Despite being a revolutionary thinker and Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah always found time to connect with his family.
This rare photograph of him, shared by X user JasperZiggle on Saturday, October 4, 2025, shows Nkrumah seated beside his mother, Elizabeth Nyanibah, offering aa glimpse into the bond they shared.
Believed to have been taken in the late 1940s after his return from studies abroad, the image captures Nkrumah in a neatly tailored suit while his mother, dressed in traditional Ghanaian attire, sits gracefully at his side.
Dr Nkrumah was the 9th child of his father, a goldsmith and the only child of Elizabeth Nyanibah, a retail trader from Nkroful who often engaged him in petty trading and fish mongering.
She ensured her son never lost sight of education.
“Nyanibah was a strong woman — hardworking, gentle, yet firm. She carried her son on her back to the village school every morning when he was too small to walk the distance. She sold food in the market and used her earnings to buy him books, always reminding him,” the post accompanying the photo said.
A biography by the New York Public Library notes, “Early in his life, Nkrumah’s mother strongly insisted that he start his formal education. His father supported the idea and Nkrumah was sent to a local elementary school operated by a Roman Catholic mission. He disliked school initially but eventually developed an interest and started enjoying his lessons to the point he was always looking forward to being in school. He did well at school and became a pupil-teacher after eight years in elementary school.
“Nkrumah’s performance as a pupil-teacher was quite impressive. Thus, in 1926, he was sent to train at the Government Training College that later became the Achimota College in Accra, the present-day capital city of Ghana. He graduated from Achimota in 1930 and became a teacher at a Roman Catholic primary school in Elmina. He soon moved on to take up a headmaster position at another Roman Catholic school in the coastal town of Axim. Later on, Nkrumah also taught at a Catholic seminary at Amissano and even considered priesthood as a career.”
This rare photo is a reminder of the sacrifices of a mother who nurtured Ghana’s first president.
Read the post below:
Dr Kwame Nkrumah with his mother
Young Francis Nia-Kofi Ngonloma, later known as Kwame Nkrumah, grew up in the small town of Nkroful with his mother, Madam Elizabeth Nyaniba. His father was often away as a goldsmith, so little Kwame’s world was mostly shaped by his mother’s… pic.twitter.com/NOVZEQwyXr
— POVERTY (@JasperZiggle)
October 4, 2025
JKB/EB
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