Kwame Nkrumah.

Kwame Nkrumah. I INTRODUCTION Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972), first prime minister (1957-1960) and president (1960-1966) of Ghana and the first black African postcolonial leader. Nkrumah led his country to independence from Britain in 1957 and was a powerful voice for African nationalism, but he was overthrown by a military coup nine years later after his rule grew dictatorial. II EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Kwame Nkrumah was born in the town of Nkroful in the southwestern corner of the British colony of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Nkrumah was an excellent student in local Catholic missionary schools. While still a teenager, he became an untrained elementary school teacher in the nearby town of Half Assini. In 1926 Nkrumah entered Achimota College in Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast. After earning a teacher's certificate from there in 1930, Nkrumah taught at several Catholic elementary schools. In 1935 he sailed to the United States to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He graduated from Lincoln University with B.A. degrees in economics and sociology in 1939, earned a theology degree from the Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942, and received M.A. degrees in education and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and 1943. III NATIONALIST LEADER While studying in the United States, Nkrumah was influenced by the socialist writings of Germa...