Ghana becomes independent: Universal Newsreel, March 1957
Video
An American newsreel report on the independence celebrations in Ghana, with Kwame Nkrumah, Vice President Nixon and Adam Clayton Powell.
Transcript of the narration
Transcription of the original narration, from the Internet Archive's automatic captions. It has not yet been checked against the audio. The translations are machine-made drafts.
Citizens of the new state of Ghana gather for the celebration marking their day of freedom from colonialism. What was once the Gold Coast, a British colony, now becomes an independent Commonwealth. Vice President and Mrs. Nixon represent the United States at the three-day festivities. Native dances and games mark an event of historic importance since Ghana becomes the first Negro colony in Africa to gain its freedom. Premier Kwame Nkrumah chats with Representative Adam Clayton Powell of the U.S. as Ghana's new army passes in review before the American educated Premier and Deputy Secretary Ralph Bunch of the United Nations. Another feature of the occasion is a beauty contest in which the fairest of the land compete. And here is Miss Ghana herself. First queen of a brand new republic.
Context
Ghana became independent at midnight on 5–6 March 1957, the first country south of the Sahara to free itself from colonial rule. This is the first story of an American newsreel released the next day by Universal-International News; the reel then moves on to unrelated stories, which we have removed. Nkrumah's own midnight speech is not in this clip.
The narration uses the vocabulary of its time, including words we would not use today. We publish it unaltered, as a historical document.
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Photograph
Kwame Nkrumah meets President Kennedy, 1961
Ghana's president and the American president at a press appearance during Nkrumah's visit to Washington.
