Osu, citadel of independence activism
Sporadic fireworks lit the dark sky, some spreading into the colours of the rainbow, accompanied by gunfire-like sounds. It was almost midnight on Christmas Eve, and wobbly legs and slurred speeches were beginning to emerge in some corners, but the music kept the night’s tempo going.
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It was goodbye to 2016.
This is the Osu Oxford Street in Accra, one of the city’s commercial and tourist hubs, where sleep has taken a long vacation.
The area has the name and lives the life of the Oxford Street in London. It has no competitor as the heartbeat of the city’s entertainment and shopping centre, where stalls line the street and almost everything is available from hot roasted plantain to high-end European designer brands to fake Rolex watches.
This is the modern face of Osu but in the days of yore, some of the catalysts of Ghana’s independence were brewed in the groin of this coastal town.
The Nii Kwabena Bonnie kicker
Roll back time to 1948. Prices of goods imported into the country by European merchants cost an arm and a leg. There was public anger but none dared to stand up to the colonial powers; Theodore Taylor decided to act. Mr Taylor was not a politician, neither was he British.
He was the traditional ruler, Nii Kwabena Bonnie III, the Osu Alata Mantse (King) and Oyokohene of Techiman. Fired up by the people’s fury over inflated prices, he sent a firestorm of intention which was published in the January 2, 1948 issue of the Gold Coast Observer.
He wrote, “…1947 is gone and we must have courage and confidence that 1948 will bring us prosperity and make our country a place worthy to live in, as God has blessed Africa. The strangers are here, not because they love us, but only to take away our gold and silver by any means so that our country can be a place where we cannot live. I pray that God may help me in my understanding and that all of you throughout the colony should assist me to make our country a free nation and a place to live in.”
“After I received my mandate from the JPC, I gave them up to January 24, 1948, to reduce the prices of their goods, especially textiles, so that even the poor man on the street can afford some to cover his nakedness. Now, if this my ultimatum fails, we must regard ourselves as one body and one unit to demonstrate in the streets, in every town, at every village……”
“WE CANNOT BUY YOUR GOODS: your prices are too high, if you cannot reduce them close down your stores and take your goods away to your countries. No one is to enter any of their stores…. the whole country from Keta to Half Assini, comprising all the natural rulers, are with you and you need not be afraid. Be ready to fight and die for liberty and freedom of our country. Wishing You All A Happy New Year.”
That letter became a dynamite that exploded on January 26, 1948, and he led the single most successful massive boycott of European goods, leading to series of riots, looting and agitations nationwide.
It yielded fruit. On February 11, 1948, Nii Bonnie and other leaders attended a meeting with the colonial leaders and representatives of the merchants and they agreed to reduce the 75 per cent profit margin on imported textiles to 50 per cent for three months as a trial.
Tetteh Quarshie
It was a battle that started in Osu but a war won across the Gold Coast.
Before this great son of Osu shook the British colonialists, another son of the soil, Tetteh Quarshie, had in 1879 brought into the country cocoa. He travelled to Fernando Po and worked there as a blacksmith, returned in 1879 with Amelonado cocoa pods and established a farm at Akwapim Mampong in the Eastern Region.
Christianborg crossroads
In the western side of the Oxford Street lies the Osu Christianborg Castle—the fortress of the colonial administration—and a stone’s throw away, the 28th February Crossroads, a highway that for the last six decades has been etched in the minds and hearts of three families—Adjeteys, Attipoes and Odarteys – and the entire Ghana.
Even before the dust settled on Nii Bonnie’s positive defiance, another episode of the nation’s struggle against exploitation occurred.
Date, Saturday, February 28, 1948. It was noon. A group of ex-servicemen wearing frowns and bearing a petition marched to the seat of the colonial government to demand their gratuity. A contingent of armed policemen, led by a British Superintendent, Mr Collin Imray, did not find this amusing. He stopped the ex-soldiers and ordered them to leave the scene. They did not budge. He ordered his subordinates to open fire on the defenceless soldiers but they declined to fire the hail of bullets.
Mr Imray pulled out his gun and fired shots at the ex-service-men. Three of them, Sergeant Cornelius Frederick Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey, fell.
Blood was shed. Osu mourned with the nation.
While historical accounts recognised only the three soldiers, Nii Samoa Okropon, an elder of Osu, insisted his 14-year-old uncle, Kpakpo Brown, also died in the incident.
“This is an adulterated part of our history that needs to be told,” he said.
Irrespective of the numbers, that was another knock in the groin of colonialism as the incident sparked anger.
The ex-soldiers had fought alongside the allied forces in the Gold Coast Regiment of the Royal West African Frontier Force during the Second World War and had returned home poor, but they were not paid their gratuity.
After several appeals to the colonial government to consider their plight had failed, the ex-servicemen decided that a direct appeal should be made to the British Colonial Governor of the Gold Coast, hence the march.
Sixty nine years on, the 28th February Christianborg Crossroads shooting incident is observed annually in honour of the defenceless ex-servicemen.
Meaningless?
But Okropon, who is also the Gyaase of Osu Ashiteteh Otublohun, said the annual ritual was irrelevant if the families of those who lost their relatives were not compensated.
Osu is the heart of the entire nation because it hosts most of the nation’s administrative organs, including Parliament, the ministries, Accra Sports Stadium, the Black Star Square, courts and the Bank of Ghana.
Return Osu Castle
In 2013, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government moved the seat of power from the Christianborg (Osu) Castle to the Flagstaff House. Many people, including Ann Odoi, a resident of Osu, want it opened to the public as a museum.
However, Nii Okropon, who said he is also the grandson of Tetteh Quarshie, said the state must return the castle to the people of Osu, since the purpose for which the land was acquired had changed.
He also called for the naming of the three wings of the Black Star Square after the three fallen soldiers of the 28th February Crossroads Shooting.
He had issues with the fact that although Osu played a momentous role in the country’s independence struggle, it had no hospital with a name badge; citing Korle Bu, La and Achimota as communities that had their own hospitals.