Félix Houphouët-Boigny: The Man Who Betrayed Africa
On March 6, 1957, Ghana’s first President and Pan-Africanist icon, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, stood at the helm of a newly-independent Ghana, and shared his vision of a truly sovereign, truly united and truly powerful Africa.
That vision was cut short on February 24, 1966, when Nkrumah was overthrown in a CIA-backed coup.
9 years before this coup, and a month after his nation’s independence, Nkrumah went to Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire, for a high-level meeting with the country’s first President and full-throated stooge of the West, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
Africa would perhaps look very different today, if Nkrumah had really understood the intentions of the person he was meeting.
This is the story of how one man betrayed an entire continent.