9. Dr Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first prime minister and president of Ghana, having led it to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.
Kwame Nkrumah was arrested for leading a disturbing ‘positive action’ campaign in Ghana against British rule in 1950. He was released to lead the newly formed government a year later on 12 February 1951, after his party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), won the 1951 elections. As leader of the new government, Nkrumah prioritised unifying the four territories of the Gold Coast, as Ghana was previously known.