Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Accra, Ghana

First President of Independent Ghana - 1957

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park - Statue

Nkrumah, Aggrey and Upper Yadkin Valley, NC

Kwame Nkrumah was born in Nzima, Ghana September 18, 1909. When enrolled in Achimoto College in Accra, Nkrumah came to know Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey, the first African staff member of the school. Aggrey, born in Ghana in 1875, exposed Nkrumah to the writings of great Africans of the Diaspora such as W.E. B. DuBois, who is buried in Ghana, and Marcus Garvey from Jamaica. Both Aggrey and Nkrumah were educated in the U.S.   

After Dr. Aggrey's death in the U.S. in 1927, Nkrumah attended a memorial service for him at Livingston College in Salisbury, Rowan County, NC in November 1942 where Aggrey was buried in the nearby Oakdale Cenetery. After Nkrumah gave a libation and recited prayers in his native Fante language, he took dirt from the grave back to Ghana to re-connect Dr. Aggrey's spirit to his homeland.

In November 2002, on what would have been the 99th wedding anniversay of Dr. Aggrey and his wife Rosebud from Portsmouth, Virginia, a state historical marker was unveiled in Salisbury for the first time since 1978. It was dedicated to both Dr. Aggrey and Rose, the first marker for a couple in the state.

On March 6, 1957 Kwamah Nkrumah became President of the first sub-Saharian African nation to gain its independence from European colonization.

Historical Marker in NC to Dr. and Mrs. Aggrey

Photo Courtesy of the Salisbury Post, Salisbury, NC

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park - Tomb