Some four years before Ghana gained independence in March 1957, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah on February 9, 1953, became presumably the first Ghanaian to grace the front-page cover of the TIME Magazine.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah at 47 years old was the leader of the Convention Peoples Party seeking to bring the country into a new state from British colonial rule.

An image of TIME Magazine's cover from that year in 1953 has emerged online with Dr Kwame Nkrumah captured by Boris Chaliapin who was an artist for the magazine and credited for illustrating more than 400 covers including former US President, Richard Nixon among other notable personalities.

Behind the image of Dr. Nkrumah was the illustration of the African map while an inscription, ‘GOLD COAST'S KWAME NKRUMAH – In the Dark Continent, dawns early light’ captured beneath.

On February 24, 1966, Kwame Nkrumah was deposed in a coup by the National Liberation Council in an operation dubbed “Operation Cold Chop” while he was on visit to Hanoi in Vietnam.

The NLC coup was led by Colonel Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and Lt. Gen Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa.

See the image below:



MA/KPE