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‘THE CHIEFS, ELDERS, AND PEOPLE HAVE FOR MANY YEARS SUFFERED UNTOLD HARDSHIPS’: PROTESTS BY COALITIONS OF THE EXCLUDED IN BRITISH NORTHERN TOGOLAND, UN TRUSTEESHIP TERRITORY, 1950–7*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2014

Paul Stacey
Paul Stacey*
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
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Abstract

This article examines the use of tradition by minority groups whose territorial incorporation into British Northern Togoland under UN trusteeship was marked by political exclusion. This contrasts with the more typical pattern of productive and inclusive relations developing between chiefs and the administering authority within the boundaries of what was to become Ghana. In East Gonja, marginalized groups produced their own chiefs while simultaneously appealing to the UN Trusteeship Council to protect their native rights. The article contributes to studies on the limits of the ‘invention of tradition’ by showing the influence of external structures on African agency and organization. As the minority groups sought UN support on the basis of their native status, the colonial power affirmed alternative versions of tradition that were perceived locally as illegitimate and thereby rendered ineffective.

Keywords

GhanaTogochieftaincydecolonisationInternational RelationsUnited Nations
Type
History and Marginalization in a Colonial Setting
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 423 - 444
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

I am very grateful to the three anonymous reviewers and Christian Lund, to whom I owe considerable scholarly dues. Research for this article was financed by the Consultative Research Committee for Development Research (FFU), under DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency). Many thanks to Colin Dutnall for drawing the map. Any factual errors are the sole responsibility of the author. Author's email: pas@ifro.ku.dk

References

1 Northern Region of Ghana Public Records, Tamale (NRG) 8/2/210, petition from Nawuri leaders to the administering authority and the Trusteeship Council, 3 Nov. 1954.

2 NRG 8/3/184, comments by the Regional Office of the Northern Territories to the UN Trusteeship Council, for the Report for Togoland (1953).

3 NRG 8/22/27, Report for Togoland by the First Visiting Mission of the Trusteeship Council, Nov. 1949. This extract is from the ‘Petition submitted by the Togoland Congress, including the natural rulers and various political parties and statutory organs in the Trust Territory of Togoland to the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, United States of America’, undated.

4 See, for example, Mamdani, M., Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, NJ, 1996), 26Google Scholar.

5 Ibid.

6 For a thorough discussion, see Spear, T., ‘Neo-traditionalism and the limits of invention in British colonial Africa’, The Journal of African History, 44:1 (2003), 3–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 On the first point see, for example, Lentz, C. and Nugent, P. (eds.), Ethnicity in Ghana: The Limits of Invention (New York, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the second see, for example, Nugent, P., ‘States and social contracts in Africa’, New Left Review, 63 (2010), 35–68Google Scholar.

8 Talton, B., Politics of Social Change in Ghana: The Konkomba Struggle for Political Equality (New York, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch. 1.

9 Ibid. 5.

10 Ibid. 3–7.

11 See Spear, ‘Neo-traditionalism’.

12 Hawkins, S., ‘Disguising chiefs and God as history: questions on the acephalousness of LoDagaa politics and religion’, Africa, 66:2 (1996), 202–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 See, for example, Amenumey, D. E. K., The Ewe Unification Movement: A Political History (Accra, 1989)Google Scholar; Austin, D., Politics in Ghana, 1946–1960 (Oxford, 1964)Google Scholar; Ladouceur, P. A., Chiefs and Politicians: The Politics of Regionalism in Northern Ghana (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Nugent, P., Smugglers, Secessionists and Loyal Citizens on the Ghana-Togo Frontier: The Life of the Borderlands since 1914 (Oxford, 2002)Google Scholar; Staniland, M., The Lions of Dagbon: Political Change in Northern Ghana (Cambridge, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 See, for example, Amenumey, The Ewe; Bening, R. B., Ghana: Regional Boundaries and National Integration (Accra, 1999)Google Scholar. Both A. K. B. Ampiah and C. K. Mbowura give essentialist depictions of the Nawuri: A. K. B. Ampiah, ‘Report of the committee of inquiry into the Gonja, Nawuri and Nanjuros dispute to Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, Head of State and Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council’, unpublished report (Ghana, 1991, in the author's possession); and C. K. Mbowura, ‘Nawuri–Gonja relations 1913–1994’ (unpublished M.Phil thesis, University of Legon, Ghana, 2002).

15 Most notable is J. K. Mbimgadong (Nana Obimpeh) who sadly passed away in November 2013 as this article was being finalized. Nana Obimpeh (c. 1930–2013) was a central Nawuri figure and a very active campaigner for Nawuri rights for over sixty years. He spoke on behalf of the Togoland Congress to the UN General Assembly in 1952, and won the Kpandai constituency for the National Alliance of Liberals in the 1969 parliamentary elections. He was Chief of Balai (Balaiwura) for nearly thirty years and since the 1991–2 conflict between the Nawuri and Gonja rallied tirelessly for reconciliation and recognition. Another key informant is Nana Atorsah II, present-day Kpandaiwura, and son of Nana Atorsah I.

16 In 1913, Germany recognized Gonja traditional rule over the area through a paramount chief and Nawuri resentment increased. Interview with J. K. Mbimgadong, Kpandai, 5 Aug. 2008.

17 1906 Karte Von Togo – C.1. Bismarckburg. In private possession of J. K. Mbimgadong. The map can be viewed online at Basel Mission Archives, (http://www.bmarchives.org/items/show/100202438), accessed 28 Apr. 2014. It has been used on many occasions in efforts to substantiate Nawuri land claims. According to Gonja, Kanankulaiwura means ‘Chief of Spearing the Hippo Meat’ and denotes the institution's traditional right to a portion of any large game killed in the area. For Nawuri, Kanankulaiwura is a Nawuri term meaning literally ‘Chief Eater of Meat Lumps’ and has numerous metaphorical meanings. It can imply authority and strength, Nawuri hospitality (in providing meat), greed and power (for confiscating game), or laziness (for receiving tribute undeservedly). Interview with J. K. Mbimgadong; interview with Nana Atorsah II, Kpandai, 23 July 2009. The administering authority took the title to mean ‘The Chief of Many Tribes’: NRG 8/2/210, file note, District Commissioner (DC) Damongo to the Chief Commissioner Northern Territories (CCNT), 30 Jan. 1951.

18 The boundary between British and French Togoland was fixed by the Milner-Simon Agreement of July 1919 that gave Britain control over the former German parts of Gonja, Dagomba, and Mamprusi.

19 Staniland, Lions, 72.

20 NRG 8/2/198, Northern Territories Rules and Orders Administration, ch. 1. Here quoted from Duncan-Johnstone's report on the Yapai conference, 17 June 1930.

21 NRG 8/2/198, report by Duncan-Johnstone on the Yapai conference, 17 June 1930.

22 Ampiah, ‘Report’, 15. It was also reasoned that the new boundary would lessen land contests, alienation, and the spread of cash cropping, while easing communication. Bening, Ghana, 41.

23 Bening, Ghana, 97. Interview with Nana Oching Donkor, Kpandai, 14 July 2009.

24 DC Duncan-Johnstone dated Jakpa's death to c. 1755. NRG 8/2/198, correspondence from Duncan-Johnstone to CCNT, 17 June 1930.

25 Interview with Alhajai Musah Jawula (Kanunkulaiwura), Kpembe, 22 July 2009.

26 Ampiah, ‘Report’, 11–13.

27 NRG 4/2/1, correspondence from DC Krachi to CCNT, 26 Sep. 1932.

28 NRG 8/4/73, DC Salaga, Informal Diary, July 1935.

29 NRG 4/7/1, letter from CCNT Norton-James to the Chief Secretary, Ministry of Local Government, Accra, 21 Nov. 1950.

30 The Executive Committee of Regional Administration had final jurisdiction and could nominate a maximum of three council members.

31 Source: author. The international and northern region boundaries are based on Bening, Ghana, 46. The Alfai Local Council area is sketched. The demarcations of the different groups' claims are only illustrative.

32 Public works, sanitation, and education also became the responsibility of the local and district councils.

33 NRG 8/3/184.

34 Seven of the ten traditional members were Gonja, appointed by the Gonja Paramount Chief (the Yagbumwura), who sat as Chairman. The three remaining members were Mo, Yeji, and Prang chiefs.

35 Alfai (also Alfaire) literally means ‘Home of Muslims’. The policy of congruent traditional and administrative boundaries was based on the findings of the Ewart Committee. Austin, Politics, 107.

36 NRG 4/3/90, Annual Report of the Alfai Local Council, July 1957. Although this did not fulfil the requirement of one third traditional membership, the council appears to have never had more than five traditional members.

37 NRG 8/2/210, letter from Nawuri elders to DC Salaga, 14 Oct. 1951.

38 NRG 4/3/8.

39 NRG 8/3/184, ‘UN Visiting Mission Annual Report for Northern Togoland 1952’.

40 Berry, S., Chiefs Know Their Boundaries: Essays on Property, Power, and the Past in Asante, 1896–1996 (Oxford, 2000)Google Scholar, passim.

41 NRG 4/3/8, letter from Sgt Zakariah, Kpandai, to DC Salaga, 7 Sep. 1953.

42 NRG 4/3/8, letter from the Court Members, Kpandai, to Sgt Leo Eshan, Salaga, 10 Sep. 1953.

43 NRG 8/16/1. Police were told to concentrate on carrying out arrests, and were discouraged from giving evidence at native tribunals even if they had been witnesses to something untoward. DCs could change tribunal decisions and the CCNT could intervene in any case.

44 NRG 4/3/8, letter from the Court members, Kpandai to Sgt Leo Eshan, Salaga, 10 Sep. 1953.

45 Amenumey, The Ewe, 101.

46 Incremental political-administrative changes were made in favour of integration as the British government was not prepared to administer the territory after independence. The southern section of British Togoland, for example, was subject to Gold Coast Ordinances (at the discretion of the governor) and favoured in the 1951 and 1954 constitutional provisions that gave the area six seats on the Legislative Council. Moreover, support was given to the Trans Volta Togoland Region (from 1952) by both Governor Arden-Clarke and the CPP. Thus, it was difficult for the unificationists to develop common political points of reference between the southern and northern sectors. Amenumey, The Ewe, 80; Skinner, K., ‘Reading, writing and rallies: the politics of “freedom” in southern British Togoland, 1953–1956’, The Journal of African History, 48:1 (2007), 123–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 In the 1953 general elections the CPP won in the country but lost in the north to the NPP. Ladouceur, Chiefs and Politicians, 101.

48 In the Northern Section of British Togoland there were to be six elected members out of a total membership of 21: Amenumey, The Ewe, 102.

49 Amenumey, The Ewe, 95. This institution is also referred to as the Joint Council for Togoland Affairs.

50 This time the vote was 17 for and three against. NRG 4/3/7, letter from Chief Regional Officer (CRO) to Government Agent (GA), Damongo, 20 Apr. 1954.

51 As expected, prominent Dagbon and Mamprusi chiefs who fully supported the integration policy didn't even seek membership of the JTC.

52 NRG 8/2/210, letter from CCNT to Secretary of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, 1 Feb. 1952. Friko later lost a court case claiming the DC and Gonja figures had initiated his detention to hinder attendance at an EJTCC meeting in Lome.

53 NRG 8/2/210, telegram from the Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 24 Feb. 1951.

54 United Nations Bibliographic Information System (UNBISNET), ‘401 (IX) Petition from the people of Nanjuro and Nawuri in the Kpandai area to UN (T/Pet.6/215)’, 27 July 1951, (unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1281618E71SP7.94689&profile=bib&uri=full=3100001∼!392254∼!1&ri=1&aspect=subtab124&menu=search&source=∼!horizon), accessed 18 Nov. 2013.

55 The Nawuri reasoned they could easily win an election with expected support from Konkomba.

56 UNBISNET, ‘630 (XI) Petition from Nana Atorsah Agyeman, Head Chief of the Nawuris, Kpandai (T/Pet. 6/315), concerning Togoland under British administration’, (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/111/56/IMG/NR011156.pdf?OpenElement), accessed 28 Apr. 2013.

57 Tax payment was an eligibility criterion for voting. The election was held on 8 April 1952.

58 Interview with J. K. Mbimgadong, Kpandai, 22 Dec. 2009.

59 NRG 8/22/27, speech by Ijemple (J. K) Mbimgadong, Representative of Joint Togoland Congress to the UN Fourth Committee, 19 Dec. 1952.

60 NRG 8/22/27, letter from the Governor to the Secretary of State, 13 July 1953. The governor advised the secretary of state to answer ‘there is no Nawuri state [this is because the] chief of Kpandai who is chief of nearly whole Gonja area of Togoland has of course always been a Gonja’.

61 NRG 8/22/27, telegram from Secretary of Togoland Congress to Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, 31 July 1953.

62 NRG 8/22/27, anonymous telegram to GA Salaga, 1 Aug. 1953.

63 NRG 8/22/27, ‘Petition submitted by the Togoland Congress, including the natural rulers and various political parties’, undated.

64 Covenant of the League of Nations, Article 22, Subsection 1, League of Nations, 28 Apr. 1919.

65 NRG 8/22/27, ‘Petition submitted by the Togoland Congress, including the natural rulers and various political parties’, undated.

66 NRG 8/22/27, ‘United Nations General Assembly – Eighth Session Report on Debate, Committee 4: Ewe and Togoland Unification problem’, 24, Nov. 1953.

67 Ibid.

68 NRG 8/2/212, letter from Colonial Office, London, to Governor of the Gold Coast, 11 Feb. 1954.

69 NRG 8/2/210, letter from Acting Senior DC to CCNT, 7 Sep. 1951.

70 NRG 8/3/184, letter from GA Salaga to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, 30 Mar. 1953.

71 NRG 4/3/8, letter from GA Salaga to Senior Superintendent of Police, Tamale, 19 Sept. 1953. The Visiting Missions reported on the sociopolitical status of the Trust Territories to the Trusteeship Council, and had a monitoring role.

72 Talton, Politics, 195–200.

73 NRG 8/2/210, petition by Nana Kojo Kuma of Nanjuro to CCNT, 30 Aug. 1947.

74 NRG 8/2/212, address by Nana Atorsah Agyeman I to Governor Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke, 21 Nov. 1954.

75 NRG 8/2/210, petition from the Paramount Chief of Kpandai and thirteen others to the Trusteeship Council, the Governor, and twelve other administering authority institutions, 1 Feb. 1954, underlining in original.

76 Ibid.

77 NRG 8/22/27, ‘Petition submitted by the Togoland Congress, including the natural rulers and various political parties’, undated.

78 Ibid.

79 NRG 8/22/27, speech by I. Mbimgadong, representative of the Joint Togoland Congress before the Fourth Committee at its 313th meeting, 19 Dec. 1952.

80 NRG 8/2/212, letter from the Office of the Secretary to the Governor to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government, Accra, 31 Dec. 1954.

81 NRG 8/2/212, memorandum by Secretary to the Governor, 23 Jan. 1955. The inquiry had to be nonstatutory due to the diversity of the protests.

82 NRG 8/2/212, letter from Minister of Local Government to Secretary to the Governor, 20 Jan. 1955. An inquiry report was to be delivered to the governor by 30 Apr. 1955.

83 NRG 8/2/211; NRG 8/2/212. All were dated 26 Mar. 1955. The signatories are worth listing in full as testimony to the active production of claims based on native status, identity, and belonging. Verbatim, they were: ‘The Chiefs, Elders and People’ of the villages of Bankaba, Djadigbe, Djadiche, Farmani, Kumide Tirae, Wiae, ‘Basare in Kabonwule’, ‘Basare in Kpandai’, ‘Chocosi in Katiejeli’, ‘Konkomba in Bladjai’, ‘Nawuri in Balai’, ‘Nawuri in Blajai’, ‘Nawuri in Dodope’, ‘Nawuri in Kabonwule’, ‘Nawuri in Katiejeli’, ‘Nawuri in Kitare’, ‘Nawuri in Lasenipe-Longito’, ‘Nawuri in Nkanchina’, ‘The Chairman of Convention Peoples Party’ in the villages of Balai, Blajai, Dodope, Kabonwule, Katiejeli, Kitare, Kpandai, and Lasenipe-Longito, Nkanchina, ‘The Nawuri Chief Linguist, Katiejeli’, ‘The Nawuri Linguists, Kitare’, ‘The Queen Mother of Nawuri, Kpandai’, ‘The Chief Nawuri Fetish Priest Katiejeli’, ‘The Nanjuro Chief Linguist’, ‘The Stool Father of Nawuri’, ‘Leader of Nawuri Ex-servicemen's Men Union’, ‘The Secretary, Nawuri Youth Association’, ‘The Leader of Nawuri Councillors, Alfai Local Council’.

84 NRG 8/2/212, file note from GA Salaga to Dixon, undated. The compiler explained that it was ‘in effect little more than an index with notes of the files in question and cannot claimed [sic] to be a complete or fully authoritative record of the subject’.

85 NRG 8/2/212, confidential correspondence from Dixon to CRO MacDonald-Smith, 20 Apr. 1955.

86 Ibid.

87 NRG 8/2/212, handwritten file note by CRO Macdonald-Smith, 2 May 1955.

88 NRG 8/2/212, handwritten file note by CRO Macdonald-Smith, 28 Nov. 1955.

89 NRG 4/16/3. The Togoland plebiscite was held on 9 May 1956 and in the Northern Section of British Togoland 79 per cent voted for ‘union’ and 21 per cent for ‘separation’: Austin, Politics, 310. In the East Gonja segment of Togoland, 3,166 voted for ‘union’ and 2,729 for ‘separation’.

90 NRG 4/3/90, ‘Annual Report for Alfai Local Council, year ending July 1957’.

91 NRG 8/2/212, ‘Notification by Secretary of Nchrumbru Unification to Ministry of Local Government’, 5 Dec. 1956.

92 NRG 8/2/212, petition by Nchrumbru Paramount Chief and eight other chiefs to the Ministry of Local Government, 20 Dec. 1956.

93 NRG 8/2/212, letter from CRO to Ministry of Local Government, 8 Feb. 1957.

94 NRG 8/2/22, letter from CRO to Assistant GA Salaga, 10 December 1952; NRG 8/2/21, letter from CCNT to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government, 22 Feb. 1952.

95 NRG 8/2/212, letter from CRO to GA Damongo, 30 Nov. 1955.

96 Barbara Oomen draws a similar analysis from a study of South African customary law. Oomen, B., Chiefs in South Africa: Law, Power and Culture in the Post-Apartheid Era (New York, 2005), 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 For processes of inclusion in the Gold Coast see, for example, Berry, Chiefs Know; Fields, K. E., Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa (Princeton, NJ, 1985), 73Google Scholar; Nugent, Social Contracts. The broad topic is discussed in Spear, ‘Neotraditionalism’, 10.

98 As argued elsewhere by van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, E. A. B. and van Dijk, R., ‘The domestication of chieftaincy in Africa: from the imposed to the imagined’, in their African Chieftaincy in a New Socio-Political Landscape (Hamburg, 1999), 1–20Google Scholar. Here I rely on Spear, ‘Neo-traditionalism’, 11.

99 This is claimed more generally for British Africa by Spear, ‘Neo-traditionalism’, 10, after van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal and van Dijk, ‘The domestication’.

100 Cooper, F., ‘Conflict and connection: rethinking colonial African history’, American Historical Review, 99:5 (1994), 1516–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

101 See Oomen, Chiefs, 20.

102 Mamdani, Citizens, 185, in reference to Hobsbawn, E. J. and Ranger, T. O. (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar and Anderson, B., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London, 1991)Google Scholar.

103 Rathbone, R., ‘Kwame Nkrumah and the chiefs: the fate of “natural rulers” under nationalist governments’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6:10 (2000), 45–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Nugent, P., ‘Breaking with “tradition”’, review of Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana, 1951–60, by Richard Rathbone, The Journal of African History, 42:2 (2001), 335–6Google Scholar; and Ray, D. I., ‘Chief–state relations in Ghana – divided sovereignty and legitimacy’, in van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, E. B. and Zips, Werner (eds.), Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Power in West African Society: Perspectives from Legal Anthropology (Hamburg, 1998), 48–69Google Scholar.