Ebenezer Ako-Adjei

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Ebenezer Ako-Adjei (born June 16, 1916 in Adjeikrom , Ghana ; † January 14, 2002 in Accra ) was one of the most famous politicians, lawyers, publishers and journalists in Ghana during his lifetime. He particularly excelled in the struggle for the country's independence and the establishment of a state. Among other things, he was a founding member of the first party in Ghana, which at that time was still the Gold Coast colony . After his death, Ako-Adjei was buried at a state funeral.

Birth, childhood, youth

Ebenezer Ako-Adjei was born in the small village of Adjeikrom in the Benkum Division in the Eastern Region of Ghana. His place of birth is said to be named after Ako-Adjei's father, the farmer Samuel Adjei, who is said to have founded this place. His mother was Mrs. Johanna Okailey Adjei. Both parents come from La, today's Labadi , a coastal town near Accra .

In his youth he was a founding member of the Choir of the Presbyterian Church in La, under the direction of S. Trebi Laryea.

education

Dr. Ako-Adjei attended the primary school in Bosuso in Akyem Abuakwa ( Presbyterian Primary School ) and later the junior and senior school in La, today's Labardi.

After Ako-Adjei graduated from Senior Secondary School, he graduated from Accra Academy in 1933. In December 1934 he received the Junior Certificate Examination from the University of Cambridge, Great Britain, followed by the Senior School Certificate from the University of Cambridge in December 1936.

He voluntarily joined the Civil Service of the Gold Coast in 1938 as a clerk ( Second Division Clerk ) in the office of the Colonial Secretary in Accra. However, he gave up this position after a short time and went to the United States for further education.

Between 1939 and 1942 Ako-Adjei studied economics at Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) and graduated successfully in 1942. At an early age at Lincoln University, Ako-Adjei met the later first President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah , with whom he befriended.

Ako-Adjei graduated from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in economics, political science and sociology in June 1942.

During Nkrumah's time at university, Ako-Adjei co-founded the African Student Association of America and Canada . He also founded the newspaper African Interpreter to bring African affairs closer to readers in America.

Between September 1942 and June 1943 he studied journalism at Columbia University, which he graduated from the Graduate School of Journalism with a master's degree.

Fight for Ghana's independence

As early as 1945, Dr. Ako Adjei, as a supporter of the Pan-African Movement, attended a conference in Manchester, which was also attended by Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta , the first President of Kenya.

In 1947 Ako-Adjei was inducted into the bar with three other lawyers. After his return to Ghana, Ako-Adjei initially worked as a lawyer alongside his political career.

Ako-Adjei became a founding member of the first party in Ghana, which at that time was still the crown colony of the Gold Coast, the United Gold Coast Convention UGCC. The UGCC was founded on August 4, 1947 in Saltpond .

When he was offered the chair ( General Secretary ) of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) party in Ghana in 1947 , he turned down this position in favor of his friend Nkrumah. He suggested that the UGCC bring his friend Nkrumah back to Ghana from London and offer him this post. Ako-Adjei himself campaigned for the post with his friend Nkrumah.

As a lawyer, Dr. Ako Adjei worked for the Gold Coast Ex-service Men's Union . In this capacity, he prepared the petition that the Association presented to the governor at Osu Castle , Accra's headquarters on February 28, 1948. On the day the petition was handed over, four people were killed in unrest known as the Accra riots . An English Senior Police Officer was shot dead and three other former security service personnel, Sgt. Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey, were murdered at an intersection in Osu, a neighborhood in Accra.

Two weeks after the death of the four people, on March 6, 1948, six leading members of the UGCC, including Ako-Adjei, were arrested by the governor for rioting between 1948 and 1952. In addition to Dr. Ako-Adjei, Dr. Danquah , Dr. Kwame Nkrumah , Obetsebi Lamptey , Edward Akufo-Addo and William Ofori-Atta imprisoned. These defenders of Ghana's independence and leading politicians on Ghana's independence road are also known as The Big Six .

He was the publisher of the daily newspaper The African National Times between September 1948 and January 1952. He is also responsible for the newspaper The Star of Ghana , which he published between November 1948 and January 1952.

After their release, the Big Six were exiled in the Northern Territories, i.e. in the comparatively undeveloped north of the colony. The governor wanted to bring calm to the independence movement, but rather achieved the opposite effect. The population revered the exiles.

Nkrumah separated from the UGCC and founded his own party, the Convention People's Party (CPP) on June 12, 1949. Ako-Adjei also later followed him into the CPP and left the UGCC.

Career as a politician

Under President Kwame Nkrumah , Ako-Adjei became the country's first foreign minister in the early years of the newly established state of Ghana from 1959 to 1960 before the establishment of the First Republic, but after independence and again from 1961 to 1962 in the First Republic of Ghana. Nkrumah and Ako-Adjei have had a close personal friendship since the 1930s, which began as a student at Lincoln University.

He also held other ministerial posts. Ako-Adjei was Minister of Trade and Labor, Minister of the Interior and Minister of Justice. In 1957, as a member of the CPP, he became the country's first home minister after independence from Great Britain, but before the establishment of the republic.

Political prisoner

Ako-Adjei was Minister in Nkrumah's cabinet in 1962. On August 1, 1962, President Nkrumah returned to Ghana from a meeting in Tenkudugu with the President of the then Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Maurice Yaméogo . In Kulungugu, in the Upper Region of Ghana, a bomb attack on Nkrumah was attempted but failed. Nkrumah blamed members of his own government, including Ako-Adjei.

Ako-Adjei met privately on Wednesday, August 29, 1962 in the port of Tema with Dr. Okechukwu Ikejiani, an old student friend from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, USA, who had come to visit. During lunch with this guest, Ako-Adjei was arrested by a police unit for no reason.

He was only told about the allegations in the cells for sentenced inmates at Nsawam Medium Security Prison . He had been accused of conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason with four other people, Robert Benjamin Otchere, Joseph Yaw Manu (Executive Secretary of the CPP), Tawiah Adamafio , the then Foreign Minister and thus the second highest member of the government, and Horatius Cofie Crabbe, the Minister for Information.

According to the report of the National Reconciliation Commission, the imprisonment is related to the attack on Nkrumah in Kulungugu.

A hearing before a special court ( Special Court ), chaired by K. Arku Korsah, the chief judge ( Chief Justice ) and Judge WB van Lare and Judge E. Akufo Addo, both Supreme Court ( Supreme Court ), was between the Held on August 9, 1963 and October 28, 1963. On Monday, December 9, 1963, Ako-Adjei and Tawiah Adamafio and Haratius Hugh Cofie Crabbe were acquitted on all charges.

The judgment met with strong criticism in the media as well as among the population, even a protest march to the Supreme Court was organized, among others by the CPP, the Trades Union Congress of Ghana and other organizations such as the Organization of Market Women. Despite the acquittal, there was no release from prison. Under the direction of President Kwame Nkrumah, the men were again detained in the same prison. Already on December 11, 1963, two days after the acquittal, Nkrumah declared the whole process null and void and issued an order that removed the judges of the special court against Ako-Adjei and the others from office. The declaration of the nullity of the process was achieved through a legal act of the executive ( Executive Instrument ), the Special Criminal Devision Act (EI 161 from 1963).

Chief Justice Arku Korsah resigned voluntarily under pressure from Nkrumah. It was only in 2004 that the National Reconciliation Commission published a report that officially named this forced resignation and impeachment as human rights violations and the detention of the acquitted.

Nkrumah passed a law ( Criminal Procedure Code ) that allowed him to bring another charge against the three acquitted prisoners, including Ako-Adjei. He issued an order that the three acquitted were to be sent to another special tribunal, appointed by Nkrumah. The new Chief Justice ( Chief Justice ) J. Sarkodee-Adoo was appointed as chairman of this special court and a jury composed of 12 men from the ideological school of Nkrumah. The Ghanaian Bar Association criticized the President's entire approach as a serious violation of fundamental rights in a civilized society.

This second trial was held partly in public in the Accra Supreme Court building and partly in Osu Castle in Accra, the seat of government. The public and media were excluded from the part of the trial that was held at Osu Castle.

Dr. Ako-Adjei was found guilty and sentenced to death along with the other defendants. As usual, the defendant Ako-Adjei was given the last word in the trial. He is reported to have said that he knew he was innocent, but if the jury found him guilty, he would place the matter in God's hands.

The defendants were returned to custody after being sentenced. The death penalty was later commuted to twenty years' imprisonment. Other sources report that only a life sentence was pronounced from the start.

After the fall of Nkrumah

Ako-Adjei was released from his custody in Nsawam Medium Security Prison on September 6, 1966 through an amnesty by the National Liberation Council , which had deposed the president in a military coup on February 24, 1966.

After his release, Ako-Adjei first devoted himself to his family and his work as a lawyer.

In 1978, after the second military coup in Ghana, Ako-Adjei was made a member of the commission by the Supreme Military Council to draw up a constitution for the Third Republic of Ghana.

Honors and commitment

• 1948: Ako-Adjei founded La Bone Secondary School, Accra, in 1948 and was also instrumental in founding the Nungua Secondary School, in Nungua, Accra.
• 1962: Ako-Adjei was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by his alma mater, Lincoln University.
• March 7, 1997: Ako-Adjei received the highest order and thus the greatest national honor of the Republic of Ghana as he was given the Star of Ghana ( Officer of the Order of the Star of Ghana ) by the then President Jerry Rawlings on the occasion of the 40th anniversary was granted independence.
• January 1999: Honored by the Ghana Bar Association for his statesmanship skills.
• December 11, 1999: Certificate of Honor from Labone Secondary School
• December 1999: Millennium Excellence Award for Outstanding Statesman
• June 2000: Honoring the Methodist Church Ghana by naming the conference hall of the Rev. Peter Kwei Dagadu Memorial Methodist Church in Osu, Accra.

family

Ebenezer Ako-Adjei married Theodosia Kutorkor on December 11, 1948 in Kumasi , Ghana. The couple had four daughters together.

bibliography

• Autobiography, The African Dream
• Life and work of George Alfred Grant

Web links

• Biography with photo
• Report of the National Reconcilitation Commission (National Reconciliation Commission, Volume 1, Part 4, Section 4.1.2.2.2.) ( Memento of December 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LAWYERS ENROLLED IN THE ROLL BOOKS (1876-1997). Judicial Service of Ghana October 4, 2004, archived from the original March 13, 2005 ; Retrieved April 21, 2014 (List of Ghana's lawyers). 
2. ↑ National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), Volume 4, Chapter 2, Section 2.5.5. ( Memento from September 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), Volume 4, Chapter 5, Section 5.2.2. and 5.2.3 ( Memento from September 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Interview with Ako-Adjei NiiCa Article ( Memento from September 2, 2012 on WebCite )