Sunday, June 3, 2007

Fathia Nkrumah and the jewels of the Nile

Fathia Nkrumah ,the widow of Kwame Nkrumah had passed away in Cairo from few days ago and her memorial mass was held in the Orthodox Cathedral Church in Cairo by Pope Shounda himself

Fatahiah ,the widow of the first president of Ghana will leave Egypt for another time to be buried beside her husband there by the wish of Ghana's president Kufuor ,strangely the lady was going to travel to Ghana despite her health condition to attend the 50th celebration of independence.

It seems really from the coverage online that she was really respected and loved by the people there

She had from husband three children : Gamal "Named after the President and currently working in Al-Ahram weekly" ,Samia and Nabil "Sekou"

She was born and raised in Zeitoun in Cairo

She was working in bank when she married Nkrumah , she was 27 years old while he was 49 years old ,they were married in 1958,ironically he wanted to marry her younger sister but the family refused due to the famous tradition that the elder sister should be married first and thus he saw Fathia and her beauty and decided to marry her instead

In 1966 after the overthrown of Nkrumah ,she had to leave to Cairo where she lived with her children , while her husband went to exile in Guinea away from his family for the rest of his life till he died from Cancer in 1977

One piece of history some don't know ,well the majority ,President Nasser gave some of the jewels of the Egyptian Royal family as a wedding present to the bride of the Nile and the African rebel , of course after the coup against her husband and their exile the Jewels were lost !!

 

Sources :

From Al-Ahram : Accra is ready to receive the body of Fathia Nkrumah,the jewel of the Nile

From my joyonline : President Kufuor wants Fathia buried beside Nkrumah

From the Statesman : Fathia Nkrumah is dead

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