Death of a Deity

Contradictions hung from him like the charms that once dangled from the arms of his chair to ward off evil spirits. From his birth in a mud hut, Kwame Nkrumah rose to become President of Ghana, an absolute ruler who was thought to be immortal by many of his subjects. But even at the height of his power, he lived in fear of his life, behind heavily guarded walls--calling himself Osagyefo (Redeemer). From 1966 until he died last week of cancer at age 62, in a Bucharest sanitarium where he had gone for treatment, Nkrumah had lived in exile, still regarded at home as part despot, part national hero. Above all, he was the prototypical African nationalist and the first leader of a British colony to win independence for his country after World War II.

His methods were devious, ruthless f and thoroughly effective. Educated in S: Roman Catholic missions and at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, Nkrumah settled in London in the 1940s, em-- braced Communism and developed skills as an orator, agitator and politician. By 1947 he was ready to apply his experience to Africa's Gold Coast, then a British colony. There he formed his own Convention People's Party to press for independence, and even before winning that goal was virtually deified by the people. Jailed by the British for sedition, he controlled his party by messages smuggled out of prison on toilet paper, and was granted his freedom after his candidates swept a 1951 election. Six years later the Gold Coast was accepted into the British Commonwealth as the independent state of Ghana.

In power, Nkrumah's big obsession was the Pan-African movement, a doomed design to unite Black Africa to fight the white settlers of South Africa, Mozambique and Rhodesia. At home, Nkrumah built roads, schools, clinics and a $200 million hydroelectric dam--a frenzy of spending that brought his country close to bankruptcy. Ghanaians are still trying to evaluate the results. "When I personally look around and see his impressive developments," said Joshua Attoh-Quarshie, a businessman who once opposed the dictator so strongly that he spent nearly eight years in jail without trial under the Preventive Detention Act, "I begin to wonder where Ghana would be now if the so-called God-fearing intellectuals had gained power earlier."

Nkrumah's despotic ruling style aroused so much resentment that after a coup in 1966 he had to flee to Guinea for asylum. When it became apparent last month that he was near death after a long bout with cancer, Guinea's President Sekou Toure pleaded with the Ghana government to let the deposed leader come home to die. Most sentimental Ghanaians seemed willing, but the country's military rulers remained adamant. Only after his death did they relent and order flags lowered to half-mast before burying Nkrumah in his homeland.

"He was a great man who had every chance to reach the greatest height of human achievement," said Komla Gbedemah, who had built Nkrumah's party, then had to flee to escape imprisonment. "But halfway along the road he allowed bad advice and his own personal love for absolute power to corrupt him. The deprivations and sufferings he went through should be enough penance for the mistakes and sins he committed while ruling Ghana."

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