The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
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Current Issue
Books & the Arts
/ March 10, 2026
Freedom Struggles
The global politics of Kwame Nkrumah
The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
Through Nkrumah’s story, Howard French charts the history of African decolonization and the American civil rights movement.
Adom Getachew
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Kwame Nkrumah (second from left) and other leaders of nonaligned countries, 1960.(Getty)
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue.
Accra’s Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, built on the site of the former colonial polo grounds, is home to two radically different monuments to Ghana’s first prime minister. In the park’s center is an eye-catching bronze statue of a larger-than-life Nkrumah, clad in royal kente cloth, with an outstretched hand pointing ahead and one foot in front of the other as if he were advancing forward. Erected on top of a pedestal at the spot where Nkrumah stood to declare Ghana’s independence from Britain, it channels the slogan of Nkrumah’s political party: “Forward ever, backward never.” Though the monument was erected in 1992, the statue itself likely dates to the 1970s, when, after Nkrumah’s death in exile, discussions began for returning his body to Ghana and a mausoleum.
Books in review
The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide
by Howard W. French
Buy this book
The second statue rests in two pieces a short distance from this gleaming icon. Cast and designed by the Italian sculptor Nicola Cataudella, it is considerably older. Originally erected in 1958 at the Old Parliament House, it depicts Nkrumah in a fugu, a smock from the northern region of the country associated with the working class. Here, too, Nkrumah’s right hand is extended, but instead of directing forward movement, it waves in greeting. To some, this might seem like a friendly gesture, but from the moment the statue was proposed, critics lambasted it as an indication of the growing personality cult around Nkrumah. In 1961, the statue was badly damaged in a bomb attack, and Cataudella was commissioned to replace it. Then, during the 1966 coup that unseated Nkrumah’s government, it was toppled and beheaded. The severed and damaged pieces—Nkrumah’s body, minus a right hand and a left arm, and his head—stand on two pedestals next to each other.
These two Nkrumahs are illustrative of the long-standing conflict over the African leader’s legacy. In much of the world, Nkrumah is today a forgotten figure from a lost age of decolonization. Across the continent, however, he is widely celebrated as a champion of African independence and unity. In a 1999 poll conducted by the BBC World Service, African listeners voted …
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Current Issue
Books & the Arts
/ March 10, 2026
Freedom Struggles
The global politics of Kwame Nkrumah
The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
Through Nkrumah’s story, Howard French charts the history of African decolonization and the American civil rights movement.
Adom Getachew
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Kwame Nkrumah (second from left) and other leaders of nonaligned countries, 1960.(Getty)
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue.
Accra’s Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, built on the site of the former colonial polo grounds, is home to two radically different monuments to Ghana’s first prime minister. In the park’s center is an eye-catching bronze statue of a larger-than-life Nkrumah, clad in royal kente cloth, with an outstretched hand pointing ahead and one foot in front of the other as if he were advancing forward. Erected on top of a pedestal at the spot where Nkrumah stood to declare Ghana’s independence from Britain, it channels the slogan of Nkrumah’s political party: “Forward ever, backward never.” Though the monument was erected in 1992, the statue itself likely dates to the 1970s, when, after Nkrumah’s death in exile, discussions began for returning his body to Ghana and a mausoleum.
Books in review
The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide
by Howard W. French
Buy this book
The second statue rests in two pieces a short distance from this gleaming icon. Cast and designed by the Italian sculptor Nicola Cataudella, it is considerably older. Originally erected in 1958 at the Old Parliament House, it depicts Nkrumah in a fugu, a smock from the northern region of the country associated with the working class. Here, too, Nkrumah’s right hand is extended, but instead of directing forward movement, it waves in greeting. To some, this might seem like a friendly gesture, but from the moment the statue was proposed, critics lambasted it as an indication of the growing personality cult around Nkrumah. In 1961, the statue was badly damaged in a bomb attack, and Cataudella was commissioned to replace it. Then, during the 1966 coup that unseated Nkrumah’s government, it was toppled and beheaded. The severed and damaged pieces—Nkrumah’s body, minus a right hand and a left arm, and his head—stand on two pedestals next to each other.
These two Nkrumahs are illustrative of the long-standing conflict over the African leader’s legacy. In much of the world, Nkrumah is today a forgotten figure from a lost age of decolonization. Across the continent, however, he is widely celebrated as a champion of African independence and unity. In a 1999 poll conducted by the BBC World Service, African listeners voted …
The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
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The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
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Magazine
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Politics
World
Economy
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Books & the Arts
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Current Issue
Books & the Arts
/ March 10, 2026
Freedom Struggles
The global politics of Kwame Nkrumah
The Global Politics of Kwame Nkrumah
Through Nkrumah’s story, Howard French charts the history of African decolonization and the American civil rights movement.
Adom Getachew
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Kwame Nkrumah (second from left) and other leaders of nonaligned countries, 1960.(Getty)
This article appears in the
April 2026 issue.
Accra’s Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, built on the site of the former colonial polo grounds, is home to two radically different monuments to Ghana’s first prime minister. In the park’s center is an eye-catching bronze statue of a larger-than-life Nkrumah, clad in royal kente cloth, with an outstretched hand pointing ahead and one foot in front of the other as if he were advancing forward. Erected on top of a pedestal at the spot where Nkrumah stood to declare Ghana’s independence from Britain, it channels the slogan of Nkrumah’s political party: “Forward ever, backward never.” Though the monument was erected in 1992, the statue itself likely dates to the 1970s, when, after Nkrumah’s death in exile, discussions began for returning his body to Ghana and a mausoleum.
Books in review
The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide
by Howard W. French
Buy this book
The second statue rests in two pieces a short distance from this gleaming icon. Cast and designed by the Italian sculptor Nicola Cataudella, it is considerably older. Originally erected in 1958 at the Old Parliament House, it depicts Nkrumah in a fugu, a smock from the northern region of the country associated with the working class. Here, too, Nkrumah’s right hand is extended, but instead of directing forward movement, it waves in greeting. To some, this might seem like a friendly gesture, but from the moment the statue was proposed, critics lambasted it as an indication of the growing personality cult around Nkrumah. In 1961, the statue was badly damaged in a bomb attack, and Cataudella was commissioned to replace it. Then, during the 1966 coup that unseated Nkrumah’s government, it was toppled and beheaded. The severed and damaged pieces—Nkrumah’s body, minus a right hand and a left arm, and his head—stand on two pedestals next to each other.
These two Nkrumahs are illustrative of the long-standing conflict over the African leader’s legacy. In much of the world, Nkrumah is today a forgotten figure from a lost age of decolonization. Across the continent, however, he is widely celebrated as a champion of African independence and unity. In a 1999 poll conducted by the BBC World Service, African listeners voted …
