Shots at a crossroads, a split between the founding fathers, prison and a landslide, and a midnight on a polo ground in Accra that changed Africa. The road to 6 March 1957, told straight.
British traders had held forts on this coast since the 1600s, but formal colonial rule came later. In 1874, after the war against the Asante that ended with the burning of Kumasi, Britain proclaimed the coastal Gold Coast Colony. In 1901, after the Yaa Asantewaa War, it annexed Asante and took the Northern Territories as a protectorate. After the First World War the western part of German Togoland was added under British administration; its people voted in 1956 to join the new state, which is how the Volta Region became part of Ghana.
The colony was profitable: gold, cocoa, timber and manganese. It also produced, through mission schools and later Achimota College, a confident educated class of lawyers, teachers, merchants and clerks who increasingly asked why they should be ruled from London.
British colonial administration, 1901–1957On ghana-net.com. German Togoland and the 1956 plebisciteHow the Volta Region became part of Ghana, on ghana-net.com.The spark came from the Second World War. Thousands of Gold Coast soldiers had fought for Britain in Burma and East Africa. They came home to unemployment, unpaid allowances and rising prices. In early 1948 a boycott of European shops, led by the Ga chief Nii Kwabena Bonne III, had already raised tempers.
On 28 February 1948 a peaceful march of ex-servicemen set out to deliver a petition to the Governor at Christiansborg Castle. At the crossroads near the castle, police opened fire. Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey were killed. Riots and looting spread through Accra and other towns over the following days.
The British arrested six leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention, blaming them for the unrest. They became known as the Big Six: Kwame Nkrumah, J. B. Danquah, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori Atta. The arrests made them national heroes.
The 1948 Christiansborg crossroads shootingOn ghana-net.com. Nii Kwabena Bonne III and the 1948 boycottOn ghana-net.com. The Big Six: Ghana's founding fathersOn myghana2027.com.The UGCC was a movement of lawyers and professionals led by J. B. Danquah. They wanted self-government "in the shortest possible time", negotiated step by step. Kwame Nkrumah, brought back from London in 1947 as the party's general secretary, wanted it now, and he wanted the mass of ordinary people behind it, not only the elite.
In June 1949 Nkrumah broke away and founded the Convention People's Party, with the slogan "Self-Government Now". Women traders, young men, ex-servicemen and the market women's networks flocked to it. Organisers like Hannah Kudjoe built the party on the ground. The split between Nkrumah's mass politics and Danquah's liberal tradition shaped Ghanaian politics for decades; its echoes run through the two main parties to this day.
J. B. DanquahOn ghana-net.com. Dr Kwame NkrumahOn ghana-net.com. Hannah KudjoeThe woman who organised the CPP, on ghana-net.com. Edward Akufo-AddoThe Big Six lawyer who became president, on ghana-net.com.In January 1950 the CPP launched "Positive Action": strikes, boycotts and non-cooperation. The colonial government declared a state of emergency and jailed Nkrumah. It made no difference. In the February 1951 election, under a new constitution, the CPP won a landslide while its leader was still in prison.
The Governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, made the decision that defined the British side of the story: he released Nkrumah and made him Leader of Government Business. From 1952 Nkrumah was Prime Minister. Further elections in 1954 and 1956 confirmed CPP majorities, and in 1956 the British Parliament agreed to independence within the Commonwealth.
Positive Action, 1950Nkrumah, the CPP and the road to 1957, on ghana-net.com. The road to independence, 1945–1957Britain and the birth of Ghana, on ghana-net.com.As midnight approached on 5 March 1957, a huge crowd gathered at the Old Polo Ground in Accra. The Union Jack came down and the new red, gold and green flag with its black star, designed by Theodosia Okoh, went up. Nkrumah, in a prison graduate's cap, told the crowd that Ghana was "free forever", and that its independence meant nothing unless it was linked to the liberation of all Africa.
The Duchess of Kent represented Queen Elizabeth II at the celebrations. Guests came from across the world, including Martin Luther King Jr. The colony took the name of the ancient West African empire of Ghana, and the new state became, in the eyes of the world, the first sub-Saharan African colony to throw off European rule: a signal for the wave of independence that swept the continent over the next decade.
6 March 1957 at the Old Polo GroundThe night of independence, on ghana-net.com. Theodosia OkohThe woman who designed the flag, on ghana-net.com.At independence Queen Elizabeth II remained head of state, represented by a Governor-General. On 1 July 1960 Ghana became a republic, with Nkrumah as its first president. Queen Elizabeth visited in November 1961; the photograph of the Queen dancing with Nkrumah at the State House ball travelled around the world.
The years that followed were harder than the celebrations promised: a one-party state, the Akosombo Dam and great building projects, debt, and in February 1966 the coup that removed Nkrumah while he was abroad. Four republics, several coups and a return to stable democracy in 1992 followed. The independence story did not end on 6 March 1957; it began there.
Presidents of GhanaEvery head of state since 1957. Ghana's coups, 1966–1983On ghana-net.com. Ghana: the first to go freeAnd the first to find out what that meant, on africanindependence.com. Akosombo and Lake VoltaNkrumah's great project.Seen from London, the Gold Coast was the model colony: the one Britain hoped would show that decolonisation could be orderly. That it went comparatively peacefully owed much to the strength and organisation of the independence movement, and something to Arden-Clarke's realism in 1951. It also owed to what Britain kept: the Commonwealth link, trade, and a close relationship that brought generations of Ghanaian students, nurses, doctors and workers to Britain.
Today's Ghanaian community in the UK, one of the largest African communities in the country, is part of that legacy. So are the shared language, the legal system, and the questions still asked about what colonial rule took and what Britain owes. Those questions are older than 1957; they begin with the forts on the coast.
The slave trade, Britain and the Gold CoastWhere the story begins. British colonial and West African slave tradeThe full series, on ghana-net.com.Built on the site of the Old Polo Ground where independence was declared. Nkrumah's mausoleum, his statue and a small museum stand here. It is the place to begin.
The great parade ground on the sea front, with the Black Star Gate and the Independence Arch, built in the early years of independence. It is the stage for the national parade every 6 March.
The memorial to the three ex-servicemen killed on 28 February 1948 stands at the crossroads in Osu, near the castle.
Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, AccraOn ghana-net.com. The Memorial Park siteThe dedicated portal. Black Star Square, Independence SquareOn ghana-net.com. Black Star GateOn ghana-net.com.A guided city tour links the independence sites with Jamestown, the forts and the old town in a single day. Entrance fees are included in the tour price. Tips for your guide and driver are not included, but they are always welcome.