Addo-Fening - Ghana Under Colonial Rule

Historical Society of Ghana
GHANA UNDER COLONIAL RULE: AN OUTLINE OF THE EARLY PERIOD AND THE
INTERWAR YEARS
Author(s): Robert Addo-Fening
Source: Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, New Series, No. 15, Articles from
the Historical Society of Ghana's seminars and conferences 2007-2012 (2013), pp. 39-70
Published by: Historical Society of Ghana
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Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana.
New Series , No. 15 (2013), pp. 39 - 70
GHANA UNDER COLONIAL RULE: AN OUTLINE OF THE EARLY

PERIOD AND THE INTERWAR YEARS
Robert Addo-Fening
University of Ghana
The Years of Trade Partnership up to the 1870s

Until the early 1870s, trade remained the fundamental tie that bo
Europe to the Gold Coast. The dominant trade, up to the mid-1 7th c
ry was in gold and ivory. The 18th century experienced a shift in
pean demand from gold and ivory to slaves. This was the result o
establishment of plantation colonies in the New World. The abolitio
the slave trade in 1807 initiated a shift in the external trade of the Gold
Coast. Instead of slaves, the European demand was now for natural
products: palm oil, cotton, rubber, gum copal etc. This was the era of the
so-called "legitimate trade".
Legitimate trade stimulated commercial agriculture. From the 1860s,
hordes of land-hungry farmers migrated from Krobo, Akuapem, Anum
and Ga to occupy the vast expanse of rich and empty lands of Akyem
Abuakwa. By 1881, the lands between the Akuapem foothills and
Koforidua were filled with magnificent palm farms. Legitimate trade
also brought to the Gold Coast several European merchants who traded
in their own account. Wholesaler firms with their headquarters in the
United Kingdom supplied West Africa-based merchants with goods on
credit. The United Kingdom wholesaler firms included Foster & Smith,
F & A Swanzy and Hutton & Co. Among the nine principal Gold Coast-
based merchants in 1826 were indigenous ones including Bannerman
House, which engaged in import-export business. This system of trade
organization was the typical mode of external trading in West Africa
between 1817 and 1852.
Robert Addo-Fening
By 1850, the people of the Gold Coast had developed a "peculiar

partiality for peddling."1 Small Gold Coast capitalists invested their
stocks of gold in goods which they carried into the interior for sale by
themselves or through trusted agents. Their success encouraged the big
European merchants to employ African agents in the interior whom
they periodically supplied with goods for sale. This led to the emer-
gence of a class of nouveaux riches typified by Kofi Johnson of Asafo-
Akyem. Johnson established a flourishing business in rubber and spirits
at Abompe near Osino in the 1890s. By 1901, Johnson possessed a con-
siderable private fortune, estimated at £3,000 in silver coins and £1,000
in gold, and he deposited £1,000 with F & A Swanzy as security against
the supply of European merchandise, and gave out another £1,000 in
loans.2
Socially, the Gold Coast experienced a flurry of missionary activity

in the 19th century. The Basel Mission gained foothold in Akropong from
the 1830s, where they laid a firm foundation for the Presbyterian
Church.3 The Wesleyan Mission sent out Rev. Joseph Dunwell in 1835 in
response to an appeal from a Cape Coast Scripture Society. He was suc-
ceeded in 1836 by Thomas Birch Freeman. The Bremen (North German)
Missionary Society opened a station at Peki (1847) and at Ho (1857). In
1880, the Catholics returned to resume evangelical work in the Gold
Coast. Besides planting the Christian faith these Christian missions were
the first to introduce western-style education.
At the turn of the 19th century, the Gold Coast was a cultural and po-
litical mosaic. The kaleidoscope of cascading kingdoms of the 17th and
18th centuries had ended in the emergence of a few highly centralized
and powerful states in the forest region and in the northern part of Gha-
na. Alongside, there were a host of decentralized societies.
In the North, decentralized societies were found in a belt of territory
that stretched from Wa in the west to Mamprugu and Dagbon in the
east; they included the Vagala, Frafra, Tampluma B'Maba, Grusi,
Konkomba and Talensi. In southern Ghana, they included the Adangme
and the Ewe. Such societies recognized no central political authority
1 David Kimble, A Political History of Ghana (Oxford, 1963), p.35, fn. 1.

2 R. Addo-Fening , Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743. From Ofori Panin to Sir Ofori Atta
(Trondheim, 2000), p.236.
3 See E. Ayezu's article in the present volume of Transactions for the establish-
ment of the Basel Mission.
40
Colonial Rule: An Outline of the Early Period and the lnterwar Years
among themselves.4 Each compound (household) formed a unit of patri-

lineage under a lineage-head responsible socially and ritually for the
conduct of lineage members. Several lineages formed a clan which owed
allegiance to a clan head. In place of a centralized political authority, the
decentralized societies acknowledged titular spirits or deities whose
priests, the tingdamba (singular tingdana) exercised spiritual authority in
their respective jurisdictions.5 The decentralized societies of the North
remained so till colonial times. By contrast, the decentralized societies
along the coast progressively became centralized before the turn of the
19th century.
The Ga people established a centralized kingdom in the 17th century,
called the Accra Kingdom by European contemporaries. The king ruled
from his capital Ayawaso until the kingdom was conquered by the
Akwamu in 1680. Subsequently the people re-settled on the coast where
they formed a number of independent communities. Six major Ga poli-
ties, or towns, emerged: Ga Mashi (Central Accra), Osu, La (Labadi),
Teshi, Nungua and Tema. Each town was divided into Akutsei or quar-
ters, and each Akutso was sub-divided into Wei or patrilineal houses.6
The major "head" of Ga Mashi - the Ga Mantse - claimed a paramount
position. However, such paramountcy appear not to have been fully
recognized by the various Ga towns until the 19th century, when we see
a "restoration of centralized power".7 By then the Ga towns had also
long been influenced by the Akan system of state formation.
Similarly, the small-scale states (i dukowo ) which emerged in Eweland,
further east in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries were influenced
by the juxtaposition of their settlements with centralized Akan states.
In the immediate hinterland of the Accra coast, Denkyira immigrants
are believed to have introduced the Akan model of a centralized state
system into Krobo. Padi Keteku (ca 1738) is said to have become the first
4 A. A Illiasu, "The Establishment of British Administration in Mamprugu 1898-

1932" in Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, vol. XVI, no.l, 1975, p.4.
5 Ibid., p.14. The Talensi for example had a "clan settlement" as their political unit
which enjoyed autonomy under the tingdana who, as custodian of the Tenge dei-
ty, the principal tutelary spirit among the Gur, mediated between the ancestral
spirits and the people
6 See "Introduction" in I. Odotei (Quay), The Ga and their Neighbours 16UU-
1742", PhD thesis, University of Ghana, 1972.
7 See e.g. J. K. Osei-Tutu, The Asafoi in the History and Politics of Accra from the 17th
to the mid-20th Century , (Trondheim, 2000), pp. 65-68.
41
Robert Addo-Fening
ruler to have used a stool as a symbol of authority.8 Among the "Hill

Guan" supreme authority was exercised by priests until the 18th century
when under the hegemony first of the Akyem Abuakwa, an Akan-style
centralized political authority was institutionalized.9
The older centralized kingdoms included the Mole-Dagbani and the
Gonja kingdoms of the north and the Akan kingdoms of Denkyira,
Akwamu, Akyem and Asante of the forest. The sovereign rulers of these
kingdoms occupied hereditary positions and used special symbols of
authority. The Mole-Dagbani monarchs bore the titles of Nayiri (Mam-
prugu), Na (Dagbon and Nanun) and Yagbumwura (Gonja) and sat on
"skins" as symbols of office. In the Mole-Dagbani kingdoms, succession
to office was strictly limited to surviving sons of deceased monarchs,
and was both promotional and rotational. In Nanun and Gonja, grand-
sons were eligible.10
The monarchs of Northern Ghana ruled with the advice of Councils
of Elders made up of rulers of the founders of the ruling dynasties. It
was the prerogative of the monarch to appoint territorial (divisional)
rulers and others "whom he may promote to higher rank or depose as
he thinks fit."11 Once installed, a monarch of the North could not be
"deskinned" except through civil war.
Among the centralized Akan states of Southern Ghana, the authority
structure was similarly monarchical and hierarchical. There were three
gradations of chiefly authority. At the apex was the Omanhene (Oman =
State; Ohene = ruler) or king who exercised authority with the support
8 Padi Keteku was believed to be the son of a Denkyira immigrant and the niece
of Asantehene Opoku Ware. The stool is said to have been a gift from the Asan-
tehene. [P. Obeng Asamoah, "The Mate Koles", M.Phil thesis (Legon, 1988), chap-
ter. 1],
9 The priest-rulers of the "Hill Guan" included the Topre priest of Manfe, the
Kyenku priest of Obosomase and the Bosompra priest of Abiriw. (C. Reindorf,
History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, pp. 105-106).
10 N .J.K. Brukum, "Traditional Constitutions and Succession Disputes in North-
ern Region", Paper presented at a Conference organized by Chieftaincy, Govern-
ance and Development Project (Legon, November 2000). See also A. K. Awedoba,
"Modes of Succession in the Upper East Region of Ghana" in I. K. Odotei and A.
K. Awedoba, eds., Chieftaincy in Ghana: Culture , Governance and Development (Ac-
cra, 2006), pp.409-426.
11 Brukum, "Traditional Constitutions."
42
Colonial Rule : An Outline of the Early Period and the Interwar Years
of two levels of subordinate rulers, directly responsible for the towns

and villages composing the state.
Ahenfo (singular =Ohene, that is ruler) headed local authorities com-
prising heads of mmusuakuo (clans/ lineages) in towns or relatively large
villages directly under their authority; while adikrofo (singu-
lar=Odekuro, "owner of the settlement") ruled over much smaller set-
tlements. Several towns and villages were grouped to form a territorial
division or military wing headed by an opakani (palanquin chief) who
doubled as military commander in times of war and a civilian political
leader in times of peace.
Amanhene (kings), ahenfo (chiefs) and adikrofo (village heads) alike oc-
cupied hereditary offices that were exclusive to particular matrilineages
recognized as adehyee (royalty). No member of royalty enjoyed automat-
ic right to the occupancy of the stool whether as Omanhene, Ohene or
Odikro. He had to be "elected" from a field of multiple contestants be-
longing to the royal lineage. The Akan ruler derived his political legiti-
macy and authority from the "Black Stool", supposedly the favourite
stool used by the founding ancestor in his life-time, and ritually black-
ened after his death. The Black Stool, believed to encapsulate the spirits
of the ancestors, was kept in a Stool Room or "temple". It was an object
of great reverence and the symbol of ethnic identity and solidarity.
The traditional ruler was viewed as the re-incarnation of the found-
ing fathers. Hence he was deemed to possess magical powers supposed-
ly inherent in a variety of sacred symbols: the stool, the state sword, the
executioners' sword etc.12 The ruler's person was deemed to be sacro-
sanct and exempt from assault or insult, if only because he was consid-
ered as the bridgehead between the world of ancestors and that of the
living.
An Akan ruler was "elected" only after an elaborate system of con-
sultations involving the royal lineage, the Ohemaa (queen mother), Stool
Elders (the so-called kingmakers composed of the other lineage heads)
and the band of the non-office holding commoners. The last group con-
12 The range of sacred symbols was the outcome of cumulative contributions by

successive Akan regimes. Rulers of Adanse are credited with the creation of the
state sword as a symbol of political authority. Denkyira contributed "shields of
gold and gold-hilted swords" as well as the state stool (Abankamadwa). See
Daaku, Trade and Politics , pp.156-57; Reindorf, History of the Gold Coast, p.49.
43
Robert Addo-Fening
stituted the asafo (warriors).13 An "elected" ruler did not "acquire an

indefeasible title to the stool once he sat upon it"; as the Ghanaian jurist,
Casely Hayford explained, it was "the right of those who placed him
thereon to put him off the stool for any just cause/'14
Though the Omanhene, in theory, exercised the highest executive,
legislative, judicial and military authority, he was not allowed to be-
come an absolute monarch. In the words of a 19th century monarch, his
council of Elders constituted "the river" with himself as "the fish living
in it who can do nothing without your aid and council (sic)."15 Any
Akan ruler who persistently ignored the advice of his council and be-
haved wilfully risked removal from office.
To enable the political ruler to manage affairs of the state effectively
and maintain his personal dignity, he was entrusted with resources in-
cluding land, gold, slaves and court income. Of every epo (gold nugget)
discovered in his kingdom, the Omanhene was entitled to one-third
share. He was also entitled to one-third share of ahudee (treasure-trove)
to bosre (leg of game killed by hunters) and to awafee (10 per cent share
of big snail harvests).16
The earliest Europeans who dealt with political formations in Ghana
from the 15th century through the early 19th century recognized them as
kingdoms ruled by kings. Like their European counterparts, they were
products of ambitious "core people" who established dynasties by
which their kingdoms were known and identified; and they enclosed
several or many ethnicities like their medieval European counterparts.
The Advent of Colonial Rule

On 24 July 1874, the British issued a Proclamation by which they estab-
lished the Gold Coast Colony and Protectorate.17 Until then the sover-
eignty of the native states had suffered little encroachment. An attempt
by Govenor Sir Charles McCarthy to exercise jurisdiction beyond the
13 R. Addo-Fening, "The Akyem Abuakwa Asafo 1700-1918", in The Transactions

of the Historical Society of Ghana, new series, no. 2 (1998), pp. 7-19.
14 J. E. Casely Hayford, Gold Coast Native Institutions (London, 1970), p.33
15 J. Simons, Notes taken at Kyebi, 28 December 1886, PRAAD Adm 11/1/1094.
16 Addo-Fening , Akyem Abuakwa 1 700- 1 743.
17 The Gold Coast Colony referred to the European forts and castles inherited by
the British while the Protectorate referred to the native states of the south who
had fought twice (1826-1874) as allies of the British against the Asante.
44
Colonial Rule: An Outline of the Early Period and the Interwar Years
limits of Cape Coast Castle was deemed ultra vires and attracted a warn-
ing from Lord Glenning. Then, in a letter dated October 1836, Glenning
expressly stated that Britain had no pretensions "to territorial possession
nor to jurisdiction over any portion of the Gold Coast, excepting the
actual site of the several forts and castles." Accordingly, the incumbent
governor, Captain George Maclean was advised to exercise his authority
"with great caution."18
The 1842 Parliamentary Select Committee took the view that for
Britain to exercise jurisdiction over the coastal people legitimately, she
needed to reach a "distinct agreement" with the appropriate political
rulers. The outcome was the passing of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act of
1843 by the British Parliament followed by the conclusion of the Bond of
1844 between Governor Hill and seven out of the numerous native
states of the south. The Bond of 1844 involved no cession of territory.

At best it only admitted British courts to a share of the criminal jurisdic-
tion of native kings.19 For the next twenty years British policy remained
uncertain but in 1865 a Select Committee of the British Parliament ad-
vised that the object of British Policy "should be to encourage the na-
tives in the exercise of these qualities which may render it possible ...for
us more and more to transfer to them the administration ... with a view
to our ultimate withdrawal from all [settlements] except, probably, Sier-

ra Leone."20 The Report of the Judicial Commission of the same year
stressed that the Judicial Assessor had no right to supersede the authori-
ty of the chiefs "by decisions according to his own sole judgement" and
18 Quoted in Casely Hayford, Gold Coast Native Institutions Land (London, 1903),
p. 147. MaClean set up a criminal and civil court to try all and sundry including
chiefs. He also set up a militia of 60 men to ensure compliance with his orders.
19 The foreign Jurisdiction Act averred that jurisdiction power could be exercised
in territories which are not otherwise subject to British sovereignty "only with the
consent or sufferance" of the people. See Report of committee on tenure of land,
pp.10-11. PRAAD Adm 11/1/1706; Also A A. Boahen, Ghana , Evolution and
Change: Ghana in the Nineteenth and Twenty Centuries (London, 2000), p.41; K Baku,
"Historical Survey of Legislation affecting the powers and authority of chiefs
1844-1927," p. 6. Paper read at a conference organized by the Chieftaincy, Gov-
ernance and Development Project, Legon, 17-20 January 2000.
20 Quoted in Davidson, Black Man's Burden , p.31.
45
Robert Addo-Fening
that chiefs should "rather be left to exercise their own jurisdictions with
only an appeal when necessary to the British Magistracy."21
These official disclaimers notwithstanding, colonial officials on the
coast attempted surreptitiously to usurp the inherent and immemorial
sovereignty of Kings and Chiefs of Gold Coast. However, in 1834 when
Governor Maclean fined Denkyirahene Kojo Tsibu £200 for carrying out
human sacrifice, the King refused to pay and protested to the Secretary
of State for the Colonies; Nzemahene Kweku Ackah openly defied Gov-
ernor Maclean in 1835 at the risk of a military attack on his state; in Au-
gust 1846 the people of Tantum assaulted a police man sent to arrest
their chief for ignoring summons from Maclean's court. Irritated by the
continual interference in his affairs Asssinhene Tsibu negotiated with
the Asantehene for possible relocation of his state to its aboriginal home-
land beyond the Pra.22
In the Eastern Districts successive occupants of the Ofori Panin Stool
defied British Administrators between 1857 and 1861. Atta Panin (1835-
59) ignored summons to go to Accra to answer a charge of murder. The
defiance caused J. Bannerman to comment that British Authority was
hardly acknowledged in that part of the country. In 1860 Panin's brother
and successor, Atta Obuom (1859-87), defied an order from the British
Administration to end his war against neighbouring Akyem Kotoku,
pointing out to Major Cochraine that the British Administration had no
power capable of compelling him at his distance to accept its verdict. In
the following year he called the bluff of the Administrator when he
withdrew British protection from Abuakwa.
The classic case of defiance against the pretensions of the British
Administrator to sovereignty over the native rulers of the Gold Coast
was that of King James Aggrey of Cape Coast (1865-66). On becoming
King, Aggrey challenged a ruling of the Chief Justice which declared his
court unlawful, and insisted on his right to hold court and dispense jus-
tice in accordance with tradition and without reference to British norms
and usages."23 He told Governor Conran that Cape Coast, "in the eyes of
the law" was not British territory and reminded him that his native
21 History of Legislation in Connection with Native Jurisdiction in the Gold Coast

and Suggested Amendment to NAO 1927 by WJA Jones; SNA 1931 parag 3
PRAADAdm 29/6/32.
22 Addo-Fening , Akyem Abuakwa 1 700 - 1 743.
23 Kofi Baku, "Historical Survey", p. 7.
46
court pre-dated Cape Coast Castle which was obtained from his ances-
tors at an annual rent.24 King Aggrey demanded a share of customs and
other revenues and gave notice of his intention to form his own military
corps for self-defence. In December 1866, the simmering conflict be-
tween King and Governor was brought to the boil when the latter re-
leased several prisoners from the King's jail. Aggrey' s reaction was swift
and forthright, as he wrote Governor Conran:
The time has come for me to record a solemn protest against the perpetual
annoyances and insults that you persistently continue to practice on me in
my capacity as legally constituted King of Cape Coast . . . However much
you wish to have me and my people under martial law, you will never
have that pleasure ....it is impossible for me to endure your tyranny, an-
noyances and abuses any longer nor will I be subject to the dissention that
you are daily endeavouring to create amongst my chiefs and elders.25
Conrad's reaction was to arrest and exile King Aggrey to Sierra Leone
where he was held till March 1869.
Though local officials continued to ignore advice from London, Her

Majesty's Government remained disposed to allow the protected
"chiefs, its allies, to exercise jurisdiction without control except that pro-
vided by appeal."26 The Colonial Office continued to recognize the im-
memorial right of every native King to exercise judicial power over his
subjects and enforce his judgement by detention. As late as June 1874,
barely seven weeks before the Proclamation of the Gold Coast Colony,
Lord Carnavron, the Secretary of State for the Colonies disavowed the
British Administrator's censure of King Tackie of Accra, reiterating that
the colonial office was "not disposed to consider the exercise of civil
jurisdiction by King Tackie as usurpation on his part."27
The colonization of the Gold Coast was accomplished piecemeal. It
happened over a span of forty-eight years. The first part of the country
24 Boahen, Ghana, Evolution and Change , p. 46.

25 Ibid., p. 47.
26 History of Legislation in connection with Native Jurisdiction in the Gold Coast
and suggested Amendment to NAO 1927 by WJA Jones, SNA 1931 parag 3
PRAADAdm 29/6/32
27 Confidential memo on Native Prisons by W. Brandford Griffith, Ag. Queen' s
Advocate, 3 December 1887.
47
Robert Addo-Fening
to be brought under colonial rule was the southern portion, correspond-

ing roughly with present day Western, Central, Eastern and part of the
Volta Region. These areas were designated by Proclamation dated 24
July 1874 as the Gold Coast Colony and Protectorate.28 The Proclamation
followed hard on the heels of Britain's defeat of Asante in the "Sagrenti"
war of March 1874.
Notwithstanding their victory, the British did not annex Asante, but
intrigued to bring about the break-up of the confederacy. In July 1874
Captain Lees was sent to Asante to pressure the Asantehene to grant
complete independence to Dwaben. The British Administration sent a
gift of a gold-plaited stool to the Dwabenhene to encourage him to claim
status parity with the Asantehene. In a dispatch to the colonial office in
October 1875 Governor G.C. Strahan expressly stated British policy as
one of "breaking up of Ashanti into two or more tribes who would be
independent of each other" to prevent "Kumasi from establishing itself
in its former power." The policy was re-affirmed by a minute of the Co-
lonial Secretary Kimberley on Londsale's report of 1882. The minute
recommended that British policy "should be to steadily encourage the
independence of the countries bordering on Ashanti and cultivate good
relations with them. Any recovery by Ashanti of its former predomi-
nance will be sure to bring us serious trouble."29
The Berlin Conference and its ensuring diplomatic and economic ex-
igencies goaded Britain into taking pre-emptive measures to prevent her
colonial rivals from seizing Asante. In 1889 she put pressure on the
Asantehene to place his kingdom under British protection. King
Prempeh did not oblige. In the same year the British concluded a treaty
with the French that defined the western boundary of Ghana for twenty
miles inland. In November 1890 the British sent George Ekern Ferguson
a Ghanaian surveyor from Anomabo to conclude a treaty with Atebubu.
It was the first treaty to be concluded with a state north of Asante. The
pressure on Asante was renewed in 1891 when Travelling Commission-
er, Hull, arrived in Kumasi to repeat Britain's demand for Asante to
accept British protection. The demand was rebuffed with the following
words: "The Kingdom of Asante will never commit itself to any such
28 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p. 274

29 Ibid, p.278.
48
Colonial Rule: An Outline of the Early Period and the Internar Years
policy. Asante must remain independent as of old, at the same time be

friendly with all white men/'30
The Asante position was unacceptable to Governor Griffith who
minuted in 1894 "we cannot allow Asante to remain independent of us,
as it commands our trade routes ..."31 After a final ultimatum was re-
jected in 1894 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamber-
lain authorized a military expedition against Asante. Sir Francis Scott
and Major S.S. Baiden-Powell arrived in Kumasi on 17 January 18% at
the head of an expeditionary force.
At a durbar held at Scott's request on 20 January 1896, Asantehene
Prempeh I together with 55 others were seized on Governor Maxwell's
orders. The prisoners were detained for one year at the Elmina castle
before being exiled to Sierra Leone in January 1897. On 28 March 1900
Sir Frederick Hodgson, the British Governor provoked war with Asante
by demanding the surrender of the sacred Golden stool. The Yaa Asan-
tewaa War lasted from 31 March 1900 to March 1901, ending in the de-
feat of Asante.
Meanwhile George Ekern Ferguson had been sent to northern Ghana

to negotiate treaties of protection. Between April 1892 and 1894 he had
concluded treaties with several rulers including those of Daboya, Da-
gomba, Bimbila, Mamprugu Chakosi and Mossi. In 18%, the year of
Prempeh's arrest, Captain Stewart hoisted the British flag at Gambaga
and laid claim to Mossi land, which the French had occupied a year ear-
lier. An Anglo-French Treaty of June 1898 ended Anglo-French hostility
in the area by delimiting their respective spheres of influence.
The Gold Coast Order-in-Council, passed on 26 September 1901, an-
nexed the Northern Territories as a British Protectorate. This order to-
gether with the imperial order-in-council annexing Asante came into

force on 1 January 1902. Thus, the territorial boundaries of the Gold
Coast as they continued to exist in 1922 when the League of Nations
granted Britain and France joint-mandate over Togoland which had
been seized from Germany during World War I. Britain's portion of the
mandated territory was annexed to the Gold Coast. The territorial defi-
nition of the future nation-state of Ghana was now complete.
30 Adu Boahen, Yaa Asantewaa and the Asante British War of 1900-1 (Accra, 2003), p.
29.
31 Ibid., p. 13.
49
Robert Addo-Fening
The Colonial Economy
Cash Crops
By 1860 Britain's industrial revolution had reached full maturity. The
increasing demand for industrial raw materials and outlets for manufac-
tured goods stimulated a structural change in the Gold Coast's econo-
my. First, cash crop farming in oil palm, rubber and cocoa received a big
boost and sparked off a scramble for the forest lands of Akyem, and
later of Asante. Thousands of Krobo, Akuapem, Anum and Ga migrant
farmers availed themselves of the new economic opportunity. Muller,
traveling from Akuapim Mampong in 1881 "passed for several hours
through magnificent palm farms" before entering the forest near
Koforidua.32 Twelve years later he reported increased migration into
Akyem.
The cocoa industry spread contemporaneously through New Juaben
into Akyem. By 1901 there were several farms planted with between 40
and 1000 trees. One farmer in Akyem already had a farm of 4,000 trees
that yielded about 28 loads and an income of about £300 per annum.33
In 1906 cocoa became the country's leading export commodity, and five
years later the country attained the position of the world's leading pro-
ducer of cocoa. The industry would accelerate the pace of land aliena-
tion and deforestation. Between 1893 and 1933, 33 per cent of Abuak-
wa's primeval forest came under cocoa cultivation.
Mining
Until the mid-19th century, mining in the Gold Coast was an exclusively
African activity, but European capital soon turned the industry into a
European monopoly. It was a Gold Coast entrepreneur from Cape
Coast, Thomas Hughes who began scientific mining in Wassa in the
1860s with imported machinery. In 1890 three Fante entrepreneurs, J.E.
Ellis, J.E. Biney and J.P Brown, acquired 100 square miles concession at
Obuasi, and began mining operations. Lack of capital forced them to
transfer their lease to an Englishman, E. A. Cade in 1895. Two years later
Cade formed the Ashanti Gold Fields Corporation which opened its first
mine at Obuasi in 1898.
32 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743, pp. 239-240.

33 Ibid., p. 241.
50
Meanwhile soldiers returning to England from the Asante expedi-

tion of 18% had spread news about the country's rich goldfields. This,
together with the 1898 Gold Coast Annual Report's estimate that in-
vestments in that sector could yield a return of £40 million in ten years,
triggered an influx of concession hunters into the country. By 1901 about
3,500 concessions had been granted, and by the 1930s extensive tracts of
auriferous land had passed from the hands of the rural population into
those of private European entrepreneurs.
Infrastructural Developments
At the turn of the century, and especially in the inter-war years, the co-
lonial Government directed its attention to infrastructural development.
In 1898, the year in which the Ashanti Goldfields opened its first mine,
the Colonial Government raised a loan of £220,000 on the London Stock
Exchange on the security of the country's revenues to construct "3-foot 6
ins. single (railway) track" from Sekondi inland. The line reached Tark-
wa (41 miles) in 1901; Obuasi (124 miles) in 1902; and Kumasi (168
miles) in 1903. In 1909 Governor Rodger (1904-1910) cut the sod to mark
the start of construction of the Accra Kumasi railway line. The line
reached Nsawam in 1910; New Mangoase in 1913; Koforidua in 1916;
New Tafo in May 1917; and Kumasi in 1923. The Huni-Valley-Kade line
was completed between 1923 and 1926.
Construction of the county's road network began in earnest with the
appointment of an Inspector of Roads in 1890 and the passage of the
Trade Roads Ordinance in 1894. The Ordinance made chiefs and their
communities responsible for rural road construction and maintenance.
Every able-bodied male was obliged to give six days labour each quarter
of the year (amounting to 24 days per year or 2 days per month) to road
work. In 1895 the Public Works Department was set up and the compul-
sory Labour Ordinance passed to guarantee steady supply of labour.
Construction of the first motorable road began in 1902. In May the first
motor car running on steam arrived in the country for the use of the
Governor. By 1911 there were 16 lorries and 5 cars in use in the country,
mostly in Accra. Between 1919 and 1927 a total of 3,338 miles of roads
were constructed, of which only 260 were tarmetted. It took twelve
hours to make the journey of 240 miles from Kumasi to Tamale and a
week to travel round the Northern Territories.
51
Robert Addo-Fening
Other infrastructural developments included the construction of

breakwaters in Sekondi and Accra between 1903 and 1910, and a deep
sea harbour at Takoradi between 1926 and 1928. To facilitate communi-
cations post and telegraph services were introduced. The first telegraph
service was established during the Sagrenti War in 1874 by Sir Garnet
Wolseley to link Cape Coast and Kumasi. In 1876 Accra, the new capital
was linked to Cape Coast and to Liverpool by submarine cable in 1886.
A Post Office ordinance of 1888 inaugurated an inland postal service for
southern Gold Coast, and telephone services provided for Accra and
Aburi in 1890 and 1892 respectively. Only 4 towns - Aburi, Accra, Cape
Coast and Kumasi enjoyed telephone services by 1907. The country had
to wait till 1936 to have a Wireless Broadcasting Service (Station ZOY).
African Entrepreneurs in the Colonial Economy: Trade, Mining and Cocoa

By 1930, the Gold Coast economy was a far cry from the subsistence
economy of the 19th century. A money economy had slowly emerged
over a period of some fifty years. Opportunities for trade in palm oil,
gum, copal, monkey skins, parrots, kola nuts and rubber had enabled a
few "rural capitalists" to emerge in the last decade of the 19th century.
This class of nouveaux riches such as Ntim of Begoro, John Yaw Boafo of
Abomosu and Kofi Johnson of Abompe had invested in rubber or liquor
business.34 In the early decades of the 20th century the fortunes of this
class of budding entrepreneurs declined alongside those of their big-
time counterparts in the urban areas through unfair and discriminatory
trade practices by European companies.
In the field of mining, the role of Africans was reduced from that of
entrepreneurs to that of unskilled labourers. European concessionaires
paid only a pittance as rent. An example was the rent of £12 per annum
paid for the Pusupusu concession which encompassed 25 per cent of
Asiakwa stool lands. The chief's complaint to Governor Nathan was
dismissed off hand.35 Nor were these meager rents paid regularly. For
several years valuable land suitable for forest agriculture were tied un-
der unworked concessions for which no rent was paid, and being illit-
erate many lessers were unaware that they could "re-enter on non-
payment of rent" and terminate the agreement.36 Even more serious
34 Addo-Fening , Akyem Abuakiva 1 700- 1 743, p. 236.

35 Ibid., p. 245
36 Ibid.
52
than the underutilization of stool lands was the collusion between the
Colonial Government and European concessionaires to use legislation to

exclude rural Africans from participation in an industry that had been
their "main business" up to the 1880s, and also to limit their right to
enter their villages after 6:00 p.m. without permission if such villages lay
within the confines of a concession.37
Peasant cocoa farmers similarly received a raw deal. Though they

had by their own exertions developed the cocoa industry, they received
unfair returns on their investments. As early as January 1904, Adon-
tenhene Kwabena Kena complained to Governor Nathan that "the mer-
chants do not pay fair price for cocoa."38 The complaint was reiterated
by Okyenhene Amoako Atta II who urged Governor Nathan to prevail
on the merchants to pay "better prices for cocoa or the industry might
die."39
These appeals went unheeded and during World War II farmers ob-
tained the lowest prices on record for their produce. By February 1918
farmers were being offered less than 25 pence per load of 60 lbs (27kg)
as compared to £1.00 inl901. The price was most unremunerative con-
sidering that "collecting and breaking the pods, fermenting and drying
the beans" cost the farmer between 11 and 12V2 pence per load, not to
mention the cost of transporting the beans to the buying centres.40
The exploitation of cash crop farmers by the expatriate companies
could not be overlooked by the kings of the Eastern Province. In a pro-
test to Governor Clifford in March 1918, they remarked:
Whilst the Gold Coast Produce is taken for almost nothing. . ..the prices of
European goods have reached such a prohibitive height that one feels
most unhappy
ference by government in this connection be considered im

shall find ourselves compelled to take measures to gua
against such manifest exploitation of the natives poor resources
37 Ibid., pp. 245-248.

38 Ibid., p. 315.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid., p. 317.
53
Robert Addo-Fening
In 1922 the farmers formed the Gold Coast Farmers Association to
protest against the current cocoa price of 12 shillings and six pence
(62.5p) per load. The result was the spate of cocoa hold-ups between
1922s and 1937s.
It was not only cocoa farmers and small scale African entrepreneurs
who seethed with discontent and indignation in the 1920s and 1930s.
Wage earners were also dissatisfied with low wages. The highest daily-
rated labourer earned lshilling and 9 pence (8.75p). In 1919 Africans in
the lowest grade of the civil service were still earning £3b per annum.
Until 1941, workers had no redress as trade unionism was non-existent.
The greatest beneficiaries of the government economic policies were the
private expatriates companies. Except for small annual payments to
chiefs and the governments, mining companies which were the benefi-
ciaries of the railway system and road network, paid no direct taxes to
government till the Nkrumah regime introduced its new taxation
measures in 1952.42
Colonial Politics: Direct Rule?
From the 1860s till the turn of the 20th century, the only consistent aspect
of British governance policy was its inconsistency. Following the 1865
Report of a Parliamentary Select Committee, the British entertained the
possibility of abandoning their colonial enterprise on the West Coast of
Africa and designated the Kings and Chiefs of the Gold Coast as their
"residuary legates." After the Proclamation of 1874, however, they re-
vised their opinion about the capacity of the traditional rulers to assume
that role. Governor H.T. Ussher (1879-80), for example, regarded the
chiefs as "useless, tyrannical and not to be trusted to administer jus-
tice."43 Notwithstanding such strictures, Ussher7 s successor Samuel
Rowe (1881-1884) enacted the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance No. 5 of
1883 (NJO).
The NJO 1883 re-designated the Kings of the Gold Coast Colony as
"Head Chiefs" and substituted their inherent jurisdiction with a deriva-
tive one. Rulers whose states had been duly proclaimed under the ordi-
nance were warned that they held court and imprisoned people at their
own peril. Native states recognized under the ordinance were author-
42 Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite , p. 25.

43 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p. 461.
54
Colonial Rule: An Outline of the Early Period and the Interrar Years
i zed to establish tribunals and exercise clearly defined civil and criminal
jurisdiction.44
The tribunals were empowered to enforce their judgments by the
sale of movable and immovable property in case of civil actions or by
imprisonment in case of criminal offences and by "such other methods
of enforcing judgments" as were not "repugnant with natural justice or
with the principles of the law of England."45 In addition, the Native Tri-
bunals were given power to make bye-laws on a wide range of sub-
jects 46 The NJO imposed administrative obligations on native rulers
including the preservation of peace and order, suppression of riots, ar-
rest of criminals and enforcement of the laws and orders of the Supreme
Court47.
The NJO (1883) had the effect of introducing innovative and far-
reaching changes into the traditional system of judicial administration.
First, the native Kings and Chiefs lost their autonomy in judicial matters
and were reduced to an appendage of the Supreme Courts. Second,
Kings and Chiefs henceforth exercised a derivative, instead of an inher-
ent, judicial authority that was hedged round with manifold controls.
Indeed, the Governor reserved to himself the right to restrict the juris-
diction of any particular chief or suspend him for a stated period or
dismiss him for abuse of power.48 Only a few states were proclaimed
under the NJO initially, as it was regarded as a mark of favour granted
only to chiefs recognized to be loyal and "Intelligent" and amenable to
44 Civil jurisdiction encompassed suits for debts or claims of money not exceeding
£25.00 (7oz of gold); declaration of ownership or possession of lands held under
customary tenure, decisions in matters relating to inheritance of property of val-
ue not exceeding £50.00 (14oz of gold) etc. Criminal jurisdiction included cases of
petty assault involving fines of £5 or less or imprisonment with or without hard
labour not exceeding three weeks; use of slanderous or defamatory words or
songs; putting of persons in fetish; willful insulting of chiefs or disobedience of
their lawful orders; seduction, theft extortion and panyarring; and wilful destruc-
tion of property or house by fire. See Gold Coast Colony Ordinance Vol 1, 1874-
92, pp. 396-405.
45 Gold Coast Colony Ordinance Vol 1, 1874-92, pp. 404-405, No. 5 of schedule.
46 Among them were construction, repair, clearing and protection of roads, wells,
springs, water-course etc; protection of unoccupied lands and conservation of
forest; provision of burial grounds and prevention of hunting-related accidents.
47 Gold Coast Colony Ordinance Vol 1, 1874-92, pp. 400-401.
48 R Addo-Fening, "Colonial Government, Chiefs and Native Jurisdiction in the
Gold Coast Colony 1844-1928", Universitas, vol 10, 1988, p. 137.
55
Robert Addo-Fening
control by the government. Hence Akyem Abuakwa whose King was

considered to be "probably the most powerful chief of the Protectorate"
was excluded until 1899.49
Within only one year of the passage of NJO (1883) a debate began in
colonial officialdom as to the relevance of Chieftaincy. One group led by
W.B. Griffith, Acting Queen's Advocate took the position that the Native
Tribunals and Native Prisons "had no legal standing." They described
native prisons as "a remnant of the barbarism, which has existed in the
Gold Coast from time immémorial' and time and again Judges of the
Supreme Court warned Chiefs that they held court and imprisoned per-
sons "at their own peril."50 The group that was sympathetic to chieftain-
cy, led by Acting Colonial Secretary Hughes, strongly urged that with-
out the power to hold court and imprison offenders, chiefs would have
no "standing and influence." Hughes strongly urged the Government
not to interfere with Chiefs who had it "in their power to assist the Gov-
ernment" unless there was "plain proof of injustice, corruption and want
of humanity."51 Ultimately Traditional Authority was saved from possi-
ble extinction by the adoption of a policy of indirect rule.
Traditional Authority and Indirect Rule

By the turn of the 20th century visions of direct rule as favoured by the
law officers were fast receding. Sir Matthew Nathan who arrived in Ac-
cra in January 1900 to assume the governorship of the Gold Coast had
"instructions to apply the policy of indirect rule" to the Colony. Exactly a
year later, January 1902 Asante and Northern Territories were annexed.
Sir Nathan wondered how he could implement the policy when chiefs
had very little control over their people. Under the circumstances, it
became "the settled aim of the Government" by 1903 "to strengthen the
49 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743, p.104. In the Eastern Districts of the
Protectorate only 4 states were initially proclaimed under the Ordinance, namely
Akuapem (under King Kwame Fori), Yilo Krobo(under King Ologo Patu), Manya
Krobo (under King Sackitey) and Shai (under King Awah). By 1903 a total of 24
states had been brought under the NJO. Akyem Kotoku, Akyem Bosome New
Dwaben and Kwahu were added in 1909. In 1911 it was extended to all the Divi-
sions of the Colony. See Reports on Native Affairs for 1903 andl910. CO 98/18.
50 PRAAD Adm 11/1/1477 Memo on Native Prisons by W.B. Griffith, 3 Dec.
1 887.
si PRAAD Adm 11/1/14 77 Ag. Col. Sec. to H.E. 22 January 1888.
56
hands of the chiefs by whom a large part of the colony was governed."52
Acting Governor Bryan in a letter to the Secretary of State for the colo-
nies in 1906 endorsed "the policy of supporting and emphasizing the
position of the paramount chiefs, while at the same time making them
realize their responsibilities.. .(as) the only practicable system of adminis-
tering this country."53
During the first three decades of the 20th century the colonial au-
thorities set about tinkering with the existing social and political struc-
tures of the Northern Territories. Chiefs were created for communities,
which previously did not have them. In certain areas, chiefs were im-
posed on a diversity of ethnic groups, which shared no historical and
cultural ties. In others, the tingdana was assigned political functions.
To consolidate the power and territorial claims of pre-existing cen-
tralized kingdoms such as Mamprugu, Dagomba, Gonja and Wala, their
Kings were recognized as paramount rulers over small decentralised
societies.54 By 1935 Native Authorities had been established for several
kingdoms and divisions in the Northern Territories. Under the Native
Courts Ordinance (1935) a three-tier court system, each with its own
powers of jurisdiction and schedule of fines and prison terms came into
being. The courts were constituted "mainly on the basis of local cus-
tom."55
In the present day Volta Region a similar policy of amalgamation re-

sulted in 44 out of 68 formerly independent divisions being united un-
der 4 paramount chiefs by 1931. 56 In the Eastern, Central and Western
Provinces of the Gold Coast successive Governors extolled the virtues of
traditional authority and native customs. Governor Clifford (1912-1919)
52 PRAAD Adm 29/6/32 Confidential. History of Legislation by WJA Jones, 1931,

parag 3. Also Addo-Fening, "Native Jurisdiction on the Gold Coast", p. 141.
53 P. Ladouceur, Chiefs and Politicians: The Politics of Regionalism in Northern Ghana
(London, 1979), p. 41.
54 Ibid., pp. 42-43. The Nawuri, Nchumuru, Mo amd Vagala were grouped under
Gonja chiefs; large numbers of Konkomba, Nchamba, Komba and Chakosi were
placed under Dagbon; by 1925 Frafra, the Kusasi had been made subjects of
Mamprusi King; while Frafra and Sisala were placed under Wala chiefs. At a
public ceremony in Navrongo in 1912, Nayiri Mahama had been formally ap-
pointed "paramount chief of all lands situated within the boundaries of the
North-Eastern Province."
55 Ladouceur, Chiefs and Politicians , pp. 55-56.
56 CO 96/706/2 Gold Coast General Annual Report, 1931-32.
57
Robert Addo-Fening
considered no other native institution to be of greater importance than

the traditional system of government and assured chiefs that Govern-
ment considered their position and authority over their people as
"things...of great importance...which the Government should support
and maintain." 57
Governor Guggisberg (1919-1927) was an even more ardent sup-

porter of traditional authority. In a speech he made on his arrival in Oc-
tober 1919, he gave all assurance that Government would "support that
Chiefs and Tribal Authorities in the proper exercise of their powers to
preserve native customs and institutions."58 Indeed, he considered the
Chiefs as "breakwaters defending
and customs against the disintegrating waves of We

Guggisberg collaborated with the Colony Chiefs led
Atta to enact the Native Administration Ordinance
avowed object was to enable Traditional Authority to
by arresting "the decay... in native custom and instit
ing "order out of chaos." 59
Popular Disillusionment with Traditional Authority

Between them, the NJO (1883) and the application of
rect rule placed enormous power in the hands of the
of whom were illiterate and financially distressed.
tem of governance had made adequate provision
chiefs, but under colonial rule economic power was
away from the chiefs to ordinary citizens pursu
through trade and white collar employment. Indeed,
of the 19th century, it was becoming difficult for m
and clothe himself and his wives and children and other domestics and
keep his household, and his own respectability as a Head Chief."60
57 Addo-Fening, "Native Jurisdiction on the Gold Coast", p. 143.

58Ibid., p.144.
^Guggisberg' s speech on the occasion of the inauguration of the Eastern
Provincial Councils, 17 May 1926.
60 Addo-Fening, "Native Jurisdiction on the Gold Coast", p. 145. The NAO came
into force on 1 November 1927 and remained the basis of local government until
1944. The NAO recognized a State Council as "the highest native Authority with-
in the State in all matters relating to the welfare and governance of the State in
accordance with customary law". See Dr. Justice Seth Twum "Integrating Tradi-
58
In 1911 and 1912 two members of the Legislative Council Hon. W. H.

Grey and Hon. E. Mate Kole urged Government in vain to give the
problem of indigence among chiefs its serious attention.61 The growing
indigence among chiefs, notwithstanding, the Colonial Regime insisted
on their discharging the obligations imposed on them by the NJO (1883).
Ignored by the Government and left to fend for themselves as best they
could, several chiefs were tempted to turn their tribunals into "money-
making machines" instead of the founts of justice that they were meant
to be.
The historical record of the first four decades of the 20th century is
replete with judicial abuses, mismanagement of public resources and
political corruption, the result of chiefs' virtual dependence on tribunal
fees and land sales for their own livelihood and that of their functionar-
ies. Governor Arnold Hodson was forced to chastise the chiefs in an
address to the assembly of chiefs at Cape Coast in January 1935; he not-

ed, "complaints were being made to me from all over the country that
the tribunals are exercising their powers unjustly. If these complaints are
true, I am not surprised that the people are becoming restive."62
Asaf o rebellion
The period 1900 to late 1930s saw chiefs coming under incessant pres-
sure from the commoner organizations known as asafo. As early as 1905
the Okyeman Council complained to Government about the increase in
cases of contempt and disobedience of elders and chiefs and pleaded for
sweeping powers to curb the insubordination of the youth.63 The same
year, the State of Akwamu witnessed "practically the whole of the male
population
forming themselves into an asafo kyeriku, purpos

fines and extortion" in the Native Tribunals.64
tional Courts into the Judicial System of Ghana", Paper Presented to the National
Governance Workshop 7, Kumasi, Oct. 27-29, 2004, p.5.
61 PRAAD Adm 11/1/394 W.H. Grey to Hon. Col. Sec., April 1912; Acting Colo-
nial Secretary, CS Harper to Hon W.H. Grey, 23 July 1912; Extract from Legisla-
tive Council Minutes, 28 Oct. 1912.
62 CO 96/706/2 Gold Coast Annual Reports for 1931-32
63 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743 , p.287.
64 CO 98/14 Report on Native Administration for the year 1905.
59
Robert Addo-Fening
By 1919 the asafo kyenku, had arrogated to themselves the power of

hearing cases and giving judgment as a protest against "the imposition
of heavy fines for breach of oaths...." Their tribunals issued an order
forbidding people to obey summons from the Native Tribunals or swear
chiefs' oaths.65 In Accra Ga Mantse Nii Yarboi was summoned before his
subjects to answer charges of abuse of power and perverting justice "for

personal gain."66 The Peki Asafo forbade the people in 1928 to attend the
Fiaga's court and demanded account for "levies collected at various
times from them",67 while in Asante clashes occurred in 1920 between
the "young men" and their chiefs at Offinso, Bekwai, Kumawu and
Denyase.68 In Brong Ahafo the Omanhene of Techiman, Yaw Kramo
was murdered on May 22, 1927 for supporting the use of unpaid labour
by Government for the construction of the 21-mile Techiman-Chira
road.69 The weapon of protest adopted by the Asafo was the customary
sanction of destoolment. Akyem Abuakwa experienced 39 cases of
destoolment, attempted destoolment and abdication in the inter-war
years as against only 5 recorded cases for the entire two centuries be-
tween 1700 and 1899.
Estrangement of the Educated Elite

The Asafo rebellions paralleled a growing estrangement of the educated
elite from the colonial regime and its perceived adjunct - the Native Au-
thorities. Between the two groups there was little love lost. Prior to the
mid-nineteenth century, there was "little racism" in the British Colonial
Service. As of the 1840s "almost every senior official post including gov-
ernor and Chief Justice [was] held by a man of part- African [most of
them Caribbean] descent".70
In 1850, James Bannerman, a prosperous merchant, the son of a Scot-
tish father and an African mother and a former Justice of the Peace was
appointed Civil Commandant at Christiansborg and acted as Lt. Gover-
65 Kimble, Political History Of Ghana, p.470; CO %/706/2 Gold Coast General

Annual Report 1931-32; C098/32 Report on Native Affairs Department for 1919.
66 CO 96/665/10 Ga Native Affairs; Alleged destoolment of Ga Mantse; CO 98/58
Report on Eastern Province for 1930-31.
67 CO 96/706/2 Gold Coast General Annual Report 1931-32
68 CO 96/ 711/ 16 Nsuta Riot Mampong District of Ashanti CO 98/34 Report on
Ashanti for 1920, Annual Report
69 CO 96/677/12 Murder of Omanhene of Techiman.
70 Basil Davidson, The Black Man's Burden (1992), p. 37.
60
nor for a short period.71 In 1857 Sir Benjamin Pine promoted Edmund
Bannerman to the post of Civil Commandant of Keta.
Pine's successors did not share his enthusiasm for African advance-
ment. Influenced by the "crude and inchoate prejudices of the slaving

centuries" gathered together "in a skein of racist ideology", colonial
officials not only made educated Africans scapegoats for "all the trou-
bles arising along the West Coast of Africa," but denigrated them with
"causative remarks."72 Major Butler who commanded allied native
troops to the Sagrenti war of 1874 wrote: "this continent holds the ex-
treme of all that is revolting in man and in nature.... The African race
stands today as it stood 3000 years ago; hopeless to man and cursed by
heaven."73 A.W. Hemming accused the educated Africans of having
always been a thorn in the side of the Government of the Gold Coast. In
another scathing comment in 1887 he referred to educated Africans like
Messrs Bannerman, Brew and others as "the curse of the West Coast."74
Other Colonial officials considered the educated African "a worse evil
than the primitive savage."75

The effect of such prejudice was a trend away from opening up the
Colonial Civil Service to the educated African. In 1886 T. Hutton Mills
was dismissed from his post as a clerk in the office of the Queen's Ad-
vocate for involvement in a riot in Accra. Dr. Farrel Esmon, appointed
Acting Chief Medical Officer and confirmed in 1892, was suspended in
1897 for his association with the management of the Independent Dr.
Quartey Papafio, the next in line was passed over. In 1905 he retired
from Government Service.76 A Department committee set up in London
in 1909 to consider the condition of the Colonial Medical services ex-
pressed strong reservations about employment of West Africans or In-

dians as medical officers in the government service. Where such em-
ployment was unavoidable "they should be put on a separate roster
and European officers should in circumstances [not

their orders"77
71 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p.65.

72 Davidson, Black Man's Burden, p.41; Kimble, Political Histor
73 Quoted in Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p. 90.
74 Ibid., p. 91.
75 Crowder, West Africa under Colonial Rule, p.199.
76 Ibid. pp. 95-98.
77 Davidson, Black Man's Burden, pp 46, 47.
61
Robert Addo-Fening
By 1915 all 49 District Commissioners and Assistant District Com-

missioners were European; and by 1919 only 3 Africans held so-called
European appointments. They were E.C. Quist appointed Crown Coun-
sel in 1914 and Drs. A.F. Renner and G.J.D. Hammond, Medical offic-
ers.78 J.C. de Graft Johnson was appointed Assistant Secretary of Native
Affairs (SNA) on March 23 1920, the highest-ranking African Civil Serv-
ant. In the words of George Padmore "the educated man of colour" was
becoming "the unhappiest person under the Union Jack."79
Governor Guggisberg increased the number of Africans in the Gold
Coast Civil Service to 38 at the end of his term of office and projected a
further increase to 229 out of a total of 558 (41 per cent) by 1945-46. Ra-
ther than the number increasing, it decreased from 38 to 31 in 1938 and
by 1948 the number stood at 98 instead of the 229 projected.80 Colonial
policy did not only restrict opportunities for African advancement in the
Civil Service, educated Africans were also marginalized in the govern-
ance of the Gold Coast. Between 1874 and 1886 membership of the Leg-
islative Council was restricted to European officials. In 1881 the Gold
Coast Times called for African representation:
Were a Romanian sent to govern Venezuela would he be capable of doing

so without the assistance of some of the inhabitants? If our rulers cannot
know our needs without their first being brought to their notice, then we
ought to have Natives in the Council who know and could represent
them.81
As a result of this protest, George Cleland was appointed the first

African unofficial member of the Legislative Council in 1886. Cleland
died in 1887 and until 1892 John Sarbah was the sole African member on
the Council. In 1895 unofficial African representation was increased to
two with the appointment of J.H. Cheetam and John Vanderpuije;
Thomas Hutton Mills, a barrister replaced Cheetam in 1898. In 1900,
78 In 1883 9 out of the 43 "higher posts" in the Gold Coast were filled by Africans
including 7 D.Cs, among them H. Vroom (Prampram). [Kimble, Political History
of Ghana, p. 94].
79 George Padmore, Pan Africanism or Communism (Paris, 1965), p.??
80 Of the 98 only A.L. Adu and K. A. Busia were in the Administrative Service,
having been appointed for the first time in 1946.
81 Gold Coast Times ; 1881.
62
another barrister, John Mensah Sarbah, replaced Hutton Mills and

served till 1910. In that year African representation was increased to
four.82
Governor Clifford (1912-1918) inherited a Legislative Council of 9 in-

cluding 2 Africans. In 1916 he increased the unofficial representation in
a 21-member Legislative Council to 9 including 6 Africans, half of whom
were traditional rulers and the other half members of the educated elite
namely Casely Hayford, Hutton Mills and E.J.P. Brown. The next Gov-
ernor, Guggisberg (1919-27) promulgated a new constitution in 1925
which introduced the elective principle for the first time. Council mem-
bership was increased to 30, out of which 9 were Africans. In keeping
with the ethos of indirect rule the African representation was shared
between native rulers and the urbanized elite in a ratio of 2:1.
In 1920 the demand of the National Congress of British West Africa

(NCBWA) for recognition as official advocates for their respective coun-
tries, was rebuffed as a result of a telegram sent in October 1920 to the
United Kingdom ahead of their delegation to the Colonial Office from
Guggisberg and Nana Ofori Atta, which described the delegation as a
bunch of self-appointed gentlemen representing nobody but them-
selves.83 Lord Milner, the Secretary of State for the Colonies snubbed the
delegation. The embittered Congress leadership identified Nana Ofori
Atta as the "main antagonist of the educated elite", and together with
radical elements of the Aborigines Right Protection Society (ARPS),
henceforth "consciously exploited divisions in rural society in the fight
against the chiefs."84 The standoff between Government and Chiefs on
the one hand and the aggrieved educated elite and Asafo reached its
peak in the 1930s. The growing radicalization of politics led by I.T.A
82 In 1895 representation parity was granted to Africans and the Unofficial Euro-
pean community. Hutton Mills was the first African barrister to be appointed to
the Legislative Council in 1898.
83 See similar denunciation by Sir Hugh Clifford in a speech before the Nigerian
Legislative Council in Crowder, West Africa Under Colonial Rule , p. 425.
84 Jarle Simensen, "Nationalism from below the Akyem Abuakwa Example", in
Akyem Abmkwa and the Politics of the Inter War Period in Ghana, Mitteilungen Der
Basler Afrika Bibliographien, No 12 (1975), p. 52.
63
Robert Addo-Fening
Wallace Johnson and his West African Youth League resulted in the
passing of the Sedition Bill of 1934.85
Belated Attempt at Reform

By early 1930 the excesses of the Native Tribunals were giving the colo-
nial regime cause for great concern. In 1931 Governor R.H. Slater con-
sidered that the time had come for "some measure of executive control"
over Native Tribunals to prevent chiefs from relying on them for "com-
fortable incomes "for themselves.86 Ordinance No.10 of 1932 authorized
the establishment of Native Treasures in the Northern Territories. In
1935 the restored Asante Confederacy was similarly empowered to set

up a Native Treasury with power of local taxation. Opposition delayed
the setting up of Native Treasuries in the Gold Coast colony till Febru-
ary 1936 when a bill was introduced to amend the NAO (1927) "to per-
mit state Councils levying at regularized tribunals instead of haphazard
levies."87 By 1938 a number of functional stool Treasuries existed in
many parts of the Colony. A Gazette Notice early in 1940 brought the
Native Administration Treasuries Ordinance into force throughout the
Colony.88
Stool Treasuries improved the ethos of traditional governance. First,
a proper system of dealing with public revenues was institutionalized.
Second, stool treasuries helped to reduce the high incidence of stool
debts, a major cause of political instability in the 1920s and 1930s.89
Third, stool treasuries raised the level of integrity and accountability
among chiefs through the assurance of reasonable and regular personal
incomes. The guarantee of a steady flow of revenue into the Native
Treasuries provided an opportunity for the rising generation of educat-
ed and enlightened chiefs to become catalysts for economic and social
development in their communities. They promoted education by build-
ing schools including secondary schools, they instituted scholarships
85 1.T. A Wallace Johnson the self-styled "international African" was deported to

his Native Sierra Leone for a publication in the May 1936 issue of the African
Morning Post titled "Has the African a God?".
86 Gold Coast Annual Report 1931-32 CO 96/706/2.
87 Letter from G I London dd 3 March 1936. Native Administration Colony Direct
Taxation, C0%/722/12.
88 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743 , p. 294.
^Report on the Western Province of the Gold Coast Colony for the year 1931-32,
C096/706/4; Native Administration on Stool litigation 1944, CO 96/780/ 2.
64
schemes that took care of many needy but brilliant children. Through
leadership by example some like Sir Emmanuel Matekole initiated an
agricultural revolution in their states; others like Sir Ofori Atta estab-
lished forest reserves to slow down the pace of deforestation and con-
serve the natural environments.90
The opportunity provided by the Native Treasuries for Chiefs to re-

deem themselves came too late. The ARPS, Wallace Johnson's West Af-
rican Youth League, Friends of Ashanti Freedom Society and the Asafo
were all out of sympathy with Chieftaincy. Besides, the colonial regime
was coming to terms with the fact that chieftaincy no longer enjoyed the
confidence and support of their subjects and was "not truly representa-
tive of the people".91
Social Policy
The signatories to the Berlin Act of 1885 specifically mentioned 'educa-
tion and the material well-being' of Africans as a moral justification of
colonization, yet nowhere in Africa did these considerations rank high
in the colonial order of priorities. Throughout its colonial history, the
Gold Coast people depended heavily on the Christian Missions to satis-
fy the youth's 'burning desire for education'92
Two decades before the Proclamation of the Gold Coast Colony
Governor Hill passed an Ordinance to provide for the better education
of the people of the Gold Coast but nothing concrete was done for the
next half century. Besides the passing of more Education Ordinances
under the 1852 Education Ordinance, token annual grants of £100 and
£50 began to be paid to the Basel and Wesleyan Missions respectively in
1874. The 1882 Ordinance set up a Board of Education providing for the
appointment of a Director of Education and institutionalized grants-in-
aid, based on performance. The 1887 Ordinance only improved upon
the modalities of administering grants-in-aid which were enhanced sig-
nificantly.93 Until the governorship of Guggisberg the Gold Coast re-
mained 'educationally speaking little more than a stagnant pool.'94
90 For details see R Addo-Fening 'Good Governance Traditions and Traditional

Authorities' in
91 Address at Cape Coast by the Governor, 28 January 1935.

92 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p. 72.
93 Ibid. pp. 70-74.
94 Ibid., p. 73.
65
Robert Addo-Fening
There was 'no formal training for teachers' except that offered by the
Basel Mission Seminary at Akropong; nor was any allowance made for
salaries of certified teachers who numbered only 81 in 1905.95 The num-
ber of Government Schools increased from 7 in 1904 to 12 in 1914 to 19
in 1919. The corresponding figures for non-Government schools were

132, 148, and 194 respectively.96
The story of higher education was equally dismal. Besides the Gov-
ernment Training College opened in Accra in 1909 for the training of
teachers, government owned no other institution of higher learning. By
1913 Government did not own a single secondary school. The entire
educational budget for the year was £25,000 or 3 per cent of the national
budget.97 Secondary school education like elementary school education
was the preserve of the Christian Missions. The Wesleyan led the way
with Mfantsipim (1876) Wesley Girls (1884) and Aburi Girls (1895); the
Basel Mission had the Akropong Seminary (1848); and the Anglican
Mission St Nicholas School (1910).
Progress began to be made under Governor Guggisberg's Admin-
istration. Guggisberg had been so impressed by his years as Assistant
Director of Survey in the Gold Coast by the Gold Coast African keen-
ness to learn that 'he developed an itch for teaching members of his sur-
vey gangs'. Early in his predecessor's governorship, the educated elite
had urged Government to evolve a policy on secondary school educa-
tion. Clifford had referred the matter to the Board of Education whose
African members, Nene E Mate Kole and T. Hutton Mills, gave unquali-
fied support for a Government Secondary School. A majority of Europe-
an members of the Legislative Council however shot down the idea on
grounds of cost and limited job opportunities.98
Clifford set up a special committee with a stronger African represen-
tation to re-consider the matter but left the country before the commit-
tee's report was ready. Within four months of his arrival and his many
pre-occupations notwithstanding, Guggisberg turned his attention to
the issue of education.99 Guggisberg found several things wrong with
95 Ibid., pp. 75-76.

%Ibid., p. 78.
^R. Addo-Fening, Guggisberg: A Biographical Sketch in Körle Bu Hospital 1923-1973
Golden Jubilee Souvenir (Accra, 1973), pp. 17-18.
99 Ibid., p. 18.
66
the country's system of education. First he believed that education must

be 'rooted in vocation'. Second, he was critical of the undue emphasis on
book learning at the expense of character learning. In his view, 'the ed-
ucation of the brain, the training of the hand, each accompanied by the
molding of the mind, must proceed together' to ensure success.100Gug-
gisberg also stressed the value of culture in the promotion of identity
and nationalism. As he observed:
One of the great mistakes of the education in the past has been this, that it
has taught the African to become a European instead of remaining an Af-
rican. This is entirely wrong and the Government recognized it. In the fu-
ture our education will aim at making an African remain an African and
taking interest in his own country.101
On 5th March 1920 Guggisberg appointed a small committee of ex-

perts to review the country's educational system. Their terms of refer-
ence gave precise details of the problems that required attention. The
committee worked with a sense of urgency and submitted its report on
22 May 1920.
The Report of the Education Review Committee recommended that
education deserved to be regarded as the first charge upon the country's
revenues and the ultimate purpose of all productive activity. It stressed
the importance of syllabuses being based on African religion, culture
and institutions rather than on those of an alien race. Finally the Report
recommended the building of a new Government Secondary School and
actually suggested the site on which Achimota School stands today for
the purpose.102 Upon receipt of the Committee's Report, Guggisberg set
up another committee to plan the details of the proposed secondary
school. The 7 member committee had an African majority including
Nana Ofori Atta, T. Hutton Mills, Dr Quartey Papafio and Spio Gabrah.
The committee's terms of reference included the feasibility of making
Achimota a co-educational boarding school that would offer a general
secondary school education, technical training in various trades and
professions, and training in school teaching.
100 Guggisberg Keystones, Accra Government Printing Press, p. 14.

101 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743, p.313.
102Addo-Fening, Guggisberg , p. 18.
67
Robert Addo-Fening
Guggisberg conceptualized Achimota as an institution that would

give its students a general education including the essentials of technical
education in the first two years of enrolment, give equal weight to gen-
eral and technical education in the third year and give greater emphasis
to technical education in the fourth year. The foundation stone of
Achimota was laid in March 1924. The principal-designate Rev. A.G.
Fraser of Trinity College, Ceylon and an advance party of 4 members of
staff arrived in October. On 28 January 28 1927, Achimota College
(comprising Upper Primary for Boys, a secondary school Teacher Train-
ing and a University College) opened its doors to students. Early that
day, students of the training college numbering 120 and including one
Kwame Nkrumah came into residence.103
Guggisberg had announced Government's intention to establish a

University College at Achimota at the opening ceremony of Körle Bu
Hospital in October 1923. Among other things the proposed University
College was to give the youth "all their general education and a good
part of their medical training" to prepare them for entry to the future
Medical School at Körle Bu.104
Technical education was very dear to the heart of Guggisberg. His

initiative on Technical Schools for the purpose of giving training in sur-
veying, engineering, medicine, law, geology and forestry was lauded by
Casely Hayford. By the end of 1922, four Junior Trade schools, or Indus-
trial schools as he preferred to call them, had been established in widely
separated parts of the country: Yendi, Asante Mampong, Asuansi and
Kyebi. Guggisberg hoped that the Trade schools would provide their
pupils with "a continuation of their education for one-third of their
time, the remaining two-thirds being employed in learning an artisan's
trade, in growing their own food and in learning the latest methods of
cultivation of one or more commercial agricultural products."105 Signifi-
cantly the first of the Trade Schools was opened in the Northern Territo-
ries, which had been neglected by previous Administrations.
Government's enthusiasm for education waned after Guggisberg's
departure in April 1927. In 1931 the Education Budget was £250,000 or 7
per cent of the national budget. In 1938 it fell to £3.64 million or 0.05 per
cent of the national budget. At the 1931 level of funding considered as
103 Ibid., pp.18-19

™ Ibid., p.18.
105 Ibid., p. 25.
68
the peak, only one out of five children was receiving education of any
kind and it was estimated that even if the population remained static it
would take 700 years for Gold Coast Africans to achieve literacy in their
own languages.106 By 1938 the Gold Coast had only 10 secondary
schools, of which Achimota was the only one owned by the Colonial
Government.
Like Education, Health did not receive sufficient attention till Gug-
gisberg's time. There was no hospital facility in the Gold Coast till 1878
when Dr. Jeans opened a make-shift one in Accra. It consisted of a series
of wooden huts on a site behind James Fort and was intended purposely
for the use of the Government and Imperial Forces. It was transferred
sometime in 1881 to a building in Ussher Town known as Old Lu-
therodťs House. In that year Governor Rowe laid the foundation stone
of the Old Colonial Hospital at the site of the present High Court build-
ing. Completed in 1883, the hospital consisted of a two storey block with
a European ward of 4 birds on the upper floor and a dispensary and
nurses quarters on the ground floor. In October 1916 Clifford's Gov-
ernment approved plans submitted by Dr. T. E. Rice, Principal Medical
Officer for a new hospital to satisfy the growing need of Accra's popula-
tion for medical care. A site was acquired at Körle Bu for the construc-
tion of a 'native' hospital: plans and designs were drawn by Dr. C. V. Le
Fanu and the details elaborated in 1917 by an architect of the Public
Works Department, Mr. Harrison. The war delayed the implementation
of the project.
At the time of Guggisberg's arrival the population of the Gold Coast
was 1/18 that of the United Kingdom and 1/9 that of Nigeria. The sur-
est way to ensure population growth was to reduce the high rate of in-
fant mortality (estimated at between 250 and 300 per 1,000 births in Ac-
cra as compared to 77 per 1,000 in England), provide pipe borne water
and sanitary engineering in all the major towns, build more hospital and
train more medical officers, sanitary officers and inspectors, midwives
and nurses.107
Guggisberg's concern about public health services was reflected in

the expenditure incurred during his administration. In the financial year
1922-23 Guggisberg spent £487,000 on health representing 16.2 per cent

107 Addo-Fening, Guggisberg , pp. 14-15.
69
Robert Addo-Fetiing
of the national budget. In the following year the expenditure shot up to

£1,048,000 or 17.4 per cent of the national budget. At this point, the co-
lonial Government was spending a larger proportion of its budget on
Public Health Services than any other West African colony. Körle Bu
Hospital was opened by Guggisberg on 9 October 1923.108
Körle Bu was not the only hospital constructed by Guggisberg. Be-
tween 1919 and 1923 his administration constructed 8 hospitals and a
large number of dispensaries at various places in the Colony, Asante
and the Northern Territories. In 1924 Guggisberg announced his gov-
ernment's intention to provide "a proper medical school at the Gold
Coast Hospital" to train doctors. Under the scheme medical students
were to receive "all their general education a good part of their medical
training locally" so that they would only have to spend two years in
Europe to complete their studies instead of eight. 109 The scheme was
intended not only to shorten residence overseas and provide necessary
clinical experience of the country's environment, but also give African
doctors the proper cultural ambience. The final decision fell to Guggis-
berg's successor Governor A. R. Slater who showed less enthusiasm for
the scheme. Indeed he considered it to be superfluous.110 On the eve of
World War II the number of hospitals and dispensaries in the Gold
Coast numbered only 38.
Electricity was introduced during Guggisberg's administration. Sek-
ondi, the Gold Coast main port was the first to be provided with elec-
tricity in 1919, to be followed by Accra (1921), Koforidua (1921-1925),
and Kumasi (1927). The first potable water supply - a drinking fountain-
was opened in Accra in 1910. Kumasi had to wait till 1934 to be provid-
ed with pipe borne water supply.
To conclude, the development efforts of the colonial government in
the period up to the Second World War -in terms of improvement of
social welfare and education - were far from impressive. Governor
Guggisberg took important initiatives, but, his vision was not forcefully
pursued. British plans to face the evolving challenges were generally too
small scale and decisive action came too late.
m» Ibid., p. 15.
109 Ibid., pp. 16-17.
™ Ibid., p. 17.
70

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Addo-Fening - Ghana Under Colonial Rule

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Historical Society of Ghana

GHANA UNDER COLONIAL RULE: AN OUTLINE OF THE EARLY

The Years of Trade Partnership up to the 1870s

By 1850, the people of the Gold Coast had developed a "peculiar

Socially, the Gold Coast experienced a flurry of missionary activity

1 David Kimble, A Political History of Ghana (Oxford, 1963), p.35, fn. 1.

among themselves.4 Each compound (household) formed a unit of patri-

4 A. A Illiasu, "The Establishment of British Administration in Mamprugu 1898-

ruler to have used a stool as a symbol of authority.8 Among the "Hill

of two levels of subordinate rulers, directly responsible for the towns

12 The range of sacred symbols was the outcome of cumulative contributions by

stituted the asafo (warriors).13 An "elected" ruler did not "acquire an

The Advent of Colonial Rule

13 R. Addo-Fening, "The Akyem Abuakwa Asafo 1700-1918", in The Transactions

states of the south. The Bond of 1844 involved no cession of territory.

to our ultimate withdrawal from all [settlements] except, probably, Sier-

21 History of Legislation in Connection with Native Jurisdiction in the Gold Coast

Though local officials continued to ignore advice from London, Her

24 Boahen, Ghana, Evolution and Change , p. 46.

to be brought under colonial rule was the southern portion, correspond-

28 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p. 274

policy. Asante must remain independent as of old, at the same time be

Meanwhile George Ekern Ferguson had been sent to northern Ghana

gether with the imperial order-in-council annexing Asante came into

The Colonial Economy

32 Addo-Fening, Akyem Abuakwa 1700- 1743, pp. 239-240.

Meanwhile soldiers returning to England from the Asante expedi-

Other infrastructural developments included the construction of

African Entrepreneurs in the Colonial Economy: Trade, Mining and Cocoa

34 Addo-Fening , Akyem Abuakiva 1 700- 1 743, p. 236.

Colonial Government and European concessionaires to use legislation to

Peasant cocoa farmers similarly received a raw deal. Though they

ference by government in this connection be considered im

37 Ibid., pp. 245-248.

In 1922 the farmers formed the Gold Coast Farmers Association to

Colonial Politics: Direct Rule?

42 Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite , p. 25.

control by the government. Hence Akyem Abuakwa whose King was

Traditional Authority and Indirect Rule

In the present day Volta Region a similar policy of amalgamation re-

traditional authority and native customs. Governor Clifford (1912-1919)

52 PRAAD Adm 29/6/32 Confidential. History of Legislation by WJA Jones, 1931,

considered no other native institution to be of greater importance than

Governor Guggisberg (1919-1927) was an even more ardent sup-

and customs against the disintegrating waves of We

Popular Disillusionment with Traditional Authority

keep his household, and his own respectability as a Head Chief."60

57 Addo-Fening, "Native Jurisdiction on the Gold Coast", p. 143.

In 1911 and 1912 two members of the Legislative Council Hon. W. H.

address to the assembly of chiefs at Cape Coast in January 1935; he not-

forming themselves into an asafo kyeriku, purpos

By 1919 the asafo kyenku, had arrogated to themselves the power of

subjects to answer charges of abuse of power and perverting justice "for

Estrangement of the Educated Elite

65 Kimble, Political History Of Ghana, p.470; CO %/706/2 Gold Coast General

ment. Influenced by the "crude and inchoate prejudices of the slaving

than the primitive savage."75

pressed strong reservations about employment of West Africans or In-

and European officers should in circumstances [not

71 Kimble, Political History of Ghana, p.65.

By 1915 all 49 District Commissioners and Assistant District Com-

Were a Romanian sent to govern Venezuela would he be capable of doing

As a result of this protest, George Cleland was appointed the first

another barrister, John Mensah Sarbah, replaced Hutton Mills and