Ghana, the first nation in West Africa to win independence from colonial rule, has served a mecca for a number of African-American leaders — W.E.B. Du Bois, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and even more recently, President Barack Obama. A good portion of the country’s history is tied to the Philadelphia region where Ghana’s first prime minister and president, Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), attended college for over a decade.

As present-day Ghana prepares to celebrate its 60th Independence Day on March 6, several African-American journalists were invited by the Consulate General of Israel in New York to cover the relations these two countries continue to share. The journalists, including this reporter, hailed from legacy press outlets such as the Amsterdam News and Chicago Sun Times, along with newer outlets including 900 AM-WURD and other independent mediums.

The Delaware Valley served as a vital site of Nkrumah’s American education over the span of 10 years. In 1939, he arrived in the United States and eventually earned a theology degree from the Lincoln Theological Seminary in 1942. He then enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania the following year and obtained a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education.

While in the Keystone State, Nkrumah was a student activist and become president of the African Students Association of America and Canada. In 1945, he took the name Kwame Nkrumah and urged a Pan-African strategy to help ensure Africa became developed and free.

Upon his return to the Gold Coast, his doctoral thesis remained uncompleted, but his rise to prominence was recognized as Lincoln bestowed an honorary degree, which he returned in 1951 to accept. According to the late historian John Henrik Clarke, Nkrumah’s American sojourn “would have a lingering effect on the rest of his life.”

Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as he became known, merged the Pan-African teachings of Marcus Garvey, the civil rights moves of King and social justice lessons of Du Bois into the formation of independent Ghana on March 6, 1957. Nkrumah was the first African head of state to promote the concept of Pan-Africanism, played an instrumental part in the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and in establishing the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute to teach his ideologies of communism and socialism. Continue Reading 

Exploring Ghana as it prepares to celebrate its 60th Independence Day
The Philadelphia Tribune