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OF DEBT AND BONDAGE: FROM SLAVERY TO PRISONS IN THE GOLD COAST, c. 1807–1957

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2020

SARAH BALAKRISHNAN Open the ORCID record for SARAH BALAKRISHNAN [Opens in a new window]
SARAH BALAKRISHNAN*
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Harvard University
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Abstract

Contrary to the belief that prisons never predated colonial rule in Africa, this article traces their emergence in the Gold Coast after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. During the era of ‘legitimate commerce’, West African merchants required liquidity to conduct long-distance trade. Rather than demand human pawns as interest on loans, merchants imprisoned debtors’ female relatives because women's sexual violation in prison incentivized kin to repay loans. When British colonists entered the Gold Coast, they discovered how important the prisons were to local credit. They thus allowed the institutions to continue, but without documentation. The so-called ‘native prisons’ did not enter indirect rule — and the colonial archive — until the 1940s. Contrary to studies of how Western states used prisons to control black labour after emancipation, this article excavates a ‘debt genealogy’ of the prison. In the Gold Coast, prisons helped manage cash flow after abolition by holding human hostages.

Keywords

GhanaWest Africaprisoncreditslaveryabolitionslave tradecolonialism
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , March 2020 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Many people read initial drafts of this essay, and many more offered their comments in conversation. I thank Emmanuel Akyeampong, Gareth Austin, Erin Braatz, Kelly Brignac, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Dima Hurlbut, Olatunji Ojo, Nana Quarshie, Jake Christopher Richards, Rebecca Shumway, Ben Silverstein, Jon Soske, Diana Wylie, and Adam Ewing. I would also like to acknowledge Gregory Mann's helpful corrections and suggestions. I can be contacted at sbalakrishnan@g.harvard.edu.

References

1 National Archives of the United Kingdom (NAUK) CO 96/130, Chief Justice to the Governor, 26 Jan. 1880.

2 Half of these testimonies are available in the Public Records and Archives Administration at Accra (PRAAD-Accra). See PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, Native Prisons Ordinance, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886. The others are in NAUK CO 96/191, Gold Coast no. 116, 10 Apr. 1888.

3 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, notes of evidence taken by S. M. Bennett in the appeal case of Oppon vs. Ackinie and Ghartey, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886.

4 NAUK-CO 96/191, testimony of J. Green in the appeal case of Oppon vs. Ackinie and Ghartey, 21 Apr. 1886.

5 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, ‘Questions Put to Mr. Cleland’, 24 Apr. 1886. Although described as the ‘Chief of James Town’, George Cleland was an independent wealthy merchant (obirempon) who had come to run his own court and prison, as other merchants had, in the nineteenth century. For background on Cleland, see Parker, J., Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (Portsmouth, NH, 2000), 86Google Scholar.

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7 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, notes of evidence, S. M. Bennett, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886.

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30 PRAAD-Accra SCT 2/4/2, Eliza Hanson vs. Sackey Ocooloo, 16 Aug. 1861; PRAAD-Accra SCT 5/4/89, Queen vs. Quamina Fokoo and Quacoe Fokoo, 20 Dec. 1862; PRAAD-Accra SCT 5/4/9, Judicial Assessor's Court, 16 Oct. 1863. For a case study of southern Nigeria, see Olatunji Ojo, ‘“Èmú: (Àmúyá): The Yoruba Institution of Panyarring or Seizure for Debt’, African Economic History, 35 (2007), 31–58.

31 Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, 39.

32 Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, 37. Also see description by Barbot, J., Barbot on Guinea: The Writings of Jean Barbot on West Africa, 1678–1712 (London, 1992 [1746]), 392Google Scholar.

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35 United Kingdom, House of Commons, Further Papers Relating to the Ashantee Invasion, no. 1 (London, 1874), 58.

36 Kea, ‘“I am here to plunder”’, 110.

37 NAUK CO 96/31, S. Hill to G. Grey, 18 Dec. 1854.

38 For information on James Thompson, see R. Gocking, Facing Two Ways: Ghana's Coastal Communities Under Colonial Rule (Lanham, MD, 1999), 33.

39 NAUK CO 96/33, J. Thompson and others to G. Grey, 5 Jan. 1855.

40 NAUK CO 96/30, G. L. Heinz to Governor, 4 Aug. 1854.

41 NAUK CO 96/191, ‘Memorandum on Native Prisons’, 3 Dec. 1887.

42 S. Kaplow, ‘African merchants of the nineteenth century Gold Coast’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Columbia University, 1971); Reynolds, E., Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast, 1807–1874 (London, 1974)Google Scholar; also see Akyeampong, E., ‘Commerce, credit, and mobility in late nineteenth-century Gold Coast: changing dynamics in Euro-African trade’, in Akyeampong, E. et al. (eds.), African Development in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, 2014), 231–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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46 Methodist Missionary Society archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS-MMS) Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to Mrs. Freeman, 31 Jan. 1864.

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51 Legalization occurred via the 1888 Native Prisons Ordinance.

52 NAUK CO 96/231, Chief Justice to Colonial Secretary, 29 Mar. 1892.

53 NAUK CO 96/131, Circular, 13 Apr. 1880.

54 PRAAD-Accra SC 17/331, W. Z. Coker to Konor Mate Kole [n.d.]. Coker, as Tufuhen, explains the traditional role of Tufuhen in prison management.

55 A. N. Allott describes how the earliest indigenous courts in the Gold Coast were comprised mainly of merchants and the asafo. See Allott, A. N., ‘Native Tribunals in the Gold Coast, 1844–1927: prolegomena to a study of native courts in Ghana’, Journal of African Law, 1:3 (1957), 166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Akurang-Parry, ‘What is’, 438, 442.

57 For example, the British government kept records for chiefs’ prisons in Nigeria and Buganda. See Buell, R. L., The Native Problem in Africa, Volume 1 (New York, 1928), 575, 693–5Google Scholar.

58 PRAAD-Accra ADM 1/12/3, note by J. Marshall, Judicial Assessor [n.d., ca. 1873].

59 NAUK CO 96/130, Chief Justice to the Governor, 23 Jan. 1880.

60 See PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, B. Griffith, ‘Memorandum on Native Prisons’, 3 Dec. 1887.

61 Parliamentary Papers, 1875, vol. LII (1140), enclosure 6 in no. 6, Quow Ouchin vs. Tawiah and Quay, 13 Apr. 1874.

62 Parliamentary Papers, 1875, vol. LII (1140), enclosure 1 in no. 6, J. Marshall to Johnson, 9 Apr. 1874.

63 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, statement by Quarmine, 25 Nov. 1887.

64 Parliamentary Papers, 1875, vol. LII (1140), enclosure 6 in no. 6, Quow Ouchin vs. Tawiah and Quay, 13 Apr. 1874.

65 NAUK CO 96/72, S. C. Brew to A. Cary, 5 May 1866.

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69 Falola and Lovejoy, Pawnship, 8.

70 NAUK CO 96/84, palaver between the King of Anomabu and the captains and headmen of Anomabu, 26 May 1869.

71 NAUK CO 96/84, Headmen of Anamaboe to H. Simpson, 8 May 1869.

72 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1111, Eccuah Aiwool to Colonial Secretary, 7 Nov. 1906; H. M. Hull to Ekua Aiwul, 19 Nov. 1906.

73 Akurang-Parry, ‘What is’, 437–42.

74 For example, the man imprisoned as ‘surety’ for his uncle was reported in the newspaper run by West African contributors, Western Echo, 30 Jan. 1886.

75 NAUK CO 96/184, testimony of Oboshee in Regina vs. Lagos & Others, 13 Sept. 1887.

76 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1476, testimony of Abina Affua in enquiry in Abakrampa, 2 May 1908.

77 NAUK CO 96/130, J. R. H. Wilson, ‘Circular: Native Prisons’, 23 Jan. 1880.

78 Parliamentary Papers, 1867, vol. XLIX, no. 3 in enclosure 24, W. Z. Coker to T. Whyte, 5 Dec. 1866.

79 NAUK CO 96/84, trial of the Chief of Anomabu, 26 May 1869.

80 Parker, Making the Town, 85.

81 Robertson also notes a large (40 per cent) proportion of female domestic slave owners in colonial Accra. See Robertson, ‘Post-proclamation’, 224.

82 Gold Coast Leader, 10 Jan. 1920, 4.

83 Getz, Slavery, 61; SOAS-MMS Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to T. Hughes, 31 Jan. 1864.

84 SOAS-MMS Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to J. Dawson, 20 Feb. 1864.

85 PRAAD-Accra CSO 21/7/101, testimony of Nana Ofori Atta in Native Tribunals enquiry, 21 Dec. 1942.

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88 Parliamentary Papers, 1867, vol. XLIX, no. 1 in enclosure 38, B. Pine to E. Cardwell, 7 Apr. 1865.

89 Parliamentary Papers, 1865, vol. V, (412) ‘Report from the Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast) Together with the Proceedings of the Committee: Minutes of Evidence and Appendix’, 26 June 1865, 329. My emphasis added.

90 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, B. Griffith, ‘Memorandum on Native Prisons’, 3 Dec. 1887.

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93 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/328, Kingdon, ‘Memorandum on Bankruptcy’, Aug. 1919.

94 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/328, District Commissioner to Commissioner Central Province, 5 Nov. 1919.

95 PRAAD-Accra SCT 2/6/4, Mutchi vs. Kobina Annan and Kobina Inketsia, 14 Sept. 1907.

96 J. Parker has suggested that this measure was introduced primarily to ban Tackie Tawiah's prison in Accra. The evidence that he cites does not presently support this claim, but it could have been damaged in the two-decades between our consultations of the Accra archives. See Parker, Making the Town, 135.

97 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1476, Colonial Minutes, 3 Jan. 1906.

98 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1111, Colonial Minutes, 22 Mar. 1890.

99 Government Gazette, 31 January 1889; PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/5, H. M. Hull to Commissioner Eastern Province, 24 Mar. 1905.

100 During stool disputes, the British often waited until chiefs used their unregistered prisons as a pretext for intervening in the stool disputes themselves. For example, see Public Records and Archives Administration at Ho (PRAAD-Ho) KE/C/67, Quarterly Report for Keta District, 31 Dec. 1924.

101 Public Records and Archives Administration at Sekondi (PRAAD-Sekondi) WR 24/1/396, Commissioner Western Province to Chief Commissioner, 6 Sept. 1945.

102 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1131, W. R. Rainsford, notes from inquiry, 1 Sept. 1923.

103 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/1503, ‘Notes on the seven Asafo companies of Cape Coast’, n.d.

104 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1, ‘Police officer shooting in the street’, 3 Aug. 1902.

105 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/410, ‘Ashanti Farmers’ Union’, n.d.; ‘Meeting Minutes at Adabraka’, 21 Jan. 1938.

106 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1105, Kwaku Amoah and others to Lord Passfield, 27 Sept. 1929; PRAAD-Cape Coast 23/1/724, W. J. A. Jones to Commissioner Central Province, 16 Sept. 1933; PRAAD-Sekondi WR 24/1/396, O. J. Collision to Commissioner Western Province, 2 Apr. 1947.

107 PRAAD-Accra CSO 21/7/81, J. C. Taggoe to H. Thomas, 12 Mar. 1943.

108 PRAAD-Sekondi WRG 21/1/210, A. Duncan-Johnstone to Director of Prisons, 23 Aug. 1933.

109 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1840, District Commissioner Axim to District Commissioner Sekondi, 12 May 1945.

110 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/724, District Commissioner to Commissioner Central Province, 14 Feb. 1936.

111 Gocking, R., ‘Indirect rule in the Gold Coast: competition for office and the invention of tradition’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 28:3 (1994), 421–46Google Scholar

112 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1840, Colonial Minutes, 30 June 1949.

113 NAUK CO 96/33, J. Thompson and others to G. Grey, 5 Jan. 1855.

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