Gold Coast Under Colonial Rule
1902-1951
 |
Yaa Asantewaa
|
Partly as a result of the several administrative, judicial,
financial and social measures taken by the British to consolidate
their presence in the Gold Coast and also the pressure put on her
by the Scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to
check possible French incursions into the northern parts of the
Gold Coast,Her Majesty’s Government annexed Asante and the Northern
Territories to the British Crown by two Orders-in-Council of 1st
January 1902.
The former was the result of conquest in the Yaa Asantewa War
of 1900-01 and the latter being the conclusion of Treaties with the
help of the Fante Surveyor George Ekem Ferguson. Trans-Volta
Togoland seized from Germany at the end of World War I became an
adjunct of the Gold Coast Colony with the approval of the League of
Nations in July 1921. This completed the territorial definition of
modern Ghana and also the beginning of colonial rule property
defined.
British colonialism in the Gold Coast was all embracing; it
involved economic, social and political infrastructural
development. Economically, cash crop farming and the mining boom of
the last decade of the 19th century promised great economic
opportunities. In 1890 and 1901 palm oil and palm kernels
constituted 44% and 48% respectively of export revenue. From a
modest export of 80 lbs. of cocoa beans worth £4 in 1891, the Gold
Coast became the world’s number one producer of cocoa in 1911 with
an output of 88.9 million lbs. worth £6 million. In that year,
cocoa accounted for 46% of Gold Coast’s total value of
exports.
The country also experienced a “gold rush” in 1901 with an
estimated 3,000 concessions taken up. The promise of prosperity
held out by cocoa and minerals underscored the need for a good
infrastructure of railways and roads. Between 1898 and 1901 the
mining town of Tarkwa was linked by a 41-mile railroad to Sekondi.
In 1902 the line was extended 124 miles to Obuasi and in 1903 it
was further extended 168 miles to Kumasi. Construction of
Accra-Kumasi railway, begun in 1905, was completed in 1923. The
third railway a branch linking Kade, a diamond mining centre, to
Huni Valley was completed in 1926.
The Arrival Of Europeans
 |
Cape Coast
Castle
|
The advent of Portuguese explorers on the Fanti coast in 1471
marked the beginning of European contact with the Gold Coast.
Initially Europeans were attracted to the coast of today’s Ghana
because of her enormous mineral wealth, which earned it the name of
the “Gold Coast”.
Within ten years of arrival, the Portuguese had built a castle
in Elmina and by 1500 they were already exporting at least 567
kilograms (over half tonne) of gold through Elmina annually. This
increased to between 900 and 1400 kilograms, roughly equivalent to
10% of total world supply, by 1600.
The French, the English, the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danes and
the Brandenburghers of the Prussians soon followed the Portuguese.
All of these European nations built forts, lodges and castles along
the Gold Coast littoral to establish their presence and to
participate in the lucrative gold trade. One such fort, with an
interesting history not least because it had a Gold Coast governor
in the 17th century, was the Swedish headquarters in Osu. Now known
as Christainborg Castle, it was taken over by the Danes in 1657
when they drove out the Swedes; it was then enlarged and re-named
Christianborg. Thirty-six years later, in 1693, the Akwamu trader
and confidant of the Akwamuhene, Asameni, seized it in the name of
Akwamuhene from the Danes, and remained there as governor and
trader until the Danes were constrained to pay a fee of about 50
gold marks (£1.600) for its return.
The 17th century saw a shift of emphasis from the gold trade to
the slave trade, as a result of the high demand for labour for the
plantations of the New World. The large-scale importation of
firearms from the mid 17th century and the resultant increase in
the incidence of wars in the Gold Coast hinterland produced
millions of captives for transportation to the West Indies and the
Americas. The consequences were far reaching gold production
virtually ceased leading to a reverse demand from the New World;
famine occured in areas before food had been plentiful; while the
pace of political centralization increased in those states that
benefited from the slave trade. By the turn of the 18th century
there already existed in the interior powerful states like Denkyra,
Adansi Akyem and Akwamu which was later joined by Asante, and other
Akan states and the Ewe and Ga-Adamgbe states. In Northern Ghana
the Mole-Dagbani states and Gonja had also attained a high level of
centralization.
Between 1600 and 1874 when the British converted their forts
and settlements along the Gold Coast littoral into a Crown Colony
there was further intensification of state building activities in
the Gold Coast resulting in the establishment and consolidation of
the Ga, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Asante, the Ewe, the Dagomba and
the Gonja. These states and many others were to play prominent
roles in the history of the Gold Coast.
Nationalism and Independence
 |
Dr. Du
Bois
|
The roots of Ghanaian nationalism go back to the early decades
of the 20th century. It owed much to the influences of the Pan
African Movement of W.W.B. Du Bois, Sylvester Williams, Edward
Blyden and Marcus Garvey among others and the West African Students
Union based in the United Kingdom. Dr Du Bois’ first Pan-African
Congress was held in Paris in 1919; and within a year of that
meeting,
Casely Hayford convened the inaugural meeting of the National
Congress of British West Africa, (NCBWA), in Accra. The NCBWA was
intended as a platform for the intelligentsia of British West
Africa to bring “before the Government the wants and aspirations of
the people” for attention. In the longer term, the Congress aimed
at the attainment of self-government for British West Africans by
constitutional means. Among the specific demands of NCBWA were the
election of African representation to both the Legislative and
Municipal Councils; cessation of the exercise of judicial functions
by untrained pubic servants; the opening up of the Civil Service to
Africans; establishment of a British West African University and
compulsory education.
Following the death of Casely Hayford in 1930 the NCBWA became
moribund; and in the mid 1930s national politics became radicalized
as a result of the activities of the Sierra Leonean, Isaac Wallace
Johnson, then based in the Gold Coast, and his West African Youth
League. The colonial Government and the chiefs, who were seen as
their collaborators came under increasing pressure as a
result.
Nationalist agitation was suspended during the Second World War
years of 1939 to 1945 but was resumed after 1945. Indeed, the
peoples of the Gold Coast actively supported the British war
effort, contributing troops and funds to purchase a helicopter. The
5th Pan African Congress held in Manchester in October 1945
inspired Nkrumah returned home at the invitation of the United Gold
Coast Convention (UGCC) formed on 4 August 1947 to help free the
Gold Coast from colonial rule “within the shortest possible
time.
British Colonial Rule and the Spread of Western
Influence
 |
George
Maclean
|
Even though the British colonial rule, in the strict sense, was
not established until after the Berlin Conference of 1884 - 1885,
British power and jurisdiction in the Gold Coast began to take firm
roots from the beginning of the 19th century when George Maclean
laid the foundations for expansion of British influence. In 1830
Maclean arrived in Cape Coast and his instructions were explicit.
He was not to interfere in the affairs of the states of the Gold
Coast; he was only to ensure
that British interests were adequately protected. Maclean was,
however, a practical man who realised that British trade and
missionary activities would only thrive in an atmostphere of peace
and order. Thus contrary to his remit he actually engaged the
British, Fante and Asante in engendering harmonious relations that
won him the admiration and confidence of all and ensured that trade
between the coast and the interior flourished. Maclean’s term of
office ended in 1843 and in that year he became the Judicial
Assessor of British Forts on the coast until he died in
1847.
Commander Hill, who was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of
British Forts and Castles in the Gold Coast, succeded Maclean. He
recognised that the success of his predecessor derived in part from
the harmonious relations that he established in the Gold Coast; he
therefore proceeded to formalize the relations in a short document
of three paragraphs signed initially by seven coastal chiefs on 6th
March 1844 and subsequently by ten other chiefs. The document,
which has be come to be known as the Bond of 1844, represented the
first major imperial assault on the rights and powers of Gold
Coasters to administer their own affairs. It outlawed certain
customary practices and provided that criminal cases were to be
tried by British officials in conjunction with the
chiefs.

On 6 March 1957, the British colony of Gold Coast became
independent and assumed the name Ghana. Until 1957, the Gold Coast
consisted of the Gold Coast colony which comprised British
processions on the Gold Coast littoral and extended less than one
hundred miles inland up to the Pra; Ashanti,
which included today’s Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and parts of Easter
Region. A name Ghana was assumed at independence for three reasons.
First, some of the founding fathers of Ghana argued that the Akan
of the Gold Coast, who constituted 45% of the population were
descendants of the ancient Ghana Empire that flourished from the
9th to the 13th Centuries between the Sahara and head waters of the
Senegal and Niger rivers. Second, the spectacular example of
ancient Ghana in building a great African empire that endured for
three centuries was emulating by the emergent nation. Finally, the
name was not ethnically specific to any of the countries numerous
ethnic groups, it will therefore engender the spirit of national
coercion and consciousness.
The total land area of Ghana is 238,538 square kilometres
(92,100 square miles); the southern coast line being 554 kilometres
(334 miles) wide and the distance from the south to the north being
840 kilometres (522 miles). Ghana is located on the Gulf of Guinea
and boarded on north by Burkina Faso on the east by the Republic of
Togo and on the West by Cote d’Ivoire.
Today, the population of Ghana is about 20 million with the
highest population densities on the urban areas. The principal
ethnic groups are the Akans who constitute about 45% of the
population is made up of the Ashanti, the Fanti, the Ahanta, the
Guan, the Bonu, the Akyem, the Akwamu, the Kwahu, the Akwapim, the
Sefwi and the Nzema; the Mole, Dagbani, 16% is made up of Nanumba,
Dagbani, Mamprusi, Wala, Bruilsa, Frafra, Talensi and Kusasi; the
Ewe, 13% made up of the Anlo, the Some, the Tongu and the Ewedome;
the Ga-Adangbe, 9% made up of the Ga, the Shai or Adamgbe, the Ada
and the Krobo or the Kloli; the Gurma, 4% and the Grusi, 2% made up
of the Mo, the Sisala, the Kasena, the Vagala and the Tampolene,.
Living among the Ewe are non-Ewe speaking groups such as the
Akpafu, the Lolobi, the Likpe, the Santrokofi, the Nkonya, the
Avatime, the Logba and the Tafii.
The peoples of Ghana are composed of two principal linguistic
groups: the Gur and the Kwa group of languages, which are
respectively spoken to the north and south of the Gurma and the
Grusi and the speakers of Kwa are the Akan, the Guan, the Ewe and
the Ga-Adamgbe.
 |
Nkrumah's Dream Project,
Akosombo Dam
|
In the six years that elapsed between the first General
Elections in 1951 and Ghana's attainment of independence in 1957,
the government of the CPP took bold initiatives to advance the
development of the country economically, socially and politically.
In the economic sphere, it launched a 5-year Development Plan for
the country.
Its achievements included the sealing of many of the country’s
existing roads and the construction of new ones; the construction
of a bridge over the Volta at Adomi, to facilitate travel between
what is now the Volta Region and the rest of the country; the
construction of a new and modern harbour at Tema; the extension of
Huni valley to kade railway line to Accra and tema; support for the
cocoa industry and formulation of plans for the building of a
hydro-electricity plant at Akosombo.
In the social field, the CPP Government launched, in 1952, the
free compulsory primary education programme for children aged
between 6 and 12 years. It increased Government expenditure on
primary education from £207,500 in 1950-51 to over £900,000 in
1952. As a result, the number of registered pupils in elementary
schools increased from 212,000 in 1950 to 270,000 in 1952. Sixteen
new Teacher Training Colleges were established to increase the
output of teachers while the number of Government-assisted
Secondary Schools increased from 13 in 1951 to 31 in 1955. In 1952
the CPP Government established the Kumasi College of Arts Science
and Technology and co-operated with Nigeria, the Gambia and Sierra
Leone to establish the West African Examinations Council to
organize and administer examinations in the four countries.
University education was free and textbooks were supplied to all
pupils in primary, middles and secondary
schools.
Politically, the CPP Government accelerated the pace of
Africanisation of the civil and public service, resulting in the
rise in the number of Africans in the so-called “European posts”
from 171 in 1949 to 916 in 1954 and to 3,000 in 1957. It also
introduced a new system of Local Government with an elected
majority in 1952. But the biggest political challenge to the
Government during the period was the threat to the cohesion of the
state.
 |
The First
Cabinent
|
Under the Independence Constitution, Nkrumah as leader of the
majority party in parliament, became the Prime Minister of
Independent Ghana. He was a Member of Parliament, head of the
Cabinet and exercised executive powers. The Constitution also
provided that all Ministers
should be appointed from among Members of Parliament. A
Governor General who would represent the monarch of the United
Kingdom as ceremonial head of state and a leader of Opposition
appointed form the largest minority party in parliament. The first
Governor General was Sir Charles Arden-Clarke who, as Governor of
the Gold Coast helped steer the country to independence. The Earl
of Listowell, in 1957, placed Arden-Clarke as the last Governor
General of Ghana.
The deterioration of relations between Government and the
Opposition in the run up to independence was not helped by the
passing of the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), in July 1958, to
empower the Governor-General upon being satisfied that it was in
the interest of the state so to do, to cause the detention of a
citizen. Under the PDA, the Opposition was hounded for suspected
acts of subversion.
On 1 July 1960 Ghana became a republic and the Republican
Constitution that provided that the monarch of United Kingdom
ceased to be Ghana’s head of state and there should be an elected
president who was at once the head of state, executive head of
government and a Member of Parliament. Nkrumah won the election for
the first executive president of the Republic of Ghana with
1,016,076 votes representing 89.1% of. The total votes with Danquah
of the United Party as the other contestant polling 124,623 votes
representing 10.9%
You need to be a member of Ghana SchoolsNet to add comments!
Join Ghana SchoolsNet