Accra Native Confederation

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The Accra Native Confederation in 1869 was a short-lived attempt to force the then British-ruled city of Accra in what is now Ghana to a self-government recognized by the European powers.

history

The confederation was strongly influenced by the simultaneous, but considerably more successful project of the Fanti Confederation in the western coast of the former British colony Gold Coast and by the theories of the Sierra Leonean intellectual James B. Africanus Horton , who in one of his works also called a “Republic of Accra “Projected. From the first meetings of the operators of the Fanti Confederation in the city of Mankessim in 1868, representatives of the “educated elite” of Accra were present and were inspired by the ideas and developments there. The first meeting in Accra took place in August 1869 with about 60 people in the home of the "recognized leader of the educated natives of Accra", William Lutterodt . The immediate trigger was the threat to the city from the army of the warring Ashanti . Suspicious of the defense plans of the traditional chiefs of Accra, the assembled wanted to take the fate of the city into their own hands in this threatening situation. They elected a committee with Lutterodt as president and constantly tried, in exchange with the Fanti confederation, to lay the foundations for Accra's self-government. The project failed due to the lack of cooperation between the city's traditional chiefs.

literature

  • Adu Boahen: Politics in Ghana, 1800 - 1874. In: History of West Africa, London 1974, ISBN 0-582-64552-2 .