The W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture

The W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture is located in the centre of Accra and houses the tomb and graveside of the former African-American Pan Africanist, W.E.B Du Bois and the ashes of his wife.

The centre also serves as a major research centre on African development, a library and a museum. The section of the centre which serves as the museum contains the possessions of the former scholar which are deemed important in telling the life story of the once strong ally of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

The library section of the centre also contains books, manuscripts, letters and articles written by Dr. Du Bois during his lifetime. Here all the important scholarly works of his are kept and made use of by researchers who consult them for academic purposes.

At the entrance of the centre is an inscription from one of his most famous poems “Children from the Moon” mounted on a plaque.

Du Bois’ Tomb

Du Bois’ Relationship with Ghana and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

W.E.B. Du Bois was an African-American scholar and civil rights activist who fought and spoke against racism and maltreatment of Blacks in America and Africans in general. In 1961 he was invited to Ghana by then president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to help write the Encyclopedia Africana, a special encyclopedia on African history.

Du Bois who had heard about the greatness of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and admired him from afar accepted the invitation and traveled to Ghana to honour the request.  Whilst in Ghana he became the personal secretary of Nkrumah after renouncing his US citizenship and adopting Ghana as his home country. He later fell sick and died in 1963, two years after arriving in Ghana.

The section of the centre that currently serves as the museum was the home of Du Bois and his second wife, Shirley.