Sarbah also took an interest in the advancement of secondary education in Ghana and was instrumental in the development of his alma mater, Mfantsipim. The Oil Palm and Its Products, Journal of the African Society, London, 1909. This article was reprinted from The Encyclopedia Africana Dictionary of African Biography (In 20 Volumes). 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. 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. John Mensah Sarbah (1864- 1910) John Mensah Sarbah, also known as "Kofi Mensah", patriot and statesman, was one of the most outstanding nationalists of the Gold Coast at the turn of the 20th century. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These newspapers, read by the African intelligentsia and Europeans, including government officials, in the Gold Coast, were used as political platforms to call attention to African demands. Over 50 years after his death, the University of Ghana, in 1963, named Mensah Sarbah Hall after him for his services to education. His successors in this field were J. E. Casely Hayford, andDr. J. arbah failed to sway the opinon of Governor Sir William Maxwell, honored with the Order of St. Michael and St. George, "did not strive for popularity nor was he vainglorious nor egotistical. 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; (His suggestion was to be adopted in 1951). His father sent him to England when he was sixteen to continue his education. [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. 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 a good churchman, and bought a pipe organ for the Methodist Church at Cape Coast. /Size 51 [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. /E 40017 Answer: In 1897 he worked with JE Casely Hayford, JP Brown, JW de Graft Johnson, and others to form the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS). 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. He was educated at the Cape Coast Wesleyan School, and at Taunton School Devon, 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. Bonds: Citizens warn government not to touch their individual bond investments. By his publications he began the tradition of educated nationalist politicians finding time to write about their countrys history and institutions. 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. 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. [4][5], Mensah Sarbah was appointed a member of the Legislative Council in 1901,[6] and was re-appointed in 1906. << My latest banger got nothing to do with Mahama - Volkano_KM. 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. When Governor Sir William Maxwell (term of office 1895- 97) refused to withdraw the bill, Sarbah advised the ARPS to send a delegation to He also proposed that native tribunals should be given a definite and well-defined place in the judicial structure. Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, Influences on the founding of the Gold Coast ARPS, Perception of aims of the Gold Coast ARPS, S. K. B. Asante, "The neglected aspects of the activities of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. 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. 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. Last updated: 14 December 2022. But his interest in politics, which he had shown during his student days in England, led him to take a more active part in political life. On his return to the Gold Coast, he became a leading critic of British Imperial rule. C.F. He said the late lawyer readily made cash allowances to Cocoa farmers to push the economic development of the Gold Coast. Mr. Henry Kwadwo Amoako is a Ghanaian Social Scientist, Researcher and Acclaimed Historian for over two decades. /Names << /Dests 12 0 R>> 65, 76. More importantly, the ARPS demanded radical constitutional reforms to enable the African intelligentsia to participate in the administration of the colony. Hutchison's Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities1", "The Aborigines Society, Kwame Nkrumah and the 1945 Pan-African Congress", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gold_Coast_Aborigines%27_Rights_Protection_Society&oldid=1077681957, 1890s establishments in Gold Coast (British colony), Articles with unsourced statements from June 2012, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Asante, S. K. B. Indeed, by the first two decades of the twentieth century, the influence of the ARPS was being felt colony-wide as it extended its concerns to cover problems of colonial rule, including forced labor and taxation in Asante and the Northern Territories. He himself founded a scholarship at Mfantsipim School and helped to pay the salaries of the staff when the school encountered financial difficulties. "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. John Mensah Sarbah was born in Cape Coast on 3 June 1864. After qualifying in his profession, Sarbah returned to the Gold Coast and founded his own private legal practice. The Town Councils Ordinance dealt with the levying of municipal house rates. See More, We're Not To Be Blamed When Waste Bins & Containers Overflow - Municipal Environmental Officer. Fanti National Constitution, London, 1906. ! Y 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]. 0000030321 00000 n It has emerged that he was a business man par excellence who groomed his late fathers business in agriculture and mining merchandise in the Gold Coast era. /H [ 1010 368 ] From Taunton he matriculated to Lincoln's Inn to train as a barrister. 0000034269 00000 n Apr 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. 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. Opera News does not consent to nor does it condone the posting of any content that violates the rights (including the copyrights) of any third party, nor content that may malign, inter alia, any religion, ethnic group, organization, gender, company, or individual. Although he accepted the basic assumptions of the British imperial regime, he felt that some of the evils of the crown colony system should be checked. 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. Sarbah was a good legislator. Alternate Names: Kofi Mensa Although the Lands Bill was its immediate preoccupation, the aims of the ARPS were broad and encompassing. . Telling the business story of the late lawyer, senior law partner, Kojo Bentsil Enchil said the late Sarbah was the greatest aggregate of an achiever in the Gold Coast and in present day Ghana in the lawyer profession. 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. 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. 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. ", "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", The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities, "This Is Our Land: Land, Policy, Resistance, and Everyday Life in Colonial Southern Ghana, 18947", "Producing a Received View of Gold Coast Elite Society? /O 24 He was born at Cape Coast in 1864, and was the eldest son of John Sarbah, a merchant, and of his wife Sarah. Sarbah House, at Mfantsipim, is named after him. Some other sources (including Magnus Sampson, 1969) give 6 November 1910 as the date of Mensah Sarbahs death. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (The Revelation), Education in Africa: The Impact of Colonialism, Why The Legendary Geneva Bible was Banned. [2][3], In 1897, along with J. W. de Graft-Johnson, J. W. Sey, J. P. Brown and J. E. Casely Hayford, Mensah Sarbah co-founded the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, which became the main political organisation that led organised and sustained opposition against the colonial government, laying the foundation for Ghanaian independence. << 0 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. 1, Legon, June 1973 (pp. [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. Visit our, Akufo-Addo willing to legalize homosexuality - Inusah Fuseini. endobj /Font << /F13 26 0 R /F19 32 0 R /F25 38 0 R /F31 44 0 R >> ", This page was last edited on 17 March 2022, at 16:53. He was interested in promoting agriculture, and wrote an article on The Oil Palm and Its Products in 1909. 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. John Mensah Sarbah was interested in promoting agriculture, and wrote an article on The Oil Palm and Its Products in 1909. On his return home, John Mensah Sarbah, who was generally known as Kofi Mensah, built up a lucrative practice. 23 0 obj 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]." In 1897 he worked with JE Casely Hayford, JP Brown, JW de Graft Johnson, and others to form the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS). 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