Evaluate Nkrumah’s contribution to Ghana’s achievement of independence.

Candidates will make an appraisal of Nkrumah’s role, weighing up its importance or otherwise in the context of the achievement of Ghanaian independence. Candidates may refer to Nkrumah’s personality and role as leader of the Convention People’s Party, the main independence party in the country. They may also focus on his increasing radicalism, especially his role in the Positive Action Campaign against British rule. They may also look at his later willingness to work with the British and his appointment as ‘leader of government business’. Candidates may refer to factors other than Nkrumah, such earlier constitutional developments in the Gold Coast under the British, post-war economic problems in Britain and the relative development of the Gold Coast which would ensure its economic viability. Ultimately Britain was willing to grant independence to ensure a close post-independence relationship with their former colony.