Born on September 21st, 1909, in Nkroful, a village in the Western Region of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), Kwame Nkrumah came from humble beginnings. His father was a goldsmith, and his mother, Elizabeth Nyanibah, was a retail trader. Nkrumah attended the local Roman Catholic school, where he was noted for his intelligence and leadership qualities. In 1926, Nkrumah enrolled in Achimota School, one of the leading educational institutions in the Gold Coast, where he was exposed to nationalist ideas and began to form his political consciousness.

Nkrumah was profoundly influenced by the ideas of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and other African-American intellectuals who advocated for Pan-Africanism and the rights of people of African descent worldwide. Nkrumah’s interest in Pan-Africanism deepened in 1945 when he attended the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England. Nkrumah emerged from this gathering with a clear vision: The liberation of Africa from European colonialism, achieved through unity among African nations.

In 1947, Nkrumah was invited back to the Gold Coast by the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to serve as the general secretary of the organization. The UGCC was formed by educated elites who sought self-governance, but Nkrumah’s radicalism soon clashed with the more conservative members of the UGCC.