The most charismatic of this generation of African leaders was Kwame Nkrumah (KWA-may ihn-CROO-mah) (1909–1972). Nkrumah spent ten years studying in the United States, where he was influenced by European socialists and Marcus Garvey. He returned to the Gold Coast after the Second World War and entered politics. Under his leadership the Gold Coast — which he renamed “Ghana” — became the first sub-Saharan state to emerge from colonialism.

Nkrumah came to power by building a radical party that appealed particularly to modern groups — veterans, merchant women, union members, urban toughs, and cocoa farmers. He and his party injected the joy and enthusiasm of religious revivals into their rallies and propaganda: “Self-Government Now” was their credo, secular salvation their promise. Rejecting halfway measures — “We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility” — Nkrumah and his Convention People’s Party staged strikes and riots.

After he was arrested in 1950, the “Deliverer of Ghana” campaigned from jail and saw his party win a smashing victory in the 1951 national elections. Called from prison to head the transitional government, Nkrumah and his nationalist party defeated westernized moderates and more traditional political rivals in free elections. By 1957 Nkrumah had achieved worldwide fame and influence as Ghana became independent. After Ghana’s breakthrough, independence for other African colonies followed rapidly. The main problem in some colonies, such as Algeria, was the permanent white settlers, not the colonial officials. Wherever white settlers were numerous, as in Kenya and Rhodesia, they fought to preserve their privileged position.