Meet the legendary black leaders in history who never saw eye to eye

Kwame Nkrumah and Sylvanus Olympio

The disagreement between Ghanaian leader Nkrumah and Togo’s Olympio began in the early 1950s when the Gold Coast was about to gain its independence and become Ghana. At the time, questions were raised as to what would become of the Trans/Volta ‘appendage’ of the Gold Coast; whether it should be allowed to achieve independence with the Gold Coast, or to secede and unite, instead, with the territory of which it had once formed part now called ‘French Togoland’ which was also on its way towards independence under the name Togo.

Nkrumah and other politicians wanted Trans/Volta to stay with the Gold Coast and become part of Ghana but Ewe politicians in French Togoland, including Olympio, as well as, their allies in the Gold Coast, wanted otherwise. After a referendum was held in 1956, the majority of the people of Trans/Volta Togoland decided to stay in Ghana, angering Olympio and his Ewe allies in Ghana. Thus, when fast forward, Nkrumah, as president, wanted to integrate Togo into Ghana, Olympio (then Togo’s president) disagreed and preferred that Togo remained independent with concerns that by being integrated into Ghana, the Togolese people risked being dominated by Ghana. The relationship between Nkrumah and Olympio got so tense to the extent that Ghana was openly welcoming Olympio’s political critics, while opponents of Nkrumah’s regime were being welcomed in Togo. There were reports of multiple assassination attempts against each leader, thus, when Olympio was assassinated in a military coup in 1963 and his government overthrown, many political observers concluded that Nkrumah was behind the coup.