This work seeks to understand how the idea of right of self-determination was mobilized in the works of Kwame Nkrumah, between the decades of 1940 and 1960. It is acknowledge that this author made use of a language of rights available through the twentieth century and prioritized the notion of self-determination to criticize the colonization and to claim independence for the African continent. The meanings attributed to the notion of self-determination by Nkrumah are discussed considering that this language of rights were in circulation and had been mobilized by other pan-African groups and international organizations such as UN. So, during this work, it is also analyzed the documents: Declaration to the Negro peoples of the World, Final Resolutions of Congress of Manchester, Final Communiqué of Afro-Asian Conference of Bandung, International Convention on civil and political rights, International Convention on economic, social and cultural rights.