National Congress of British West Africa

Visit of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to the Gold Coast Colony 1925. The Prince of Wales shaking hands with the members of the Ladies' Branch of the National Congress of British West Africa.

The National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), founded in 1919, was one of the earliest nationalist organization 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.

Founding

Inspiration

Regional Influences

The founding of the NCBWA was based, in part, on the existing legacy of resistance and nationalist movements throughout the British colonial holdings in West Africa. Some of the resistance movements that influenced the development of the NCWBA were those by “King Aggrey of Cape Coast in the Gold Coast in the 1860’s” and “King Kosoko of Lagos & Jaja of Opobo in the nineteen century”. The previous nationalist movements that sparked the creation of the NCWBA included the Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) and the Fante Confederation. The NCWBA was influenced not only by nationalist movements in the region but also by the works of key African nationalist scholars, such as Dr. Africanus Beale Horton, Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden, and John Payne Jackson.

International Influences

The emergence of the NCWBA can also be contextualized within the larger, international nationalist movements of the early twentieth century that occurred on behalf of Africans and people of African descent specifically, as well as amongst subjugated peoples around the globe more broadly. Some of the events that paved the way for the development of the NCWBA were the First Universal Races Congress of 1911, the International Conference on the Negro in 1911, the creation of the African Progress Union and Union of Students of African Descent in the United Kingdom in 1917, as well as the end of World War I.

Internal Motivations

While it is important to note the regional movements, the international movements, and the people who helped to shape the environment in which the NCWBA was able to thrive, it is crucial to note that the emergence of the NCWBA was most fundamentally shaped by a belief by members of the NCWBA that the West African people did not deserve to continue to live under the “ «injustices» of the colonial regime”. 

Throughout the nineteenth century, educated West African elite were permitted to serve as government officials throughout the regions in West Africa of British domain, as the British colonial leaders saw the educated elite as necessary allies. However, by 1902, the favor that the British colonial leaders had previously given to the educated African elite began to diminish through the use of discriminatory policies, such as one issued by the “West African Medial Service” that stated that educated Africans could only participate in the service if they  were of “«European» parentage”.

Formation

A combination of regional, international, and internal influences and motivations culminated in the formation of the NCBWA in March 1920.

Goals of the NCBWA

The Congress agitated for the establishment of a West African Court of Appeal, where judges would be nominated Africans.