Ghana’s first president and Prime Minister, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, is known worldwide for his stance on African Unity and his passion for self-governance.
With this burning desire, Kwame Nkrumah, led Ghana, then Gold Coast, to its independence and was also one of the founding fathers of the Organization of African Unity.
Below are the most popular quotes which best describes what Dr Kwame Nkrumah stood for and the kind of Unity he advocated for a better Africa:
1. I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.
2. Action without thought is empty. Thought without action is blind.
3. It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world.
4. Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started.
5. Countrymen, the task ahead is great indeed, and heavy is the responsibility; and yet it is a noble and glorious challenge - a challenge which calls for the courage to dream, the courage to believe, the courage to dare, the courage to do, the courage to envision, the courage to fight, the courage to work, the courage to achieve - to achieve the highest excellencies and the fullest greatness of man. Dare we ask for more in life?
6. Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation. The notion that in order to have a nation it is necessary for there to be a common language, a common territory and common culture has failed to stand the test of time or the scrutiny of scientific definition of objective reality... The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory. It is on this basis that the new Africans recognise themselves as potentially one nation, whose dominion is the entire African continent.
7. It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else
8. As far as i am concerned, i am in the knowledge that death can never extinguish the torch which i have lit in Ghana and Africa. Long after i am dead and gone, the light will continue to burn and be borne aloft, giving light and guidance to all people
9. Capitalism is a development by refinement from feudalism, just as feudalism is development by refinement from slavery . Capitalism is but the gentlemen's method of slavery.
10. The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.
11. Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism . Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below the soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment.
12. All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.
13. The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked-up with the total liberation of the African Continent
14. We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!
15. Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.
16. Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.
17. We face neither East nor West: we face forward.
18. I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.
19. For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to "civilize" Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people.
20. The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries of the world.
Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah