Africa’s dependence on foreign powers betrays Nkrumah’s unfinished vision – P.L.O. Lumumba

Renowned Pan-Africanist and anti-corruption crusader Professor P.L.O. Lumumba has warned that Africa’s continued dependence on foreign powers for its medicines, food, technology and global narrative represents a major unfinished chapter of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s vision. Speaking at NkrumahFest 2026 in Nkroful in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, Prof.

Lumumba said the most meaningful way to honour Nkrumah was to confront the challenges that continue to prevent African countries from becoming genuinely self-reliant. The Kenyan scholar and public speaker said Nkrumah’s legacy went beyond Ghana’s independence, arguing that the former leader sought an Africa capable of determining its own political and economic destiny. He said Nkrumah understood from Ghana’s independence in 1957 that the liberation of one African country could not be separated from the freedom of the continent.

“Ghana was free, but the independence of Ghana meant nothing if the rest of Africa was not free.” Prof. Lumumba said Nkrumah’s Pan-African outlook made Ghana a centre for liberation movements and attracted leaders and intellectuals from across Africa and the diaspora. He cited Julius Nyerere, Milton Obote, Kenneth Kaunda, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Dawda Jawara, Jomo Kenyatta, Robert Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, Sam Nujoma, Agostinho Neto, Eduardo Mondlane and Amílcar Cabral, among others.

He also highlighted the influence of figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, George Padmore and Martin Luther King Jr., who were associated with Ghana during Nkrumah’s era. Lumumba said Nkrumah’s call for African unity was not simply about political solidarity but also about the continent acquiring the capacity to provide for itself.

He recalled Nkrumah’s involvement in the Pan-African conferences of the late 1950s and early 1960s and his role in the movement towards the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In May 1963, 32 independent African states met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, culminating in the establishment of the OAU. The African Union identifies the OAU as a manifestation of the Pan-African vision of an Africa that was united, free and in control of its own destiny.

Lumumba said Nkrumah’s warning was that Africa could regain its political independence while remaining vulnerable economically and strategically if it failed to unite. He said subsequent developments had… Pan-Africanist and anti-corruption campaigner Professor P.L.O.