Thanks H Kwasi Prempeh for reminding us of this. I have said before that the history of Ghana will be rewritten and the truth about our greatness before independence and the remarkable lack of bloodshed for our independence will be revealed. then we will become truly proud and confident that we are better than we have been told and our greatest didnt emerge in the 1950s!! ...Excerpts from MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF THE GOLD COAST: Autobiography of Nii Kwabena Bonne III. I undertook the building of some houses in Mampong in 1915 and I erected one for Mr. Ayew of Ayew & Company and another for Mr. Peter Botchwey, known to us as Softly softly catch the monkey. I then returned to Accra and joined Messrs. Miller Brothers as a cocoa broker stationed at Suhum. I left this office the following year and worked as a private cocoa buyer at Koforidua and I made my first shipment of cocoa to Europe and about the middle of that year I proceeded to Europe to effect business arrangements. During my stay in England a company was started by Messrs. Kendall Wilson & Company, of 22 Charter House Square, London, for export and import under the title of The West and East Trading Association, Limited, of which I was one of the directors. In November, I returned to the coast and established my headquarters at the house of the late Barrister Nelson of Bannerman Road, James Town, opposite the firm of F.& A. Swanzy. I went over to England again the following year, breaking my passage at Freetown, Sierra Leone, where I spent a fortnight with my relatives. At the close of the cocoa season the next year, I revisited England in connection with my account sales. It seemed that my co-directors had misappropriated the funds of the Company which compelled me to take Court action against them for the recovery of the funds. However, a compromise was reached. Sometime in 1919 I again travelled on the m.v. Abosso to England. On this occasion I formed a new company by the name of W. Taylor & Sons. I bought the lease of the whole of 6 Maison Avenue, off Coleman Street, London, consisting of three floors for the use of the company. My co-director was Mr. Keogh, General Manager of Farrows Bank; Captain Foothe was placed in charge of the business. I then proceeded to France and from there I went over to Venice to buy beads for my business. Then I travelled to Berne, capital of Switzerland, Milan, Turin and Rome, and on to Obarshraber, which is situated in the northwest of Germany; from Obarshraber I crossed into Germany and stopped in Berlin and Leipzig, where exhibitions are generally held. In Berlin I secured an agency for which I again went to that city on my return journey and then continued to Hanover, Danzig and Hamburg where I took a boat for London. In England I embarked for home. On this homeward voyage I spent some time in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where I opened two stores with branches in Sherbro under the management of the late Mr. Curtis. I appointed Mr. Mends as my agent in Monrovia, Liberia and opened a credit of £10,000 for him. My cash credit in the Bank of British West Africa in Sierra Leone was £20,000 with a documentary credit of £100,000. Just at this time I had a very large stock of palm kernesls and piassava with my brokers, Messrs. J. H. Renner & Co. of 11 Old Building, Liverpool; the market fell as low as 50 per cent and we were obliged to sell our stock at an enormous loss. The produce market continued to dwindle and I decided to go to Germany to arrange for agencies. On the 15h December, 1922, I went over to Hamburg where I tarried for six months during which I succeeded in securing some agencies. In January of the following year [1924], I returned to the coast on the s.s. Wahene landing at Sekondi with plans for a new company by the name of W. Taylor & Sons. My wholesale store was established in Mrs. Chapels building and the retail store at Poasi Road. Branches were opened at Saltpond, with Mr. Appiah as agent, Cape Coast, with Mr. Frank Duncan as agent, and at Poasi Road, Sekondi, with Mr. Baddoo as agent. Again in 1924 I proceeded to Germany where I secured a very large agency for glassware and leather goods. I appointed the late J. Hansen Sackey, Licensed Auctioneer and Appraiser, Accra, as my agent and communicated with him requesting him to proceed to Germany, where he was supplied with glassware and leather goods to the value of £4,000. For a long time after his return to the coast with the goods no remittances came from him and my principals requested me to return to West Africa in order to collect from Mr. Hansen Sackey the proceeds of the goods with which he was supplied. Nothing was collected on my arrival. It happened that at this time I had shipped out to Kumasi a large amount of goods and I was therefore constrained to go along there to dispose of them. On completing this business I made back to Accra to press again the demand of my principals on Hansen Sackey without success. After reporting to my principals the position in so far as my mission was concerned, I had to return to Germany to confirm my report. One morning when I went too the Bank with Joe Provencal to withdraw some money I was surprised to be informed that a certain writ of garnish had been executed on my account by a certain firm in Berlin and for that reason I could not withdraw anything. I at once consulted Dr. Howard, Solicitor for Messrs. Woermann & Company of Hamburg, who immediately instituted proceedings against the firm, Messrs. Africmex Limited. This case dragged on for over six months, culminating in our appearance before a Court presided over by seven judges, where ruling was made in my favour to the effect that the defendants could only call on me to pay the equivalent of the amount covered by my surety, namely £2,000 sterling, and that they had no right to seize anything above that amount . . . . [MORE LATER] *************** This, too, is our history. The commercial/business history of the Gold Coast/Ghana is rich with insights and experiences that can only inspire confidence if taught to the present generation. Most of us do not even know that Ashanti Goldfields was founded by a few native Gold Coast entrepreneurs and investors. Nii Kwabena Bonne III was only one of a good number of Gold Coast entrepreneurs who were doing amazing things in that day and age, including in the politics of the day, through their commercial and professional activities. Sadly, we know almost nothing of his deeply insightful and interesting autobiography. Charles Hutchinsons Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities, first published in the 1920s (and recently annotated and republished by Michel R. Doortmont, a Dutch scholar), features many more illustrious Gold Coasters of that era. The Gold Coast section of Allister Macmillans The Red Book of West Africa also contains interesting biographical sketches of Gold Coast entrepreneurs and a good account of the commercial history of the period. Unfortunately, our taught obsession with a history of politicians, by politicians, for politicians, is impoverishing our history and sense of identity and self worth as a people. Because of this, we have been reduced to little more than hapless partisans of one or the other politicians self-serving agenda and history. Ghanas history is far bigger, far richer and far deeper than the one-sided politicians history we have been sold. For me, the question that emerges and invites further historical inquiry, study and analysis upon reading accounts like Nii Kwabena Bonnes (whose autobiography was published in 1953) is what caused the eclipse of this burgeoning and illustrious commercial and entrepreneurial class in the postcolonial period? My alma mater, the University of Ghana Business School, should be collaborating with the History departments of our universities to research and document the business history of the Gold Coast and Ghana and help to provide policy insights from such studies. Of course, interested individuals could do same. Happy Founders Day. My Founder of the day is, of course, Nii Kwabena Bonne III.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 17:36:27 +0000
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