Fathia Nkrumah (1932-2007; born Fathia Rizk; Arabic: فتحية رزق), was the Egyptian wife of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.
Fathia Nkrumah was born and brought up in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo to a Coptic family. She was the third daughter of a civil servant who died early and Fathia was raised by her mother single-handedly after her husband's untimely death.
After completing her secondary education, she worked as a teacher in her s...
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Fathia Nkrumah (1932-2007; born Fathia Rizk; Arabic: فتحية رزق), was the Egyptian wife of Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana.
Fathia Nkrumah was born and brought up in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo to a Coptic family. She was the third daughter of a civil servant who died early and Fathia was raised by her mother single-handedly after her husband's untimely death.
After completing her secondary education, she worked as a teacher in her school, Notre Dame des Apôtres. As teaching did not appeal to her, she took a job in a bank. At that stage, Kwame Nkrumah proposed to marry her. Her mother was reluctant to see another of her children marry a foreigner and quit the country, as Fathia's brother had left Egypt with his English wife. Fathia explained that Nkrumah was an anti-colonial hero, like Nasser, yet her mother refused to speak to her or bless the marriage. Nkrumah married Fathia the evening of her arrival in Ghana: New Year's Eve, 1957-1958.
Fathia Nkrumah was a very young...
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