Ghana Independence 1957: Kwame Nkrumah and Africa's First Step

Ghana became independent on 6 March 1957, when the British colony of the Gold Coast was transformed into a sovereign state under Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah. It was the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to win independence from European rule, and its success inspired nationalist movements across the continent. At midnight in Accra, before a vast crowd, Nkrumah declared that Ghana was “free forever”.

The Gold Coast colony

European traders had been active on the Gold Coast since the fifteenth century, first for gold and later for enslaved people, who were held in coastal forts such as Cape Coast Castle. Britain gradually extended its control over the coast in the nineteenth century, conquered the Asante kingdom in a series of wars and annexed it in 1902. The Northern Territories and, after the First World War, part of former German Togoland were added.

By the mid-twentieth century the Gold Coast was one of Britain’s richest African colonies. It was the world’s largest producer of cocoa and also exported gold, manganese, diamonds and timber. It had a growing educated elite, mission schools and newspapers, which made it fertile ground for nationalism.

Causes: grievances after the Second World War

Thousands of Gold Coast soldiers had served in the British Army in the Second World War, including in Burma, and returned home to unemployment and unpaid gratuities. Rising prices, a shortage of imported goods and a government campaign to cut down cocoa trees infected with swollen shoot disease angered townspeople and farmers.

In August 1947 lawyers and businessmen including J. B. Danquah founded the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to press for self-government, and invited Kwame Nkrumah, then in London, to become its general secretary. On 28 February 1948 police fired on a march of ex-servicemen at the Christiansborg crossroads in Accra, killing three of them. Riots and looting followed in Accra and other towns, and around 29 people died in the unrest. The colonial government arrested six UGCC leaders, later known as the Big Six.

A commission of inquiry blamed the riots partly on the lack of political representation, and a committee of Africans was set up to draft a new constitution.

Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party

Nkrumah had studied at Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States before moving to London in 1945. There he helped organise the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in October 1945, alongside figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore, which demanded independence for Africa. Back home, he soon broke with the more cautious leaders of the UGCC. On 12 June 1949 he founded the Convention People’s Party (CPP), with the slogan “Self-Government Now”. The party reached out to young people, market women, workers and the less educated, using rallies, songs and newspapers.

In January 1950 the CPP launched “Positive Action”, a campaign of strikes and boycotts. Violence broke out, a state of emergency was declared, and Nkrumah was jailed for organising an illegal strike and for sedition. In the general election of February 1951 the CPP won 34 of the 38 popularly elected seats, Nkrumah winning his Accra seat while still in prison. The governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, released him, and Nkrumah became Leader of Government Business, then prime minister in 1952.

The road to independence

Britain and the CPP now cooperated in a gradual transfer of power. The CPP won further elections in 1954 and 1956, but faced strong opposition from the National Liberation Movement, based in Asante, which demanded a federal constitution to protect regional and chiefly interests. In a plebiscite in May 1956 the people of British Togoland voted to join the Gold Coast.

The dispute was serious enough that the British government insisted on a new election to test support for independence. After the CPP won 71 of 104 seats in July 1956, the British government agreed to independence. The constitution included regional assemblies as a concession to the opposition, although Nkrumah’s government later abolished them. The Ghana Independence Act was passed by the British Parliament, and the date was set for 6 March 1957, the anniversary of the Bond of 1844 between Fante chiefs and the British.

Independence day

At midnight on 5–6 March 1957, at the Old Polo Grounds in Accra, the Union Jack was lowered and the new red, gold and green flag with a black star raised. Nkrumah told the crowd, “At long last, the battle has ended! And thus Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever!” He also declared that Ghana’s independence was meaningless unless it was linked to the total liberation of Africa.

The Duchess of Kent represented Queen Elizabeth II, who remained head of state. Guests included the US vice-president, Richard Nixon, and the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The new country took its name from the medieval Ghana Empire, linking the nation to a celebrated African past.

Key people

• Kwame Nkrumah – founder of the CPP, prime minister at independence and later president.
• J. B. Danquah – a founder of the UGCC, later an opponent of Nkrumah who died in detention in 1965.
• Sir Charles Arden-Clarke – the last colonial governor, who chose to work with Nkrumah and became Ghana’s first governor-general.
• Komla Gbedemah – CPP organiser and finance minister.

Consequences and legacy

Ghana became a model and a base for African nationalism. Its independence came at a time when Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal still ruled most of the continent, and it gave freedom movements a friendly government, money and a meeting place. In April 1958 Accra hosted a conference of independent African states, and in December the All-African People’s Conference, attended by future leaders such as Patrice Lumumba. Within a few years most of Britain’s and France’s African colonies had become independent. Ghana became a republic on 1 July 1960, with Nkrumah as president, and he later helped found the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

At home, Nkrumah invested heavily in schools, hospitals, roads and the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River. But the falling price of cocoa, debt and growing authoritarianism undermined his rule. The Preventive Detention Act of 1958 allowed imprisonment without trial, and Ghana became a one-party state in 1964. On 24 February 1966, while Nkrumah was abroad, the army and police overthrew him. He died in exile in 1972.

Historians continue to debate Nkrumah’s record. Admirers stress his vision of African unity, his rapid expansion of education and his writings, including Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (1965). Critics point to economic mismanagement, the persecution of opponents and the cult of personality that grew around him.

Despite this troubled later history, 6 March 1957 remains a landmark for Africans and the African diaspora, and Nkrumah is honoured in Ghana as the father of the nation.

Timeline

• 1947, August: The United Gold Coast Convention is founded.
• 1948, 28 February: Police fire on ex-servicemen in Accra, sparking riots.
• 1949, 12 June: Kwame Nkrumah founds the Convention People’s Party.
• 1951, February: The CPP wins the election and Nkrumah is released from prison.
• 1952, March: Nkrumah becomes prime minister of the Gold Coast.
• 1956, May: British Togoland votes to join the Gold Coast.
• 1957, 6 March: The Gold Coast becomes independent as Ghana.
• 1960, 1 July: Ghana becomes a republic with Nkrumah as president.
• 1966, 24 February: Nkrumah is overthrown in a military coup.

Why it matters

Ghana’s independence proved that colonial rule in Africa could be ended peacefully through mass politics and elections. It opened the decade of African independence, gave Pan-Africanism a home government, and made Kwame Nkrumah one of the most influential African leaders of the twentieth century, alongside movements such as the Bandung Conference that brought newly independent nations together.