Literature & Ideas
Landmark
Kobina Sekyi
1892 – 1956
Nationalist lawyer and satirist who refused to dress like an Englishman
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
President of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, and author of The Blinkards — a comedy skewering Gold Coast elites for aping the English. He wore Fante cloth to court to make the same point.
William Esuman-Gwira Sekyi, known as Kobina Sekyi, was born on 1 November 1892 and became a nationalist lawyer, politician and writer in the Gold Coast.
He was president of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society — the body founded in 1897 that pushed back on colonial land legislation, and through which John Mensah Sarbah, Casely Hayford and others made the legal case against the colonial state. Sekyi's play The Blinkards satirised the Anglicised Gold Coast elite, and he pressed the point in his own life, wearing Fante dress in professional settings where European clothing was expected. He died in 1956.
He was president of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society — the body founded in 1897 that pushed back on colonial land legislation, and through which John Mensah Sarbah, Casely Hayford and others made the legal case against the colonial state. Sekyi's play The Blinkards satirised the Anglicised Gold Coast elite, and he pressed the point in his own life, wearing Fante dress in professional settings where European clothing was expected. He died in 1956.
- Wikipedia — Kobina Sekyi
- Institute of African Studies Research Review — The Aborigines Society, Kwame Nkrumah and the 1945 Manchester Congress
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