Joe Appiah

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Joseph Emmanuel "Joe" Appiah (born November 16, 1918 in Adum, Kumasi , Ghana ; † July 6, 1990 in Kumasi, Ghana) was one of the most famous lawyers, diplomats and politicians in Ghana. Especially in the 1940s and 1950s, Appiah was committed to the country's independence in what was then the British colony of Gold Coast . He is an advocate of pan-African ideas.

education

Joe Appiah was taught as a student at Wesley College, Mfantipim, Ghana. He was trained as a lawyer at the Middle Temple in London . During the Second World War , Appiah was a transport officer, initially serving in Takoradi and later in Freetown , Sierra Leone in the service of the United Africa Company .

Career

During his stay in England he became chairman of the West African Students' Union (WASU). During this time Appiah was able to establish close contact with some of the leading independence politicians in Africa. Even Kwame Nkrumah , Ghana's first president later, belonged to the close circle of friends of Joe Appiah. Nkrumah became the best man at Appiah's wedding to Peggy Cripps in 1953. The wedding between Joe and the later author Peggy attracted considerable media attention as the marriage of a British upper-class white man to an African.

Appiah and his family returned to Ghana at the end of 1954. Soon after, the close friendship with Kwame Nkrumah broke up and Appiah became a supporter of the National Liberation Movement (NLM) party. In the elections of 1957 he won the parliamentary seat for the constituency of Atwima-Amansie for the NLM party. Shortly after independence, Nkrumah continuously transformed the young democracy Ghana into a one-party state. In order to confront the growing strength of Nkrumah as one, and due to a new party law that banned almost all opposition parties despite various parliamentary seats, almost all opposition parties formed the United Party (UP). Appiah was also an important member of the UP, alongside JB Danquah , Kofi Abrefa Busia and Nii Amaa Ollennu .

On the occasion of an assassination attempt against him in 1961, Nkrumah had the most important opposition politicians arrested. The imprisonment of Appiah and other well-known opposition politicians such as JB Danquah and Victor Owusu began on October 3, 1961 and was based by Nkrumah on various deportation laws that came into force in Ghana between 1957 and 1958 in order to crush the political opposition. Appiah was imprisoned in the Ussher Fort. Further arrests of members of the Nkrumah government such as Ebenezer Ako-Adjei and Tarwiah Adamafio followed on October 23 . The detainees were never brought to trial, but were held without charge. They have been charged with high treason and conspiracy against the Ghanaian government and directly against Nkrumah.

Before Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa overthrew Nkrumah in a military coup in 1966 , Appiah was released from political custody in late 1962. At first he worked again in his law firm and after the end of the Nkrumah government he became an important figure in the diplomatic and political life in Ghana until his retirement in 1978. Appiah founded the Justice Party in 1969/1970 after his imprisonment the chairman of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) Komla A. Gbedemah leaderless NAL and three other small parties.

Appiah was under the military dictator Ignatius Kutu Acheampong between January 1972 and 1978 with the office of commissioner and special adviser to the head of state Acheampong.

After retiring from active politics, Appiah retired to Kumasi and performed his duties as a member of the royal family in Kumasi.

Others

Appiah was President of the Ghanaian Bar Association.

family

Joe Appiah is the son of James Appiah and Adwoa Akyaa. Both parents are descended from the most important royal family in Ghana, who make up the Ashantehne . James Appiah was the Headmaster and Elder of the Methodist Church.

Joe Appiah met his future wife Peggy Cripps, the youngest daughter of Sir Stafford Cripps and his wife Isobel Swithenbank, during his professional training in England. Both married in the presence of leading Ghanaian independence fighters in 1953 and spent most of their lives in Ghana. Kwame Anthony Appiah (* 1954), Isobel Appiah, Adwoa Appiah and Abena Appiah are children of this relationship.

Appiah was buried in the cemetery in Old Tafo ( Old Tafo Cemetery ), a modern part of Kumasi.

Fonts

  • Joe Appiah. The autobiography of an African patriot . New York: Praeger, 1990. ISBN 0-275-93672-4

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peggy Appiah , telegraph.co.uk of February 24, 2006 (English)
  2. ↑ NRC, Volume 4, Chapter 2, Pages 79-80 ( Memento of October 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), archived at Internet Archive , as of October 16, 2006 (PDF), viewed June 23, 2009
  3. ↑ NRC, Volume 2, Chapter 5, Page 117 ( Memento of October 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), archived at Internet Archive , as of October 16, 2006 (PDF), viewed June 23, 2009
  4. ↑ NRC, Volume 2, Chapter 5, Pages 117–118 ( Memento of October 16, 2006 in the Internet Archive ), archived at Internet Archive , as of October 16, 2006 (PDF), viewed June 23, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Appiah, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Appiah, Joseph Emmanuel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghanaian politician and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH November 16, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Adum , Kumasi , Ghana
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 1990
Place of death Kumasi , Ghana