Kwame Nkrumah Quotes

We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

We face neither East nor West; We face forward ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Of all literature I studied, the book that did more than any other to fire my enthusiasm was Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

I believe strongly and sincerely that with the deep-rooted wisdom and dignity, the innate respect for human lives, the intense humanity that is our heritage, the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, Marcus Garvey fought for African national and racial equality. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Capitalism is a development by refinement from feudalism, just as feudalism is development by refinement from slavery . Capitalism is but the gentlemen's method of slavery. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

It is only the ending of capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and neocolonialism and the attainment of world communism that can provide the conditions under which the RACE question can finally be abolished and eliminated. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world! ~ Kwame Nkrumah

It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united, Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

For this end Africa needs a new type of citizen, a dedicated, modest, honest and informed man. A man submerges self in service to the nation and mankind. A man who abhors greed and detests vanity. A new type of man whose humility is his strength and whose integrity is his greatness ~ Kwame Nkrumah

A State in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Thought without practice is empty; and action without thought is blind.
(The other 'quote' has it backwards.) ~ Kwame Nkrumah

The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries of the world. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Your secret behavior will be inherited by your children! If Nelson Mandela was a symbol of reconciliation; then reconciliation is our character. If Kwame Nkrumah was a symbol of unity; then unity is our character. If Patrice Lumumba was a symbol of patriotism; then patriotism is our character. If Robert Mugabe is a symbol of dictatorship; then dictatorship is our character. If Haile Selassie was a symbol of heroism; then heroism is our character. If Samora Machel was a symbol of socialism; then socialism is our character. If Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a symbol of justice; then justice is our character. We are the children of the African patriarchs! They are the fathers of the African nations! We have inherited their secret behaviors. ~ Enock Maregesi

Action without thought is empty. Thought without action is blind. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else ~ Kwame Nkrumah

We are the children of Nelson Mandela; we are the children of Kwame Nkrumah; we are the children of Haile Selassie; we are the children of Samora Machel; we are the children of Robert Mugabe; we are the children of Patrice Lumumba; we are the children of Julius Kambarage Nyerere. We know who we are. ~ Enock Maregesi

The fortunes of the African revolution are closely linked with the world-wide struggle against imperialism. It does not matter where the battle erupts, be it in Africa, Asia or Latin America, the master-mind and master-hand at work are the same. The oppressed and exploited people are striving for their freedom against exploitation and suppression. Ghana must not, Ghana cannot be neutral in the struggle of the oppressed against the oppressor. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Africa is one continent, one people, and one nation. The notion that in order to have a nation it is necessary for there to be a common language, a common territory and common culture has failed to stand the test of time or the scrutiny of scientific definition of objective reality ... The community of economic life is the major feature within a nation, and it is the economy which holds together the people living in a territory. It is on this basis that the new Africans recognise themselves as potentially one nation, whose dominion is the entire African continent. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

The traditional face of Africa includes an attitude towards man which can only be described as being socialist ~ Kwame Nkrumah

If we are to achieve revolutionary Socialism, then we must avoid any suggestion that will imply that there is any separation between the Socialist world and a 'Third World'. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

For centuries, Europeans dominated the African continent. The white man arrogated to himself the right to rule and to be obeyed by the non-white; his mission, he claimed, was to "civilize" Africa. Under this cloak, the Europeans robbed the continent of vast riches and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the African people. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

The best way of learning to be an independent sovereign state is to be an independent sovereign state. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

The essence of neo-colonialism is that the State which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

It is far easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the needle's eye, hump and all, than for an erstwhile colonial administration to give sound and honest counsel of a political nature to its liberated territory. ~ Kwame Nkrumah

When I look at Africa many questions come to mind, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba were to rise up and see what is happening, many times I have asked myself what would happen if Nelson Madiba Mandela were to rise up and see what is happening, because what they will be confronted with is an Africa where the Democratic Republic of Congo is unsettled, there is a war going on there, but it's not on the front pages of our newspapers because we don't even control our newspapers and the media. ~ Patrick L.O. Lumumba

You love me? Like summer loves short nights. Get a checkup, then. Only cure I need is you. I'm serious about this, Chuck. Only doctor I need is Dr. Crystal Bell. Now come here . . . And then there is silence, so I put the pillow over my head because when they stop talking, I know what that means. Uggghh! ~ Kwame Alexander

Basketball Rule #8

Sometimes
you have to
lean back
a little
and
fade away
to get
the best
shot. ~ Kwame Alexander

It's just hard to love someone who cancels the cable right before the Walking Dead marathon. ~ Kwame Alexander

Cultures are made of continuities and changes, and the identity of a society can survive through these changes. Societies without change aren't authentic; they're just dead ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

You know, Chuck,

You're not always gonna swish.

You gonna miss some.
Heck, you gonna miss a lot.

That's the way the rel world works.
But you gotta grab the ball and

keep shooting. You understand?

I tell you what, though,
you'll make a lot more

than you miss if
you're not always going for

the flash
and flair. ~ Kwame Alexander

Self-regarding considerations can be as universalizable as other-regarding considerations: we owe things to ourselves as well as to others ~ Kwame Appiah

...it's
just one miss, but
you're gonna have
a whole lotta makes
in this life, 'cause you're just
that good, and it's okay
to be down
and upset
as long as
you're not down
and out ~ Kwame Alexander

And that, as we've seen, seems consistent with our broader explanatory habits-with the observation that much of what
we say when we're explaining what we've done is confabulation: stories we've made up (though quite sincerely) for ourselves and in response to others. In short-to overstate the point only slightly-because people don't really know why they do what they do, they give explanations of their own behavior that are about as reliable as anyone else's, and in many circumstances actually less so.1a ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

I loved the city, so the feeling in 2001 [election] first was shock, then (I was) nervous, then scared but then it's - I really wasn't happy and ecstatic like I thought I (would be). I was immediately hit with the enormity of the responsibility and the fact that most people in that town - particularly those that voted for me were placing their hopes and dreams in me. That is a big, big stressful place to be. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

tricks are for kids, ~ Kwame Alexander

don't rush though: your eyes need time to taste. your soul needs room to bloom. ~ Kwame Alexander

I was building the plane while flying it in the first term, ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

In short - to overstate the point only slightly - because people don't really know why they do what they do, they give explanations of their own behavior that are about as reliable as anyone else's, and in many circumstances actually less so. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

There were never a lot of attacks on my work. We were building more parks than were ever built in the city, building more recreation centers, fixing more streets. We had national events, the Super Bowl, the (Major League Baseball) All-Star game, Final Four. We built seven hotels. The city hadn't built a hotel in 20 or more years. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

Basketball Rule #1

In this game of life
your family is the court
and the ball is your heart.
No matter how good you are,
no matter how down you get,
always leave
your heart
on the court. ~ Kwame Alexander

if relativism about ethics and morality were true, then, at the end of many discussions, we. would each have to end up by saying, "From where I stand, I am right. From where you stand, you are right." And there would be nothing further to say. From our different perspectives, we. would be living effectively in different worlds. And without a shared world, what is there to discuss? People often recommend relativism because they think it will lead to tolerance. But if we cannot learn from one another what it is right to think and feel and do, then conversation between us will be pointless. Relativism of that sort isn't a way to encourage conversation; it's just a reason to fall silent. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

What were they thinking?' we ask about our ancestors, but we know that, a century hence, our descendents will ask the same thing about us. Who knows what will strike them as strangest? The United States incarcerates 1 percent of its population and subjects many thousands of inmates to years of solitary confinement. In Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden to drive. There are countries today in which homosexuality is punishable by life in prison or by death. Then there's the sequestered reality of factory farming, in which hundreds of millions of mammals, and billions of birds, live a squalid brief existence. Or the toleration of extreme poverty, inside and outside the developed world. One day, people will find themselves thinking not just that an old practice was wrong and a new one right but that there was something shameful in the old ways. In the course of the transition, many will change what they do because they are shamed out of an old way of doing things. So it is perhaps not too much to hope that if we can find the proper place for honor now, we can make the world better. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

Find your grit and put in the work to elevate your game. Champions train. Chumps complain. ~ Kwame Alexander

The job of being president, understanding the particular policies that America has gotten itself into over the past 400 years. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

We have eaten theology with you, will you now eat theology with us? ~ Kwame Bediako

I haven't waited to be summoned for my big moment by a tap on the shoulder from a mysterious, benevolent stranger. It doesn't work that way where I'm from. You make your own opportunities where I'm from. ~ Kwame Onwuachi

Sometimes it's the things that aren't said that kill you" -Josh ~ Kwame Alexander

If you wait long enough, all murders
will have lost their scream, all bloodlines
forgotten, all dynamite broken, all storms
settled, all bones cleaned of the memory of sin. ~ Kwame Dawes

I know in the Christian church the old ladies use to say "what the devil meant for bad God meant for good." So some of the things that I think they went out and tried to be detrimental to my life saved me in a lot of ways. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

Personality is a person among persons. There is no personality of one man on a desert island. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

Identical twins
are no different
from everyone else,
except we look and
sometimes sound
exactly alike. ~ Kwame Alexander

The poems
were cool.

The best ones were
like bombs,
and when all the right words

came together
it was like an explosion. ~ Kwame Alexander

As a matter of fact since Barack Obama has been president it is more overt - I believe - than it's been since the 1940's and 50's and so I am not surprised by it. I think it's an excellent teaching tool, particular for my sons and our people to understand that we still have to build within our community. We still have to work with one another. We still have to connect even with people outside of this country. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

The phrase 'academic freedom' is often used carelessly: here is a work that will allow a more careful conversation about those many crucial issues facing the academy, in which a well-worked out understanding of conceptions of academic freedom is, as its authors show, an essential tool. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

Basketball Rule #10

A loss is inevitable,
like snow in winter.
True champions
learn
to dance
through
the storm. ~ Kwame Alexander

When you are going through something like compaign run nothing happens without Allah's permission. So a lot of the times you just have to surrender to his will and learning how to surrender was a major thing for me, getting me out of the way, surrendering to the will of God. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

Basketball Rule #2 (random text from Dad)
Hustle dig
Grind push
Run fast
Change pivot
Chase pull
Aim shoot
Work smart
Live smarter
Play hard
Practice harder ~ Kwame Alexander

You were the fire bound to burn me, the needle destined to prick me, and the beauty destined to break me. ~ Ezra Kwame

Possibly, there was something to be said for the intellectual discipline of second-guessing what you thought was true. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

To create a life is to create a life out of the materials that history has given you. ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

I can be the mayor; I can do it right now. I can go in there right now and put things together. I was truly anointed for that position and I wasn't mature enough in my spirit, in my manhood to handle that responsibility at the time it was given to me. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick

The most reliable predictor of whether students liked a course, it turned out, was their answer to the question 'Did the professor respect you? ~ Kwame Anthony Appiah

I am listening to the wind,
to the voice in the wind telling me
to write it all down. So I do. ~ Kwame Dawes

We were tolerated. and that is unforgivable. If you cannot accept a man wholeheartedly, then you should have the fortitude to repudiate him.
Kwame in The two hearts of Kwasi Boachi ~ Arthur Japin

Character issues such as drug abuse are not exclusive to Detroit Public Schools. My reference to substance abuse, not intended to focus on any particular school district, was simply used to illustrate this position. ~ Kwame Kilpatrick