Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society

Last updated November 19, 2024

The Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was an African anti-colonialist organization formed in 1897 in the Gold Coast, as Ghana was then known. Originally established by traditional leaders and the educated elite to protest the Crown Lands Bill of 1896 and the Lands Bill of 1897, which threatened traditional land tenure, the Gold Coast ARPS became the main political organisation that led organised and sustained opposition against the colonial government in the Gold Coast, laying the foundation for political action that would ultimately lead to Ghanaian independence.^[1]^[2] Its delegates were active in international organizations and at the 1945 Pan-African Congress, it gained support from Kwame Nkrumah, who later became the main leader of the independence movement. However, the middle-class intellectuals who supported the Society broke with Nkrumah because they were less committed to full-scale revolutionary effort. Consequently, the Society declined as a major political force.^[3]

Foundation

The Gold Coast ARPS formed as a conglomerate of different groups of intellectuals in Cape Coast and Southern Ghana who sought to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the indigenous Gold Coast peoples from being usurped by the British colonial government. One of the initial goals of the Gold Coast ARPS was to ensure "…that every person may understand [the Lands Bill of 1897] the same".^[5] The Gold Coast ARPS became a voice for the rights of indigenous peoples by both broadcasting their aims in their own newspaper, Gold Coast Aborigines, and advocating on behalf of indigenous land rights by presenting the reasons for their dissent of the Lands Bill of 1897 in front of the Legislative Council.^[5]

Particularly, John Mensah Sarbah, a key member of the Gold Coast ARPS and a lawyer, helped to advocate against the introduction of the Lands Bill of 1897 by arguing that it was no different from a previous, unsuccessful bill in 1894; that its introduction would break family and society ties, and that the land was valuable to indigenous peoples for its religious significance.^[5] The Gold Coast ARPS then sent a delegation to London in order to advocate for the dismissal of the Lands Bill of 1897 in front of Joseph Chamberlain, the Secretary of State of Britain at the time. A notable aspect of the delegation is that it included not only members of the Gold Coast elite, but also "prominent merchants".^[5] It was through their meeting with Joseph Chamberlain that the Gold Coast ARPS was able to get support for the denunciation of the Lands Bill of 1897 and the assurance that "native law would remain and prevail with regard to devolution of land".^[5]

The Gold Coast ARPS eventually fell out of fashion in exchange for newer nationalist movements, such as the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA) in 1920.^[6]

Influences on the founding of the Gold Coast ARPS

The formation of the Gold Coast ARPS came at a period during the late 19th century in which the educated Gold Coast elite were systematically barred from high-ranking positions in the colonial government.^[7] It was this exclusion, in part, that fuelled both the "cultural nationalism" and "anti-colonial political activity" that led to the creation of the Gold Coast ARPS in 1897.^[7]

As part of the emergence of cultural nationalism during the late 19th century, members of the educated elite throughout the Western African region began to return to their traditional roots by either reclaiming their "original African names, when these could be discovered…" or "new African names when they could not".^[8] This reclamation of nomenclature influenced the naming of the "Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society," as it was originally conceived as a branch of the Aborigines' Protection Society of London but later renamed so as to serve as its own unique entity with a direct connection to the African continent in general and the Gold Coast in particular.^[8]

Perception of aims of the Gold Coast ARPS

Entrenched in the founding of the Gold Coast ARPS was a belief that both the political actions of the Gold Coast ARPS and the movement against foreign encroachments on native lands were "joint vehicles of nationalism".^[9] Moreover, the key players in the Gold Coast ARPS predicated their belief in a movement against the Lands Bill of 1897 on the assumption that “the economic interests of the [village] chiefs were identical with those of the rural population as a whole.”^[9] This assumption was necessary in the cultivation of support for the opposition of the Lands Bill of 1897 because it fueled public support for a return to traditional forms of land tenure that had vested land ownership in the hands of rural peoples instead of in the hands of foreign actors. In understanding the critiques of the Gold Coast ARPS’ nationalists aims, it is important to note that much of the skepticism about the true intentions of the members of the Gold Coast ARPS came from British colonial administrators who were dismissive of the attempts of the Gold Coast ARPS to oppose the Lands Bill of 1897.^[5] This is highlighted in controversy that suggests that despite the beliefs of the colonial administrators of the Gold Coast ARPS' self-interest in the protest movements, "there was overwhelming evidence of a long history of cooperation between the intellectuals and the indigenous political authorities, at least in Cape Coast."^[5]

Legacy

Global interaction

Global salience of race

An analysis of the impact of the Gold Coast ARPS must typically be constrained to the society's impact on local politics in the Gold Coast region. However, the Gold Coast ARPS was interested not only in the protection of the rights of the native peoples in the Gold Coast but also with the larger global struggles of the African diaspora, including the United States, Europe and the West Indies.^[10] The Gold Coast ARPS's interest in the affairs of people of colour abroad was predicated on the notion of the salience of race beyond the confines of an African context and the global prevalence of racial discrimination. The connection of the Gold Coast ARPS with the global movements for freedom and rights for people of colour began with interactions between the leaders of Gold Coast ARPS and other anti-imperialist and pan-Africanist leaders abroad and ended with Gold Coast ARPS’ involvement with the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress.^[10]

Gold Coast ARPS activities abroad

The Gold Coast ARPS interest in global movements initially gained momentum as news of the success of various anti-colonial efforts reached the Gold Coast, particularly Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War and Ethiopia's victory in the First Italo-Ethiopian War.^[10] In addition to the news of successful anti-colonial movements, the Gold Coast ARPS was interested in the growing formation of pan-African conferences that sought to discuss "questions 'affecting the Native races'".^[10]

The Gold Coast ARPS was particularly interested in the Pan-African Conference that took place in July 1900 in London, the first conference of its kind to occur. The influence of this conference on the members of the Gold Coast ARPS was a renewed belief that, eventually, the indigenous African peoples would be able to successfully rise up against the European colonial powers that had ruled over them for centuries and begin to govern themselves.^[10] This interest in pan-Africanism manifested itself in attempts by the Gold Coast ARPS to hold a similar conference on the Gold Coast, although the idea never came to fruition. Despite this inability to create their own pan-African conference, the Gold Coast ARPS in 1912 participated in a pan-African conference at what is now Tuskegee University.^[10]

Impact of international exposure

The impact of the Gold Coast ARPS' interaction with global pan-Africanist and anti-imperialist movements rested on the ability of these interactions to not only bring the grievances of the Gold Coast natives to the global stage but also to help the Gold Coast ARPS gain leverage with which to lobby the colonial government in Gold Coast to recognize the legitimacy of their cultural nationalist and political aims. Another consequence of the Gold Coast ARPS' interaction with other global movements was the attainment of knowledge about how successful African domination of colonial rule could take place. An idea of particular interest to the Gold Coast ARPS was the creation of trade among "all of us who are of African blood".^[10]

Criticism

A common critique of the Gold Coast ARPS was that its members sought to garner greater financial and political gain for the African bourgeoisie and elites, rather than for the common people. Part of this critique lay in a disjuncture between the espoused values of cultural nationalism by the Gold Coast ARPS that advocated a fight for the indigenous peoples given the connection that the Gold Coast ARPS had with the British colonial government.^[11] Specifically, many of the members of the Gold Coast ARPS had been educated abroad and were part of an African upper class class that would take over the administration of the Gold Coast should the region be granted independence from colonial rule and thus hold similar power to that of the colonialists over their indigenous brethren. Moreover, in the attempts by the Gold Coast ARPS to engage globally with other anti-imperialist and pan-Africanist movements, the Gold Coast ARPS required large sums of money to fund their trips, which they often acquired by charging tribal heads of local communities disproportionate fees to become members of the Gold Coast ARPS.^[11] These criticisms of the desires and motives of the Gold Coast ARPS are strengthened by the outcome of the Native Administration Ordinance of 1927, which allowed chiefs of indigenous Gold Coast groups to have direct interaction with the colonial government. It was at the same time as the implementation of this ordinance that the Gold Coast Gold Coast ARPS began to lose some of their power, as they could no longer use the Gold Coast indigenous chiefs as leverage from which to gain funds. Some also critique members of the Gold Coast ARPS because many did not return to their ancestral African roots, despite their constant praise of a need to return to traditional African roots as a way to fully realize the cultural nationalist policies that they supported.^[11]

Presidents

John Peter Allotey Hammond was the Secretary and later a member of the Coussey Committee.

Joseph William Egyanka Appiah (later Jemisimiham Jehu-Appiah) later became a member through Attoh Ahuma, and was part of the delegation that went to UK to protest to the Queen to release all Ghana lands into the hands of natives.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

The Gold Coast was a British Crown colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa from 1821 until its independence in 1957 as Ghana. The term Gold Coast is also often used to describe all of the four separate jurisdictions that were under the administration of the Governor of the Gold Coast. These were the Gold Coast itself, Ashanti, the Northern Territories protectorate and the British Togoland trust territory.

Cape Coast is a city, a fishing port, and the capital of Cape Coast Metropolitan District in the Central Region of Ghana. It is one of the country's most historic cities, a World Heritage Site, and home to the Cape Coast Castle, with the Gulf of Guinea situated to its south. It was also the first capital of Ghana. According to the 2021 census, Cape Coast had a settlement population of 189,925 people. The language of the people of Cape Coast is Fante.

Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe.

The decolonisation of Africa was a series of political developments in Africa that spanned from the mid-1950s to 1975, during the Cold War. Colonial governments gave way to sovereign states in a process often marred by violence, political turmoil, widespread unrest, and organised revolts. Major events in the decolonisation of Africa included the Mau Mau rebellion, the Algerian War, the Congo Crisis, the Angolan War of Independence, the Zanzibar Revolution, and the events leading to the Nigerian Civil War.

Salt Pan Creek is an urban watercourse of the Georges River catchment, located in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia.

John Mensah Sarbah was a prominent lawyer and political leader in the Gold Coast. He is also known as a founder of Mfantsipim School. In 1897, he was a co-founder of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, which organised and led opposition against the colonial government, laying the foundation for Ghanaian independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. E. Casely Hayford</span> Gold Coast journalist, lawyer and politician (1866–1930)

Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford,, also known as Ekra-Agyeman, was a prominent Fante Gold Coast journalist, editor, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism. His 1911 novel Ethiopia Unbound is one of the earliest novels published in English by an African.

The Akyem are an Akan people. The term Akyem is used to describe a group of four states: Asante Akyem, Akyem Abuakwa, Akyem Kotoku, and Akyem Bosome. These nations are located primarily in the eastern region in south Ghana. The term is also used to describe the general area where the Akyem ethnic group clusters. The Akyem ethnic group make up between 3-4 percent of Ghana's population depending on how one defines the group and are very prominent in all aspects of Ghanaian life. The Akyem are a matrilineal people. The history of this ethnic group is that of brave warriors who managed to create a thriving often influential and relatively independent state within modern-day Ghana. When one talks of Ghanaian history, there is often mention of The Big Six. These were six individuals who played a big role in the independence of Ghana. Of the big six, people of Akyem descent made up the majority.

The Aborigines' Protection Society (APS) was an international human rights organisation founded in 1837, to ensure the health and well-being and the sovereign, legal and religious rights of the indigenous peoples while also promoting the civilisation of the indigenous people who were subjected under colonial powers, in particular the British Empire. In 1909 it merged with the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFASS) to form the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society.

Indigenism can refer to several different ideologies that seek to promote the interests of indigenous peoples. The term is used differently by various scholars and activists, and can be used purely descriptively or carry political connotations. There are a range of ways to define Indigenous identity, including political, legal, cultural, and geographic distinctions. Indigenism can be in some cases seen as ethnic nationalism.

William Esuman-Gwira Sekyi, better known as Kobina Sekyi, was a nationalist lawyer, politician and writer in the Gold Coast.

The National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), founded in 1917, was one of the earliest nationalist organizations in West Africa, and one of the earliest formal organizations working toward African emancipation. It was largely composed of an educated elite in the Gold Coast, who felt under threat from the incorporation of 'traditional authorities' in the colonial system. The cofounders included Thomas Hutton-Mills, Sr., the first President, and J. E. Casely Hayford, the first Vice-President. Other co-founders and early officials included Edward Francis Small, F. V. Nanka-Bruce, A. B. Quartey-Papafio, Henry van Hien, A. Sawyerr and Kobina Sekyi.

Nigerian nationalism asserts that Nigerians as a nation should promote the cultural unity of Nigerians. Nigerian nationalism is territorial nationalism and emphasizes a cultural connection of the people to the land, particularly the Niger and the Benue Rivers. It first emerged in the 1920s under the influence of Herbert Macaulay, who is considered to be the founder of Nigerian nationalism. It was founded because of the belief in the necessity for the people living in the British colony of Nigeria of multiple backgrounds to unite as one people to be able to resist colonialism. The people of Nigeria came together as they recognized the discrepancies of British policy. "The problem of ethnic nationalism in Nigeria came with the advent of colonialism. This happened when disparate, autonomous, heterogeneous and sub-national groups were merged to form a nation. Again, the colonialists created structural imbalances within the nation in terms of socio-economic projects, social development and establishment of administrative centres. This imbalance deepened the antipathies between the various ethnic nationalities in Nigeria ." The Nigerian nationalists' goal of achieving an independent sovereign state of Nigeria was achieved in 1960 when Nigeria declared its independence and British colonial rule ended. Nigeria's government has sought to unify the various peoples and regions of Nigeria since the country's independence in 1960.

General elections were held in Gold Coast in August 1927, the first direct elections in the territory.

Jacob Kwaw Wilson Sey, also known as Kwaa Bonyi, was a colonial era Fante artisan, farmer, philanthropist, nationalist and the first recorded indigenous multi-millionaire on the Gold Coast. He played a major role in the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS), founded to oppose the 1896 Crown Lands Bill and the 1897 Lands Bill that threatened the traditional land tenure system and stipulated that all unused lands be controlled by the British colonial government. The society was the 19th-century precursor that laid the foundation for the mid-20th-century "ideological warfare" pushed by the Gold Coast intelligentsia and the independence movement. Some academic scholars regard Sey as the "first real architect and financier towards Ghana's independence" and the ARPS as "the first attempt to institutionalize nationalist sentiment in the then Gold Coast."

John van der Puije was a Gold Coast merchant, newspaper publisher, traditional ruler and politician. Between 1894 and 1904, he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. He was also instrumental in the re-introduction of the Anglican Communion and English Freemasonry to the colony. He also lobbied the British colonial government to have greater African representation in the civil service in the late nineteenth century.

The African Association, known as the Pan-African Association after 1900, was an organization formed by leaders of African descent to "promote and protect the interests of all subjects claiming African descent, wholly or in part, in British colonies and other place, especially Africa, by circulating accurate information on all subjects affecting their rights and privileges as subjects of the British Empire, by direct appeals to the Imperial and local Governments." Henry Sylvester Williams initiated the creation of the African Association, which was formalized on September 14, 1897, at its headquarters in London. The Association is best known for organizing the First Pan-African Conference, which took place in London in July 1900.

Gershon Ashie Nikoi was a Ghanaian politician, Pan-African activist, and a farmer. He was a founding member of the Convention People's Party (C.P.P.) and founder of the Ghana Farmers' Congress.

Property law in Ghana is the area of formal and informal law that governs how citizens can acquire, register, and maintain property. Property in this instance pertains to physical land and its resources. Property can be bought and acquired following statutory or customary laws. Eighty percent of land in Ghana is owned through customary law and the remaining twenty percent is bought and sold through a formal statutory measures.

References

↑ "Ghana - Early Manifestations of Nationalism" Archived 13 July 2012 at archive.today , Library of Congress A Country Study: Ghana.
↑ Nti, Kwaku (2002), "Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast", Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(1): 1–37. Archived 8 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine .
↑ Asante, S. K. B., "The neglected aspects of the activities of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society". Phylon (1960-) 36.1 (1975): 32–45.
↑ Doortmont, Michel R., The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony, Brill, 2005, p. 28.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nti, Kwaku (1 February 2013). "This Is Our Land: Land, Policy, Resistance, and Everyday Life in Colonial Southern Ghana, 1894–7". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 48 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1177/0021909611431676. ISSN 0021-9096. S2CID 154294647.
↑ Doortmont, Michel R. (1 January 2006). "Producing a Received View of Gold Coast Elite Society? C.F. Hutchison's Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities1". History in Africa. 33: 473–493. doi:10.1353/hia.2006.0010. ISSN 0361-5413. S2CID 153880841. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
1 2 Johnson, Terence J. (1 May 1972). "Protest: tradition and change". Economy and Society. 1 (2): 164–193. doi:10.1080/03085147200000009. ISSN 0308-5147.
1 2 Shepperson, George (1 January 1964). "Abolitionism and African Political Thought". Transition (12): 22–26. doi:10.2307/2934486. JSTOR 2934486.
1 2 Grove, Richard; Falola, Toyin (1 January 1996). "Chiefs, Boundaries, and Sacred Woodlands: Early Nationalism and the Defeat of Colonial Conservationism in the Gold Coast and Nigeria, 1870-1916". African Economic History (24): 1–23. doi:10.2307/3601843. JSTOR 3601843.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Asante, S. K. B. (1 January 1975). "The Neglected Aspects of the Activities of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society". Phylon. 36 (1): 32–45. doi:10.2307/274843. JSTOR 274843.
1 2 3 Obatala, J. K. (1 January 1972). "An African Case Study in the Bourgeois Origins of Cultural Nationalism". Science & Society. 36 (3): 302–313. JSTOR 40401652.

External links

S. K. B. Asante, "The Aborigines Society, Kwame Nkrumah and the 1945 Pan-African Congress". African e-Journals Project, Michigan State University Library.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[loc-1] "Ghana - Early Manifestations of Nationalism" Archived 13 July 2012 at archive.today , Library of Congress A Country Study: Ghana.

[2] Nti, Kwaku (2002), "Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast", Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(1): 1–37. Archived 8 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine .

[3] Asante, S. K. B., "The neglected aspects of the activities of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society". Phylon (1960-) 36.1 (1975): 32–45.

[4] Doortmont, Michel R., The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony, Brill, 2005, p. 28.

[:5-5] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nti, Kwaku (1 February 2013). "This Is Our Land: Land, Policy, Resistance, and Everyday Life in Colonial Southern Ghana, 1894–7". Journal of Asian and African Studies. 48 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1177/0021909611431676. ISSN 0021-9096. S2CID 154294647.

[6] Doortmont, Michel R. (1 January 2006). "Producing a Received View of Gold Coast Elite Society? C.F. Hutchison's Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities1". History in Africa. 33: 473–493. doi:10.1353/hia.2006.0010. ISSN 0361-5413. S2CID 153880841. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.

[:0-7] 1 2 Johnson, Terence J. (1 May 1972). "Protest: tradition and change". Economy and Society. 1 (2): 164–193. doi:10.1080/03085147200000009. ISSN 0308-5147.

[:1-8] 1 2 Shepperson, George (1 January 1964). "Abolitionism and African Political Thought". Transition (12): 22–26. doi:10.2307/2934486. JSTOR 2934486.

[:2-9] 1 2 Grove, Richard; Falola, Toyin (1 January 1996). "Chiefs, Boundaries, and Sacred Woodlands: Early Nationalism and the Defeat of Colonial Conservationism in the Gold Coast and Nigeria, 1870-1916". African Economic History (24): 1–23. doi:10.2307/3601843. JSTOR 3601843.

[:3-10] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Asante, S. K. B. (1 January 1975). "The Neglected Aspects of the Activities of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society". Phylon. 36 (1): 32–45. doi:10.2307/274843. JSTOR 274843.

[:4-11] 1 2 3 Obatala, J. K. (1 January 1972). "An African Case Study in the Bourgeois Origins of Cultural Nationalism". Science & Society. 36 (3): 302–313. JSTOR 40401652.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]