PLO Lumumba Urges African Leaders to "Read All of Nkrumah's Books" for One Week

Renowned Kenyan legal scholar and pan-Africanist Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba has called on African Heads of State and Ministers of Finance to spend a week immersed in the writings of Kwame Nkrumah, arguing that a deep study of Ghana's first president would help the continent's leaders finally grasp the vision he articulated for African unity and self-reliance.

The Occasion
Lumumba was speaking as guest lecturer at the Padmore-Du Bois-Nkrumah Memorial Lecture, held at the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra ahead of Memorial Day celebrations marking the birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah on September 21. The 2026 edition of the annual lecture part of NkrumahFest 2026 was themed "Africa's Economic Independence in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape" and drew dignitaries including Ghana's Minister for Tourism, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, and Volta Regional Minister Hon. James Gunu.

The Core Message
Lumumba's central appeal was blunt: "There are times when I say to myself, African heads of state, most of whom I respect, and ministers of finance should be put in a room for one week to read all the books of Kwame Nkrumah. That they may understand what he understood" a line that drew applause from the audience.

He argued that Nkrumah's vision of a united and self-reliant Africa remains the blueprint the continent needs today, given the scale of its ongoing development challenges.

Africa's Continued Dependence on the West

Lumumba devoted much of his address to what he described as Africa's troubling and unsustainable reliance on Western powers for critical aspects of its development. He painted a picture of a continent perpetually summoned to negotiate on others' terms: "The European Union summons you to Brussels and tells you we can do business, and they don't stop there. They even divide themselves. The British call you. The Italians call you. The Spaniards call you. The Russians call you in Sochi."

The Path Forward
Rather than dwelling only on critique, Lumumba outlined concrete priorities for African self-reliance generating the continent's own electricity, building functioning airlines, and processing raw materials domestically rather than exporting them unprocessed.

"We can be organised. The time for us to be organised is now to ensure we generate electricity, we have our working airline, to add value to our products, so that our animal skins and cotton are processed into clothes and shoes, to undertake research in our own universities," he said.

He closed on a note of resolve, posing and answering his own question about whether economic independence was still achievable: "Will we achieve it? Can we achieve it? Yes we can."

Context
The Padmore-Dubois Nkrumah Memorial Lecture series honours the legacy of Nkrumah alongside fellow pan-Africanists George Padmore and W.E.B. Du Bois, and is held annually to press African leaders toward translating political independence into lasting economic self-reliance.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,

International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. ( USIP)

[email protected]
+233555275880

Sources: 3News (3news.com), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (gbcghanaonline.com)