Nana Ofori Atta I King of Akyem Abuakwa gold 1928 VERY RARE vintage PHOTO

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176270372866 Nana Ofori Atta I King of Akyem Abuakwa gold 1928 VERY RARE vintage PHOTO. A 1928 vintage 6.5x8.5 inche photo of  King of Akyem Abuakwa  Ofori Atta I from the Gold Coast Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, KBE, Kt was the Okyenhene or King of Akyem Abuakwa, one of the most influential kingdoms of the then Gold Coast Colony, from his election in 1912 until his death in 1943.

August 23, 2014 NANA SIR OFORI ATTA I (1881–1943), K.B.E: GREAT NATIONALIST, EDUCATOR, TRADITIONAL RULER AND ONE OF THE OUTSTANDING AFRICAN OF HIS GENERATION Nana Sir Ofori Atta I (1881–1943) was the Okyenhene or King of Akyem Abuakwa, one of the largest and wealthiest kingdoms of the then Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana), from his election in 1912 until his death in 1943. Nana Sir Ofori Atta, by Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd), 22 June 1928 - NPG x49767 - © National Portrait Gallery, London Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, Okyehene or Paramount Chief of Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area, Nationalist, Educator, second African member of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly and a founding member of Achimota School. Circa 1928. Courtesy http://www.npg.org.uk/ He was a striking personality and without doubt an outstanding African of his generation in Gold Coast. As one of the few educated chiefs in the then Gold Coast Nana`s stewardship both in his tribal affairs and in the general politics of the Colony was exceptional. He was at once a chief of his own people, the acknowledged leader of his brother chiefs in the Colony and the valued and trusted advisor of the Government. His conviction to support his fellow chiefs and strengthening of the position of chiefs in colonial government saw him colliding with the Gold Coast intelligentsia especially with celebrated J E Casely-Hayford and some members of the Aborigines Right Protection Society (ARPS). Nana Sir Ofori I, KBE, King of Akyem Abuakwa and one of the star politicians of the Gold Coast after his knighthood by Queen Elizabeth. Circa 1927 As  a result of this some historians attack him as an ambitious chief and a "colonialist stooge." However, his hardworking role in leading Gold coast Delegation including Dr Frederick Nanka-Bruce to petition British parliament in 1934 to force British Government to withdraw obnoxious laws and demand for official majority of Africans on the legislative council, permanent African representative on the Governor`s executive council and eligibility for non-chiefs to be as provincial members of the executive council proved that Nana indeed was not what his detractors perceived him to be. Atta Visits Cadbury Factory : News Photo Nana Sir Ofori Atta I (1881 - 1943, centre), Paramount Chief of the Gold Coast Colony, visits the Cadbury's chocolate factory, Bournville, Birmingham, 10th July 1928. (Photo by Crouch/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Nana was an eminent authority on colonial land laws in the Legislative Council where he was first on the financial committee with Dr Frederick Nanka-Bruce. Nana Sir Ofori Atta`s often quoted statement on the customary concept of ownership of land in Ghana is: "I conceive that land belongs to a vast family of whom many are dead, a few are living and countless host are still unborn." In 1927, Nana Ofori Atta was knighted or honored as a Knight of British Empire (KBE) for his hardworking role in government and service to the Gold Coast Colony, He was thereafter known as Nana Sir Ofori Atta or Sir Ofori Atta. Nana Sir Ofori Atta, by Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd), 22 June 1928 - NPG x49765 - © National Portrait Gallery, London His Royal Majesty Nana Sir Ofori Atta, KBE, King of Akyem Abuakwa State, Nationalist leader and customary landownership expert. Circa June 22, 1928 Nana Ofori Atta was born at Akyem Abuakwa as a royal in 1881. He was educated in Basel Mission schools and at its Akuapim-Akropong Seminary. After his successful completion of his Seminary education, he worked as a clerk, and then served in the West African Frontier Force, fighting during the Yaa Asantewaa War.  Nana was later elected as an Omanhene of Akyem Abuakwa in 1912, and he proceeded to became the second African member of the Legislative Council in 1916 to represent the Gold Coast, after George Kuntu Blankson. Nana used these privileged role as one of the few educated chief in the Colony to champion the cause of his people. He was the voice for his fellow chiefs and cahmpion their role as legitimate leaders that represent the people and not the educated class or the Gold Coast intelligentsia. As a historian F. M. Bourret succinctly summed it up in his book "Ghana, the Road to Independence, 1919-1957" Nana after becoming a member of the Legislative Council "was to make this goal of raising the position of chiefs and encouraging them to mutual cooperation the principal achievement of his political career, which did not end until his death his death in 1943." His Royal Majesty Nana Sir William Ofori Atta, K.B.E, Omanhen of Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area. Circa Nana was also a very forceful voice of the Gold Coast farmers. He criticized the Colonial Government for cheating the cocoa farmers in the manner they use scales to weigh their cocoa. "The planters felt that they could sell more cocoa and at higher price if they took over shipment of the crops themselves. They worked through four prominent chief- Ofori Atta I of Akyem Abuakwa, Chief Tackie Obile of Accra, Ofori Kuma II of Akwapim, and Kwaku Boateng (grandfather of Baron, Lord Paul Boateng of Britain) of New Juaben who in 1918 chartered a boat for £20,000 for shipping cocoa from Accra to New York, France or Liverpool. This arrangement worked well until 1924. In that year, the planters and the chiefs entrusted the selling of a large consignment of cocoa in New York to an American called F. D. Stickler. Unfortunately this man swindled them of £350,000 after selling the the product. This brought their arrangement for shipping and marketing cocoa to an end." (See Francis Agbodeka "Ghana in the Twenthieth Century" page 94 or The Gold Coast Independent, August1, 1925). Nana Ofori Atta was often suspicious of Gold Coast intelligentsia plotting to move Chiefs out of politics. He saw the intelligentsia as ratifying Bills that sought to curtail the role of chiefs and making room for the non-chiefs. Nana himself was also accused of ratifying Bills that favors the British and fighting against the interest of Gold Coast intelligentsia whom he saw as a threat to his power base. When Governor Frederick Guggisberg laid out the new constitution for the Gold Coast in May 1925, giving for the first time the right of the elected representation and still maintaining the large Provincial Council which constituted the Chiefs and appointees of the British government, the Gold Coast elites became very angry against the law whilst Nana Ofori Atta supported it. This  created a serious friction between the intelligentsia and Nana Ofori Atta who believed in Governor Guggisberg words that the new constitution`s retaining of "Provincial Councils are really the breakwaters, defending our native constitutions, institutions, and customs against the disintegrating waves of Western civilization....." Dr James Kwegyir Aggrey who witnessed the bitterness which the new constitution has engendered between the chiefs and the intelligentsia (especially members of Aborigines Right Protection Society and British West African Congress) wrote in the spring of 1926 to his friend in America: "The New Order in Council concerning the new Legislative Council had stirred up the hornets nest. Part of the people of the Eastern Province, especially the educated, are against it... The paramount Chiefs of the Eastern Province... including Nana Ofori Atta I and Konor Mate-Korle are heartily for it. The political atmosphere is charged!" (see Smith, Aggrey of Africa pp. 259-60) But that was not often the case! In 1930 when the colonial government made several attempts to introduce local taxation, sound treasury systems, and more efficient courts, one urban lawyer and representative of the Legislative Council tried to block the bill. In his disgust Nana Ofori Atta said :"If i listen to these Barristers I often wonder what they really think of the chiefs. One day they will say to the chiefs "You are Almighty God," and the next day the chiefs would not be worthy of respect due to scavenger." Nana Ofori Atta I sitting with his kra (soul/little boy) in from his him and his junior brother Dr J B Danquah standing (first from left), when Gold Coast/Akyem delegation visited England in 1940,s When the Colonial government introduced obnoxious laws that restrict the inclusion of Africans in the Legislative Council, Nana put his differences with the Gold Coast educated elites aside and in 1934 led a Gold Coast Delegation that includes Dr Frederick Nanka Bruce and M K Korsah (later Sir Kobina Arku Korsah, the first African Chief Justice of Ghana), the municipal representatives for Accra and Cape Coast respectively as well as five representatives of Ashanti Province  to London to petition the British Parliament to withdraw an unpopular Bills and also ask for general constitutional reforms. The petition which they presented to the secretary of state for the colonies in 1934 demanded for official majority of Africans on the legislative council, permanent African representative on the Governor`s executive council and eligibility for non-chiefs to be as provincial members of the executive council. Though Nana and his delegation`s demands were not met, however, it gave impetus for Aborigines right Protection Council to send its own delegation to UK to press home more demand will saw the obnoxious bills withdrawn and petition granted. Nana Sir Ofori Atta, by Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd), 22 June 1928 - NPG x49768 - © National Portrait Gallery, London His Royal Majesty Sir Nana Ofori Atta I, K.B.E, Okyehene and the pioneer educationist. Circa 1928  "Ofori Atta was the son of a senior official of the palace; his mother was the descendant of one of the founders of the kingdom.... Once in power, he was determined to return Akyem Abuakwa to its former glory. His approach to politics was a mix of educational modernism and aristocratic nepotism that gave as much importance to merit as it did to blood."  He created a dynasty by privileging education both amongst his sons and daughters, through two paths, “one firmly rooted in a concern for binding the state by the traditionally sanctioned method of multiple marriage and the other rooted in his strong case for ‘modernisation’ and ‘progress’.” Apart from Governor Gordon Guggisberg, Dr James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey and Fraser, Nana Ofori Atta can be said to have played a singularly instrumental role in the establishment of Achimota School or College (formerly Prince of Wales School), where most colonial Gold Coast leaders and current prominent Ghanaian leaders schooled. Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, Gold Coast Nationalist and political heavyweight sitting majestically on his Royal throne Nana Ofori Atta I waved a final goodbye to the land of the living and journeyed to his ancestors in August 21, 1943. He left behind an intelligent educated class in his family and for mother Ghana. Nana was the brother of Dr. J. B. Danquah (a founder of the United Gold Coast Convention), and the father of Aaron Ofori Atta (a Minister of Communications and Minister of Local Government), William Ofori Atta (a Minister of Foreign Affairs, Presidential Candidate of the UNC), Dr Akwasi Amoako-Atta (Governor of Bank of Ghana), Dr Jones Ofori-Atta (Deputy Minister of Finance), and Dr. Susannah Ofori Atta (the first female doctor in West Africa). He was the grandfather of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana's former Foreign Minister and Presidential Candidate of the NPP in 2008 and 2012. It was around noon on Friday, August 20,1943 and crowds of people had gathered at the gates of Korle Bu Hospital. The state of the Okyenhene’s health had become the subject of rumours in Accra. At his bedside were the Odikro of Apapam, Okyenhenekyeame, Kwame Asare and Nene Nuer Ologo of Yilo Krobo. On Wednesday, August 4, 1943, Nana left Kyebi late in the evening and arrived at Dodowa the next morning, August 5, to attend a session of the Provincial Council of Chiefs at the Guggisberg Memorial Hall. On Friday August 6, he left for Accra to spend the weekend. He returned to Kyebi on Monday, August 9 with a slight cold that soon developed into a cough. He stayed indoors on Thursday, August 12. That same Thursday, he booked an appointment by telephone to see Dr A.M. Mac Rae of the Gold Coast Hospital at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, August 17. Nana was conspicuous by his absence at the sitting of the Legislative Council on the same day. His personal secretary, Geo. Akuffo Dampare, recounted the the sombre mood that pervaded the Council Chamber at the announcement of his illness. That was the first and the last official announcement concerning the illness. At 3.35 p.m., in the presence of the Odikro of Apapam, Okyeame Kwame Asare and Nene Nuer Ologo, Nana Ofori Atta breathed his last at the Korle Bu Hospital in Accra, seven weeks short of his 62nd birthday. Early Life Nana Ofori Atta was born on October 11, 1881. He was named Kwadwo Fredua Agyeman and later christened Aaron Emmanuel Boakye Danquah. His mother was Akosua Buo Gyankromaa, daughter of Afriyie Akoto - the youngest of Ohemaa Dokuaa’s three daughters. His father was Emmanuel Yaw of Begoro-Akim-Abuakwa. Education and work Nana Ofori Atta was educated at the Basel Mission Elementary School at Tosen (Anum) between 1888 and 1893. His father had assumed duty there in 1886 after his ordeal at Asuom. Kwadwo Fredua Agyeman continued his primary school education at Kyebi and Abetifi. In 1894, he was admitted to Begoro Basel Mission Grammar Boarding school (the equivalent of today’s SHS) and became the pride of the school. Young Aaron Emmanuel Boakye Danquah (A.E.B. Danquah) was admitted to the Theological Seminary at Akropong Akuapem in 1898, preparatory to a possible, fuller course in Theology in Germany. He qualified as a “Certificated Teacher” in 1897, but realised he was not cut out for a career in ministry. And by age 18, he had taken up the post of a Solicitor’s Clerk at the office of Lawyer Hutton Mills with the intention of picking up the “elementary principles of the law before proceeding to England to study for the bar. A.E.B. Danquah left Hutton Mills’s office in 1900 to work at the Correspondence Branch of H.M Customs. Serving as a sergeant in the Gold Coast Volunteer Corps at the start of the Yaa Asantewaa War (1900-01), he accompanied Captain Wilcox as a Non- Commissioned Officer. Ghana News Headlines For latest news in Ghana, visit Graphic Online news headlines page Ghana news page He obtained employment at the Office of Governor Nathan at the end of the war and accompanied him as his interpreter during his tour of Cape Coast and Sekondi. After that, he worked briefly with Goldfields of Eastern Akim in 1902 and later with Obuasi Mines in 1903, before joining his sibling, Alexander Eugene Apea Danquah, to work as Joint-Secretary to their Uncle, Okyenhene Amoako Atta II. Apea Danquah died in 1907, leaving his younger brother as sole secretary. And by 1909, A. E. B. Danquah was being widely touted as “the brain behind the Omanhene’s throne”. Little wonder that the kingmakers unanimously approved of his nomination and election to succeed Nana Amoako Atta III (Kwaku Sreko), who was destooled on November 26, 1912, after a short reign of twenty-one months. The new Omanhene adopted the stool (throne) name of Ofori Atta, a name cleverly contrived to honour and perpetuate the memory of Akyem Abuakwa’s two foremost heroes: Nana Ofori Panin who re- established the state as a leading power on the banks of River Birim in the late 17th century; and Nana Amoako Atta I, whose dogged resistance to colonial penetration of Akyem Abuakwa led to his five-year exile in Lagos and eventually to his death in detention on February 2, 1887 in a British prison in Accra. Challenges at his Ascension Ofori Atta I was confronted by daunting challenges at his ascension on November 27, 1912. First, the authority of Okyenhene was at its lowest ebb. Nearly a decade before, in 1905, Okyenhene Amoako Atta I and his Council had petitioned the Governor for help for the growing insubordination of people in the district and cases of contempt and disobedience of elders and chiefs. Second, the Basel Mission’s quest for land to build mission stations in the early 1850s and the subsequent Industrial Revolution triggered reckless alienation of stool lands in the third quarter of the 19th Century. Until mid-19th Century, Akyemfuo had exploited their vast territory mainly for the production of gold, hunting and subsistence farming. A Dutch Report of 1701 described Akyem as one of the “three mightiest and richest countries from which practically all the gold has come ...” The impact of this mad rush for Akyem lands was disastrous. Between 1824 and 1900 Akyem Abuakwa lost lands estimated at 400 sq. miles or 1036 sq. kilometres to migrant farming communities. By the turn of the century, Krobo migrant farmers had bought 311 sq. km of Begoro stool lands beyond the Ponpon river that originally marked the boundary between Krobo and Akyem Abuakwa. Okyenhene Amoako Atta II looked on helplessly as his immemorial customary rights in land were being extinguished. Like all other states in the Gold Coast at the time of Nana Ofori Atta’s enstoolment, Akyem Abuakwa was a backward state in the sense that no effort had been made to develop it. There were no motorable roads, no telegraph, no telephone and Nsawam was the nearest railway station. Bicycles were the most advanced form of movement and few had them. There were few schools, and they, with one exception (at Begoro, founded in 1885), went up to Standard III only. There was no hospital. How did Ofori Atta deal with these hydra-headed problems and with what measure of success; and what legacy did he bequeath to the emergent Gold Coast nation? These are some of the questions I shall attempt to answer in this presentation. The stool lands question By the time Ofori Atta ascended the Ofori Panin Stool in 1912, the reckless alienation of stool lands had reached alarming proportions. During his two-year occupancy of the Begoro Stool (1905 - 07), Benkumhene Gyamera had sold lands “to the value of hefty £3,000 (about Gh¢2.1 today, Sunday, May 27, 2018) and actually collected £1,732 of which his elders and people knew nothing about.” His brother and successor, Kwaku Tupri, (1908-1913) sold £521.45 worth of stool land without the consent of his elders and appropriated it. Nifahene Kwame Okoampa (1905-08) sold lands to a Dutchman J. Fuscher “giving no account what of the sale, contrary to native custom.” Ofori Atta’s immediate predecessor, Amoako Atta III is said to have received an unprecedented, total revenue of some £2,500 in his twenty-one month reign without utilising “any of this money to the advantage of the stool”. Early in his reign, cases were brought to Ofori Atta’s attention in which chiefs had sold, or encouraged the sale of, large tracts of land without prior consultation with their elders and without account. More often than not, lands sold included farms cultivated by their own people. Akyemfuo had become so perverse that Ofori Atta wondered whether their generation was not destined to be “the last to live in this world”. Abuakwa was at risk of a serious diminution in territory. Migrant farmers had not only denuded much of Abuakwa’s “primeval high forest”, which in 1893 was estimated at 80 per cent. In fact, the ruler of one of the neighbouring states, whose migrant subjects had bought an estimated 130 square kilometres of Abuakwa land, was insisting that the purchased lands be “cut off (in the map) from its original division’’ and included “in the Volta District as part of Krobo”. Between 1824 and 1900, Abuakwa lost lands estimated at 400 sq. miles (1,036 sq. km) to migrant farming communities. These events, coupled with vast unworked concessions, had created a situation in which some citizens “had already begun to feel ... the pressure for land to cultivate ... or even to extend their existing farms”. Akyemfuo appeared to be about to lose their ranking as one of the largest landowners in the Gold Coast and become “a landless and beggarly people”. Reforms in Stool Land Administration Beginning from 1915, Nana Ofori Atta invoked all the powers available to him under customary law and usage, as well as the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883 to deal with the problem. The goals he set himself were threefold: First, to define and assert, beyond question, the paramount stool’s rights and interests in stool lands. Second, to provide financial security for his sub-chiefs and thereby restore their lost dignity and legitimacy as traditional leaders. Third, to establish a culture of accountability and responsibility in the use of state resources for national development, by personal example, and by the institution of appropriate sanctions. Assertion of interests On January 27, 1915, Nana Ofori Atta successfully persuaded his chiefs at an Okyeman Council meeting to resolve unanimously to reserve the remaining lands that had not yet been alienated for future generations. Subsequent to the resolution, he placed an advertisement in local newspapers banning further land sales and warning prospective buyers of land about the risk they took buying land “in any shape or form” in his state. To regulate land sales, he devised forms titled: “Conditions of sale of lands in Eastern Akim”. The forms imposed certain obligations on prospective buyers and made any land sale subject to the Okyenhene’s approval. Citizens were barred from selling or pledging their cocoa farms as security for any purpose whatsoever, without the prior approval of the Okyenhene and the sub-chief directly in charge of the land in question. In 1918, Nana Ofori Atta moved a step further to have the Okyeman Council pass a special bye-law to assert and enforce the paramount stool’s rights as chief landlord. Except for migrant farmers with properly executed agreements, all non-Abuakwa citizens were required to pay an annual rent of £1.00 (eqivalent to about GH¢340) for farms planted with permanent crops—cocoa, rubber, kola, among others, while half that amount was to be paid for farms planted with moveable crops such as corn, cocoyams .. Secession The second challenge from Asamankesehene Kwaku Amoah was more protracted and intractable. On June 27, 1921, his lawyer, Hutton Mills, wrote to Okyenhene on the instructions of his client, to announce the secession of his town and its satellite Akwatia, from the Akyem Abuakwa State. Three months later, on October 7, 1921, Nana Kwaku Amoah petitioned the Acting Governor for leave to withdraw allegiance to the paramount stool. Following the rejection of that petition, Kwaku Amoah resorted to litigation in the British courts. For 17 years the case travelled through the hierarchy of courts—from the Magistrate’s court, High Court to the Privy Council and back to the Magistrate’s court. In order to stop the prolongation of the dispute and the wasteful expenditure of public funds entailed, the government passed the Asamankese District Regulation Ordinance to restrict Asamankese’s access to its bank account. The ordinance was meant to deny Asamankese the use of funds accruing from rents, land sales and mining royalties for payment of legal fees. The rebel towns yielded to persuasion by Acting Secretary of Native Affairs, H.W. Thomas, and in June 1929, submitted their case to Justice Roger for arbitration. Mining Ofori Atta’s next target was the mining industry, which operated to the disadvantage of the Akyem Abuakwa State. As a result of the discovery of diamonds near Abomosu in 1919, the state experienced a rush for mining concessions. Within 10 years of Ofori Atta’s reign, the number of concessions in the state rose to 57-made up of 29 for gold, 24 for diamond and four mixed. Only four out of the estimated 47 mining concessions were active in 1928 and no rent was being paid in several cases. In others, the rents were allowed to fall into arrears for several months before being paid “when an outside claim or other circumstances [arose] to increase the value of the land”. Ofori Atta set to work to retrieve Abuakwa lands that had been tied under concessions and make them available for agriculture. He insisted on the payment of fair rent, and sought amendment of the law to set a limit on the duration of options. On his instructions, his lawyer, Thomas Hutton Mills, issued a public notice declaring several concessions null and void for “non-payment of occupation rents”. Education The Okyenhene’s faith in education as a tool for progress was clearly articulated in a memorandum that he sent to the Presbyterian Synod meeting at Kyebi on July 11, 1941, barely two years before his death. He wrote: “I do and shall always emphasise that education should be regarded as one of the foremost duties of the chiefs towards the community; and any chief who fails or neglects his duty can hardly be deemed worthy of his trust. Four years into his reign (1916), Ofori Atta backed the formation of the Abuakwa Scholars’ Union. The Abuakwa Scholars’ Union, of which J.B. Danquah was a member, proposed a levy of 10 per cent to be collected “on all proceeds from land alienation ... to be set apart for national needs”. The Okyeman Council enthusiastically adopted the proposal, albeit at a lower rate of five per cent. A bank account was opened in the name of Okyeman in 1920. The fund was not sustainable and soon lapsed. As a member of the Legislative Council, the Okyenhene supported the 1925 Education Ordinance, a brain child of the Educationist Committee on which he served for five years. The Ordinance gave all schools the opportunity to qualify for financial assistance by meeting certain prescribed standards of efficiency. Between them, the mission schools in Akyem Abuakwa received a total of £4,038.84. The payments intended for the defrayment of teachers’ salaries had the effect of encouraging the missions to open more first cycle schools in remote parts of the colony, in collaboration with the chiefs and their communities. Female education occupied a lowly place on the Colonial Government’s scale of priorities, and Ofori Atta continually urged Guggisberg to pay attention to it. Though sympathetic, the governor could not oblige owing to a dearth of African female teachers. Consequently, female education continued to lag behind that of boys. By 1927, there was not a “single girl” in the state who had passed Standard VII. At a durbar for Guggisberg at Kyebi, the Okyenhene described the neglect of female education as a “national disaster”. And at the sitting of the 1927- 28 Select Committee of the Legislative Council, he urged the government not to shirk its responsibility in the matter of female education. Gold Coast Man Among the 700-odd tributes received at Nana Ofori Atta’s funeral was one from a Mr E.A. Ammah. It read: “The Late Nana Sir Ofori Atta I identified himself not only with the affairs of his own state but also with the various activities of the Gold Coast. Indeed, Nana was great in many spheres of life ...” Another from Jonnie Rubbs of the Spectator Daily said: “The late Nana Sir Ofori Atta was the Gold Coast man. His activities extended to every part of the country. He stood in the name of the country in many matters of grave importance affecting it ...” These accolades were neither whimsical nor mere emotional outbursts. They were fully deserved. Ofori Atta served the Gold Coast at three levels of governance: local, provincial and national. Repatriation of Prempeh I One issue of national interest that engaged the attention of Nana Ofori Atta was the repatriation of Asantehene Nana Prempeh I from Seychelles island. Following his arrest in 1896, the Asantehene had been kept as a prisoner at the Elmina Castle until the outbreak of the Yaa Asantewa War in 1900 when he was moved to Sierra Leone and from there to the Seychelles Island, off the coast of South Africa, till 1924. During the 1919-20 session of the Legislative Council, Okyenhene Ofori Atta moved a motion for the passage of a resolution to bring the Asantehene back home. Seconded by a Mr. Brown. Though Governor Guggisberg commented favourably on the motion, he advised the Legislative Council that due to a recent change in the administration, the motion should be withdrawn for the present until a more opportune time. The motion was withdrawn. Some four years later, in 1924, Nana Prempeh was repatriated. During his tour in connection with the N.A.O., Ofori Atta visited Kumase and was warmly received by Nana Prempeh I in appreciation of the role he played in his repatriation from Seychelles Island. Nana Prempeh I spent 23 years as an exile in Seychelles. Cultural nationalist and modernist Ofori Atta’s predecessors had resisted the Basel Mission’s attempt to use the Salem and the ‘school’ as tools for acculturation. While Nana Amoako Atta I favoured religious pluralism, the Basel Mission sought to promote monotheism. He could not allow it because of its politico-religious and social implications. He asked rhetorically: “Must I let my horn blowers, my drummers, my pipers ... my sword bearers and executioners become Christians? If I do, then I can no longer carry out my ... ceremonies, nor can I receive foreign embassies worthily. Whoever has an obligation to serve me will never be allowed to become Christian.” The polarising effect of the Salems was very much in evidence by 1904. Atumfa Chief drew the attention of Rev. Nothwang to how the Salems had created “two towns out of each town” and caused “division among us who are brethren”. Though he was born into a Christian family and raised as a Christian, Nana Ofori Atta was, as Okyenhene, conscious of the traditional, cultural underpinnings of Akan chieftaincy. He shared the view expressed in 1920 by Governor Guggisberg that Africans must be allowed to hold on to their culture. “One of the greatest mistakes of the education in the past has been that it has taught the African to become a European instead of remaining an African. This is entirely wrong and the government recognises it. In the future, our education will aim at making the African remain an African, and taking interest in his own country,”Governor Guggisberg said Ofori Atta defended the culture of his ancestors without ignoring aspects of other people’s culture that had the potential to enrich his own and make it progressive. He was prepared to support adaptations that were consistent with his conception of modernisation of Akyem Abuakwa and the Gold Coast. Thus, he did not object to a Basel Mission regulation of 1927 that mandated a two-thirds share of a deceased Christian husband’s estate to be given to his wife and children. P.N.D.C. law 111 may be regarded as a rehash of that regulation. Ofori Atta was unalterably opposed to foreign cultural norms that threatened to de-Africanise his people and make them “carbon-copies of Europeans”. This was part of a memorandum on education, which saw him lead 15 paramount chiefs to present the issue to Governor Shenton Thomas in 1934. The memorandum stressed the importance of giving Gold Coast children education that took a number of fields into account: creativity, critical thinking, objectivity, as well as love of country. Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, KBE, Kt (11 October 1881[1] – 21 August 1943)[2] was the Okyenhene or King of Akyem Abuakwa, one of the most influential kingdoms of the then Gold Coast Colony, from his election in 1912 until his death in 1943. Ofori Atta was educated in Basel Mission schools and at its Akuropon seminary, now named the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong. He left the seminary after two years to work as a clerk, and then served in the West African Frontier Force, fighting during the Yaa Asantewaa War.[3] Elected Omanhene of Akyem Abuakwa in 1912, he became a member of the Legislative Council in 1916.[4] "Ofori Atta was the son of a senior official of the palace; his mother was the descendant of one of the founders of the kingdom.... Once in power, he was determined to return Akyem Abuakwa to its former glory. His approach to politics was a mix of educational modernism and aristocratic nepotism that gave as much importance to merit as it did to blood." [5][6] He created the Ofori-Atta dynasty by privileging education both amongst his sons and daughters, through two paths, “one firmly rooted in a concern for binding the state by the traditionally sanctioned method of multiple marriage and the other rooted in his strong case for ‘modernisation’ and ‘progress’.”[7] Family This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) He was the brother of Dr J. B. Danquah (a founder of the United Gold Coast Convention, Kwame Nkrumah’s arch rival and one of the Big Six, who collectively led the struggle for the independence of the Gold Coast), and the father of Aaron Ofori-Atta, (the fourth Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, a Minister of Communications and Minister of Local Government), Adeline Akufo-Addo, (First Lady under the Second Republic), William Ofori Atta (a Minister of Foreign Affairs, Presidential Candidate of the UNC), Dr Akwasi Amoako-Atta (Governor of Bank of Ghana and Finance Minister under the First Republic), Dr Jones Ofori Atta (Deputy Minister of Finance), and Susan Ofori-Atta (the first female doctor in Ghana). He was the grandfather of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, (Ghana's former Foreign Minister and now President), Ken Ofori-Atta, (Ghana’s current Finance Minister and founder of the Databank Group), and Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin (the Okyenhene, current King of Akyem Abuakwa).
  • Condition: Used
  • Type: Photograph
  • Year of Production: 1928

PicClick Insights - Nana Ofori Atta I King of Akyem Abuakwa gold 1928 VERY RARE vintage PHOTO PicClick Exclusive

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