Kwame Nkrumah

Nkrumah, Kwame (1901–72), African political leader who led his country, Ghana, to independence. A champion of pan-Africanism, he became the first prime minister of independent Ghana (formerly a British colony called the Gold Coast) in 1957. In 1960 he assumed dictatorial powers as president and in 1966 his government was overthrown by a military coup.

See also: Ghana.