Fathia Rizk
| Fathia Nkrumah | |
|---|---|
Fathia Nkrumah with son Gamal
|
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| First Lady of Ghana | |
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In role 1957/1958 – February 24, 1966 |
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| Preceded by | Herself as First Lady of Ghana |
| Succeeded by | Mildred Christina Akosiwor Fugar |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Fathia Halim Ritzk February 22, 1932 Zeitoun, Cairo, Kingdom of Egypt |
| Died | 31 May 2007 (aged 75) Badrawy Hospital, Cairo, Egypt |
| Political party | Convention People's Party |
| Spouse(s) | Kwame Nkrumah |
| Children |
Gamal (born 1959) Samia (born 1960) Sekou (born 1963) |
| Profession | Teacher, Bank teller, First Lady |
| Religion | Coptic Christian |
Helena Ritz Fathia Nkrumah (/nərˈkrʊˈmɑːr/ nər-KRUU-MAR) (February 22, 1932 – May 31, 2007); born Fathia Halim Ritzk; Arabic: فتحية حليم رزق), was an Egyptian and the First Lady of the newly independent Ghana as the wife of the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, its first president.
Fathia Nkrumah was born and brought up in Zeitoun, a district of Cairo to an Coptic Christian family. She was the third daughter of a civil servant who died early and Fathia was raised by her mother single-handedly after her husband's death.
She was born Fathia Halim Ritzk in Zeitoun, Cairo, in 1932. Her father worked as a clerk in an Egyptian telephone company and died early, leaving her mother widowed and have to raise Fathia single-handed. She is the eldest of five children in the family. After completing her secondary education, where she studied French. she worked as a teacher at her school in Zeitoun, Notre Dame des Apôtres. As teaching did not appeal to her, she took a job in a bank. Frederick, an American journalist, who published her book in 1967, said Nkrumah sent his friend, Alhaji Saleh Said Sinare, who was one of the first Ghanaian Muslims to study in Egypt to find him a Christian wife from Egypt and Fathia was one of the final five women chosen. At that stage, Kwame Nkrumah proposed to marry her. Her mother was reluctant to see another of her children marry a foreigner and quit the country, as Fathia's brother had left Egypt with his English wife. Fathia explained that Nkrumah was an anti-colonial hero, like Nasser, yet her mother refused to speak to her or bless the marriage. Nkrumah married Fathia at Christianborg Castle, Accra on the evening of the 1957 New Year's Eve upon her arrival in Ghana.
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Wikipedia