Ghanaians yesterday observed the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, a day set aside to celebrate and honour the country’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
21st September every year is set as a public holiday in Ghana to celebrate and remember Nkrumah, whose legacy has inspired many generations in Ghana and beyond.
Previously marked as Founder’s Day to remember his role as the one who led Ghana to independence, it was changed to celebrate Dr Nkrumah’s birthday following the passage of the Public Holidays Act in 2018.
Today’s commemoration would have been Dr Nkrumah’s 113 birthday if he were alive.
The celebration was mostly done with a series of public lectures to highlight the achievements and impacts the former president made in the struggle for independence and fights against colonialism in the West Africa sub-region.
At one of such, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s current president of failing in the fight against illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey. The Convention People’s Party CPP is a party formed by Kwame Nkrumah as it was founded on the tenets and values that he (Kwame Nkrumah) held dear.
According to General Secretary of CPP, Nana Yaa Akyempem Jantuah, the current situation was in contrast to the promise by the president that he would put his presidency on the line to deal with illegal mining. She has suggested it is in order for President Akufo-Addo to resign.
“I think it is time for him to resign, I think it is time for Nana Addo to put down his job and allow competent people to take over. He has failed the fight against galamsey, he should resign.
“We, in the Convention Peoples Party are asking him to stick to his promises,” she indicated.
The General Secretary of the PNC, Janet Asana Nabla said the vision of President Osagyefo Nkrumah for the African continent was summarized in the numerous infrastructures scattered throughout the country and the industrialization agenda he embarked upon.
How the young and old in Ghana marked Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day
Young people from all walks of life thronged the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra to celebrate the birthday of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
This year’s celebration was unique following the new facelift of the park.
Among the organizations represented were the Ghana Trade Fair Company and the Ghana China Friendship Association, where the young people there were given first-hand information on products and services that were displayed at the Kwame Nkrumah Park.
For those who went to the park to celebrate (both Ghanaians and foreign nationals), the moment carried a lot of lessons.
” It was a moment to remind us of our History as a people, and of Culture and Tradition.”
The Ghana Trade Fair Company used the opportunity to collaborate with the Ministry of Tourism, the Ghana Tourism Authority, and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park to bring to the fore the need to sell Ghana goods and services.
About Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian nationalist leader who led the Gold Coast’s (Now Ghana) drive for independence from Britain and presided over its emergence as the new nation of Ghana. He headed the country from independence in 1957 until he was overthrown by a coup in 1966.
Kwame was born on September 1909 in a small town called Nkroful in Gold Coast [now Ghana] and he died on April 27, 1972, in Bucharest, Romania.
Early years
Kwame Nkrumah’s father was a goldsmith and his mother was a retail trader. He was baptized a Roman Catholic and 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 graduating 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 Lenin, and of nationalism, especially Marcus Garvey, the Black American leader of the 1920s. Eventually, Nkrumah came to describe himself as a “nondenominational Christian and a Marxist socialist.” He also immersed himself in political work, reorganizing and becoming president of the African Students’ Organization of the United States and Canada. He left the United States in May 1945 and went to England, where he organized the 5th Pan-African Congress in Manchester.
See more on our website www.globalafricantimes.com
