John Mensah Sarbah (3 June 1864 – 27 November 1910)S. Tenkorang, "John Mensah Sarbah, 1864–1910", in ''Transactions of the HYistorical Society of Ghana'', Vol. XIV, No. 1, Legon, June 1973 (pp. 65–78), pp. 65, 76. Some other sources (including Magnus Sampson, 1969) give 6 November 1910 as the date of Mensah Sarbah's death. was a prominent lawyer and political leader in the Gold Coast (now

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

). He is also known as a founder of

Mfantsipim School Mfantsipim School is an all-boys boarding secondary school in Cape Coast, Ghana, established by the Methodist Church in 1876 to foster intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth on the then Gold Coast. Its founding name was Wesleyan High Scho ...

. In 1897, he was a co-founder of the

Aborigines' Rights Protection Society The Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was an African anti-colonialist organization formed in 1897 in the Gold Coast, as Ghana was then known. Originally established by traditional leaders and the educated elite to protest ...

, which organised and led opposition against the colonial government, laying the foundation for Ghanaian independence.

Life

John Mensah Sarbah was born on Friday, 3 June 1864, in

Anomabu Anomabu, also spelled Anomabo and formerly as Annamaboe, is a town on the coast of the Mfantsiman Municipal District of the Central Region of South Ghana. Anomabu has a settlement population of 14,389 people. Anomabu is located 12 km ea ...

, in the

Fante Confederacy The Fante Confederacy (also called a confederation, federation, and other similar terms) powerful alliance of small kingdoms and autonomous city-states in what is now coastal Ghana, united by the Fante people. Centered on the political and spiri ...

in the Gold Coast. He was the eldest son of John Sarbah (1834–1892), a merchant of Anomabu and

Cape Coast Cape Coast is a city and the capital of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, Cape Coast Metropolitan District and the Central Region (Ghana), Central Region of Ghana, Ghana. It is located about from Sekondi-Takoradi and approximately from Ac ...

and a member of the

Legislative Council of the Gold Coast The Parliament of Ghana is the unicameral legislature of Ghana. It consists of 276 members, who are elected for four-year terms in single-seat constituencies using a first-past-the-post voting system. History Legislative representation in Ghan ...

, and his wife Sarah.Magnus Sampson, ''Makers of Modern Ghana: From Philip Quarcoo to Aggrey. Volume One'', Accra: Anowuo Educational Publications, 1969, pp. 119–29. Mensah Sarbah was educated at the Cape Coast Wesleyan School (later renamed – by Mensah Sarbah himself – as

) and then at Queen's College in

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England, matriculating in 1884. He subsequently entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

in London to train as a barrister, and was called to the English bar in 1887 – the first African from his country to qualify in this way.Ofosu-Appiah, L. H
"Sarbah, John Mensah"
''Dictionary of African Christian Biography''. . In 1897, along with J. W. de Graft-Johnson, J. W. Sey, J. P. Brown and J. E. Casely Hayford, Mensah Sarbah co-founded the

, which became the main political organisation that led organised and sustained opposition against the colonial government, laying the foundation for Ghanaian independence."Ghana – Early Manifestations of Nationalism"

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

''A Country Study: Ghana''.Nti, Kwaku
"Action and Reaction: An Overview of the Ding Dong Relationship between the Colonial Government and the People of Cape Coast"
''Nordic Journal of African Studies'' 11(1): 1–37 (2002). . He was appointed a member of the Legislative Council in 1901, and was re-appointed in 1906. In the first birthday honours of

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

, Mensah Sarbah was recognised with the award of a CMG in 1910, a few months before his sudden death at the age of 46, on Sunday, 27 November 1910.Tenkorang (1973), p. 76."Sarbah, John Mensah", in Keith A. P. Sandiford, ''A Black Studies Primer: Heroes and Heroines of the African Diaspora'', Hansib Publications, 2008, p. 401.

Personal life

In 1904, he married Marion Wood from

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

and they had three children.

Contributions to education

John Mensah Sarbah was dedicated to the promotion of secondary education and was responsible for various initiatives, including the founding of a Dutton scholarship at Queen's College, Taunton, in memory of his younger brother, Joseph Dutton Sarbah, who had died there in 1892. In 1903, Sarbah and William Edward Sam promoted an enterprise called the Fanti Public Schools Limited and Sarbah also helped establish the Fanti National Education Fund, which aimed to improve educational facilities in the country and awarded scholarships. He founded a scholarship scheme called the Dutton Sarbah Scholarship at Mfantsipim School and helped pay the salaries of the staff when the school encountered financial difficulties.

Legacy

In 1963, a residence hall of the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

was named Mensah Sarbah Hall in his honour for his services to education, with a statue of John Mensah Sarbah in front of it. Members of the hall are known as Vikings as a reference to him who is a true Viking for his country. Sarbah-Picot House at Mfantsipim School is named after him.

Selected bibliography

* 1897 – ''Fanti Customary Laws: a brief introduction to the principles of the native laws and customs of the Fanti and Akan districts of the Gold Coast, with a report of some cases thereon decided in the Law Courts'' * 1904 – ''Fanti Law Reports'' * 1906 – ''The Fanti National Constitution: a short treatise on the constitution and government of the Fanti, Asanti, and other Akan tribes of West Africa, together with a brief account of the discovery of the Gold Coast by Portuguese navigators, a short narration of English voyages, and a study of the rise of British Gold Coast jurisdiction, etc., etc.'' * 1909 – ''The Palm Oil and Its Products''

References

External links

"The Life of John Mensah Sarbah".

Article from ''Drum'' magazine
1969. * L. H. Ofosu-Appiah

''Dictionary of African Christian Biography''.
John Mensah Sarbah, an outstanding nationalist of the Gold Coast
on ghanaweb.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Mensah Sarbah, John 1864 births 1910 deaths 19th-century Ghanaian lawyers 19th-century Ghanaian politicians 20th-century Ghanaian politicians Akan people Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Fante people Ghanaian male writers Ghanaian Methodists Ghanaian writers Lawyers from Gold Coast (British colony) Members of Lincoln's Inn People educated at Queen's College, Taunton