On Dec 16, 1947: Kwame Nkrumah becomes General Secretary of the UGCC

The fog-filtered African sun on 10 December, 1947, witnessed Kwame Nkrumah's return to the Gold Coast, disembarking at Takoradi after an absence of 12 years. He found a country still very much under British colonial domination, but was soon aware that demand for major political change was fermenting just beneath the surface. Wallace Johnson's communist West African Youth League had infiltrated from Nigeria in 1937 and had stirred the political pot throughout the Gold Coast. Johnson's star waned when he was convicted of sedition and deported in 1938. However, he left behind the residue of discontent with colonialism and a growing but leaderless demand for self-rule. The colonial government moved quickly and decisively to suppress every contentious political movement. Chiefs who showed any inclination towards independence were quickly destooled. Anti-tax movements were rapidly suppressed. Suspect civil servants were sacked and, in some cases, detained. Any challenge to British rule was abruptly terminated. It was into this period of suppression that Kwame Nkrumah arrived home. Within days, he returned to his home at Nkroful for a brief family reunion. Word spread quickly that Nkrumah was home and after a fortnight, he began a series of speaking engagements and meetings in order to sense the level of unrest that lay just beneath the surface throughout the country. A series of meetings with the leadership of the United Gold Coast Convention, (UGCC), founded on 4 August, 1947, and lead by Dr. J. B. Danquah, resulted, on 16 December, 1947, in the appointment of Nkrumah as General Secretary of the Party. From that moment at Saltpond, the die was cast. The Gold Coast had its' leader and was on a fixed and determined course towards independence from Great Britain. Nkrumah began an intense speaking tour throughout the country, and with his unique, impassioned rhetoric, soon had the entire country seething with Pan-African enthusiasm and demands for self-rule. Boycotts of European goods were initiated, labor strikes became common place and work slowdowns began in all areas of the Gold Coast's commerce and industry.