Outstanding Ewe Personalities of the 20th century we need to celebrate.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Have come to find out about a lot of Outstanding Ewe Personalities in the history of the British-Togoland, the Gold Coast and Independent Ghana who ought to be celebrated and inked in the history of Ghana with statues, Paintings and in history books.
Was astonished at their level of achievements, but very sad that most don’t have their pictures on easy access when you google search the internet. this we must change so we can better tell our story!
let me tell you about just 10 of such outstanding ewe personalities who should be celebrated.
#1: john willie kofi harlley (9 may 1919 - 1980) is the 1st igp in ghana from 25 february 1966 – 3 september 1969. it should be noted that “erg madjitey” was a “commissioner of police” and not an igp.
jwk harlley is the first igp on record and before then he was also a minister of foreign affairs and minister of interior. he hails from anyako and attended accra academy.
i was unable to get find nice pictures online but then i have seen stunning pictures of this man in my grandmothers album which the internet must see for the sake of history. hope those pictures are still in good state.
#2: k a gbedemah (17 june 1913 – 11 july 1998) is the first finance minister in ghana’s nkrumah governments from 1954 to 1961. he is popular called “afro gbede” because of his “afro hairdo style”.
he is from anyako but was born in nigeria and attended adisadel college and achimota college.
there are a few pictures of him on the internet but very few.
#3 victoria ama zormelo-gorleku (born 14 september 1907), affectionately called “antima” is the first female prisons officer in ghana and also the first female to achieve the superintendent rank in november 1963.
she was also the first ordained woman priest in any of the established mission churches in ghana as well. she became the first woman priest of the ame zion church in ghana on 21st april 1970 after retirement from the prisons service.
she is the grandmother of the ec lawyer justin amenuvor and comes from tegbi-keta. i couldn’t find any of her pictures online as well but got some exclusive access to a few care of m kwame deh who is also a grandson of “antima”.
4: Annie Ruth Jiagge (7 October 1918 – 12 June 1996) was the first Ghanaian woman to become a lawyer as well as the first female High Court and Court of Appeal judge. She was also the first woman in Ghana and the Commonwealth Nations to become a judge.
She was also a staunch and one of the very first women's rights activist and played a principal role in the drafting of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. She is also a co-founder of the organisation that became Women's World Banking.
She grew up in Keta with her maternal grandmother and has just one picture online.
#5 Charity Akoshiwo Tornyewonya Zormelo, subsequently Mrs Fiawoo (1904 – 14 October 1945) was the first woman graduate from the Gold Coast, and the first woman from English-speaking West Africa to earn a B. S. degree.
She hails from Keta and I couldn’t find any picture of hers as well online. But then she is half-sisters with “Victoria Ama Zormelo aka Antima” so we may find their pictures from the same source.
#6: Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo (26 December 1891 - 21 July 1969) was a Ghanaian religious minister, playwright and educator who founded the first Secondary school in the Volta Region, Zion College then called the “New African University College”.
He also co-founded the Gold Coast People's College at Adidome and was once a Politician in 1951 when he represented the Anlo state council of Chiefs at the Legislative Assembly of the Gold Coast.
Can’t find his pictures online as well.
7: Christian Gonçalves Kwami Baëta (23 May 1908 – 1994) was a Ghanaian Academician and Presbyterian Minister is one of the He was among a number of prominent individuals, corporate organisations and civil society groups that were instrumental in the establishment of the University of Ghana in 1948.
He comes from Keta and also barely 3 pictures online.
#8: Ferdinand Koblavi Dra Goka (7th November 1919 - 2007) was a Ghanaian teacher and politician from Mafi-Anfoe. He was a Volta Regional minister, and as Ghana's second finance minister during the first republic. He is often credited as the man who changed the name of Trans Volta Togoland to the Volta Region.
No pictures online just a newspaper publication.
#9: Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe (12 August 1913 – 22 December 1953) was a Ghanaian Medical doctor, author, poet and politician born in Keta. He left Keta in 1930 to continue his education in Germany and was a campaigner for the unification of British and French Togoland. He also earned a nomination for the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize in Medicine and physiology.
It is rumored that he was poisoned by loyalists of Nkrumah because of his influence to unite the British and French Togoland as a notion in a campaign he launched titled the “Eweland Questions” . He also barely has his pictures online.
#10: Pastor Robert Kwami (1879 - 1945) was an Ewe “Ghanaian-British Togoland Pastor and a representative of the Protestant Ewe-church now Evangelical Presbyterian Church, who was the Centre of a Nazi newspaper scandal known as the “Kwami affair” in Germany on the 20th of September 1932.
He made headlines in over 35 German and Dutch newspapers after the Nazi regional head, Carl Rover attempted to prevent the sermon from happening but then it backfired after a publication about an attempt of his life went viral and he had a lot of German Christian come out in their numbers to support him host a successful event.
He has been referred to as a Togolese in some Articles since Volta was known as British Togoland then.
Source: PemTvonline.com
#Note;
If we want the history of the Ewes and Eweland to be available for generations to access then we’ve got to flood the Internet with our history in pictures and scripts. The oral history is fading the stories and drowning a lot of it.
Anybody with access to any family member of the above mentioned names should kindly message me so we can get numerous of their pictures to pop up on the internet when people google search their names.
#Akpenami