Paa Grant, father of Ghana’s independence
Mr George Alfred Grant was born to William Minean Grant, a native of Cape Coast, and Berchie Nzima, a native of Nzima, at Assini in Cote d’Ivoire on August 15, 1878.
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His father was one of the leading men of light and learning in Cape Coast in the second half of the 19th century having been educated in England and taught as a schoolmaster in London for a considerable period.
Education
It is clear from the educational career and wide experience of his father at home and abroad that George was exposed to certain opportunities in the early stages of his life which only a few young people of his age were fortunate enough to have.
George was educated in the Methodist Mission schools in Cape Coast, completing in 1894. He then moved away and settled at Assini in Cote d’Ivoire. It was there that life began to unfold its fortunes for his enviable prospects of advancement in the commercial and business world.
It was at Assini that George discovered his own potential and extraordinary business acumen. It was there that, to a large extent, made him what he was – the first among the Merchant Princes of the Gold Coast.
Early business experience
At Assini, George was introduced to the business world, to work and earn his livelihood in a humble position. He was employed in 1895 as an office messenger by Messrs C. W. Alexander and Company, a firm of timber dealers and general merchants. Mr Alexander, the chief partner in the firm, was an African who had his education in Sierra Leone. The salary paid to Mr Grant was 15 shillings a month.
After working for a few months as office messenger, George Grant left the employment of Messrs C.W. Alexander and Co. He did so not because he was dissatisfied with his monthly salary of 15 shillings or the conditions of employment. He left the firm entirely on the wise and rather fatherly advice of Mr Alexander himself.
One day, while still employed as a messenger for the firm, Mr Alexander invited George Grant, his mother, Madam Nzima, his wife, Madam Atta Panyin, and a third person called Mr Hammond into his chambers. There, in the presence of the visitors, Mr Alexander told Madam Nzima that in future her son would become a wealthy man if he established his own business and worked for himself.
When the visitors were leaving his chambers, Mr Alexander handed over to George Grant a small bag containing some pieces of metal. At home, Madam Atta Panyin opened the bag and discovered, to her amazement, that it contained 100 pieces of sovereigns.
In spite of his employer’s advice, Grant continued in the employ of the firm. He was promoted from messenger to become supervisor of labourers operating in the bush. His salary was also increased from 15 shillings to three pounds sterling. He continued to work for the firm for eight months. For the second time, Mr Alexander advised Grant to get his own timber felled and shipped independently of the firm.
That was when George made his first attempt. Still in the employ of C.W. Alexander, he felled and shipped five logs of timber on which he spent all his wages. He did not make any profit in this first attempt and he wept because of this failure. In his second attempt, he cut and shipped six logs of timber. He made a profit of 180 pounds sterling. That gave him the assurance that he had the ability to achieve success in the business.
This was in 1896.
With the success of this second attempt, Paa Grant resigned from Messrs C.W. Alexander & Co. and started on his own firm as an independent timber merchant.
With his profit of 180 pounds sterling, he purchased two logs of timber which he shipped and realized an amount of 900 pounds. From that modest beginning, he continued his timber business with phenomenal success, which eventually earned him the enviable and undisputable reputation as the ‘First Among the Merchant Princes of the Gold Coast’. He had in his employment two Europeans. Indeed, at one time he had in his business 14 European employees, some of whom received as much as 100 pounds a month. For about two years, Mr Grant spent 4,000 pounds on the salaries and wages of his employees.
In 1920, Paa Grant went to the United Kingdom for the second time. He bought a ship which he named SS Assini. The ship plied the west coast of Africa carrying goods from port to port. He also owned several motor launches which plied between Axim and Sekondi carrying passengers and goods. He opened several offices in many parts of the country, one of them at James Town in Accra.
Political career
From 1926, Paa Grant was a Nominated Member of the Legislative Council, appointed by the Governor. At that time, he was a member of the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society, with headquarters in Cape Coast.
From 1927 onwards he began to reflect more seriously about the general political and economic circumstances of the country. He began to think that there was the need for the people of the country to take a bold step to plan for the political and economic development of the country. He felt he had a great responsibility and a mission to fulfill in such a national endeavour.
It was from this rich and varied background and experience that Paa Grant conceived the idea that a national political organisation or movement should be formed by the people of the Gold Coast in order to take into their hands the management of their own affairs in their own country; thus the birth of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
Paa Grant occupied a unique position in the history of the national independence movement, not only in Ghana but also Africa as a whole. It can be said, without dispute, that it was he who started a national independence movement in the Gold Coast which gave birth to an independent sovereign state under the name Ghana on the March 7, 1957.
It is a fact in the political history of Ghana that several political movements or organisations flourished in the Gold Coast during the period from March 6, 1844 (when the Bond of 1844 was signed) up to August 4, 1947 when the UGCC was inaugurated. However none of them made the clear and unequivocal declaration or demand as the UGCC did, that the British government should end the colonial domination of their country and that the people of the Gold Coast be left alone to manage their own affairs as an independent sovereign state.
In the early part of 1947, Paa Grant invited to his house in Sekondi a few of the leading political personalities in the country, including Dr J.B. Danquah, Mr F. Awoonor Williams and Mr R.S. Blay. He discussed with them his idea that there was an urgent need to establish a vigorous political organisation which should organise and unite the people of the Gold Coast to demand from the British colonial government self-determination and complete national independence.
The result of these consultations and discussions was the inauguration of the UGCC.
Mr Grant was elected President of the convention.
Policy
The policy of the UGCC was stated in Article 2 of its constitution as follows:
“To ensure that by all legitimate and constitutional means the control and direction of government shall, within the shortest time possible, pass into the hands of the people and their chiefs.”
Dr Kwame Nkrumah was later appointed General Secretary of the convention
In August 1949, at an annual conference of the convention held in Saltpond, Dr Nkrumah declared the formation, by him, of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) as a political party within the UGCC.
In the middle of October 1956, Dr Nkrumah, as Prime Minister, visited Paa Grant on his sick bed at Axim. That visit was the last meeting between the two men. On October 30, 1956, Paa Grant died at Axim.
The end of British colonial rule and the attainment of self-determination and national independence by the people of the Gold Coast, which was the vision of Paa Grant, became a reality.
Mr Grant founded and financed the UGCC from its inception in 1947 to the time of his death. The name George Alfred Grant deserves a place in our history as the originator of the national independence movement and, therefore, ‘Father of the Nation’.
Up to the time that Paa Grant founded and inaugurated the UGCC in the Gold Coast in 1947, no political organisation in any colonial territory in Africa had boldly declared as its aim or objective the demand for national independence from colonial rule. The avowed and bold declaration of this principle of National Independence for Africans in Africa by George Grant may be regarded as, perhaps, his greatest contribution to the political independence movement which has resulted in the creation of independent sovereign states in contemporary Africa.
Condensed from LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE ALFRED GRANT (PAA GRANT) written by Dr Ako Adjei.