Wikipedia

Samia Nkrumah

Honourable Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah (born 23rd June 1960)[1] is a Ghanaian politician and former chairperson of the Convention People's Party (CPP) making her the first woman to ever head a major political party in Ghana.[2] In the 2008 parliamentary election, she won the Jomoro constituency[3] seat on her first attempt. She is the daughter of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.[4]

Honourable
Samia Nkrumah
MP
Nkrumah smiling
Nkrumah in October 2009
Chairperson of the Convention People's Party
In office
September 2011 – September 2015
Preceded byLadi Nylander
Succeeded byEdmund N. Delle
Member of Parliament
for Jomoro constituency
In office
7 January 2009 – 6 January 2013
Preceded byLee Ocran
Succeeded byFrancis Kabenlah Anaman
Personal details
Born
Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah

(1960-06-23) 23 June 1960 (age 64)
Aburi, Ghana
Political partyIndependent
SpouseMichele Melega
ChildrenKwame Thomas Melega
Parent(s)Kwame Nkrumah (father)
Fathia Nkrumah (mother)
RelativesGamal Nkrumah (brother)
Sekou Nkrumah (brother)
Alma materSchool of Oriental and African Studies
OccupationPolitician and journalist
WebsiteParty website

Early life and education

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Samia was born at Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana in 1960.[5] She was forced to leave Ghana with her mother and brothers on the day of the 1966 military coup that overthrew Kwame Nkrumah. The family were resettled in Egypt by the Egyptian government.[6]She returned with her family in the year 1975 at the invitation of General Acheampong's National Redemption Council government and attended Achimota School. However, she left the country again when her mother decided to return to Egypt in the early 1980s. Samia proceeded to London and later completed her studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in the United Kingdom, where she obtained the degree of Bachelor Arabic Studies in the year 1991. She also completed a Master's degree at the same institution in the year 1993.[1]

Career

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Honorouble Samia Yaba Nkrumah started work as a bank clerk with the London branch of the Bank of India in 1984. She then worked with Al-Ahram as a journalist in various capacities starting from the year 1989.[1] In 2024, she started working on a coconut factory in Jomoro Constituency, an initiative that seeks to make the Jomorocommunity a Global Hub for Coconut Processing and add value to the lives of the people living there.[7]

Politics

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In an article about her, entitled "The new Mandela is a woman", the Huffington Post described and analyzed her impact on Ghanaian and African politics. She is one of the founders of Africa Must Unite,[8] which aims to promote Kwame Nkrumah’s vision and political culture.[9] As part of this philosophy, she decided to go into active politics in Ghana.[10] In 2023, she intended to contest for the Jomoro Constituency seat as an Independent Candidate in the 2024 Ghanaian general election.[11] Samia Nkrumah, a former member of parliament and chair of a major political party in Ghana, urged the president to veto an anti-LGBT bill, calling it “brutal, harsh, and unjust.” On February 28, Ghana’s parliament passed a draconian bill that increases criminal penalties for consensual same-sex conduct and criminalizes individuals and organizations who advocate for the rights of LGBT people. Additionally, the bill criminalizes failure to report an LGBT person to the authorities and to report anyone who uses their social media platform to produce, publish, or disseminate content promoting activities prohibited by the bill.

Since then, prominent individuals, such as Nkrumah, have urged President Nana Akuffo Addo to reject the bill. This includes a memo from Ghana’s finance minister to the president, warning of the bill’s disastrous economic consequences if it were to become law.[12]

Member of Parliament

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In December 2008, she contested the Jomoro constituency seat in the Western Region of Ghana and beat the incumbent MP, Lee Ocran of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) with a majority of 6,571, winning about 50% of the total valid votes cast.[13][14] Being the only CPP member of parliament, she had to either align with NDC who were the majority in parliament or the minority NPP.[15] She decided on the latter, aligning with the NPP in the House of 5th Parliament of the 4th Republic of Ghana.[16][17] She represented the constituency from 2011 to 2015.[18]

Chairperson of CPP

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She became the first woman to ever head a major political party in Ghana. Her victory, along with three other female members of the party, is hailed as marking the renaissance of the ailing CPP, and an affirmation of the party's long held tradition of promoting women's rights. She was elected as the first woman chairperson of the Convention People's Party on 10 September 2011. She won the poll with 1,191 votes, and her nearest contender, the incumbent, polled 353 votes. With this feat, she became the first woman to ever head a major political party in Ghana. She served in this role until 2015.[19][20]

Personal life

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Nkrumah, his family and Nasser, 1965 (The little girl - Samia Nkrumah)

Samia is the second child and daughter of Kwame Nkrumah,[21] Ghana's first President and Fathia Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957.[4]

An influential advocate of pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.[22]

Samia has two brothers: Gamal Nkrumah, Sekou Nkrumah. She also has an older half-brother, Professor Francis Nkrumah,[23] a retired lecturer and consultant pediatrician who worked as a director at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Legon, Ghana.[24] In July 2023, she had a debate with her brother Sekou Nkrumah on whether their father was a dictator or not.[25]

After her father was overthrown in Ghana's first successful military coup d'état on 24 February 1966,[26] Samia, her mother, and her brothers, had to flee to Cairo, Egypt on a plane sent by Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, to stay in the country while her father went into exile in Guinea.[27]

She is married to Michele Melega, an Italian-Danish man. They have a son, Kwame Thomas Melega.[28][29] Samia is fluent in Arabic, Italian, Danish, and English. She has worked many years as a journalist and media consultant, including in the Egyptian media space.[1][30] She is also an advocate against child marriage, for women's empowerment, and women's affairs.[31]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Samia Nkrumah. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  2. ^ Duodo, Samuel; Bonney, Emmanuel (11 March 2024). "Electoral system needs reforms - Samia Nkrumah". Graphic Online. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  3. ^ "Ghana MPs - Constituency Details - Jomoro". Ghana MPs. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  4. ^ a b "Samia Nkrumah". The Rhodes Forum 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  5. ^ "Samia Nkrumah 'the Amazing'". The Ghanaian Journal. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  6. ^ Reggie Tagoe Pan-African News Wire (19 February 2007). "Samia Nkrumah Says That Her Father, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Wanted to Return to Ghana". Abayomi Azikiwe. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  7. ^ Online, Peace FM. "Electoral System Needs Reforms - Samia Nkrumah". Peacefmonline.com - Ghana news. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Africa Must Unite". Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  9. ^ "Africa Must Unite, for a new Ghana". Africa Must Unite. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  10. ^ "Samia Nkrumah: Candidate in the 2008 parliamentary elections in Ghana". Samia Nkrumah. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  11. ^ "Samia Nkrumah to make another attempt at Jomoro Seat as Independent MP". GhanaWeb. 24 September 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  12. ^ "Ghana's Leaders Push Back on Anti-LGBT Bill | Human Rights Watch". 12 March 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Parliamentary Results Jomoro (Western Region)". Parliamentary election results. Ghana Home Page. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  14. ^ "Ghana poll results show tight race". Aljazeera. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  15. ^ "Battle For Samia". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  16. ^ "Samia seeks 'independence' in Parliament - MyJoyOnline.com". MyJoyOnline. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  17. ^ "Samia Nkrumah asserts her independence in Parliament". BusinessGhana. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  18. ^ "CPP flagbearer visits Nkrumah's tomb, swears oath with water". GhanaWeb. 7 March 2024. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  19. ^ "Samia wins heart of CPP guru". Modern Ghana. 13 September 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  20. ^ "Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, Biography". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  21. ^ "Losing our father was the price we paid for Ghana's independence - Samia Nkrumah - MyJoyOnline". www.myjoyonline.com. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  22. ^ Rathbone, Richard (23 September 2004). "Nkrumah, Kwame (1909?–1972), president of Ghana". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/31504. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  23. ^ "Africa must re-examine, implement Nkrumah's ideas - Francis Nkrumah". Modern Ghana. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  24. ^ "Past Directors". Noguchi me dress. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  25. ^ "Samia, Sekou Nkrumah debate on whether Kwame Nkrumah was a dictator". GhanaWeb. 17 July 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  26. ^ "MyJoyOnline.com - Myjoyonline (Ghana News) Ghana's most comprehensive website. Independent, Fearless and Credible journalism". MyJoyOnline. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  27. ^ "Nkrumah, Fathia (c. 1931—) | Encyclopedia.com". Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  28. ^ "Onsy proposed to me' – Samia". Class FM.
  29. ^ "Samia Nkrumah". The Rhodes Forum 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  30. ^ "Samia Nkrumah | West Africa Gateway | Portail de l'Afrique de l'Ouest". west-africa-brief. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  31. ^ "'Desperate Actions' like Child Marriage Due to Poverty Triggered by Climate Change: Ghana leader Samia Nkrumah". News18. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
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Parliament of Ghana
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Jomoro
2009–2013 		Succeeded by
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