Kwame Nkrumah: Ousted from power

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, one of Africa's most famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana. While he was out of the country, the Ghanaian military and police seized power in a coup. Ghanaian film maker Chris Hesse worked closely with Nkrumah and was with him at the time. In 2021, Chris spoke to Alex Last about his memories of the coup and his friendship with the man who led Ghana to independence. (Photo: Kwame Nkrumah after Ghana's independence from Britain. Credit: Bettman, Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:11.5	Today we're going back to February 1966 when Kwame and Krumah, one of Africa's most
0:18.0	famous leaders, was ousted from power in Ghana.
0:22.5	Chris Hessey worked closely with and Krumah as his official cinematographer and was with
0:28.3	him at the time. He spoke to Alex last in 2021.
0:35.4	On Thursday the 24th of February 1966, the Ghana Armed Forces in cooperation with the Ghana
0:43.6	Police Service took over the range of government of this country.
0:48.4	In 1966, the first leader of Ghana and one of the most prominent men in Africa,
0:53.2	Kwame and Krumah was deposed while he was out of the country.
0:57.1	And what may be truly described as one of the most historic and boldest ventures
1:04.4	in the history of this country.
1:07.2	I find very difficult to brush in Krumah off my mind because I saw exactly what happened.
1:25.8	Chris Hessey is a legendary Ghanaian filmmaker. He was with Kwame and Krumah when the coup happened
1:32.0	because in the 1950s and 60s he worked as the official cinematographer for the Ghanaian leader.
1:50.2	Just under a decade earlier in 1957, Kwame and Krumah had led Ghana to independence,
1:55.6	becoming the first African nation to free itself from European colonial rule.
2:02.1	We must realize that from now on we are no more ecolonial but a free and independent people.
2:12.4	I worked with him for 10 years and I've been trying to live with him.
2:15.8	Yeah, we did a lot of things together. I was then 24, 25, small boy.
2:22.1	What was he like?
2:23.4	Krumah was an ordinary human being. Very Christian, he spoke his mind, he spoke the truth.
2:30.7	He was extremely honest, very nice man, very, very nice president.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.