972 in Guinea, where, under the leadership of a fellow pan-African head of state, Saikou Touray, he was accorded a state burial.
In Accra, the capital of Ghana, there is a museum and memorial park put up in his honour. Today people from around the world visit the monument, located in the main commercial area in Accra, on the High Street. This was where Nkrumah first declared Ghana’s freedom from the British colonial rule.
According to Mr. Yaw Stephen, a historian at the park, Nkrumah was buried three times after his death. He said in July 1972 Nkrumah’s body was brought to Ghana from Conakry in a metallic coffin and placed at Nkroful, his birth village.
In 1991 he said the park where he declared independence was built and named after him. And in 1992 his body was brought at the park for final burial. Nkrumah’s wife Fathia who died in 2007 laid beside him inside the monument.
“We are completing the foundation,” he laid, “because through him we got independence.”
“Beloved wife of a great man she face adversity with courage” the writings on her grave board reads.
Mr Kingsley Asare, a journalist with the Ghanaian Times, has a different view. ““He struggles to end colonialism but he did not do it alone. There was others struggling when he was in the United Kingdom,” he noted.
Author: Binta A. Bah back from Accra, Ghana
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