ACCOUNT FOR THE 1948 RIOT IN THE GOLD COAST AND ITS AFTERMATH.

Gold coast is the former name of Ghana, given to it by the Europeans due to its abundance of gold.

Riot is the disturbance of public peace by several people, assembled and acting with a common intent in executing a lawful or unlawful enterprise in a violent and turbulent manner.

In 1948, a riot, which included about 2000 ex-service men, took place in Accra, which is now the capital of Ghana. The events that led to this rioting and its aftermath are considered below.

In January 1948, Nii Kwabena Bonne III, a Ga Chief, a business man and a strong civil leader organized a general boycott of all European imports. This was because; the Europeans and Syrians were the major importers and exporters of goods in and out of the country. The next month, that is February, it was agreed that, the boycott would be lifted on the 28^th day of the month.

However, after the boycott, a series of riots followed. The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the famous February 28th incident. Unarmed ex-servicemen marched to the Christiansburg Castle on that day to submit a petition to the Governor about their poor conditions such as poor housing, small gratuities and their high cost of living.

On arrival, they were asked to halt, but they ignored the order. Therefore, Superintendent Colin Imray ordered his men to fire. They however fired into the air but the marchers moved on. The superintendent then took matters into his own hands and fired into the procession, killing three of them, namely; sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Ordartey Lamptey.

 Thereafter, riots broke out in Accra. European and Asian stores were looted by the angry mob. The rioters forced open the Central Prison; that is the Ussher fort prison and set free its inmates. The riots spread to other parts of the country killing over 29 people and leaving about 200 more injured.

After the riots, the Nationalist leaders in the Gold Coast sent a strong worded cable to the Secretary of State in London. The Secretary of State, Arthur Creech Jones however blamed the Nationalist leaders for being responsible for the disturbances in the country. Consequently, on march 18^th of the same year, six of the leading nationalist were arrested and detained at the Kumasi prison. They were popularly referred to as the ‘Big Six’. These leaders were J.B Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Obetsebi Lamptey, Akuffo Addo, William Ofori Atta and Ako Adjei. After spending three days at the Kumasi prison, they were transferred to various prisons in the northern territory.

In March 1948, agitations to release the big six drove the colonial government to set up a commission headed by Aiken Watson, together with Dr. Keith Murray and Andrew Dalgleish, a well known authority on trade unionism.

In April 1948, the ‘big six’ appeared before the Watson commission, there they expressed their grievances concerning education and trading discrimination in favour of foreigners. These complaints among others were presented to the colonial government as the Watson commission report.

Later, the new governor, Sir Gerald creasy was authorized by the colonial office to set up a 37 –member committee called the coussey committee.

The report of the committee recommended an enlarged legislative council which was to have two chambers, a responsible executive council with a majority of Africans and a new system of local government. Also, it was included that those who were 25 years and above were eligible to vote and these, the British government accepted.

The recommendation of the Coussey committee formed the basis of the 1950 constitution. Under it, there was to be an executive council comprising three ex-officio members and eight Ghanaian ministers, a single legislature which was to consist of a speaker, three ex-officio ministers, six special members representing mining and commercial interests and seventy five members from parts of the country.

The riots and the entrance of the ‘Big Six’ are seen as marking the beginning of the process of independence for the gold coast as Ghana, The first African colony to achieve independence.