Kwame Nkrumah speaks

President Bush is on his way to Africa for a week-long trip. One of the nations he’ll visit is Ghana.

That’s an occasion for another Black History moment.

When Kwame Nkrumah was born in 1909, his West African homeland was called “Gold Coast.” A British colony, it would soon become the world’s top producer of cocoa beans. (Matter fact, Ghana just celebrated its national “Chocolate Day” yesterday, celebrating what is still its largest cash crop.)

Mr. Nkrumah didn’t get exposed to the philosophy of Pan-Africanism until he came to the United States for his postgraduate studies. And it was here that he founded the African Student Organization in the early ’40s.

Kwame Nkrumah would lead his homeland to independence in 1957. This was the beginning of the end of European colonialism in Africa.

Nkrumah governed the newly constituted Republic of Ghana as its president from 1960 to 1966. (He was overthrown in a military coup.)

In 1960, President Nkrumah spoke before the United Nations General Assembly in New York. I’m streaming a 2-minute excerpt on my Vox blog. Click here to listen.

You can hear (or download) more of this address at the “Democracy Now!” radio archive. You can also hear host Amy Goodman’s interview with Kwame Nkrumah’s son, Gamel, who is a newspaper editor based in Cairo, Egypt. Follow this link to democracynow.org.