Ghana wins independence
On 6 March 1957 the Gold Coast became Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence from Britain. Its first prime minister, Kwame Nkrumah, declared that 'our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa', and dozens of nations followed within a decade.
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What happened
The British colony of the Gold Coast, rich in cocoa and gold, had a strong independence movement after the Second World War. Kwame Nkrumah, educated in the United States and Britain, founded the Convention People's Party in 1949 with the slogan 'Self-government now' and organised strikes and boycotts. He was jailed by the colonial authorities, yet his party won elections in 1951 and he went straight from prison to lead the government.
At midnight on 6 March 1957, at the Old Polo Ground in Accra, Nkrumah declared the country independent under the new name Ghana, after a medieval West African empire. It was the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to win independence from European rule. 'Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa', he told the crowd.
Ghana became a beacon for anti-colonial movements, and Accra hosted pan-African conferences. By 1965 more than 30 African countries were independent. At home, Nkrumah's ambitious projects such as the Akosombo Dam came alongside growing authoritarianism, and he was overthrown in a military coup in 1966.
Around the same time
- The People's Republic is proclaimed, Beijing, China, 1949
- Swinging London, London, United Kingdom, 1963 to 1969
- Independence and Partition, Delhi, India, 1947
- The atomic bombings, Hiroshima, Japan, 1945
Earlier: The People's Republic is proclaimed, 1949 · Later: Swinging London, 1963 to 1969
Further reading
Encyclopedia article: Kwame Nkrumah (en.wikipedia.org)