Socialist Nkrumah Government of Ghana Overthrown, February 24, 1966

We in Ghana, are committed to the building of an industrialised socialist society. - Kwame Nkrumah

On February 24, 1966 a violent military coup backed by the CIA overthrew the socialist government of Ghana led by the Convention People's Party and President Kwame Nkrumah. Hundreds were killed.

The new military dictatorship rounded up and imprisoned officials and supporters of the CPP government, and Nkrumah, who was out of the country on a peace mission to Vietnam, was forced into exile for the rest of life.

The new pro-western regime reversed many of the strides forward socially of the Nkrumah era and opened the country up to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank with much of the economy and natural resources being privatized and put under the control of western business interests.

What is past is prologue.

See also: In Venezuela as in Chile, what is past is prologue