Aborigines' Rights Protection Society
The Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was an association critical of colonial rule, formed in 1897 in the Gold Coast, as Ghana was known.
Originally formed by traditional leaders and the educated elite to protest the Crown Lands Bill of 1896 and the Lands Bill of 1897 that threatened traditional land tenure, the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society became the main political organisation that led organised and sustained opposition against the Colonial Government, laying the foundation for political action that would ultimately lead to Ghanaian independence.[1][2] J. W. Sey, J. P. Brown, J. E. Casely Hayford and John Mensah Sarbah were co-founders.[3]
Presidents
- J. W. Sey
- J. P. Brown
- J. E. Casely Hayford
- Willem Essuman Pietersen (c.1844-1914)
- J. E. Biney
- H. van Hien
- Kobina Sekyi
John Peter Allotey Hammond was the Secretary and later a member of the Coussey Committee Joseph William Egyanka Appiah (later Jemisimiham Jehu-Appiah) later became a member through Attoh Ahuma, and was part of the delegation that went to UK to protest to the Queen to release all Ghana lands into the hands of natives.
References
- ↑ Ghana - Early Manifestations of Nationalism, Library of Congress A Country Study: Ghana
- ↑ Nti, Kwaku, "Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast", Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(1): 1-37 (2002)
- ↑ Michael R. Doortmont, The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony, Brill, 2005, p. 28.