How Ghanaian-born Kwame Nkrumah's 80-year-old blind mother

The first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, describes in his book Dark Days in Ghana the sufferings his family went through after the National Liberation Council overthrew the government on February 24, 1966.

After the military administration that replaced him, Kwame Nkrumah, who lived outside of Ghana for the entirety of his post-coup era, emphasized how his family was singled out and mistreated.

According to Kwame Nkrumah, his mother, who was 80 years old and blind at the time, was subjected to cruel treatment when she was ejected from Flagstaff House.

Nkrumah further stated that the government “forced” his mother to go before a Commission of Inquiry and acknowledge that Kame Nkrumah was not a native of Ghana and that she was not his real mother.

Kwame Nkrumah gave his mother a particular honor because she refused to let the regime exploit her as a tool for historical revisionism.

“My mother, who was staying at Flagstaff House and was eighty years old and nearly blind, was forcibly removed and told to go ‘where you belong.'” I know that she was brought to my birthplace, Nkroful, by some acquaintances. Afterwards, the real house where I was born was set on fire by ‘N.L.C.’.

In order to force my mother to acknowledge that I was not her son and that I was not even a Ghanaian, I made her appear before a “commission of enquiry.” On page 25 of the book, Nkrumah stated, “I am proud to know that she resolutely refused to say anything of the sort and conducted herself with the utmost dignity.”