Today in History: How Kwame Nkrumah died in Bucharest in 1972

On April 27, 1972, exactly 52 years ago, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, who led the Big Six to gain independence for the nation, died in Bucharest.

Kwame Nkrumah was unconstitutionally ousted from office through a military coup.

Kwame Nkrumah arrived in Conakry, Guinea, after being invited by Sekou Toure just after the military coup that unconstitutionally ousted his government from power.

Nkrumah had been living in Guinea since his overthrow in a military coup in 1966.

Today, the place is known as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum and has become a tourist destination for Ghanaians and those in the Diaspora.

The idea of erecting a monument in honour of Nkrumah dates back to 1972 when the African Students Union sent a memorandum asking the Government of Guinea, then under President Sekou Toure, to send the mortal remains of the Ghanaian leader to Ghana only if the military leaders at that time denounced coup d’état and re-erected the statue of Nkrumah, which was destroyed during the 1966 coup.

Although the remains were later returned to Nkroful, his birthplace, it was not until 1992 that the image of Nkrumah was restored on the Old Polo Grounds, during which the erstwhile Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) decided to build the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Mausoleum.