queen visit ghana

How Queen Elizabeth II's Controversial Trip to Ghana Changed the Future of the Commonwealth

In 1961, Queen Elizabeth II planned to go to Ghana, a former British colony that had gained its independence in 1957. But before she left on the trip, which was to take place on November 9 to 20, members of Parliament and the public didn't want her to go due to rising tensions in a country where President Kwame Nkrumah was well on his way to becoming a dictator. They were wary of the visit becoming too dangerous. On October 19, Winston Churchill expressed these sentiments when he wrote to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, saying in part: "I have the impression that there is widespread uneasiness both over the physical safety of the queen and, perhaps more, because her visit would seem to endorse a regime which has imprisoned hundreds of Opposition members without trial and which is thoroughly authoritarian in tendency."

To aid growing tensions, five days before Elizabeth's trip was to begin, bombs went off in the capital city of Accra. A statue of Nkrumah was hit, which showed the president was a target. Concerns about the queen possibly becoming collateral damage while with him were heightened.

Queen Elizabeth insisted on going to Ghana despite the danger involved

But Elizabeth had always been intent on making the trip to Ghana, and the bombings didn't alter this determination. One reason she was reluctant to reschedule was that she'd already canceled on Nkrumah in 1959 when she became pregnant with Prince Andrew . And though Ghana was part of the Commonwealth, along with other nations that had been part of the British Empire, she knew Nkrumah was getting restless. As head of the Commonwealth, the queen didn't want to insult or embarrass Ghana by postponing the visit, which could push Nkrumah into leaving the group altogether.

In addition, the queen was aware that Nkrumah was getting closer to the Soviet Union, which wanted to expand its foothold in Africa amidst the Cold War. The Ghanaian leader had even traveled to Moscow that October. Soviet attentions toward Nkrumah apparently led to Elizabeth feeling a bit competitive; at one point she declared, "How silly I should look if I was scared to visit Ghana and then [Soviet leader Nikita] Khrushchev went and had a good reception." Elizabeth also told her prime minister, "I am not a film star. I am the head of the Commonwealth — and I am paid to face any risks that may be involved. Nor do I say this lightly. Do not forget that I have three children."

Her visit was a success from start to finish

From the moment Elizabeth arrived in Ghana, along with Prince Philip , she was surrounded by crowds and excitement. Post-independence, the country had embarked on a program of "African socialism" in an attempt to strengthen its economy after years of colonialism. A neo-Marxist Ghanaian paper found Elizabeth to be "the world’s greatest Socialist Monarch in history." It was an unusual description for an enormously wealthy hereditary head of state, but indicated how popular she was.

At a state dinner, Nkrumah toasted Elizabeth by saying, "The wind of change blowing through Africa has become a hurricane. Whatever else is blown into the limbo of history, the personal regard and affection which we have for Your Majesty will remain unaffected." The queen's reply touched on the fact that nations of the Commonwealth could disagree without members needing to leave.

Elizabeth also captured attention by dancing with Nkrumah. Having the queen and a former colonial subject arm-in-arm on the dance floor was a way to demonstrate her acceptance of a new footing between their countries.

The trip had lasting effects on the Commonwealth

Nkrumah wasn't happy when Elizabeth went to visit the young son of an imprisoned opposition leader during her time in Ghana. But this didn't affect the overall impact of her trip. With the goodwill she'd generated, there was no more talk of Ghana leaving the Commonwealth.

Elizabeth's journey also helped Ghana get highly sought-after funding for the Volta Dam, a hydroelectric project that was a centerpiece of Nkrumah's economic plans. Once she'd returned, Macmillan contacted President John F. Kennedy to say, "I have risked my queen. You must risk your money." Financial backing from the Americans for the project soon came through, which cut off a potential avenue of influence for the Soviets.

Elizabeth's dedication to the Commonwealth meant that this trip would have been a success simply for helping to hold that organization together. However, the visit also demonstrated how, even as a monarch with limited powers, she still had a role to play on the world stage.

Cleopatra VII

Richard III

14 Royals Who Have Competed in the Olympics

Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales

Kensington Palace Shares an Update on Kate

Prince William

Where in the World Is Kate Middleton?

Princess Kate Is Seen for First Time Since Surgery

Napoleon and Josephine Had a Stormy Relationship

The Most Iconic Photos of Prince George

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Goats and Soda

• Infectious Disease
• Development
• Women & Girls
• Coronavirus FAQ

'The Crown' Says One Dance Changed History. The Truth Isn't So Simple

Tim McDonnell

Queen Elizabeth II dances with Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah at a ball in Accra, Ghana, in 1961. Central Press/Getty Images hide caption

Queen Elizabeth II dances with Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah at a ball in Accra, Ghana, in 1961.

It was a highlight of the latest season of the Netflix series The Crown , which chronicles the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign: The year is 1961, the Cold War is heating up and the queen (played by Claire Foy), feeling self-conscious after learning that First Lady Jackie Kennedy (Jodi Balfour) called her "incurious" at a dinner party, decides to take a more proactive role in dealing with Ghana, a former colony whose new leader, Kwame Nkrumah (Danny Sapani), appears to be getting too cozy with the Soviets.

Season 2 Of 'The Crown' Exposes The Royal Family's Fitful Evolution

Her solution: A dance with Nkrumah at a ball in the capital, Accra. The foxtrot, specifically, to the extreme, hilarious consternation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (Anton Lesser).

It's a high-stakes political gamble that could decide the balance of Soviet power in Africa, which in the early 1960s was fast emerging as a Cold War battleground. To everyone's relief, the dance is a success. The implication is that, in exchange for his photo op dancing with the queen, Nkrumah will "come back to the fold" and squash Soviet hopes for Africa. Later, JFK (Michael Hall) crows to Jackie that her jab at the queen precipitated a major foreign policy victory for the U.S. and U.K. It's the foxtrot that changes the course of history.

"Well, that's nice," says Nat Nuno-Amarteifio , an architect and amateur historian who served as mayor of Accra from 1994-98 and remembers the queen's supposedly fateful visit from when he was a teenage student. "It's a lot of bulls**t."

'The Crown' Creator Peter Morgan

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

It turns out The Crown got a lot wrong about that dance, according to Nuno-Amarteifio and other Ghanaian history experts.

There's no dispute that the Ghana visit happened, or that Nkrumah and the queen shared a dance, as shown in the photo above. But the dance wasn't exactly a pivotal moment for Nkrumah's political philosophy, which continued to adhere to socialism in subsequent years, even earning him the Lenin Peace Prize the year after the queen's visit.

"I'm surprised that the dance has attained this retroactive reputation," Nuno-Amarteifio says. "Nobody talked about it then."

At the time, Nkrumah was likely Africa's most influential leader. As a young man in the mid-1930s, he had scraped together enough cash from his farming family in what was then the British colony of Gold Coast to travel to the U.S. for an education. He worked his way through philosophy and theology degrees at Lincoln College and the University of Pennsylvania, followed by two years in London forming alliances with other anti-colonial organizers who were poised to dislodge Britain, France and other colonial powers from their seats in Africa. In 1947, when a pro-independence party began to gather momentum in Accra, its members recruited Nkrumah as their leader. He returned to Gold Coast, but soon found himself imprisoned in a converted British beach fort after a strike he helped organize turned violent. Still, at the next election in 1951, he ran for office from his cell and won a seat in Parliament. As his party's leader, he was installed as prime minister, and the British had no choice but to release him.

Over the next several years he helped coax the country toward independence, under the watchful eye of a British governor. During that time, he nurtured a cult of personality, promoted by newspapers as a kind of towering superhero who would soon vanquish the imperialists who had occupied the country for nearly a century. Sure enough, in 1957 Nkrumah succeeded in passing legislation granting Ghana full self-government, making it the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa to gain independence. The independence celebration in Accra was attended by political leaders from across the globe, including Vice President Richard Nixon (according to historian Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa , Nixon infamously asked a black guest at the party how it felt to be free, to which the man reportedly replied, "I wouldn't know, sir. I'm from Alabama.").

That party featured another royal dance, a prelude to Nkrumah's encounter with the queen several years later. Meredith recounts that Nkrumah was warned he would need to dance with the Duchess of Kent, who would be there to represent the Crown. But Nkrumah was ill-trained in Western dance and only felt comfortable with highlife , a West African pop style. It fell to another guest, Louis Armstrong's wife, Lucille, to teach him the foxtrot.

During the country's early years, Nkrumah committed to the socialist sentiments he had first picked up in the U.S. and London, with the belief that a centrally planned economy and state control of cocoa and other valuable industries — what Nkrumah and others took to calling "African socialism" — were essential for the new country to shake the chains of colonialism. This was very concerning to President Kennedy, who in 1962 called Africa "the greatest open field of maneuver in the worldwide competition between the communist bloc and the non-communist." But it was not unique; several other newly-independent African nations, including Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, took guidance from the USSR, which, according to Meredith, "seemed to show that socialism produced rapid modernization."

In The Crown , that embrace is dramatized by a scene in which a portrait of the queen is taken down in the Ghanaian parliament building and replaced with one of Lenin. But although Nkrumah did tour Eastern Europe, his attachment to the USSR was never so extreme, Nuno-Amarteifio recalls.

"Our roots with Russian communism were more intellectual than anything else," he says. "There was nothing visceral about it. Lenin wasn't a personality that we associated with liberty or freedom. If anything, 99 percent of Ghanaians wouldn't have known who Lenin was."

John Parker , an historian at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, agreed that Nkrumah's ties to socialism were mostly ideological and detached from specific foreign policy agreements with the USSR. Still, Nkrumah was seen as a wild card by the U.S. and U.K., and the queen's visit was part of a broader strategy (not an individual impulse, as represented in the show) to corral him and other rogue leaders.

"The British government was certainly concerned to limit Soviet influence in ex-colonies," Parker says. "Overseas tours by the queen were designed broadly to strengthen Commonwealth links."

Meanwhile, African socialism wasn't exactly working the way Ghanaians hoped it would. By the time of the queen's visit in 1961, the economy was crumbling, bribes were routinely collected by government officials at every level of the system (including by Nkrumah himself, who, according to Meredith, even set up a special state-run company to facilitate bribe collection from foreign businessmen) and political opponents were frequently jailed.

"There was a lot of unhappiness, and Nkrumah's position was already delicate," Nuno-Amarteifio says. "If the queen was brave to come to Ghana, he was also brave to welcome her, because it exposed him to tremendous embarrassment should anything happen. The whole world would be watching."

Fortunately, the event seems to have gone off smoothly. As for the dance itself, Nuno-Amarteifio says it barely registered with him and his friends at the time. If anything, he says, The Crown 's depiction of the ecstatic Ghanaian press and bewildered British bureaucrats, shocked that the queen would deign to dance with an African, comes across as paternalistic.

"It was a young white woman dancing with an African," he says. "What do you expect me to do, applaud?"

Did the visit accomplish anything? The big hydroelectric dam referenced in the episode was eventually built, not by the USSR but by an Italian company with financing from the U.S. and U.K. But "Ghana did not 'sever links' with the USSR," Parker says. "To suggest that [the dance] — or the royal tour as a whole — "tipped the balance" of Soviet power in West Africa is untrue."

Nkrumah would remain a proponent of socialism the rest of his life. In 1966, while on a trip to North Korea and China, he was deposed in a military coup that was likely orchestrated by the CIA.

In other words, the episode not only makes much ado out of a forgettable moment but uses that representation to manufacture a victory for the U.S. and U.K. that never really happened. Or, as Nuno-Amarteifio puts it: "I still don't know why that stupid dance is so important."

Tim McDonnell is a journalist covering the environment, conflict and related issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram .

• Kwame Nkrumah
• Queen Elizabeth II
• soviet union

Watch: Queen Elizabeth II's 1961 visit to Ghana

Queen Elizabeth II inspects men of the newly-renamed Queen's Own Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force, at Kaduna Airport, Nigeria, during her Commonwealth Tour, 2nd February 1956. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Image: Getty Images

The year was 1961, and Queen Elizabeth II was establishing a reputation for herself as a real jet setter. Watch this British Pathé footage of the Queen in Ghana, West Africa.

In 1961, Queen Elizabeth visited several countries around the world, but perhaps what was most notable was her very first trip to Ghana, a country in West Africa. The young Queen showed during this trip that while the Royal's family's powers were limited the monarchy could still have an impact.

Ghana is a former British colony that gained its independence in 1957. British members of Parliament and the public did not want the Queen to take the trip due to rising tensions in a country where President Kwame Nkrumah was well on his way to becoming a dictator.

Five days before Elizabeth's trip was to begin, bombs went off in the capital city of Accra. A statue of Nkrumah was hit, which showed the president was a target.

The Queen was not deterred. One reason she was reluctant to reschedule was that he had previously canceled in 1959 when she was pregnant with Prince Andrew. As the head of the Commonwealth, the Queen did not want to insult Ghana by postponing the visit.

The other reason being that the Queen was aware Nkrumah was getting closer to the Soviet Union, which wanted to expand its foothold in Africa amidst the Cold War. The Ghanaian leader had even traveled to Moscow that October.

At one point Queen Elizabeth declared "How silly I should look if I was scared to visit Ghana and then [Soviet leader Nikita] Khrushchev went and had a good reception."

She also told the Prime Minister "I am not a film star. I am the head of the Commonwealth — and I am paid to face any risks that may be involved. Nor do I say this lightly. Do not forget that I have three children."

However, the Queen's trip went well. HRH Elizabeth  was met by President Kwame Nkrumah in Accra, the nation's capital. Huge crowds gathered to greet Queen Elizabeth as she met with dignitaries and several government ministers.

Have a look at the footage below, courtesy of British Pathe

• WATCH: Queen Elizabeth Attends The Opera
• Princess Anne's christening

* Originally published in March 2020. Updated in 2022.

BHT newsletter

You may also like.

• Most Recent

Inside Balmoral Castle - Queen E...

Join us as we take a look at the castle that has always been somewh...

Are these the prettiest streets ...

Are these the prettiest streets in Britain? Get the cameras ready b...

Facts about Queen Elizabeth II's...

Prince Philip was born on June 10, 1921 and sadly passed away on Ap...

Forgotten love story: JFK's Sist...

The tragic death of Kick Kennedy in a 1948 plane crash was covered ...

Rare footage of Queen Elizabeth ...

The Royal Family shared a special video.

Aberdulais Falls - Where the wat...

How Aberdulais,  in South Wales weathered a 400-year navigation of ...

Top Royal residences you can sta...

Fancy living like Royalty for a few days? Here are the top Royal re...

How much would it cost to rent a...

Ever wonder how much it would cost to rent a Royal household?

The most haunted cities in the U...

Here's a list of some of the most haunted locations in the UK, just...

On this day in 1908 Winston Chur...

Winston Churchill's wife Clementine Hozier was a formidable woman.

Global site navigation

• Celebrities
• Celebrity biographies
• Messages - Wishes - Quotes
• Bizarre facts
• Family and Relationships
• Real Estate

Queen Elizabeth’s Historic Visits To Ghana In Ten Rare Photos

• Queen Elizabeth visited Ghana twice before her demise on Thursday, September 8, 2022
• She first visited Ghana in 1961 under Nkrumah's presidency and again in 1999 under Jerry John Rawlings
• YEN.com.gh presents some of the rare photos that capture her visits to her former colony

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block and enjoy!

The late Queen Elizabeth II visited several countries worldwide in 1961; however, the most notable of all her visits was the one to Ghana.

Before she left on the trip, members of the UK Parliament and the public did not want her to go due to rising tensions in Ghana, where Kwame Nkrumah had toppled the colonial government a few years earlier.

The UK Parliament was concerned that her visit could prove too dangerous. But her trip was successful. According to Biography, from the moment Elizabeth arrived in Ghana, along with Prince Philip, she was surrounded by crowds and excitement.

Video captures Fante chiefs giving away massive gold to Queen Elizabeth II in 1961

She would visit Ghana again in 1999 during the 4th Republican administration of late President Jerry John Rawlings .

PAY ATTENTION: Click “See First” under the “Following” tab to see YEN.com.gh News on your News Feed!

YEN.com.gh presents that historic visit to Ghana over six decades ago in ten rare photos.

1. Queen Elizabeth II At Kumasi Sports Stadium

Queen Elizabeth II makes her way underneath a large, gaily colored umbrella, to a dais to watch the Durbar of the Ashanti Chiefs, at Kumasi Sports Stadium, now Baba Yara Stadium.

Here, the late Queen wears a bright yellow outfit, demonstrating that she's always had strong sense for fashion.

Queen Elizabeth II With Kwame Nkrumah

Here Ghana's president in the first Republic, Kwame Nkrumah, and Queen Elizabeth II attend a Diplomatic Corps reception in Accra on November 11, 1961.

Akufo-Addo, Bawumia, other Ghanaians share touching tributes after Queen Elizabeth II died

The Queen's 1961 visit to Ghana was strategic amid Nkrumah's love-affair with the then Soviet Union.

Queen Elizabeth II Ride With Nkrumah During 1961 Visit

Queen Elizabeth II and President Kwame Nkrumah rode in an open-top limousine through cheering crowds in Accra, during the Royal tour of Ghana in 1961.

The Queen's visit was highly successful, contrary to concerns that it could prove dangerous for her.

Queen Elizabeth II Visits A Ghanaian Market

Queen Elizabeth II with President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana (in dark brown suit) greeting crowds in the marketplace of Accra during the Royal tour of Ghana in 1961.

Her visit to Ghana was seen as a confirmation of Nkrumah's stewardship of the new West African country that had won independence from British rule.

Queen Elizabeth Dances With Nkrumah

Queen Elizabeth II is seen here dancing with Ghana's first republican president, president Kwame Nkrumah on November 20, 1961, at a farewell ball held at State House, Accra.

Westminster Abbey's role in Queen Elizabeth II's life

They, and the Duke of Edinburgh, danced to a version of 'High Life' composed specially for the occasion and entitled 'Welcome Your Majesty'.

Queen Elizabeth II Visits Wireless Cluster Junior School

On November 8, 1999, the Queen visited the Wireless Cluster Junior School in Accra during her second visit to Ghana under late President Jerry John Rawlings. The public school was established by the erstwhile British colonial government.

The woman sitting next to her is wearing a dress made of fabric printed with the Queen's portrait and President Rawlings.

Ghana Students Hold Up Portrait Of Queen Elizabeth II

School children hold up a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II upon her arrival in Accra during her two-day visit to Ghana in 1999.

She told Parliament during that visit that the United Kingdom is Ghana’s most significant trading partner and best export customer. She said British investment in Ghana far surpasses that of any other industrialised country.

From Victoria to Elizabeth II: The myth about late Queen's throne in Nigeria

Queen Elizabeth II at a classroom of Wireless Cluster Junior School

The Queen visited a classroom during her tour of the Wireless Cluster Junior School in Accra during her 1999 visit.

She applauded the work of Ghana’s achievements in Parliament and said she was confident of a successful future for the two countries in the march towards the 21st century.

Queen Elizabeth II Chats With Rawlings During Her 1999 Visit

Queen Elizabeth II and Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings walk together upon the Queen's arrival for a state visit to the former British colony on November 7, 1999.

She commended Rawlings and Parliament for ensuring free media, a truly independent judiciary and a democratically chosen, accountable executive that will provide the conditions under which the equality of opportunity, initiative and a stable society can flourish.

Queen Elizabeth II And Rawlings Wave Shortly After She Addressed Ghana's Parliament

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Rawlings wave to the crowd gathered on November 8, 1999 outside the parliament in Accra on the second day of the monarch's two-day visit to Ghana.

Queen Elizabeth II: How she spent her time in Nigeria, photos drop

She had just concluded a speech to Parliament where she underscored the importance of Ghana to the United Kingdom in terms of trade and business.

Queen Elizabeth II: Five Things That Will Happen Now That Longest Serving British Monarch Has Died

Before her death was announced, the world had been on edge after the Royal Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II was under medical supervision in Scotland.

Many also said the official statement from Buckingham Palace, which disclosed that doctors were concerned for her health and had "recommended she remain under medical supervision," showed her grave condition. However, Buckingham Palace has announced the Queen died peacefully in her sleep Thursday afternoon at Balmoral, her castle in Scotland.

YEN.com.gh presents the five things that would happen now that Queen Elizabeth II passed on.

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find "Recommended for you" block and enjoy!

Source: YEN.com.gh

George Nyavor (Head of Politics and Current Affairs Desk) George Nyavor writes for YEN.com.gh. He has been Head of the Politics and Current Affairs Desk since 2022. George has over 9 years of experience in managing media and communications (Myjoyonline and GhanaWeb). George is a member of the Catholic Association of Media Practitioners Ghana (CAMP-G). He obtained a BA in Communications Studies from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2010. Reach out to him via [email protected].

'The Crown' Says One Dance Changed History. The Truth Isn't So Simple

It was a highlight of the latest season of the Netflix series The Crown , which chronicles the early years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign: The year is 1961, the Cold War is heating up and the queen (played by Claire Foy), feeling self-conscious after learning that First Lady Jackie Kennedy (Jodi Balfour) called her "incurious" at a dinner party, decides to take a more proactive role in dealing with Ghana, a former colony whose new leader, Kwame Nkrumah (Danny Sapani), appears to be getting too cozy with the Soviets.

Her solution: A dance with Nkrumah at a ball in the capital, Accra. The foxtrot, specifically, to the extreme, hilarious consternation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (Anton Lesser).

It's a high-stakes political gamble that could decide the balance of Soviet power in Africa, which in the early 1960s was fast emerging as a Cold War battleground. To everyone's relief, the dance is a success. The implication is that, in exchange for his photo op dancing with the queen, Nkrumah will "come back to the fold" and squash Soviet hopes for Africa. Later, JFK (Michael Hall) crows to Jackie that her jab at the queen precipitated a major foreign policy victory for the U.S. and U.K. It's the foxtrot that changes the course of history.

"Well, that's nice," says Nat Nuno-Amarteifio , an architect and amateur historian who served as mayor of Accra from 1994-98 and remembers the queen's supposedly fateful visit from when he was a teenage student. "It's a lot of bulls**t."

It turns out The Crown got a lot wrong about that dance, according to Nuno-Amarteifio and other Ghanaian history experts.

There's no dispute that the Ghana visit happened, or that Nkrumah and the queen shared a dance, as shown in the photo above. But the dance wasn't exactly a pivotal moment for Nkrumah's political philosophy, which continued to adhere to socialism in subsequent years, even earning him the Lenin Peace Prize the year after the queen's visit.

"I'm surprised that the dance has attained this retroactive reputation," Nuno-Amarteifio says. "Nobody talked about it then."

At the time, Nkrumah was likely Africa's most influential leader. As a young man in the mid-1930s, he had scraped together enough cash from his farming family in what was then the British colony of Gold Coast to travel to the U.S. for an education. He worked his way through philosophy and theology degrees at Lincoln College and the University of Pennsylvania, followed by two years in London forming alliances with other anti-colonial organizers who were poised to dislodge Britain, France and other colonial powers from their seats in Africa. In 1947, when a pro-independence party began to gather momentum in Accra, its members recruited Nkrumah as their leader. He returned to Gold Coast, but soon found himself imprisoned in a converted British beach fort after a strike he helped organize turned violent. Still, at the next election in 1951, he ran for office from his cell and won a seat in Parliament. As his party's leader, he was installed as prime minister, and the British had no choice but to release him.

Over the next several years he helped coax the country toward independence, under the watchful eye of a British governor. During that time, he nurtured a cult of personality, promoted by newspapers as a kind of towering superhero who would soon vanquish the imperialists who had occupied the country for nearly a century. Sure enough, in 1957 Nkrumah succeeded in passing legislation granting Ghana full self-government, making it the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa to gain independence. The independence celebration in Accra was attended by political leaders from across the globe, including Vice President Richard Nixon (according to historian Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa , Nixon infamously asked a black guest at the party how it felt to be free, to which the man reportedly replied, "I wouldn't know, sir. I'm from Alabama.").

That party featured another royal dance, a prelude to Nkrumah's encounter with the queen several years later. Meredith recounts that Nkrumah was warned he would need to dance with the Duchess of Kent, who would be there to represent the Crown. But Nkrumah was ill-trained in Western dance and only felt comfortable with highlife , a West African pop style. It fell to another guest, Louis Armstrong's wife, Lucille, to teach him the foxtrot.

During the country's early years, Nkrumah committed to the socialist sentiments he had first picked up in the U.S. and London, with the belief that a centrally planned economy and state control of cocoa and other valuable industries — what Nkrumah and others took to calling "African socialism" — were essential for the new country to shake the chains of colonialism. This was very concerning to President Kennedy, who in 1962 called Africa "the greatest open field of maneuver in the worldwide competition between the communist bloc and the non-communist." But it was not unique; several other newly-independent African nations, including Kenya, Mali and Tanzania, took guidance from the USSR, which, according to Meredith, "seemed to show that socialism produced rapid modernization."

In The Crown , that embrace is dramatized by a scene in which a portrait of the queen is taken down in the Ghanaian parliament building and replaced with one of Lenin. But although Nkrumah did tour Eastern Europe, his attachment to the USSR was never so extreme, Nuno-Amarteifio recalls.

"Our roots with Russian communism were more intellectual than anything else," he says. "There was nothing visceral about it. Lenin wasn't a personality that we associated with liberty or freedom. If anything, 99 percent of Ghanaians wouldn't have known who Lenin was."

John Parker , an historian at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, agreed that Nkrumah's ties to socialism were mostly ideological and detached from specific foreign policy agreements with the USSR. Still, Nkrumah was seen as a wild card by the U.S. and U.K., and the queen's visit was part of a broader strategy (not an individual impulse, as represented in the show) to corral him and other rogue leaders.

"The British government was certainly concerned to limit Soviet influence in ex-colonies," Parker says. "Overseas tours by the queen were designed broadly to strengthen Commonwealth links."

Meanwhile, African socialism wasn't exactly working the way Ghanaians hoped it would. By the time of the queen's visit in 1961, the economy was crumbling, bribes were routinely collected by government officials at every level of the system (including by Nkrumah himself, who, according to Meredith, even set up a special state-run company to facilitate bribe collection from foreign businessmen) and political opponents were frequently jailed.

"There was a lot of unhappiness, and Nkrumah's position was already delicate," Nuno-Amarteifio says. "If the queen was brave to come to Ghana, he was also brave to welcome her, because it exposed him to tremendous embarrassment should anything happen. The whole world would be watching."

Fortunately, the event seems to have gone off smoothly. As for the dance itself, Nuno-Amarteifio says it barely registered with him and his friends at the time. If anything, he says, The Crown 's depiction of the ecstatic Ghanaian press and bewildered British bureaucrats, shocked that the queen would deign to dance with an African, comes across as paternalistic.

"It was a young white woman dancing with an African," he says. "What do you expect me to do, applaud?"

Did the visit accomplish anything? The big hydroelectric dam referenced in the episode was eventually built, not by the USSR but by an Italian company with financing from the U.S. and U.K. But "Ghana did not 'sever links' with the USSR," Parker says. "To suggest that [the dance] — or the royal tour as a whole — "tipped the balance" of Soviet power in West Africa is untrue."

Nkrumah would remain a proponent of socialism the rest of his life. In 1966, while on a trip to North Korea and China, he was deposed in a military coup that was likely orchestrated by the CIA.

In other words, the episode not only makes much ado out of a forgettable moment but uses that representation to manufacture a victory for the U.S. and U.K. that never really happened. Or, as Nuno-Amarteifio puts it: "I still don't know why that stupid dance is so important."

Tim McDonnell is a journalist covering the environment, conflict and related issues in sub-Saharan Africa. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram .

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

• Entertainment

What The Crown Gets Right About Queen Elizabeth II's History-Making Trip to Ghana

If there's one thing that Netflix's The Crown gets right (and occasionally wrong ), it's the details. The streaming giant's sprawling historical drama about the rise of Queen Elizabeth II (Claire Foy) is a stunning masterpiece that pulls directly from real-life events, footage, quotes, and letters to construct a compelling and realistic narrative about the life of the British royal family. Season two dives even deeper into iconic milestones from the monarch's impressive reign, including a 1961 dinner with President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy at Buckingham Palace , which is rumored to have had a hand in spurring on the queen's bold choice to visit Accra, the capital of Ghana.

After hearing rumors that the first lady considered her to be conservative and stuck in her ways, Queen Elizabeth reportedly decided to take action. Tensions were running high between Britain and Ghana, a commonwealth nation, so she decided to step in herself despite strong backlash from both her personal advisers and members of parliament. "I am not a film star," the queen said to then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan . "I am the head of the Commonwealth — and I am paid to face any risks that may be involved. Nor do I say this lightly. Do not forget that I have three children."

Against the wishes of those around her due to bombing incidents in the country, Queen Elizabeth moved forward with her plans, which is portrayed in a later season two episode. Although not every single word that was shared between the queen and Ghana's Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah can be known for sure, the broad strokes of her visit — which included a beautiful dance with the king at a party thrown in her honor — seem to line up with history. As far as clothing goes, The Crown 's costume designers also nailed it. Elizabeth wears an understated, pale yellow dress and matching hat when she touches down in Ghana and later dons a beautiful cream ball gown when she makes her momentous decision to dance with Nkrumah.

See the real-life photos side by side with Netflix's interpretation ahead!

Editor's note: an earlier version of this article referred to Kwame Nkrumah's title as King and has been updated.

• Queen Elizabeth II

Ghana: The Queen’s Visit

“I am not a film star,” said the Queen of England to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. “I am the head of the Commonwealth—and I am paid to face any risks that may be involved. Nor do I say this lightly. Do not forget that I have three children.”

Thus Queen Elizabeth II agreed with Macmillan last week when he conveyed to her his Cabinet’s advice that she should carry out her royal visit to Ghana, despite a spate of bombing incidents in Accra protesting the rule of Kwame Nkrumah. Fearful of the Queen’s safety, Macmillan dispatched Commonwealth Relations Secretary Duncan Sandys once again to Ghana to see if the outbursts of violence warranted the cancellation of the visit. After satisfying himself that the Queen would be safe, Sandys flew back to London with the go-ahead signal.

Where It’s Cooler. Assured that the Queen would finally make the visit originally scheduled for 1959, but canceled because of the imminent birth of Prince Andrew, Ghana prettied up and cleaned up. People driving into Accra who could not prove that they had been vaccinated were summarily jabbed with a smallpox injection. To reduce the threat of pickpocketing, the police rounded up all ex-convicts on parole, threw them into the cooler for the duration of the visit. Mothers were urged not to let their children run naked in the streets.

Outraged and embarrassed by the bombs, Osagyefo (the Redeemer) threw a number of his opponents into jail. Work crews feverishly tried to repair Nkrumah’s bomb-blasted bronze statue in front of Parliament House. Supporters symbolically bandaged the statue’s shattered feet, covered it with white powder, and threw a calico scarf over its right shoulder—Ghana’s traditional symbol of victory. Others slaughtered a goat at the base of the statue to cleanse it of evil spirits.

The day of the Queen’s arrival, cops kept back the crowds by charging enthusiastically with night sticks and by driving their motorcycles directly at them. On the airport tarmac sat 100 tribal chiefs surrounded by flunkies who held giant velvet umbrellas over them. Each chief was accompanied by a “linguist” (chiefs never speak directly to anyone save the linguists, who pass on the message) and by a small boy, who functions as the soul of the chief. (In the past, the boys were killed when the chief died.)

Guardian Spirit. As the Queen’s plane touched the ground, a 21-gun salute boomed out. Wearing a cream-colored lace dress and a matching suede hat, the Queen shook hands warmly with a smiling, white-suited Nkrumah. A white-robed fetish priest then poured a tot of gin on the ground as a libation to the gods to ensure the Queen a safe visit. Said one onlooker: “Osagyefo needs that libation for safety more than Her Majesty does.”

Next day, a national holiday in the Queen’s honor, was parade day in Accra. Nkrumah accompanied Elizabeth and Prince Philip to an all-day march past in Black Star Square. Osagyefo ordered his army to keep its Soviet equipment under wraps, treated the Queen to an essentially British military show. At the national welcoming ceremony, more than 100,000 people jammed the square; only one other Ghanaian crowd had ever approached the strength of the throng—not for Osagyefo, but for Satchmo Louis Armstrong.

In the tropical heat, the massed marchers, representing 39 Ghanaian organizations, wilted by the score; stretcher-bearers darted back and forth between the ranks lugging out casualties. The show was stolen by the antics of hundreds of marching market mammies, clad in colorful, wraparound calico dresses and gaily colored turbans. As they began to step out, the band switched from Sousa marches to jazzy, Ghanaian High Life numbers. Swinging their enormous hips in rhythm to the music, the mammies pranced, jigged and jived by the broadly smiling Queen while Prince Philip bent double and slapped his knee in laughter.

At a huge state dinner that evening at Accra’s Ambassador Hotel, Nkrumah was effusive as he mentioned Ghana’s regard for the Queen, but he pointedly failed to say that the same regard extended to Britain as a nation. “The wind of change blowing through Africa has become a hurricane.” said Osagyefo. “Whatever else is blown into the limbo of history, the personal regard and affection which we have for Your Majesty will remain unaffected.” Ignoring leftist advisers, who want him to leave the Commonwealth, Nkrumah lifted his glass to toast the Queen as head of the Commonwealth, and the Commonwealth itself.

In her carefully drafted reply, the Queen went out of her way to assure Nkrumah that differences of opinion do not mean that anyone must leave the Commonwealth. “Many people have said many things about this Commonwealth of ours.” she said. “We know it is a group of equals; a family of like-minded peoples, whatever their differences of religion, political systems, circumstances, and races. We know that in this family group, no member loses one jot of its own sovereignty or individuality.”

More Must-Reads from TIME

• How Kamala Harris Knocked Donald Trump Off Course
• Introducing TIME's 2024 Latino Leaders
• George Lopez Is Transforming Narratives With Comedy
• How to Make an Argument That’s Actually Persuasive
• What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
• 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
• Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
• The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024

Contact us at [email protected]