Ghanaian historian and economist, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, has refuted the assertion that the Gold Coast was renamed Ghana by Joseph Boakye Danquah also known as JB Danquah, a member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
In an article titled: ‘Beware, the tribal supremacists: Myths of J.B. Danquah and the Big Six’, Dr Thompson highlighted that the name change was brought up by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who was criticised by JB Danquah for coming up with such a name.
” Only Nkrumah as prime minister in 1957 was in a position to propose that name, and he did. Danquah and the others criticised Nkrumah for choosing the name Ghana, and in his autobiography Nkrumah was forced to defend his choice,” he said as “by 1957 Danquah’s political career was effectively over (he and Ofori-Atta having lost their seats to the CPP in the 1954 and 1956 elections)”
However, he revealed that JB Danquah made a number of proposals for the name change due to his “weird obsession for naming places” – a characteristic Dr Thompson says President Akufo-Addo possesses.
He noted that JB Danquah without any consultations or whatsoever, proposed that the then Northern Territories be renamed “Fergusonia” in honor of Ekem Ferguson, a surveyor from Anomabo, who is said to have done much work in the North. This, suggestion, JB Danquah said, was shot down by the British.
That was not the only thing the British rejected. According to Dr Nii Thomspon, they also rejected some proposed names to replace the Gold Coast.
JB Danquah, who was married to a Ga lady, is said to have sought to rename Gold Coast by “Akanland” and later “Akan-Ga” after he was reminded that “there were more Gas than Akans in the colony.”
“His most “valiant” name-changing effort was his suggestion after the 1948 riots that he and his relatives be put in charge of the Gold Coast, under the name Ghanaland.
The idea of course was laughed off by the British. He pioneered the tribalism that his inward-looking descendants are now perfecting with national resources. (Remember the president’s statement, “Yen Akanfo” during his desperate struggle to win power – and destroy the country?),” Dr Nii Thompson added.
The revelation by the historian stems from President’s Akufo-Addo’s decision to name the University of Ghana after JB Danquah some day. During the 75th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service of the University of Ghana, President Akufo-Addo made this known.
He described Joseph Boakye Danquah, as the founder of the university owing to some contributions he reportedly made prior to its formation.
“And for me, the most poignant of those memories is the inestimable work Dr. J. B. Danquah did to mobilize the Ghanaian people to insist on the building of this university. It was the inspired leadership vision of this great scholar and nationalist, who’s described in his lifetime as the doyen of Gold Coast politics, that following the establishment of the Elliot Commission, tasked by the colonial government, to inquire into the possibility of establishing a university in West Africa, enable the Ghanaian people to reject the original decision of the British-colonial government based on the majority recommendation of the Elliot Commission that a single university be established in Ibadan, in Nigeria, for the whole of the then British West Africa, and got it to agree, through a series of passionate interventions in the then legislative council.
“And with the enthusiastic support of the founders of Ghana to the creation of a separate university for our country, on the basis on his minority recommendation. How felicitous was that decision and how greatly it’s contributed to the growth of modern Ghana. It would be wholly-appropriate, and not at all far-fetched, to describe Joseph Boakye Danquah, as the founder of this university. A fact, which on the 75th anniversary of its existence, should be vividly recalled by all of us who have been, and are the beneficiaries of his work.
“Indeed, in many other jurisdictions where there is less heat in their politics, and more attachment to the historical records, it would not have been put of place to have this university named after him. Who knows, one day, it may well happen,” he said.