Kwame Nkrumah

Nkrumah, president of Ghana, the first independent black African state, was also a leader in espousing nonalignment and socialism. Interpretations of him range from adoration to scorn. Writing from a Soviet perspective, Smertin sees Nkrumah as fighting global anti-imperialism and states that Nkrumah's importance lay in his recognition that the laws of class struggle are universal and that developing nations need to adhere to principles of scientific socialism. Acknowledging that Nkrumah did not practice what he theorized, Smertin finds that the leader's influence on Africa is still enormous