One could write endlessly about the All-African hero, Kwame Nkrumah. He was a superbly energetic megalomaniac who, by his own account, even "relaxed by working". A well read, politically active and educated Ghanaian, much traveled in the West, he was called to Ghana from London, to act in a role of a political organizer to a party of lawyers and intellectuals, who were being groomed by the Brits to lead a political reform on the Gold Coast.
The leftist (self proclaimed "marxist socialist") Nkrumah quickly had a falling out with the party and set out to create his own, CCP, preaching immediate independence as the way to better all the wrongs suffered by the people of Ghana.
A man of ability, he instantly became a political magician of the people of all walks of life, agitated protests (that eventually turned violent), and was elected as prime minister while serving prison time.
In this role he almost tore Ghana apart by taking over the Cocoa Marketing Board which turned corrupt, sieving money to his CCP party, and further fucked over the Cocoa farmers in setting the fixed prices of cocoa at 1/3 of the global price, simply to save government funds.
But despite another spate of violence in protest of this, he still won another election with relative ease, at which point the Brits were satisfied enough to award independence.
It was 1957. To the Brits, Gold Coast was special. It had been the leading producer of Cocoa for four decades, it's farming system well developed and prosperous, it was wealthy, had the best education system and most advanced reservoir of trained workers of all the colonies. They believed Ghana was ready.
During the next decade in power, Nkrumah achieved much.
The Akosombo hydro-electric plant in the Volta river continues to produce cheap power for Ghana to this day. The road network was improved at an immense rate. He also built the largest dry dock in Africa as a sign of prestige (though it was rarely used). He ordered an airmail bride, with whom he did not share any language with, from Egypt's Nasser and married, trying family life.
But his party also had a jarring effect on government operations and as soon as 1960 government corruption was, by a particularly eloquent account described as a "howling monster threatening to wreck the whole nation".
Party officials promoted their family members and private businesses at will, heedless of consequence. An independent corruption investigation found out that corruption was pervasive in absolutely every level of society, from minister down, as everyone routinely required a 10% bribe to perform any function or basic task. Angered, Nkrumah declared an ultimatum, ordering ministers and high officials to either "give up the loot" or to leave the office. But in reality, little was done.
The price of Cocoa plummeted in -61, affecting economy adversely. Taxing was sharply increased, the cost of living rocketing. Despite this, Nkrumah dove into almost any project he could come up with, impatient to spectacularly transform Ghana.
Steelworks, mines, shipyards, a footwear factory constructed at eight times the price an adviser suggested, a medical plant, at ten times the price. A visit to Soviet Union in -61 convinced him huge state run corporations were a shortcut to success and many were founded, only to produce nothing while running at a huge loss. An airline, flying jets to Cairo and other cities, was founded with the only passengers being party members using public funds.
A press, which served only to employ relatives of the management, but never printed anything, mechanized state farming to replace a relatively well producing farming system, all of which turned into graveyards of rusting machinery (and halved the Cocoa production), and countless useless projects foreign businessmen peddled.
Dissidents of neighbouring countries received training in Ghana. Nkrumah even reputedly attempted to organize assassinations among other African leaders he disliked, making him extremely unpopular by his counterparts, already in paroxysms of rage over his vainglorious personality cult and aspirations as a pan-African leader.
A huge complex for a single OAU meeting in 1965, with 65 superbly furnished villas, a banquet hall for 2000 guests and fountains that shot water 60 to feet of height was built, while people were lining for food. The standard of living for the average peasant was reduced to a level similar between the World Wars. By 1965 Ghana was bankrupt, turned from one of the most prosperous countries in all of the tropics to one suffering from food shortages and quite apparently in huge debt.
But it was impossible to asses in how much debt exactly, since the records of public contracts were not kept at the government files. In fact, Nkrumah was in the habit of awarding contracts personally without consulting anyone. In a catastrophe of finances, the absence of proper records made it utterly impossible to know exactly where most of the money had gone, and worse, what still lay ahead, as much of Ghana's future revenues had been mortgaged by Nkrumah in his impatience to run projects even after funds had dried out.
Nkrumah also introduced a one party system by 1963 but that changed little, as he had pursued opponents mercilessly from the beginning, surrounding himself with sycophants. He used violence, bribes and threats to break strikes, had complete control of the media and purged his own cabinet and ministers at will.
Special courts, from which there was no appeal, worked full time as Nkrumah mercilessly destroyed anyone who suspected the wisdom of his policies. Dissidents were jailed without trial. Yet, all of this only covers some of what he managed and merely touches his aspirations as a pan-African leader, the President of Africa or his various attempts at global politics, in which he tried to work as a mediator. His energy was, indeed, limitless.
But everything comes to an end. While Nkrumah was in Beijing during 1966, vainly trying to mediate the Vietnam War, the army ousted him. Of Sandhurst tradition the officers had stood aside without meddling to that point, though worried by the corruption and poverty Nkrumah had driven Ghana into, but when he interfered with the army, planting spies, trying to exert his control and break cohesion, it was deeply resented. Nkrumah caused further anger and inflamed egos of the military clique by favouring his private Presidential Guard regiment with better weapons, uniforms and special salary rates. This would in the end finish him.
As an amusing note, because of the poor records rampant under Nkrumah's reign, years after the coup, weird shit kept popping up. A 7500 ton yacht was delivered for Nkrumah's personal use. A 5£ mil warship suddenly turned up. Nobody knows how many projects were bought but simply never delivered.
Finally, Nkrumah set a bad precedent for future leaders. He was first accepted in the West as a type of a philosopher king, something that many future African leaders would strive to emulate, as well as his grasping at socialism, impressed as Nkrumah was by the Soviet Union and West European welfare states founded after the Second World War.
