First published 2025
Kwame Nkrumah arrives in Harlem as a young man from the Gold Coast, his mind alive with possibilities. The bustling streets and political ferment of 1930s New York shape his vision for what his homeland could become. He absorbs American education and witnesses the civil rights struggle firsthand, forging connections between African liberation and Black American freedom movements. When Nkrumah returns to Ghana in the final years of British rule, he carries these lessons with him. He must navigate colonial resistance, unite fractured communities, and build a new nation from the ground up. As independence movements sweep across Africa and the Cold War reshapes global politics, Nkrumah faces impossible choices. His decisions will determine not only Ghana's fate but influence liberation struggles across an entire continent. French dramatizes how one man's journey from student to statesman connects two freedom movements across the Atlantic.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, political-science, african-literature, biography-memoir, 21st-century, african-american-historical-fiction, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water, historical-figure
Setting: Ghana, Gold Coast, Harlem, New York
Period: 1930s, Cold War, Decolonization
512 pages · Hardcover · Liveright