Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, survived a deadly assassination attempt in January 1964 after personally confronting and overpowering the man who had attacked him.

The dramatic account was recounted by his daughter, Samia Nkrumah, who said her father returned home that day covered in blood following the attack.

Speaking at the Padmore-Du Bois-Nkrumah Lecture organised by the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, on September 18, 2026, Samia recalled the terrifying moment when the then-president returned home covered in blood after surviving the attack.

According to Samia, Dr Nkrumah was walking towards his residence with his trusted bodyguard, Salifu Dagarti when gunfire was fired at him.

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Dagarti immediately moved to protect the president, taking the bullet himself and dying at the scene.

“To save our father, his trusted bodyguard, Salifu Dagarti, quickly moves in to cover him. He takes the bullet and dies on the spot, giving his life for his president,” Samia recounted.

Nkrumah confronts attacker
In the aftermath of the shooting, Nkrumah reportedly saw the attacker and rushed towards him.
Despite being over 50 years old, the president managed to overpower the man and pin him down.

However, the attacker was determined to escape.

Samia said the man bit Nkrumah hard on one of his cheeks in his attempt to break free, leaving the president with a severe facial wound.

“He bites our father hard in one of his cheeks and he pulls the cheek out almost,” she said.

The injury was so severe that when Nkrumah eventually returned home, his family saw him covered in blood, with his cheek appearing to be almost torn away.

Samia recalled being shocked by the sight, noting that she and her older brother had been expecting their father to come home for lunch as he regularly did.

The attack, she said, occurred at a significant period in Nkrumah’s political life, when he was pursuing his vision of African unity and economic independence.



FKA/VPO

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