Kwame Nkrumah's Speech

At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever! And yet again, I want to take the opportunity to thank the genes and people of this country; the youth, the farmers, the women who have so nobly fought and won this battle.

Also, I want to thank the valiant ex-service men who have so cooperated with me in this mighty task of freeing our country from foreign rule and imperialism.

And, as I pointed out at the conference at Saltpond, I made it quite clear that from now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realise that from now on we are no longer a colonial but a free and independent people.

But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work. I am depending upon the millions of the country, the chiefs and people to help me to reshape the destiny of this country. We are prepared to pick it up and make it a nation that will be respected by every other nation in the world.

We know we are going to have a difficult beginning but again I'm relying upon your support, I'm relying upon your hard work, seeing you in these thousands, it doesn't matter how far my eyes go, I can see that you are here in your millions.

And my last warning to you is that you are to stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance, he can show the world that he's somebody.

We have awakened, we shall no more go back to sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world, that new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.

We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, young as we are, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation.

As I said to the Assembly a few minutes ago, I made a point that we are going to create our own Africa personality and identity. It is the only way in which we can show the world that we are ready for our own