Fathia Halim Rizk landed in Accra on 30 December 1957 and married Kwame Nkrumah that evening at Christiansborg Castle. Ghana’s prime minister had chosen a young Egyptian bride as a statement about African unity.
A political marriage
Nkrumah had led Ghana to independence in March 1957. He chose to marry Fathia, a young Coptic woman from Cairo, as a symbol of the unity he wanted between North Africa and the rest of the continent.
Three children
They had three children, Gamal, Samia and Sekou. Gamal, born in 1959, was named after Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Fathia served as Ghana’s first lady when Nkrumah became president in 1960.
Coup, exile and reunion
After the February 1966 coup Fathia took the children to Egypt, and Nkrumah went into exile in Guinea. He died in 1972. When Fathia died in 2007, she was buried beside him at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra.
