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 lawyer and political leader in the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

(now

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

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 (Ghana), Central Region of South Ghana. Anomabu has a Human settlements, settlement population of 14,389 pe ...

, in the Fante Confederacy 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, fishing port, and the capital of Cape Coast Metropolitan District and Central Region of Ghana. It is one of the country's most historic cities, a World Heritage Site, home to the Cape Coast Castle, with the Gulf of Guinea ...

and a member of the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast, 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

Mfantsipim School Mfantsipim 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 School and ...

) and then at Queen's College in Taunton,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, matriculating in 1884. He subsequently entered

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

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.L. H. Ofosu-Appiah
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 Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford, (29 September 1866 – 11 August 1930), also known as Ekra-Agyeman, was a prominent Fante Gold Coast journalist, editor, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism. His 1911 no ...

, Mensah Sarbah co-founded 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 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 the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

''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). Mensah Sarbah 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. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

, 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 (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') 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, , ...

and they had three children.L. H. Ofosu-Appiah
"Sarbah, John Mensah"
, ''Dictionary of African Christian Biography''.

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 the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

was named Mensah Sarbah Hall in his honour for his services to education, with a statue of John Mensah Sarbah is 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 Akan people Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Fante people Ghanaian Methodists Ghanaian writers Ghanaian male writers Ghanaian politicians Members of Lincoln's Inn 19th-century Ghanaian lawyers People educated at Queen's College, Taunton