Here are a few of the international accolades bestowed on Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah:


PAUL LEE: “In the 20th century, probably no one except Marcus Garvey did more to bring freedom and dignity to black people worldwide that Kwame Nkrumah, the liberator and first president of the West African state of Ghana…His memory is cherished by a dwindling number of veterans of the movements of black liberation in the United States and national independence in Africa and the Caribbean…IN 1935, NKRUMAH ARRIVED IN AMERICA. WITH LITTLE FORMAL EDUCATION TO COMMEND HIM AND ALMOST NO MONEY TO SUSTAIN HIM, NKRUMAH NEVERTHELESS SHOWED PROMISE, WINNING THE CONFIDENCE OF HORACE MANN BOND, THE PRESIDENT OF THE HISTORICALLY BLACK LINCOLN UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA…IN 1945, HE HELPED THE VENERABLE DU BOIS ORGANIZE AN INTERNATIONAL COLONIAL CONFERENCE AT THE OLD SCHUMBURG LIBRARY IN HARLEM. THIS LITTLE-KNOWN CONCLAVE WAS SOMETHING OF A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR THE HISTORIC FIFTH PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS, WHICH BOTH MEN HELPED TO MOUNT IN MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, IN OCTOBER OF THAT YEAR. ”

KOFI HADJOR: “It is Nkrumah the theoretician and practitioner of Pan-Africanism who continues to provide interest and respect.”

NNAMDI AZIKIWE: “It is a very special pleasure to us, because Dr. Nkrumah is not merely the Prime Minister of Ghana, but is an outstanding pioneer in the fight for the freedom of a sister nation in West Africa. We who are battle-scarred and are on the verge of attaining our statehood and who eagerly await the great day, 1st October 1960, when, God willing, our dreams shall be realized, have been especially emboldened by the tenacity of purpose of Dr. Nkrumah and his immortal comrades to make Ghana free. INDEED, GHANA’S INDEPENDENCE IS THE SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPISHMENT OF THEIR LIVES’ MISSION…It is all history now, it is true, but I still see the gleam of hope and the dream of greatness which flashed in in the eyes of a young “MERCHANT OF LIGHT” who left us in Accra to study in the United States and later COVERED HIMSLEF WITH ACADEMIC AND POLITICAL HONORS TO THE GLORY OF HIS COUNTRY AND OUR RACE…ON BEHALF OF MY GOVERNMENT AND THE EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE WHO INHABIT EASTERN NIGERIA, I SALUTE HIM AS ONE WHO HAS PROVED HIMSELF A VICTOR AFTER MANY BITTER POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS, AND I CONGRATULATE HIM AS THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER OF THE FIRST SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE IN WEST AFRICA TO EMANCIPATE ITSELF FROM COLONIAL TUTELAGE.


KOFI BENTUM QUTSON: “Nkrumah, the unmatchable and big one.”

JOMO KENYATTA: “Ghana’s independence marked the end of colonialism in Africa.”

JULIUS NYERERE: “Ghana’s independence from colonial in 1957 was recognized for what it was: The beginning of the end of colonialism for the whole of Africa…So 40 years ago, we recognized [Ghana’s] independence as the first triumph in Africa’s freedom and dignity. It was the first success of our demand to be accorded the international respect which is accorded free peoples. But Ghana was more than the beginning, our first liberated zone. Ghana inspired and deliberately spearheaded the independence struggle for the rest of Africa…KWAME NKRUMAH WAS [Ghana’s] LEADER, BUT HE WAS OUR LEADER, FOR HE WAS AN AFRICAN LEADER. He had a great dream for Africa and its people. He had the wellbeing of our people at heart. He was no looter. He died poor…So my remaining remarks have a confession and a plea. The confession that we of the first generation leaders of independent Africa have not pursued the objective of African unity with vigor, commitment and sincerity that it deserved…”

JULIUS NYERERE: “Time has shown that Nkrumah’s dream of African unity was not an ideally romantic idea. Since then Europe via the EU has adopted his [Nkrumah’s] entire proposal apart from the one on a union of government. The current AU structure was modeled on his proposal.”

ANTONIO DE FIGUEIRDO: “Nkrumah’s influence filtered to exiles-cum-intermediaries like myself mainly through the support extended by that great statesman to the leaders of the Portuguese African Liberation Movements who converged in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Even after Nkrumah became the victim of Western-inspired coup, and went in to exile in Conakry (Guinea), his Guinea-Bissau fellow exile, Amilcar Cabral, the most influential of Portuguese freedom fighters, often visited him and learned from him.”

SAM NUJOMA: “Ghana’s fight for freedom inspired and influenced us all, and the greatest contribution to our political awareness at that time came from the achievements of Ghana after independence. It was from Ghana that we got the idea that we must do more than just petition the UN [United Nations] to bring about independence.”

KENNETH KAUNDA: “Nkrumah inspired many people of Africa towards independence and was a great supporter of the liberation of southern Africa from apartheid and racism.”

MOLEFI KETE ASANTE: “This is why I am ardent celebrator of Nkrumah’s life and voice because in celebrating him we celebrate the best in us”

OBED ASAMOAH: “The All-African Peoples’ Conference which followed in December 1958, came as the formal and concrete expression of Ghana’s dedication to the freedom struggle in Africa and made it possible for representatives of freedom-fighters throughout the continent to assemble in a free, independent African state for the purpose of planning a coordinated assault on colonial and racist rule in Africa.”


GODFREY MWAKIKAGILE: “Acheampong was also symbolically and substantively sympathetic to Nkrumah, but only because of the outpouring or popular, pro-Nkrumahist sentiments in Ghana and elsewhere. His ‘party,’ the NRC (National Redemption Council), included the word ‘Redemption,’ the English verbiage of the Twi-language root word that was given as a title to Nkrumah, Osagyefo, (meaning Redeemer).
MOLEFI KETE ASANTE: “THE ESSENCE OF AFRICAN INTELLIGENCE.”

DR. KWAME AMUAH (Nelson Mandela’s son-in-law, married to Makaziwe Mandela-Amuah; Dr. Amuah is also a nuclear scientist): “No doubt he [Nelson Mandela] saw Nkrumah as his hero.”

FREDERICK COOPER: “There is a particular poignancy to the history of Ghana because it was the pioneer. Kwame Nkrumah was more than a political leader; he was a prophet of independence, of anti- imperialism, of Pan- Africanism.”

SEKOU TOURE: “A Universal Man.”

THOMAS HODGKIN: “Nkrumah’s radical Pan-Africanism had an influence on the attitudes and behavior of a substantial body of people.”

ERIC WALBERG: “The Greatest Africa.”

AMA BINEY: “Nkrumah was central to the major debates and issues of the decolonization period of the 1950s and the 1960s.”

KWAME BOTWE-ASAMOAH: “One of the world’s historical personalities in the twentieth century.”

OBED ASAMOAH: “Ghana was instrumental at the United Nations and other international fora in spearheading the adoption of a number of measures against the colonial and racist presence in Africa; most notably, General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) of 1960 on the granting of independence to colonial territories and Resolution 1716 at the 17th Session of the General Assembly in 1962 requesting Member States separately or collectively to apply diplomatic and economic sanctions including an arms embargo against South Africa as well as the establishment of the UN Special Committee on Apartheid which was assigned responsibility for reviewing UN policies on South Africa and assessing the extent of their effectiveness. INDEED, TO AN EXTENT THAT NONE CAN GAINSAY AND TO WHICH THE UNPRECEDENTED ACCESSION OF 17 AFRICAN COUNTRIES TO INDEPENDENCE IN 1960 ALONE BEARS TESTIMONY, IT IS LARGELY TO THE CREDIT OF THE LIBERATION POLICY PURSUED BY GHANA UNDER NKRUMAH THAT THE ACCELERATION OF THE PROCESS OF DECOLONIZATION IN SOUTHERN AND EASTERN AFRICA OWED ITS SUCCESS…”

NATHAN ALBRIGHT: “King's famed admiration for Gandhi’s leadership in nonviolent rebellion was not isolated. He [Martin Luther King, Jr.] drew inspiration from Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to peaceful independence.”
GENERAL J.A. ANKRAH: “Nkrumah’s place in African History had been assured.”

KOFI HADJOR: “Nkrumah is a reminder not of what Africa is, but of what Africa must become.”

KWAME ARHIN: “His political achievements in Ghana served as a model for African nationalists elsewhere on the continent…He was a pre-eminent founder of the movement for African unity; more than any other African leader of his time, he symbolized the black man’s self-identity and pride in his race. His name shall endure as the leading emancipator of Ghana, the leading protagonist of African independence and unity, and a statesman of world stature of the twentieth century.”

ABRONI K. THOMAS: “Nkrumah will continue to stand tall in the history of world leaders…His image has been looming larger ever since he shot into the limelight in 1949; and his renown is unmatchable…Nkrumah’s monumental contributions to world politics are beyond doubt.”

ALI MAZRUI: “Ghana’s Founding Father.”

TAJUDEEN ABDUL-RAHEEM: “It is a testimony to Nkrumah’s success that 40 years after he was overthrown Ghanaian governments and leaders will still be judged (and judge poorly) against him. Even his enemies are forced to acknowledge him as a true national leader and statesman who was genuinely committed to the welfare of the people of Ghana and Africa…Time they say is a final arbiter. The ideas that Nkrumah lived and died for continue to reverberate across the continent.”

JUNE MILNE: “It is now 40 years. Yet the repercussions are still felt in Ghana, and within the Nkrumahist Movement. It is not difficult to imagine the greatly improved condition of the African people today if Nkrumah had continued in power in Ghana to lead the Pan-African Movement…For during the nine short years between Ghana’s independence in 1957 and the overthrow of the CPP government in 1966, foundations were laid which could never be reversed.”

AMILCAR CABRAL: “…One of the greatest men mankind has seen this century…It follows one to grasp the true stature of Nkrumah as a political giant…President Nkrumah, to whom we pay homage, is primarily the strategist of genius in the struggle against classic colonialism…We hail finally Nkrumah, the philosopher and thinker…Let no come and tell us that Nkrumah died from cancer of the throat or any other sickness. No, Nkrumah was killed by the cancer of betrayal…Nkrumah will rise again each dawn in the heart and determination of freedom fighters, in the action of all true African patriots…As an African proverb says: ‘THOSE WHO SPIT AT THE SKY WILL SOIL THEIR FACE.’ Those who have tried to soil the brilliant personality of Kwame Nkrumah should now understand very well that the African people are right. Another African proverb says: ‘A HAND, HOWEVER BIG, CAN NEVER COVER THE SKY.’ There it is: ‘Those who have tried to disparage the magnificent achievement of Kwame Nkrumah must today admit that this African proverb is right…We are certain, absolutely certain that framed by the eternal green of the African forests, flowers of crimson like the blood of martyrs and of gold like the harvests of plenty will bloom over the grave of Kwame Nkrumah; for Nkrumah will triumph.”

HARCOURT FULLER: “The death of Nkrumah in 1972 ushered in a renewed public fervor for all things Nkrumah. Since then, contemporaneous and successive governments, both military and civilian, have sought to appropriate or capitalize on Nkrumah’s posthumous resurgence and popularity for their own purposes or at least to manage the renewed interest of Ghanaians and foreigners alike in the legacy of Nkrumah…Ironically, the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum, which was commissioned some two decades after Nkrumah’s death, came to serve the purpose that the Nkroful museum-shrine, which was built at the site of Nkrumah’s birth, did not fully get a chance to fulfill. It now serves as a pilgrimage site for people from Ghana, Africa, and the African Diaspora who have a personal or academic interest in the life and legacy of Nkrumah.”


We shall return…