The Story Of The Gold Coast Road To Independence

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah In the short span of just over nine years, between December 1947 and 6'th 1957, he achieved his dearest ambition - to lead his fellow countrymen to their successful goal of full Independence.	Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke As Governor and Command-in-Chief from 1949 onwards, he guided the Gold Coast's final steps to Independence . In March 1957, he became, to everyone's satisfaction, the first Governor-General of Ghana.
Sergeant C.F. Adjetey His death on 28'th February 1948 at the Christianborg crossroads whilst leading a procession of ex-servicemen made him a national hero and helped to spark off the countrywide movement towards Independence	SirHenley Coussey  In 1949, he became Chairman of  an all-African Commission, Charged with the duty of working out a more progressive constitution for the Gold Coast. He recommended an enlarged legislature and a wider franchise
George Grant The elderly timber merchant who in 1947 conceived the idea of the United Gold Coast Convention as an instrument for stimulating national consciousness. He died in 1956 - the year before independence.	Joseph Casely Hayford The lawyer and politician, who more than any other man in the Gold Coast in the 1920s, maintained the pressure for self-government, through the National Congress of British West Africa.

The Story Of The Gold Coast Road To Independence

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It was independence that brought this multitude of illustrious persons to Ghana. But what brought independence itself to Ghana. The story of the Gold Coast’s journey to freedom is an epic one; and, for centuries, its outcome seemed unpredictable.

The Portuguese traders, who landed on the coast at Elmina during the late fifteenth century in search of gold, could not be expected to foresee the golden scenes of 6th March 1957. Nor could the slave traders of eighteenth century, who shipped twenty million slaves from West Africa, be expected to believe that in less than three hundred years, the sons of the Gold Coast would be cabinet ministers not slaves.

But what is remarkable, and perhaps unique in the records of human emancipation, is that even as late as 1950, few would have dared to predict that a man who was at that time languishing inside one of His Majesty's prisons, would, within seven breathless years, be welcoming Her Majesty's special representative, in his capacity of Prime Minister of the first independent African State within the Commonwealth.

Yet this is not a political fairy-tale, fitted with a happy ending. This is history, with a happy ending, which had to be fought for, and won. The struggle for independence had to be lived forwards by successive generations of the peoples of the Gold Coast. But the struggle can perhaps be best understood if it is traced backwards. Independence came on 6th March 1957. The fact that this was to be the day of days had been learned by most of the population from a broadcast on 18th September 1956. On that day, the announcer read the dispatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor of the Gold Coast. Dr Nkrumah had read the Prime Minister the message, a few hours previously, to the Legislative Assembly, the Prime Minister.

Her Majesty's Government will at the first available opportunity introduce into the United Kingdom Parliament a Bill to accord independence to the Gold Coast and, subject to Parliamentary approval, Her Majesty's Government intend that independence should come about on the 6th March 1957.

The people's reaction to this epoch-making, matter-of-fact message was described by a writer in the magazine, Drum: For a moment, until the words registered in people's minds, there was a deafening silence. The came the earthquake of emotion that made the sea hesitate from breaking on the beach. That, some say brought a rain of Coconuts tumbling from the trees. That made the very lizards scurry for cover. That, some mothers will tell you, made their unborn babies kick with joy in their wombs...