It was then called the "Gold Coast," now Ghana, where in a village called Nkroful, in South Western Ghana, an unknown scholar who became "The father of African nationalism", Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was born on September 21 1901.

He trained as a teacher, at Government training college in Accra, where he taught until 1935. He left for the United States of America, studied Economics and Sociology at Lincoln University and graduated in 1939. He later studied Theology and obtained a post graduate degrees in Education and Philosophy. After graduation, he lectured in Political Science at Lincoln University, where he was elected African students Organisation of America and Canada.

In June 1945, he entered the London School of Economics and Political Science and read Law at Gray's Inn. He was elected Vice-president of the West Africans Union, and in October of the same year, he became the co-secretary of the fifth Pan African Conference held at Manchester in England. After his studies Nkrumah returned to Gold Coast, November 14 1947, to become the secretary-general of the United Gold Coast Convention, with the aim of mobilising the people in the struggle for the country's independence from Britain.

His campaign against the colonial administration brought much civil unrest in the country, which led to his imprisonment for three years. By then he had formed the Covention People's Party, after breaking away from UGCC. The CPP won the general elections of February 1951, there followed a transition period, Nkrumah became prime minister in 1952, and finally on March 6 1957, Gold Coast became independent Ghana.

Nkrumah delared on the indpendence day that "The country attaining its independence is meaningless, unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa." Here Nkrumah's vision is to create "The United States of Africa", and established free movement and market, something which has been succesfully done, just three years ago in Europe. But his ideologies and philosophy soon brought him many enemies at home and abroad. For example, in 1964 he made Ghana a one party state.

After surviving two assasination attempts, Nkrumah was finally overthrown in a military coup, backed by external secret forces, on February 24, 1966. He fled to his friend Sekou Tourè in Guinea, where he lived until his death in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27 1972.