In 1876, two institutions were born on the Gold Coast within three days of each other. On 31 March, the Supreme Court Ordinance created a Supreme Court for the whole colony. On 3 April, the Wesleyan High School, later Mfantsipim, opened in Cape Coast under its 18-year-old principal, the Rev James Picot. One institution was made to judge, the other to teach. A hundred and fifty years later, Ghana’s story is hard to tell without either of them.
The coincidence gained a fitting footnote this year. On the same day in September 2026, two Mfantsipim old boys, Edward Amoako Asante and Anthony Forson Jnr, were sworn in as Justices of the Supreme Court. The moment invites a bigger question: what makes an institution last?
Built for more than one generation
At the School’s founding, Rev Thomas Birch Freeman spoke of ‘the pressing necessity for higher schools,’ to train the teachers the colonial government would not. The Court began as a colonial superior court with roughly the powers of the English High Court. Today the School prepares boys for every kind of career, and the Court is the nation’s final court of appeal. The real test of an institution is whether it keeps its purpose as the world changes around it.
Measured by its people
In 1908, Mfantsipim’s Principal Rev W T Balmer set out to ‘raise up a generation of men… who will be brave enough to face the problems of their own continent practically and unselfishly.’ Fittingly, few people judge Mfantsipim by its buildings, but by its people, from Kofi Annan to a long line of national figures, judges among them. Sir Samuel Quashie-Idun acted as Chief Justice of the Gold Coast, became Chief Justice of Western Nigeria and was the first African President of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa. Edmund Bannerman became Ghana’s fourth Chief Justice in 1971, and Isaac Abban, formerly Chief Justice of Seychelles, its ninth. Other old boys on the Supreme Court include W B Van Lare, W S Bruce-Lyle, G E K Aikins, I N K Wuaku, I K Amuah, T K Adzoe and B T Aryeetey. Four have served as Attorney-General: Aikins, E G Tanoh, Paapa Owusu-Ankomah and Joe Ghartey.
The two new Justices continue that line. Justice Asante served three terms as President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice and steered it online when COVID-19 closed courtrooms. Justice Forson sat on the 1992 Consultative Assembly that drafted the present Constitution and later led the Ghana Bar Association as its President.
Adapting without losing purpose
Neither institution has had a smooth road. The School changed its name and endured lean years. In 1905 it merged with the school founded by John Mensah Sarbah, dropped the motto Honor et Honores for Dwen Hwɛ Kan, meaning ‘Think and Look Ahead,’ and chose black and red, for African skin and blood, as its colours. Its lowest point came perhaps in 1907, when the staff and most students left and eight boys stayed on to teach themselves: the ‘Faithful Eight’ of school legend. In 1931 the School moved to Kwabotwe Hill, land whose history is still disputed. Independence brought fresh trouble, as successive governments removed three headmasters in a row: Rev Brandful under the CPP in 1963, J W Abruquah in the ‘Apollo 568’ dismissals of 1970, and O K Monney under the Supreme Military Council government in 1976.
The Court’s experience was harsher still. The Constitutions of both 1957 and 1960 gave judges security of tenure; but that protection did not last. In 1963 a three-judge panel acquitted the accused in the Adamafio treason trial. President Nkrumah removed the presiding judge, Chief Justice Arku Korsah, and a second panel member, Van Lare (an old boy), resigned. When the third, Justice Akufo-Addo, refused to go, the Constitution was amended to let the President remove judges at will, and Nkrumah removed him too. After the 1966 coup, the military regime ‘retired’ judges, among them Bruce-Lyle (an old boy). The Court itself was abolished in 1966, restored in 1969 and abolished again in 1972, and Chief Justices were removed in 1972 and 1977, Bannerman among them. Only in 1979 was the Court fully restored; today it rests on the 1992 Constitution. Both stories show that an institution can be interrupted and still return renewed.
Excellence must be earned again
History guarantees nothing. Mfantsipim cannot live off its famous old boys, nor the Court off 150 years of history. Each generation must earn public trust again through independence, rigour and loyalty to the Constitution. Nor is an old boy’s appointment a win for one school over others: appointments rest on merit, and the Court belongs to all Ghanaians. A legacy is a debt to be honoured, not an inheritance to be spent.
What comes next
For the Supreme Court, the challenge is urgent: public trust in the judiciary is under real strain. The answer is not to chase popularity but to show, repeatedly, that decisions follow the law rather than politics, give clear reasons and arrive without needless delay. The executive and Parliament must respect the Court’s independence; lawyers, the media and civil society must examine its work fairly and fearlessly.
Building a nation is a relay. Mfantsipim, especially after 1905, gave itself to the nationalist cause. The Court was largely deferential to colonial rule for 80 years, and it is still debated whether it has become the court a free nation deserves. How the two new Justices serve will be their true measure.
The real achievement of 1876 is not that two institutions have survived for 150 years. It is that they still matter. The task for the next 150 years is to make sure they always will.
The writers, Ace Anan Ankomah, Esq, FGA & Dr Nana Dadzie Ghansah are from MOBA'84
[A fuller version of this article will be published in the Mfantsipim Speechday brochure]
