National sins we enjoy

Among men and women named in the struggle against foreign domination in this country in the 19th Century are the likes of J.W. de Graft-Johnson, J. P. Brown, Reverend Samuel Richard Attoh-Ahuma and William Essuman-Gwira Sekyi, popularly known as Kobina Sekyi, who put their educational endowments and journalistic prowess at the service of the struggle and engaged the British colonisers, intellectually, on all fronts. 

The memory of two of these intellectual fighters, Archie Casely Hayford and John Mensah Sarbah, has been honoured at University of Cape Coast and the University of Ghana, where halls of residence have been named after them.

Sey

There is one man, however, whose contribution towers above them all – in my opinion.

He has been described in certain circles as “the first real architect and financier towards Ghana’s independence”.

He is Jacob Wilson Sey, (1832-1902), the first Gold Coast millionaire. 

If in 1957, Ghanaians were not confronted with the land problems in today’s Southern Africa, especially Zimbabweans, who on attainment of independence found that their God-given ancestral lands belonged, legally, to their European colonial masters, Ghana owes it to, among others, this totally non-literate palm wine tapper and coffin maker, popularly referred to as Kwabonyi.

The circumstances of his metamorphosis into a multi-billionaire belong to legend.

Working with the likes of those heroes mentioned above, Wilson Sey became the first President of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society, the main political movement that led, organised and sustained opposition against the colonial government in 19th Century Gold Coast, laying the foundation for political action that would ultimately lead to independence.

In 1896, the colonial government of the then Gold Coast gave notice of introducing a Crown Land Bill, following it up in 1897 with a Land Bill.

If these two Bills had been assented into law by the Queen of England at the time, all lands of the Gold Coast would have been vested in the British Crown and the people of the Gold Coast would have been reduced to settlers on their own land, the situation Robert Mugabe, as Prime Minister, inherited when his country Zimbabwe attained independence in 1980.

Co-founder and the first President of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, Wilson Sey single-handedly financed and led a deputation to England to present a petition, on behalf of the kings, chiefs and the people of the Gold Coast, to Queen Victoria demanding the abrogation of the notorious Land Bill.

The Gold Coasters’ petition was signed by 15 kings and over 64 chiefs from the Western and Central Provinces.

President Sey paid for the sea voyage of the delegation. He also paid the legal fees of Edward F. Hunt, Esquire, a solicitor from Sierra Leone who was assisted by a leading London firm of legal practitioners – Messrs Ashurst, Crips Co., and Mr Corrie, Barrister at Law.

Amu

Another story we seldom tell is the struggle of Dr Ephraim Amu. Most people remember him only for composing Ghana’s alternate National Anthem, ‘Yen Ara Asaase Ni’.

The story that is not told is how as a cultural nationalist, he fought against British cultural imperialism.

He defied the orders of the British authorities of Akropong Training College to put on western clothes (they meant the suit), and cease the wearing of the African jumper, to preach in church.

He refused. They fired him. 

Tata Amu, as he was lovingly called by his admirers, taught students of the school how to work with their hands, including fertilising the school garden with manure worked from human waste. 

If that does not qualify as a struggle against foreign mental domination, I don’t know what does. 

Wonder

I have never ceased to wonder how Ghana’s international airport should be named after a coup maker, who toppled our first President whose memory we claim to still revere, while the name Ephraim Amu is remembered only by his songs.

It is a contradiction to publicly honour the memory of Kotoka in a country whose ultimate hero is the Kwame Nkrumah that he overthrew.

The two deeds are opposed in common sense.

It is a national sin.

Ghana’s honours roll would not be complete without the names of Jacob Wilson Sey and the likes of Ephraim Amu.

I propose that we name either the Cape Coast University or the University of Ghana after Jacob Wilson Sey. 

Like the new Faculty of Law building at the University of Ghana that has been named after Professors JEA Mills and Akua Kuenyehia, what stops us from naming the School of Performing Arts after Ephraim Amu or Kobina Sekyi?

Let children of today and generations yet unborn ask about these heroes. Let their memorials tell their stories. 

The writer is Executive Director,
Centre for Communication and Culture.
E-mail: ashonenimil@gmail.com