In the United States, Nkrumah became active in politics and race relations. He became exposed to the Pan-African ideas of political activist W.E.B. Du Bois and Jamaican Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey.
During the 1930s and ’40s, his leadership skills started to emerge when he joined a group of African students to create the National African Students Association, which he was elected president. He published his philosophical ideas in a pamphlet called Towards Colonial Freedom.
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