Samia Nkrumah, first chairwoman of the Convention People’s Party of Ghana spoke to a packed auditorium of students, faculty and Evanstonians at the Hotel Orrington on Thursday evening.
Nkrumah was forced to leave Ghana as a child when her father, the first president of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was removed in a coup d’etat. She returned 24 years later and currently serves as a member of the Ghanaian Parliament representing the Jomoro district. She is visiting Chicago to take part in the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates as an invited guest.
Nkrumah began her lecture, titled “Ghana’s Democracy and Economic Development,” by stressing her support of her father’s vision of self reliance, something she said is still not present in Ghana today.
As a result of the Cold War and other factors, Nkrumah said, “Africa became a victim of military cause.” She described the repercussions that are still felt in her district today, including a lack of resources for schools and hospitals.
“We have not met the base needs of our people,” Nkrumah said.
However, Nkrumah said that in recent years, Africa has seen a number of peaceful government transitions and a movement toward democracy, which she defined in part as “a concept that prioritizes economic development.”
Nkrumah said that economic development was necessary to fix the discrepancy that “Africa is rich, but Africans are poor.” She expressed her disappointment that major development of the manufacturing sector had yet to occur.
“We gained our political independence to restructure our economies,” Nkrumah said, “but we are still waiting to do that.”