Today I had the priviledge to go to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. Kwame Nkrumah was the first president of Ghana and played an instrumental role in Ghana’s independence, the first Sub-saharan African country to succeed in doing so. Nkrumah is a personal hero of mine because of his role in Ghana’s independence but the political views from a paper I read of his. Learning more about him was one of the reasons I chose Ghana to study abroad and going to the Mausoleum meant a lot to me.
After going to the Mausoleum my respect for Nkrumah has greatly increased. Firstly, the Mausoleum is located in the park where Nkrumah declared Ghana’s independence which previously was restricted to only Europeans. This shows how bold he was. Not only did he break custom (I’m unsure if it was legal segregation or social) by speaking there and bringing other native Ghanians, but he went and declared independence. It makes the area extremely symbolic. However not only was Nkrumah instrumental in Ghana’s independence but pushed and funded independence movements of other African nations which is why many African countries incorporated the red yellow and green into their flag. In a sense, he was the Simón Bolivar of Africa. His role was so great that after being ousted, he was named Co-President in Guinea where he spent the rest of his life in exile. Additionally, he was a strong pan-Africanist, believing that Africa should unite and wanted to make a United States of Africa (again like Simón Bolivar in South America) which is an ideology I subscribe to to an extent. He was so invested in this that he married an Egyptian woman, as symbolism of unity between Black Africa and Arab Africa. What is even better is that even though the move was political, based on what we were told and the request of Nkrumah’s wife to be buried next to him upon her death shows that they did love eachofher and supported eachother’s causes. What really increased my respect for Kwame Nkrumah was his advocacy for women. He held meetings for women accross Africa and reserved jobs in government strictly for women. He saw the importance of woman empowerment and tried to make it happen within his power. He also wrote a lot of books on top of all he was doing for the continenf of Africa.
The monument under which Nkrumah and his wife are buried is supposed to represent a tree that has stopped growing or was cut to represent Nkrumah’s vision for Africa has being unattained due to the coup d’etat and his relatively early death. The statue of Nkrumah shows him pointing forward representing his famous quote “we look neither east nor west, but forward” meaning that we should keep progressing and not deviate.
I will end this post with this quote from Nkrumah, “As far as I am concerned, I am in the knowledge that death can never extinguish the torch which I have lit in Ghana and Africa. Long after I am dead and gone, the light will continue to burn and be borne aloft, giving light and guidance to all people” His light is still burning and even in the smallest way, I hope to keep his legacy alive.
Denkyem 