7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

source of financial sustenance, the United States. The

absence of a major international crisis during the first

three years of his secretaryship enabled him to concen-

trate on quietly building public confidence in himself

and his office.

Kwame Nkrumah

(b. Sept. 21, 1909, Nkroful, Gold Coast [now Ghana]—d. April 27,

1972, Bucharest, Rom.)

K

wame Nkrumah was one of the most prominent

leaders in the African struggles against colonialism

in the 1950s. A Ghanaian nationalist leader, he led the

Gold Coast’s drive for independence from Britain and

presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana.

He headed the country from its independence in 1957 until

he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.

Early Years

Kwame Nkrumah’s father was a goldsmith, and his mother

was a retail trader. Baptized a Roman Catholic, Nkrumah

spent nine years at the Roman Catholic elementary school

in nearby Half Assini. After graduation from Achimota

College in 1930, he started his career as a teacher at

Roman Catholic junior schools in Elmina and Axim and

at a seminary.

Increasingly drawn to politics, Nkrumah decided to

pursue further studies in the United States. He entered

Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1935 and, after grad-

uating in 1939, obtained master’s degrees from Lincoln

and from the University of Pennsylvania. He studied the

literature of socialism, notably Karl Marx and Vladimir I.

Lenin, and of nationalism—especially Marcus Garvey, the