""Africa is rather quickly awakening from its 1,000-year slumber," the magazine proclaimed, and it named one figure as the personification of this revival: Kwame Nkrumah, of the Gold Coast, a British colony in West Africa, who had "one of the most illustrious titles held by any Negro anywhere in the world." He was the colony's first Prime Minister-and, people were realizing, its last."
"In many ways, Ebony got it right. Nkrumah became not only a head of state but a global symbol of freedom, and the continent followed his lead. By the mid-nineteen-sixties, Africa had been transformed from a patchwork of colonies to one of mostly independent countries, each devoted, at least in theory, to self-determination. But, in Ghana, Nkrumah grew increasingly authoritarian-he styled himself "Osagyefo," the Redeemer-and increasingly unpopular, and when the military overthrew him, in 1966, there was relatively little protest."
Kwame Nkrumah rose from colonial Gold Coast politics to lead Ghana to independence in 1957, becoming a global symbol of freedom. International figures including Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. attended Ghana's independence celebrations. By the mid-1960s, Africa had shifted from colonies to mostly independent states devoted to self-determination in theory. Nkrumah increasingly centralized power, styled himself Osagyefo, the Redeemer, and grew unpopular, leading to a military coup in 1966 with little protest. Many postcolonial leaders experienced truncated or prolonged rule marked by coups, assassinations, and authoritarianism, producing both soaring hopes and bitter aftermaths; figures like Idi Amin exemplified the latter.
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