During a keynote address at NkrumahFest 2026 in Nkroful, the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, Professor P.L.O. Lumumba cautioned that Africa’s continued dependence on foreign powers for essential goods and narratives remains a major unfinished chapter of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy.
Speaking to an audience of scholars, activists and dignitaries, the Kenyan academic said the most meaningful way to honour Nkrumah was to confront the obstacles that still prevent African nations from becoming genuinely self‑reliant. He recalled that Nkrumah’s vision extended beyond Ghana’s 1957 independence, insisting that the liberation of one country could not be separate from the freedom of the entire continent.
"Ghana was free, but the independence of Ghana meant nothing if the rest of Africa was not free," Lumumba said. He highlighted how Nkrumah positioned Ghana as a hub for liberation movements, attracting leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela and W.E.B. Du Bois, and how the former president’s Pan‑African outlook called for a continent capable of determining its own political and economic destiny.
Lumumba warned that Africa’s reliance on imported medicines, food, technology and industrial goods contradicts the self‑reliant future Nkrumah envisioned. "When we are sick, we do not make medicine to cure ourselves," he remarked, urging the continent to build its own production capacity.
He also criticised dependence on international media for shaping Africa’s narrative, arguing that a Pan‑African press is essential for Africans to tell their own stories. The professor cited ongoing conflicts in Somalia, Sudan and Cameroon, terrorism in the Sahel, and the migration of young Africans abroad as evidence that the continent must create opportunities at home to avoid losing its talent.
Using the NkrumahFest’s own drone footage and internet coverage as examples, Lumumba called for greater African investment in science, technology and innovation, linking the ambition to Nkrumah’s emphasis on energy infrastructure and the Akosombo project. He concluded, "We are not here just for an annual jamboree. We are here because we know that the work that was started by Kwame Nkrumah is incomplete."
The festival, organized to mark Nkrumah’s 117th birthday under the theme “Nkrumah @117: Celebrating His Enduring Legacy – Africa Must Unite or Perish,” served as a platform for Lumumba to urge the present generation to translate the former leader’s ideas into practical efforts to strengthen African unity, food security, healthcare, technology, energy production and narrative control.
