Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
William Ofori Atta
1910 – 1988
Of the Big Six, and a lifetime in opposition
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 arrested in 1948, and one of the very few who kept arguing his corner through every government that followed independence.
William Eugene Amoako Ofori Atta was a son of the royal house of Akyem Abuakwa, educated at Achimota and Cambridge, and taught before going into politics.
He was one of the six leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention detained by the British after the shooting of the ex-servicemen at Christiansborg and the riots of 1948 — the Big Six, whose arrest turned a constitutional campaign into a mass independence movement, and whose faces are on the Ghanaian cedi.
When Kwame Nkrumah broke away to form the Convention People's Party, Ofori Atta stayed with the UGCC and then the United Party, and spent the First Republic in opposition and in detention under the Preventive Detention Act. He was foreign minister in Busia's government, stood for president in 1979, and was a member of the Council of State afterwards.
In later life he became a prominent lay preacher, and was widely known as Paa Willie. He is the rare figure of that generation whom Ghanaians across the political divide speak well of.
He was one of the six leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention detained by the British after the shooting of the ex-servicemen at Christiansborg and the riots of 1948 — the Big Six, whose arrest turned a constitutional campaign into a mass independence movement, and whose faces are on the Ghanaian cedi.
When Kwame Nkrumah broke away to form the Convention People's Party, Ofori Atta stayed with the UGCC and then the United Party, and spent the First Republic in opposition and in detention under the Preventive Detention Act. He was foreign minister in Busia's government, stood for president in 1979, and was a member of the Council of State afterwards.
In later life he became a prominent lay preacher, and was widely known as Paa Willie. He is the rare figure of that generation whom Ghanaians across the political divide speak well of.
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