Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Edward Akufo-Addo
1906 – 1979
Of the Big Six, Chief Justice, and President
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Ghana Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
One of the Big Six who went on to be both Chief Justice and ceremonial President — the only one of the six to hold either office.
Edward Akufo-Addo was a mathematician and philosopher by training before he was a lawyer, taking a degree at Oxford and returning to practise at the Gold Coast bar.
He was one of the six United Gold Coast Convention leaders detained by the British in 1948, and served on the Coussey Committee, whose report produced the constitution under which the Gold Coast moved to internal self-government. He drafted a good deal of it.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1962. In 1963 he was among the judges who acquitted the defendants in the Kulungugu treason trial; Nkrumah dismissed the Chief Justice, had the verdict set aside by legislation, and removed Akufo-Addo from the bench — an episode now taught as the moment judicial independence in Ghana was broken. After Nkrumah's overthrow he returned as Chief Justice in 1966, chaired the commission that wrote the constitution of the Second Republic, and served as ceremonial President from 1970 until the coup of 1972.
He died in 1979. His son Nana Akufo-Addo was elected President of Ghana in 2016.
He was one of the six United Gold Coast Convention leaders detained by the British in 1948, and served on the Coussey Committee, whose report produced the constitution under which the Gold Coast moved to internal self-government. He drafted a good deal of it.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1962. In 1963 he was among the judges who acquitted the defendants in the Kulungugu treason trial; Nkrumah dismissed the Chief Justice, had the verdict set aside by legislation, and removed Akufo-Addo from the bench — an episode now taught as the moment judicial independence in Ghana was broken. After Nkrumah's overthrow he returned as Chief Justice in 1966, chaired the commission that wrote the constitution of the Second Republic, and served as ceremonial President from 1970 until the coup of 1972.
He died in 1979. His son Nana Akufo-Addo was elected President of Ghana in 2016.
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