I Believe In The Plural Form Of Founders’ Day Not The Singular – UCC Historian

Historian and Lecturer of the Department of History, University of Cape Coast, Kwame Adjei Adjepong has posited that he believes in founders’ and not founder’s day celebration in Ghana.

He argued that according to historical records, Ako Adjei wrote that Paa Grant should be recognised as the founder of Ghana.

According to Adjei Adjepong, he had the opportunity to edit Ebenezer Ako Adjei’s primary account of his life, capturing his political activities with the UGCC and the CPP.

“Ako Adjei had emphasised in this account that in view of the fact that George Alfred Grant was the founder of the independence movement in the country (UGCC), and to the extent that he invested a considerable part of his money in promoting the political advancement of Ghana to nationhood, he (“Paa” Grant) is the indisputable Father of the Nation – Ghana”, Adje Adjepong recounted.

In a special holiday GBC Radio Central Morning, hosted by Miss Ruby Adams, August 4, 2023, Adjei Adjepong however, averred that the founders’ day is not only celebrating the Big Six as known in Ghana but celebrating all those who had contributed in diverse ways in helping Ghana achieve her independence.

Highlighting as to whether we should celebrate Founder’s or Founders’, he said he agrees with the plural one and not the singular one. “I think Ako-Adjei looking at the monumental financial contributions of Paa Grant thinks that he deserved to be considered the founder of Ghana”, as such the country should celebrate the contributions of all others regarding our independence struggle and not just Nkrumah.

According to Adjei Adjepong, African resistance to European presence and activities has generally been divided into three parts, namely primary resistance, secondary resistance, and nationalism.

All of these took either the form of passive resistance: where the people resorted to non-payment of taxes, migration from their original place of abode to a new settlement, or any other form that showed their repugnance for the treatment they were being subjected to; or active or militant resistance: where the people physically engaged their enemies in armed encounters.

Primary resistance usually refers to any effort on the part of the local people to be concerned with any
European activity, whether economic, social or political, that conflicted with their culture. It covers the period from the arrival of the Europeans to the period of the European scramble and partition of Africa.

Secondary resistance according to Adjei Adjepong also refers to efforts Africans made to resist the official imposition of European rule on Africa from the 1880s to about 1914. This period experienced several armed clashes between the European invaders and the African defenders.

According to him, there is a theory, ‘historic connexions’ of resistance movements’ theory, formulated by nationalist and anti-colonial historians, including Thomas Hodgkin, Ruth Schachter Morgenthau, and A.B. Davidson, to explain the relationship between the three stages of African resistance to European domination. That theory shows African resistance struggles to European domination was a process and not an event which can be attributed to one person effort as is being peddled in Ghana.

Thus, the founding of Ghana he adds, is a long process. Several people contributed towards Ghana’s independence. But, Nkrumah’s contributions as the finisher of our independence struggle is monumental and pre-eminent”, the historian emphasized.