Remembering the Germans in Ghana by Laumann Dennis

Author:Laumann, Dennis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing
Published: 2017-11-21T09:57:22+00:00

chapter five

Nostalgia, Neglect, and Nationalism under the British

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In contrast to the oral history, written sources suggest those who lived under German occupation enthusiastically welcomed their new British rulers.1 E. D. K. Daketsey claims that in the Ewe areas of Togoland, “the villages were thrown into jubilation, with chiefs publicly burning the loathsome German flags.”2 F. K. Buah argues that during the First World War the people of “… Eweland lent their support to the victory of the British over the Germans.”3 Amenumey explains that assistance to the Allied forces especially was forthcoming from the Anlo Ewe, most of whom resided in the Gold Coast, as they offered soldiers, covert information, and material aid to the British forces invading Togoland in August 1914.4 And Nugent points out that “[t]he British forces were struck by the warmth of the reception that greeted their arrival in towns and villages across Togoland.”5

Support for the British partly was based on the hope of resolving what was to become known as the “Ewe Question.” Since the occupation of Eweland by the British, Germans, and French at the end of the nineteenth century, and particularly as a result of the Heligoland Treaty of 1890 which separated the Krepi Ewe, the Ewe remained a people divided by colonial boundaries. While in precolonial times the Ewe never came together in a centralized state, many viewed the disruption of the colonial order caused by the First World War as an opportunity to agitate for the unification of the Ewe under British administration. This effort was organized and led mainly by the Anlo Ewe elite of the Gold Coast, who were encouraged by←100 | 101→ the expulsion of the Germans and the subsequent Allied seizure of Togoland. The Ewe Question was to be the predominant political issue in the area until the return to independence of Ghana.

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