Editing Kwame Nkrumah (section)

==Early life and education==

=== Gold Coast ===
Kwame Nkrumah was born on Tuesday, 21 September 1909<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: Non-Violence of Mahatma Gandhi in Ghana {{!}} Articles : On and By Gandhi|url=https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html|website=www.mkgandhi.org|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803020635/https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/nonviolence-of-Mahatma-Gandhi-in-Ghana.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="LSE">{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/10/10/kwame-nkrumah-lse/|title=Dr Kwame Nkrumah's History & LSE Application Form.|publisher=London School of Economics|date=10 October 2018|access-date=22 November 2019|archive-date=22 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191122230822/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2018/10/10/kwame-nkrumah-lse/|url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Nkroful]], [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] (now Ghana).<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/03/archives/man-in-the-news-an-african-enigma-kwame-nkrumah.html|title=Man in the News; An African Enigma; Kwame Nkrumah|newspaper=The New York Times|date=3 January 1964|access-date=19 February 2020|archive-date=1 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101020947/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/03/archives/man-in-the-news-an-african-enigma-kwame-nkrumah.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcTC2eDx5ZsC&pg=PA1|title=Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution|last=Botwe-Asamoah|first=Kwame|date=2005|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-94833-3|page=1|access-date=12 February 2020|archive-date=18 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090708/https://books.google.com/books?id=OcTC2eDx5ZsC&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nkroful]] was a small village in the [[Nzema people|Nzema]] area,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Berry|first1=LaVerle Bennette|last2=Library of Congress|first2=Federal Research Division|title=Ghana: a country study|date=1995|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|location=Washington DC|isbn=0844408352|page=[https://archive.org/details/ghanacountrystud00berr/page/27 27]|url=https://archive.org/details/ghanacountrystud00berr/page/27|access-date=21 January 2018}}</ref> in the southwest of the Gold Coast, close to the frontier with the French colony of the [[Ivory Coast]]. His father did not live with the family, but worked in [[Half Assini]] where he pursued his goldsmith business until his death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} University of Education, Winneba |url=https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=www.uew.edu.gh |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205164542/https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |url-status=dead }}</ref> Kwame Nkrumah was raised by his mother and his extended family, who lived together traditionally and had more distant relatives often visiting.<ref>{{Citation|title=Athelstan 'Half King' and his Family|work=The Danelaw|year=1992|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|doi=10.5040/9781472598837.ch-021|isbn=978-1-4725-9883-7}}</ref> He lived a carefree childhood, spent in the village, in the bush, and on the nearby sea.{{sfn|Rooney|p=7}} 

During his years as a student in the [[United States]], he was known as Francis Nwia Kofi Nkrumah, Kofi being the [[Akan names|Akan name]] given to males born on Fridays.<ref>{{Citation|title=Annan, Kofi Atta, (born 1938), President, Kofi Annan Foundation, since 2007; Secretary-General, United Nations, 1997–2006|date=1 December 2007|work=Who's Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u5557}}</ref> He later changed his name to Kwame Nkrumah in 1945 in the [[United Kingdom|UK]], preferring the name "Kwame".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Yakubu|first=Mutala|date=21 September 2019|title=Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day: Dr Kwame Nkrumah 'A son of the soil'|work=Prime New Ghana|url=https://www.primenewsghana.com/politics/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-day-dr-kwame-nkrumah-a-son-of-the-soil.html|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=24 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924034747/https://www.primenewsghana.com/politics/kwame-nkrumah-memorial-day-dr-kwame-nkrumah-a-son-of-the-soil.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Graphic Online Article" /> According to Ebenezer Obiri Addo in his study of the future president, the name "Nkrumah", a name traditionally given to a ninth child, indicates that Kwame probably held that place in the house of his father, who had several wives.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah|url=http://www.tvafrique.com/kwame-nkrumah/|last=Service|first=Support|website=TV Afrique|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=18 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018205429/http://www.tvafrique.com/kwame-nkrumah/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

His father, Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah, came from Nkroful situated in Nzema East currently called Ellembele, belonging to the Asona clan  of the Akan  Tribe.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-21 |title=Details of Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah, father of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Details-of-Opanyin-Kofi-Nwiana-Ngolomah-father-of-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-1362364 |access-date=2023-09-29 |website=GhanaWeb |language=en |archive-date=21 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021024909/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Details-of-Opanyin-Kofi-Nwiana-Ngolomah-father-of-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-1362364 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sources indicated that Ngolomah stayed at [[Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal District|Tarkwa-Nsuaem]] and dealt in the goldsmith business.<ref name="Peace FM Article">{{cite web|url=http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/200909/27258.php|title=From Ngolomah To Nkrumah|date=21 September 2009|publisher=Peace FM|access-date=20 August 2017|archive-date=20 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820160658/http://www.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/politics/200909/27258.php|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Ngolomah was respected for his wise counsel by those who sought his advice on traditional issues and domestic affairs. He died in 1927.<ref name="Nkrumah's Family">{{cite web|url=http://nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=100&c=11|title=Nkrumah's Family|publisher=Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Infobank|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817034351/http://www.nkrumahinfobank.org/article.php?id=100&c=11|archive-date=17 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution" />

Kwame was his mother's only child.{{efn|Nyanibah survived her son, watching over him throughout his life. For a time after his death, she guarded his tomb. See {{harvnb|Birmingham|p=3}}.}}{{sfn|Addo|pp=50–51}} She sent him to the elementary school run by a Catholic [[mission (Christianity)|mission]] at [[Half Assini]], where he proved an adept student.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=7–8}}

Although his mother, whose name was Elizabeth Nyanibah (1876/77–1979),<ref name="Graphic Online Article" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2000/499/profile.htm|title=Fathia Nkrumah: Farewell to all that|work=Al-Ahram Weekly|date=20 September 2009|quote=Grandmother Nyaneba, then well into her 90s, waited patiently for her son. Mother stood by her side. Grandmother was determined to remain alive to witness Nkrumah's triumphant return to Ghana. Only after her hand was placed on his coffin did the old woman at last accept that he was dead. Grandmother was to pass away seven years later in my mother's arms, aged 102.|issue=499|access-date=21 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170821212904/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/Archive/2000/499/profile.htm|archive-date=21 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> later stated his year of birth as 1912, Nkrumah wrote that he was born on 21 September 1909. His mother hailed from Nsuaem and belonged to the [[Agona Clan|Agona family]]. She was a [[fishmonger]] and petty trader when she married his father.<ref>{{Citation|title=Nkrumah, Dr Kwame, ((21 Sept. 2009 – 27 April 1972)|date=1 December 2007|work=Who Was Who|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u158013}}</ref> Eight days after his birth, his father named him as Francis Nwia-Kofi after a relative<ref name="Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-cultural Thought and Policies: An African-centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution" /> but later his parents named him as Francis Kwame Ngolomah.<ref name="Peace FM Article" /> 

He progressed through the ten-year elementary programme in eight years. In 1925, he was a student-teacher in the school and was [[baptism|baptized]] into the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] faith.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brooks|first=E. C.|date=1913|title=Seven, Eight, and Nine Years in the Elementary School|journal=The Elementary School Teacher|volume=14|issue=1|pages=20–28|doi=10.1086/454260|s2cid=144643192|issn=1545-5858|doi-access=free}}</ref> While at the school, he was noticed by the Reverend [[Alec Garden Fraser]], principal of the Government Training College (soon to become [[Achimota School]]) in the Gold Coast's capital, [[Accra]]. Fraser arranged for Nkrumah to train as a teacher at his school.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=239}} Here, [[Columbia University|Columbia]]-educated deputy headmaster [[James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey|Kwegyir Aggrey]] exposed him to the ideas of [[Marcus Garvey]] and [[W. E. B. Du Bois]]. Aggrey, Fraser, and others at Achimota thought that there should be close co-operation between the races in governing the Gold Coast, but Nkrumah, echoing Garvey, soon came to believe that only when the black race governed itself could there be harmony between the races.{{sfn|Rooney|p=9}}{{sfn|Addo|pp=53–54}}

After obtaining his teacher's certificate from the [[Prince of Wales' College]] at Achimota in 1930,<ref name="Graphic Online Article" /> Nkrumah was given a teaching post at the Roman Catholic primary school in [[Elmina, Ghana|Elmina]] in 1931.<ref name="Graphic Online Article">{{cite web|url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html|title=Biography of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah|date=8 March 2016|publisher=Graphic Online|access-date=21 August 2017|archive-date=19 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619140316/https://www.graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/biography-of-ghana-s-first-president-dr-kwame-nkrumah.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After a year there, he was made headmaster of the school at [[Axim]]. In Axim, he started to get involved in politics and founded the Nzema Literary Society. In 1933, he was appointed a teacher at the Catholic seminary at [[Amissano]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28819/1/10672987.pdf|last=Biney|first=Barbara Ama|date=April 2007|website=University of London|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=15 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615140618/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28819/1/10672987.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="africanakua.com">{{Cite web|title=WOMEN, TRUE FIGHTERS OF FREEDOM – AFRICA NAKUA|url=https://africanakua.com/2019/05/22/women-true-fighters-of-freedom/|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=21 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421220037/https://africanakua.com/2019/05/22/women-true-fighters-of-freedom/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although life there was strict, he liked it, and considered becoming a [[Jesuit]]. Nkrumah had heard journalist and future [[Nigerian]] president [[Nnamdi Azikiwe]] speak while a student at Achimota; the two men met and Azikiwe's influence increased Nkrumah's interest in black nationalism.<ref>{{Citation|title=Azikiwe, Nnamdi|date=7 April 2005|work=African American Studies Center|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.40103|isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}}</ref> The young teacher decided to further his education.<ref name="africanakua.com"/> Azikiwe had attended [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]], a [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black college]] in [[Chester County, Pennsylvania]], west of [[Philadelphia]], and he advised Nkrumah to enroll there.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rahman|first=Ahmad A.|date=2007|title=The Regime Change of Kwame Nkrumah|language=en-gb|doi=10.1057/9780230603486|isbn=978-1-349-52903-2}}</ref> 

Nkrumah, who had failed the entrance examination for [[London University]], gained funds for the trip and his education from relatives. He travelled by way of [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where he learned, to his outrage, of Italy's invasion of [[Ethiopia]], one of the few independent African nations. He arrived in the [[United States]], in October 1935.<ref name="africanakua.com"/><ref name="newtimes.co.rw">{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana's first president and a revered panafrican|url=https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/222725|date=31 October 2017|website=The New Times {{!}} Rwanda|language=en|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803031204/https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/222725|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=9–12}}

=== United States ===

According to historian [[John Henrik Clarke]] in his article on Nkrumah's American sojourn, "the influence of the ten years that he spent in the [[United States]] had a lingering effect on the rest of his life."{{sfn|Clarke|pp=9–10}} Nkrumah had sought entry to [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]] some time before he began his studies there. On Friday, 1 March 1935, he sent the school a letter noting that his application had been pending for more than a year. When he arrived in [[New York City|New York]] in October 1935, he traveled to Pennsylvania, where he enrolled despite lacking the funds for the full [[semester]].{{sfn|Clarke|p=10}} He soon won a scholarship that provided for his tuition at Lincoln University. He remained short of funds through his time in the US.{{sfn|Rooney|p=12}} To make ends meet, he did menial jobs on roles such as a wholesaler of fish and poultries, cleaner, dishwasher and others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} University of Education, Winneba |url=https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=www.uew.edu.gh |archive-date=5 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205164542/https://www.uew.edu.gh/lib-fetured/ghana-autobiography-kwame-nkrumah |url-status=dead }}</ref> On Sundays, he visited black [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] churches in Philadelphia and in New York.{{sfn|Birmingham|p=4}}

Nkrumah completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology in 1939. Lincoln then appointed him an assistant lecturer in philosophy. He began to receive invitations to be a guest preacher in Presbyterian churches in Philadelphia and New York.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Rhetoric of Kwame Nkrumah: an analysis of his political speeches |url=https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |last=Opoku Mensah |first=Eric |date=February 2014 |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Cape Town |access-date=26 May 2020 |hdl=11427/9290 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045421/https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/9290/thesis_hum_2014_opokumensah_e.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah|url=https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/ |work=The Mt Kenya Times |language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=2 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200602070935/https://www.mtkenyatimes.co.ke/auto-draft-3/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1939, Nkrumah enrolled at Lincoln's seminary and at the [[Ivy League]] institution, the [[University of Pennsylvania]] in Philadelphia and in 1942, he was initiated into the Mu chapter of [[Phi Beta Sigma]] fraternity at Lincoln University.<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Kwame Nkrumah, His Afro-American Network and the Pursuit of an African Personality |url=https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |last=Amoh |first=Emmanuella |date=March 2019 |type=MS thesis |publisher=Illinois State University |access-date=26 May 2020 |doi=10.30707/ETD2019.Amoh.E |archive-date=5 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205195414/https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2067&context=etd |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> Nkrumah gained a [[Bachelor of Theology]] degree from Lincoln in 1942, the top student in the course. He earned from Penn the following year a Master of Arts degree in philosophy and a Master of Science in education.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=13–14}} While at Penn, Nkrumah worked with the linguist [[William Everett Welmers]], providing the spoken material that formed the basis of the first descriptive grammar of his native [[Fante dialect]] of the [[Akan language]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Descriptive Grammar of Fanti|last=Welmers|first=William Everett|publisher=Linguistic Society of America|year=1946|pages=7}}</ref> Nkrumah was also initiated into [[Prince Hall Freemasonry]] while living in the United States.<ref>{{Cite conference |last=Rahman |first=Ahmad |title=African American Freemasonry and African Liberation: An Unknown History |conference=American Historical Association 123rd Annual Meeting |date=January 2009 |location=New York |url=https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |access-date=2024-05-31 |archive-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902105232/https://aha.confex.com/aha/2009/webprogram/Paper2449.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sakyi |first=Kwesi Atta |title=Special Tribute to Dr Kwame Nkrumah |url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Special-Tribute-to-Dr-Kwame-Nkrumah-286481 |date=22 September 2013 |website=GhanaWeb}}</ref>

Nkrumah spent his summers in [[Harlem]], a center of black life, thought and culture. He found housing and employment in [[New York City]] with difficulty and involved himself in the community.<ref>{{Cite web|title=US Speaker Nancy Pelosi & members of Congressional Black Caucus lays wreath at Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park – Friends of the African Union|date=31 July 2019 |url=https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|language=en-US|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803045352/https://friendsoftheafricanunion.com/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-members-of-congressional-black-caucus-lays-wreath-at-kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-and-memorial-park/|url-status=live}}</ref> He spent many evenings listening to and arguing with street orators, and according to Clarke, Kwame Nkrumah in his years in America stated;<ref name="Clarke 1974">{{Cite journal|last=Clarke|first=John Henrik|date=October 1974|title=Kwame Nkrumah: His Years in America|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|journal=The Black Scholar|volume=6|issue=2|pages=9–16|doi=10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|s2cid=141785632|jstor=41065759|issn=0006-4246|access-date=26 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803052005/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00064246.1974.11431459|url-status=live}}</ref>

{{blockquote|These evenings were a vital part of Kwame Nkrumah's American education. He was going to a university – the university of the Harlem Streets. This was no ordinary time and these street speakers were no ordinary men&nbsp; ...The streets of Harlem were open forums, presided over [by] master speakers like Arthur Reed and his protege Ira Kemp. The young {{sic|[[Carlos A. Cooks|Carlos Cook]]}}, founder of the Garvey oriented African Pioneer Movement was on the scene, also bringing a nightly message to his street followers. Occasionally {{sic|[[Sufi Abdul Hamid|Suji Abdul Hamid]]}}, a champion of Harlem labour, held a night rally and demanded more jobs for blacks in their own community&nbsp; ...This is part of the drama on the Harlem streets as the student Kwame Nkrumah walked and watched.{{sfn|Clarke|p=11}}}}

Nkrumah was an activist student, organizing a group of expatriate African students in Pennsylvania and building it into the African Students Association of America and Canada, becoming its president.<ref name="Clarke 1974"/> Some members felt that the group should aspire for each colony to [[African independence movements|gain independence]] on its own; Nkrumah urged a [[Pan-Africanism|Pan-African]] strategy.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Grischow |first=Jeff D. |title=Kwame Nkrumah, Disability, and Rehabilitation in Ghana, 1957—66 |date=2011 |journal=The Journal of African History |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=179–199 |doi=10.1017/S0021853711000260|jstor=23017675|s2cid=162695973|issn=0021-8537}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}} Nkrumah played a major role in the Pan-African conference held in New York in 1944, which urged the United States, at the end of the [[Second World War]], to help ensure Africa became developed and free.{{sfn|Rooney|p=16}}

His old teacher Aggrey had died in 1929 in the US, and in 1942, Nkrumah led traditional prayers for Aggrey at the graveside. This led to a break between him and Lincoln, though after he rose to prominence in the Gold Coast, he returned in 1951 to accept an honorary degree.{{sfn|Addo|pp=62–65}}{{sfn|Owusu-Ansah|p=32}} Nevertheless, Nkrumah's doctoral thesis remained uncompleted. He had adopted the forename Francis while at the [[Amissano]] seminary; in 1945, he took the name Kwame Nkrumah.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=14–15}}

{{Quote box
| quote = Just as in the days of the Egyptians, so today God had ordained that certain among the African race should journey westwards to equip themselves with knowledge and experience for the day when they would be called upon to return to their motherland and to use the learning they had acquired to help improve the lot of their brethren. ...I had not realised at the time that I would contribute so much towards the fulfillment of this prophecy.
| source = — Kwame Nkrumah, ''The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah'' (1957)<ref name=Hagan2>George P. Hagan, "Nkrumah's Leadership Style—An Assessment from a Cultural Perspective", in Arhin (1992), ''The Life and Work of Kwame Nkrumah''.</ref>
| align = right
| width = 26em
}}

Nkrumah read books about politics and divinity, and tutored students in philosophy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-27 |title=Kwame Nkrumah {{!}} Biography, Education, {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |access-date=2023-10-02 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=5 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005072546/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kwame-Nkrumah |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1943 Nkrumah met [[Trinidadians and Tobagonians|Trinidadian]] Marxist [[C. L. R. James]], Russian expatriate [[Raya Dunayevskaya]], and Chinese-American [[Grace Lee Boggs]], all of whom were members of an American-based [[Marxism|Marxist]] intellectual [[Johnson-Forest Tendency|cohort]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kwame Nkrumah • Africanglobe|url=https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|date=8 September 2012|website=AfricanGlobe.Net|language=en-US|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803013412/https://www.africanglobe.net/featured/dr-kwame-nkrumah/|url-status=live}}</ref> Nkrumah later credited James with teaching him "how an underground movement worked".{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}} [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] files on Nkrumah, kept from January to May 1945, identify him as a possible communist.{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=106–107}} Nkrumah was determined to go to London, wanting to continue his education there now that the [[Second World War]] had ended.{{sfn|Addo|p=70}} James, in a 1945 letter introducing Nkrumah to Trinidad-born [[George Padmore]] in London, wrote: "This young man is coming to you. He is not very bright, but nevertheless do what you can for him because he's determined to throw Europeans out of Africa."{{sfn|Sherwood|p=114}}

=== London ===

[[File:KWAME NKRUMAH - 60 Burghley Road Kentish Town London NW5 1UN.jpg|thumb|60 Burghley Road, Kentish Town, London, where Nkrumah lived when in London between 1945 and 1947]]

Nkrumah returned to London in May 1945 and enrolled at the [[London School of Economics]] as a PhD candidate in [[Anthropology]]. He withdrew after one term and the next year enrolled at [[University College London]], with the intent to write a philosophy dissertation on "Knowledge and Logical Positivism".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Matera|first=Marc|date=2010|title=Colonial Subjects: Black Intellectuals and the Development of Colonial Studies in Britain|journal=Journal of British Studies|volume=49|issue=2|pages=388–418|doi=10.1086/649838|jstor=23265207|s2cid=143861344|issn=0021-9371}}</ref> His supervisor, [[A. J. Ayer]], declined to rate Nkrumah as a "first-class philosopher", saying, "I liked him and enjoyed talking to him but he did not seem to me to have an analytical mind. He wanted answers too quickly. I think part of the trouble may have been that he wasn't concentrating very hard on his thesis. It was a way of marking time until the opportunity came for him to return to Ghana."{{sfn|Sherwood|p=115}} Finally, Nkrumah enrolled in, but did not complete, a study in law at [[City Law School|Gray's Inn]].{{sfn|Sherwood|p=115}}

Nkrumah spent his time on political organizations. He and Padmore were among the principal organizers, and co-treasurers, of the Fifth [[Pan-African Congress]] in Manchester (15–19 October 1945).<ref name="Martin">{{cite book |last=Martin |first=G. |year=2012 |title=African Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rqYEhtONIBgC |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |isbn=978-1-137-06205-5 |access-date=31 August 2017 |archive-date=18 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418090708/https://books.google.com/books?id=rqYEhtONIBgC |url-status=live }}</ref> The Congress elaborated a strategy for supplanting colonialism with [[African socialism]]. They agreed to pursue a federal United States of Africa, with interlocking regional organizations, governing through separate states of limited sovereignty.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fulcher|first=James|date=1 November 2000|title=Globalisation, the Nation-State and Global Society|journal=The Sociological Review|language=en|volume=48|issue=4|pages=522–543|doi=10.1111/1467-954X.00231|s2cid=145019590|issn=0038-0261}}</ref> They planned to pursue a new African culture without [[tribalism]], democratic within a socialist system, synthesizing traditional aspects with modern thinking, and for this to be achieved by non-violent means if possible.<ref name=Gebe>{{cite journal|first=Boni Yao |last=Gebe |url=http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no3/GhanasForeignPolicyAtIndependenceAnd.pdf |title=Ghana's Foreign Policy at Independence and Implications for the 1966 Coup D'état |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |volume=2 |issue=3 |date=March 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611023640/http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol2no3/GhanasForeignPolicyAtIndependenceAnd.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2014 }}</ref> Among those who attended the congress was the venerable [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] along with some who later took leading roles in leading their nations to independence, including [[Hastings Banda]] of [[Nyasaland]] (which became [[Malawi]]), [[Jomo Kenyatta]] of [[Kenya]] and [[Obafemi Awolowo]] of [[Nigeria]].<ref name="Running away from our own shadows">{{Cite web|title=Running away from our own shadows|url=https://www.ippmedia.com/en/features/running-away-our-own-shadows|website=www.ippmedia.com|date=23 March 2020|language=en|access-date=27 May 2020|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803001032/https://www.ippmedia.com/en/features/running-away-our-own-shadows|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Rooney|p=23}}

The congress sought to establish ongoing African activism in Britain in conjunction with the [[West African National Secretariat]] (WANS) to work towards the [[decolonisation of Africa]]. Nkrumah became the secretary of WANS. In addition to seeking to organize Africans to gain their nations' freedom, Nkrumah sought to succour the many West African seamen who had been stranded, destitute, in London at the end of the war, and established a Coloured Workers Association to empower and succour them.{{sfn|Rooney|pp=24–25}} The [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] and [[MI5]] watched Nkrumah and the WANS, focusing on their links with Communism.{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=173–178}} Nkrumah and Padmore established a group called The Circle to lead the way to West African independence and unity; the group aimed to create a Union of African Socialist Republics. A document from The Circle, setting forth that goal was found on Nkrumah upon his arrest in Accra in 1948, and was used against him by the British authorities.{{sfn|Rooney|p=25}}{{sfn|Sherwood|pp=125–126}}{{efn|Members swore an oath of secrecy, pledging to "irrevocably obey" orders from the group, to "help a member brother of THE CIRCLE in all things and in all difficulties", to avoid the use of violence, to fast on the twenty-first day of the month, and finally, to "accept the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah".  See: "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6wsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA389|2=The Circle}}" in ''Nationalism in Asia and Africa'' by Elie Kedourie, 1970.}}