The enduring reputation of Kwame Nkrumah as a pioneer of nationalism rests on two legs: his role in hastening the end of the British empire in West Africa and his vision of a unified African continent unfettered by colonial borders. What is less often recognized is the tension between these agendas. If the Gold Coast was truly to push for an accelerated independence, that made it more or less inevitable that this would incur within the existing borders of the Gold Coast. In principle, the circle could be squared by positing a two-stage process of grasping the offer of independence first and then swiftly embarking on a process of unification. In practice, it was much more difficult to do away with colonial borders once new states had come into existence within their territorial integuments.