Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah (Volume 5)

Kwame Nkrumah was a Ghanaian politician and revolutionary. He was the first prime minister and president of Ghana, having led it to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1962.

Samuel Obeng who hails from Wankyi, Ashanti Akim, was born on 10th August 1923. He had his formal education at Bompata Presbyterian Middle School. After school, he enlisted in the West African Frontier Force. He worked with the Information Services Department as a cinema commentator and assistant camera officer after demobilisation from the Army. He was later seconded to the Publicity Secretariat at the Flagstaff House, where he was promoted to the positions of Assistant Information Officer and Information Officer in charge of Press Liaison and Administration.

A member of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's entourage on his historic mission to Hanoi, Samuel Obeng returned to the Information Services Department after the February 24, 1966 coup d'etat, and was assigned the schedule of press liaison and the issuing of newspaper licenses. He was later posted to the Ghana Customs and Excise where he was made responsible for Information and Personnel. He finally left the Civil Service on February 20, 1970.

Samuel Obeng decided to compile some of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's speeches when, in August 1971, an Act 380 came into effect in an apparent attempt to suppress the ideas of Dr. Nkrumah. When the above-mentioned Act was repealed by NRCD 21 of February 9, 1972, he sought for and gained written permission to publish Selected Speeches of Kwame Nkrumah.