The Making of an African King by Ephirim-Donkor Anthony;

Author:Ephirim-Donkor, Anthony;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UPA
Published: 2009-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

At Anomabu, where King Ghartey IV resided before becoming king, he was made treasurer and “Magistrate for the Town Court” by King Afedzie and his chiefs and elders. This was in recognition of his charitable contributions and invaluable services to that community. In 1861, upon his return from a business trip to England, King Ghartey created a branch of the Temperance Society of Sparkbrook, England. The Anomabu Temperance Society’s Band of Hope, according to Sampson “rendered songs at times during services in church and funerals, long before the modern singing band was introduced by the late Rev. A. W. Parker of the Wesleyan Mission.” King Ghartey also financed the construction of a huge water tank for the members of the society for 150 pounds, which became Anomabu’s only source of water.

Notwithstanding, King Ghartey IV had his share of political problems too. Since the formation of the militias to the present day, the two groups had engaged in hostilities periodically. From all the accounts, the Dentsewo militia was always the first to start hostilities. Whatever the reason, the Dentsewo militia had never accepted their subordinated status vis-à-vis the Tuawo and intent on fighting their way to superiority. In this context, another fight broke out between the Tuawo and the Dentsewo militias during the reign of Ghartey IV. What was strange about this particular hostility was what happened afterwards. Sampson describes:

One of the awful experiences in the life of King Ghartey was when in 1885 a riot took place between the two companies in Winneba—No. 1 and No. 2 Companies (Tuafu and Dentsiful)—which led to a prosecution at Accra on a capital charge, and finally a condemnation to death of a good many of those who took part in the riot. The petition, which was submitted by King Ghartey on their behalf, failed to achieve anything. But a curious fact happened, which remains a puzzle up to the present day; and that was the deaths which occurred during the same year in which the people were condemned, of all the Europeans who had anything to do with the case, namely, the Queen’s Advocate who prosecuted, the Chief Justice who sentenced the people, the Sheriff who delivered them for execution, the Engineer who fixed the gallows, and Governor W. A. Young himself, who signed the death warrant—all followed one after the other in the course of the year, the last being the gaoler (Trant), who did the last act of killing.19

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.