Ghana Month: The ‘Big Four’ we never had

He named them as Alfred Paa Grant, Nii Kwabena Bonnie III, Sir James Henly Coussey, KBE and K.A. Gbedemah.

Here are excerpts from his opinion piece detailing the role played by the aformentioned individuals:

First, Alfred Pa Grant, a wealthy timber merchant, activist and philanthropist, was the person who summoned the leaders of the Gold Coast to gather under the banner of the UGCC. On March 21st, 1947, he wrote to leaders inviting them to a meeting to form UGCC and he put his treasure and energy and prestige into it.

Indeed, after the 1948 riots, he wrote to the Governor expressing the readiness of the UGCC to assume the management of the Gold Coast. And this man was NOT in the “BIG SIX”? That would be like excluding Madison or Gandhi from the founding fathers of America or India!

Second, Nii Kwabena Bonnie III, a traditional ruler, was the man who painstakingly organized the movement that led to the boycott of AWAM through the anti-inflation Committee culminating in the riots of 1948 and he is NOT in the “BIG SIX”? Without his organizational acumen, there would be no boycott and no riots and was not part of the “BIG SIX” probably because the British chickened out of arresting him?

Third, Sir James Henly Coussey, KBE, chaired the committee of 40 Africans that examined the report of the Watson Commission in the light of the 1948 riots and made constitutional proposals to the British government. Their proposals defined our constitutional architecture for the future Ghana.

His committee laid the foundation for our local government and set an example for the colonial world. He wrote, contrary to the Watson Commission that ” the whole institution of chieftaincy is so closely bound up in the lives of our communities that its disappearance would spell disaster.”

The Gold Coast Express, a newspaper wrote, “Even the most fastidious will admit that the Coussey Committee recommendations have given us a mighty jump in our political history. ”

The Secretary of State for Colonies described the report as “without precedent in colonial history.” In 1952, Henly Coussey was knighted by King George VI, and he was NOT in the “BIG SIX”?

Fourth, if the CPP was indispensable to the independence struggle, K.A. Gbedemah was indispensable to the CPP during Nkrumah’s incarceration. Without him, Nkrumah may not have become the unifying matyr he became. And he, Gbedemah, is NOT celebrated as part of the “BIG SIX”?