National Congress of British West Africa

The National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), founded in 1919, was the earliest nationalist organization in West Africa, and one of the earliest formal organizations working toward African emancipation.^[1] It was largely composed of an educated elite in the Gold Coast, who felt under threat from the incorporation of 'traditional authorities' in the colonial system.^[2]

The cofounders included Thomas Hutton-Mills, Sr., the first President, and J. E. Casely Hayford, the first Vice-President. Other co-founders and early officials included Edward Francis Small, F. V. Nanka-Bruce, A. B. Quartey-Papafio, Henry van Hien, A. Sawyerr and Kobina Sekyi.^[2]

The Congress agitated for the establishment of a West African Court of Appeal, where judges would be nominated Africans.

References

1. Eluwa, G. I. C., "Background to the Emergence of the National Congress of British West Africa" (African Studies Review, Vol. 14, No. 2. [1971], 205-218), 213.
2. 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. 29