The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah - Term Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages Kwame Nkrumah was at the helm of the leadership of Ghana upon the achievement of that country’s sovereignty in 1957 and is furthermore given credit for touching off an avalanche of independence movements that ran through the rest of Africa in the ten years following that achievement of independence. He would be ousted from power in 1966, via a coup, but by that time 40 countries all over Africa had been able to achieve independence and freedom from the hands of their European masters. For this reason, and for the strength of his leadership and his ideas relating to the importance of a free Africa and other key tenets, Nkrumah is regarded as a key political figure not just in Ghana but in Africa as a whole, apart from the influence and stature bestowed on him in the international stage as well.

On a worldwide basis, many of his ideas and views have substantial weight and impact, including those that he held relating to national and regional development, a united and free Africa, and socialism, among others.
1 His views on socialism, more of which shall be said later, were however tempered by a politics that was considered to be one of conciliation and friendship towards the western powers to some extent, and that means being friendly to some of the west’s ideas on democracy and democratic principles.
2 His ideas meanwhile on the unity of Africa as something that is urgent and necessary, a must, with the unity redounding to many benefits, political and economic, for the whole of Africa, is something that is said to have been validated by moves in Europe at unification, as well as in other places.
3 That said, some of his ideas relating to socialism and the adoption of socialist economic principles, such as the nationalization of aspects of Ghana agriculture, are said to have met with financial and personal disaster for the country and for its farmers, among others, tempering the positive assessment of Nkrumah’s role in the development of Ghana and African politics and economics. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More