TRIBUTE: My first encounter with Gamal Nkrumah — by Victor Oladokun

I first met Gamal Nkrumah in Cairo in 2001. I had come to Egypt to work on a few TV feature stories and to conduct a number of interviews, before going on to Jerusalem and Ramallah to interview the PLO’s Hanan Ashrawi and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the time, Gamal and his Egyptian mother, Fathia Nkurmah, lived in Maadi, a suburban district in the southern part of Cairo. Both he and his mother were gracious, kind, and hospitable. The strong bond between mother and son, and vice versa, was unmistakable.

The interview with Gamal covered his late father, Ghana’s first post-Independence President, Kwame Nkrumah; living in Egypt and not Ghana most of his adult life; and his very prominent career as a political journalist and international affairs editor at the Al-Ahram newspaper in Cairo.

He was soft-spoken, exceedingly polite, and not surprisingly, intellectually brilliant, and geopolitically astute.

At the time, Fathia was still a very elegant 70 year-old. She refused to be interviewed. Behind her beauty and smiles were the hints of pain that did not seem to have faded with time.

The shocking and sad news of his passing yesterday was the end of another chapter in the storied history of the Nkrumah family.

At this time of loss and grief, I send my sincere condolences to his sister Samia, his brother Sekou, the nation of Ghana, as well as to the Government and good people of Egypt who for decades provided Gamal with a haven, an amazing career, and the dignity he well deserved.