Aborigines' Rights Protection Society The First political movement in Ghana and the entire British West Africa (An extensive detail of its activities in Ghana and West Africa). Over 50 years after his death, the University of Ghana, in 1963, named Mensah Sarbah Hall after him for his services to education. [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. The great Ghanaian nationalist John Mensah Sarbah, born on June 3 1864, died November 6 1910. He made a lasting mark on national life in politics, education, and law. [2] He subsequently entered Lincoln's Inn in London to train as a barrister, and was called to the English bar in 1887 the first African from his country to qualify in this way. John Mensah Sarbah was the first lawyer of the Gold Coast that helped in the documentation of the customary laws of the Gold Coast and present day Ghana. Sarbah's intellectual leadership was recognized amongst his countrymen, Africans across the continent, and even the Crown. He noted that the late lawyer did five hundred and sixty mineral cases in Accra, Secondi in the early 1990s. 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 He was educated at the Cape Coast Wesleyan School, and at Taunton School Devon, England. Fanti National Constitution, London, 1906. Early Life /Names << /Dests 12 0 R>> 23 0 obj This achievement saved the Gold Coast from the evils of the alienation of African land, as occurred, for example, in the British colony of Kenya. After qualifying in his profession, Sarbah returned to the Gold Coast and founded his own private legal practice. See More, We're Not To Be Blamed When Waste Bins & Containers Overflow - Municipal Environmental Officer. 0000034269 00000 n Please accept by clicking on the 'Accept' button on your screen. He was the first African barrister from the then Gold Coast. He was born at Cape Coast in 1864, and . My latest banger got nothing to do with Mahama - Volkano_KM. The Town Councils Ordinance dealt with the levying of municipal house rates. [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. [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. 0000014189 00000 n The ARPS remained the voice of colonized Africans until its demise in the 1930s. 0000014819 00000 n He was nominated as a member of the Legislative Council by the governor, Sir Mathew Nathan (term of office, 1900-04), in 1901, and sat, except for a short break, as a member until his death. /Font << /F13 26 0 R /F19 32 0 R /F25 38 0 R /F31 44 0 R >> 22 0 obj Upon returning from a visit to Europe in 1903 together with William Edward Sam, John Mensah Sarbah and Sam promoted an enterprise called the Fanti Public Schools Limited. Prof. Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Paramount Chief of Essikado Traditional Area in the Western Region in delivering the keynote address encouraged participants to emancipate and deconstruct their minds and share passionately the patriotism of the late John Mensah Sarbah, describing him as an embodiment of a deeply intellectual great son of the land. John Mensah Sarbah had opposed such proposals before, and people had expected him to oppose the amendment outright. [4], 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. /ProcSet [/PDF /Text] some cases thereon decided in the Law Courts by John Mensah Sarbah | Sep 21, 2020 5 Hardcover $1844 Sarbah failed to sway the opinon of Governor Sir William Maxwell, however, his action sparked fervor among his colleagues. Site redesigned by Alex Mayfield (2017 and 2019). He was responsible for various initiatives, including the founding of a Dutton scholarship at Taunton School in memory of his younger brother, Joseph Dutton Sarbah, who had died there in 1892. >> John Mensah Sarbah was interested in promoting agriculture, and wrote an article on The Oil Palm and Its Products in 1909. He said the late lawyer readily made cash allowances to Cocoa farmers to push the economic development of the Gold Coast. /L 52559 John Mensah Sarbah was the first lawyer of the Gold Coast that helped in the documentation of the customary laws of the Gold Coast and present day Ghana. John Mensah Sarbah was born on Friday, 3 June 1864, in Anomabu, in the Fante Confederacy in the Gold Coast. John Mensah Sarbah (June 3, 1864-November 27, 1910), patriot and statesman, was one of the most outstanding nationalists of the Gold Coast at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. The mission of ARPS initially was to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the Indigenous Gold Coast peoples and more concretely to ensu. 0000014334 00000 n /Prev 51983 Although the Lands Bill was its immediate preoccupation, the aims of the ARPS were broad and encompassing. He made a lasting mark on national life in politics, education, and law. Methodist Eventually, the Forest Bill led to the establishment of forest reserves. He founded two newspapers, The Gold Coast People and Gold Coast Weekly, and became an authority on the traditions of the Fante people. one of the most outstanding nationalists of the Gol, Building on Custom: Land Tenure Policy and Economic Development in Ghana, Exhuming and Highlighting the Nearly Forgotten Gold Coast Intelligentsia: the Life and Times of Prince Kwamin Atta Amonoo V, The Rise of British Jurisdiction in Ghana Jonqil Van, Primary 5 History of Ghana Facilitator's Guide, Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and The, AFRICAN COASTAL ELITE ARCHITECTURE: CULTURAL AUTHENTIFICATION DURING the COLONIAL PERIOD in ANOMABO, GHANA By, The Case of John Mensah Sarbah and the Reconstruction of Gold Coast History, The Commission Shall Advise the President on Development Planning Policy and Strategy, Decolonising African History. What Happened To Mary Magdalene After Jesus Died? 0000029491 00000 n John Peter Allotey Hammond was the Secretary and later a member of the Coussey Committee. ", Hopkins, Antony G. "Economic aspects of political movements in Nigeria and in the coast 19181939. Sarbah returned the 400-guinea fee which the ARPS gave him because he felt that it was an honor to serve his country. >> Although the ARPS was an alliance between the African intelligentsia and the chiefs or the indigenous rulers, its leadership was mostly made up of educated Africans who were able to use their literacy to negotiate with the colonial government. When the Gold Coast Native Jurisdiction Ordinance (1883) was being amended in 1910, Section 29 caused a stir among the people because they felt it would empower the governor to usurp the rights of the people in the destooling of chiefs. When, for financial reasons, the Wesleyan Mission closed down the Cape Coast Wesleyan School, he and some other nationalists revived it, financed it, and renamed it the Collegiate School. Some of the methods used by the ARPS included campaigns in local newspapers, namely the Gold Coast Methodist Times and the Gold Coast Aborigines in the late nineteenth century and the Gold Coast Nation and the Gold Coast Leader during the first two decades of the twentieth century. [10], 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. 0000000908 00000 n Several developments in the preceding decades, including the lack of African representation on the Gold Coast Legislative Council, the problem of direct taxation, and the implementation of the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883, contributed to the formation of the ARPS. The Oil Palm and Its Products, Journal of the African Society, London, 1909. During the early twentieth century, the ARPS occupied itself with colonial policies on education, sanitation, health, the provision of infrastructure, and imperial labor and military recruitment in the Gold Coast during World War I. It is the aim of the foundation set by his descendants is to promote educational scholarships and digitally archived the works of the late John Mensah Sarbah. The ARPS delegation met with Joseph Chamberlain (18361914), the colonial secretary, with whom they discussed the questions of land, taxation, and constitutional reform. << The ARPS opposed the Lands Bill of 1897, which threatened the traditional system of African land tenure, and sent John Mensah Sarbah to argue against its passage in the Legislative Council. Alternate Names: Kofi Mensa /Info 21 0 R /Outlines 16 0 R It empowered chiefs to pass local bylaws for forest preservation. 0000020815 00000 n The ARPS remained the voice of colonized Africans until its demise in the 1930s. John Mensah Sarbah was interested in promoting secondary education because he felt that it was the best way to enable Africans to gain the respect of the civilized world. Specifically, he proposed that in perjury the falsehood with which the witness could be charged should concern a matter material to the issues raised in the judicial proceedings. Sarbah was the eldest son of John Sarbah, a successful merchant, and was subsequently well-educated. However, the middle class intellectuals who supported the Society broke with Nkrumah because they were less committed to full-scale revolutionary effort. Contemporaries such as Reverend Attoh Ahuma lamented that Sarbah's work was not appropriately appreciated in his time as he "did not strive for popularity nor was he vainglorious nor egotistical." It has emerged that he was a business man par excellence who groomed his late father's business in agriculture and mining merchandise in the Gold Coast era. He revealed that when he died in 1910 there was evidence in his will that he had shares in Ashanti Obuasi mines out of which he left shares for his mother and sisters and part for his wife and children. Sarbah is said to have given the school its motto (Dwin Hwe Kan, meaning Think and Look Ahead) as well as its emblem. His Fanti Customary Laws is still regarded as an indispensable book for lawyers in Ghana. "Sarbah, John Mensah", in Keith A. P. Sandiford, "Ghana Early Manifestations of Nationalism", "Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast", John Mensah Sarbah, an outstanding nationalist of the Gold Coast, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Mensah_Sarbah&oldid=1105403308, This page was last edited on 20 August 2022, at 02:51. 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. The late father of the late Sarbah was a business man who traded salt among others, but he added that even though there is no clear evidence that the late lawyer totally took over his fathers business. 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". He entered Lincolns Inn in London in 1884 to study law, and qualified as a barrister in 1887, being the first African from the Gold Coast to gain this qualification. The mission of ARPS initially was to protect the traditional land tenure practices of the Indigenous Gold Coast peoples and more concretely to ensure "that every person may understand [the Lands Bill of 1897]." He therefore published two books,Fanti Customary Laws(1897), andFanti National Constitution (1906). In 1898 ARPS sent a delegation to London and successfully got the Lands Bill overturned. [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. To Sarbah this went against the democratic traditions of the Fante. He also helped to establish the Fanti National Education Fund, which aimed at improving educational facilities in the country and also awarded scholarships. In 1963, the Great Hall at University of Ghana Legon is named after him in his memory for his educational works including the founding of the Fanti Public Schools Limited which eventually became the present Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast designing the schools crest and motto Dwen hwe kwan think ahead of time. He was Born into a wealthy family, and studied law in England. John Mensah Sarbah was one of the pioneers of Ghanaian politics and a distinguished African politician in the Gold Coast in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When Governor Sir William Maxwell (term of office 1895- 97) refused to withdraw the bill, Sarbah advised the ARPS to send a delegation to This was vigorously implemented in 1907 with the passing of the Timber Protection Ordinance which sought to prevent the cutting of saplings. John Mensah Sarbah was called to the English Bar in 1887. Opera News furthermore does not condone the use of our platform for the purposes encouraging/endorsing hate speech, violation of human rights and/or utterances of a defamatory nature. The African intelligentsia had the full support of the chiefs, especially from the inception of the ARPS to about 1912, when Governor Hugh Clifford effectively implemented the indirect rule, which used the chiefs as the main agents of local administration. endobj [4][5], Mensah Sarbah was appointed a member of the Legislative Council in 1901,[6] and was re-appointed in 1906. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (The Revelation), Education in Africa: The Impact of Colonialism, Why The Legendary Geneva Bible was Banned. 65, 76. In 1963, a residence hall of the University of Ghana was named Mensah Sarbah Hall in his honour for his services to education,[8] with a statue of John Mensah Sarbah is in front of it. John Mensah Sarbah is said to have given the school its motto (Dwen Hwe Kan, meaning Think and Look Ahead) as well as its emblem. Most significantly, in 1898 it sent a delegation, including President Jacob Wilson Sey and other prominent members, such as T. F. E. Jones and George Hughes, to England to meet directly with British officials to discuss problems of colonial rule, especially the Lands Bill. Sarbah returned the guinea fee which the ARPS gave him for his work, as he regarded it as an honour to serve his country. Join our whatsapp page, This website uses cookies. They sent Sarbah to argue against its passage in the Legislative Council. Content created and supplied by: Royalvibes (via Opera His first act in this direction was to found a Dutton scholarship at Taunton School in memory of his younger brother, Joseph Dutton Sarbah, who had died there in 1892. Email: henrydonsco@gmail.com It has turned out some of the countrys best known public figures in all walks of life, men such as Alex Quaison-Sackey, former President of the General Assembly of UN, Dr. K A Busia, Kofi Annan, the immediate past General Secretary of the United Nations. By the mid-1930s, the ARPS was in a state of decline. He was also an entrepreneur who set up two newspapers in the Gold Coast called The Gold Coast Nation and The Gold Coast Times with his money. Sarbah also took an interest in the advancement of secondary education in Ghana and was instrumental in the development of his alma mater, Mfantsipim. As a lawyer, John Mensah Sarbah was interested in spreading knowledge of Fanti laws and of theFanti Constitution. His successors in this field were J. E. Casely Hayford, and Dr. J. 2021 Happy FM Ghana - Developed byHappy Ghana. /Type /Page Although the formation of the ARPS was due to the cumulative effects of colonial rule in the late nineteenth century, the immediate reason for its formation was the Lands Bill. The Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was formed in 1897 in the historic city of Cape Coast, a hub of intellectual and political activism in Ghana. The idea of forming the society had been incubated as early as 1895 but was shelved 1 year ago ago Amazon.com: John Mensah Sarbah: Books 10 results RESULTS Fanti customary laws, a brief introduction to the principles of the native laws and customs of the Fanti and Akan districts of the Gold Coast, with a . He was interested in court reforms, and tried to obtain better protection for accused persons during trials, especially in cases in which colonial district commissioners were biased against certain Africans. 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