AGGREY, J.E.K.
Dr ]ames Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, whose wise sayings are still quoted as proverbs in Ghana, was a pioneer of higher education for Africans. Born at Anomabu, just east of Cape Coast, on 18 October 1875, this son of a king’s chief counsellor, was sent to the Cape Coast Methodist School at a young age and was appointed a teacher in charge of a small school at Abura Dunkwa when he was only fifteen. He received top honours in the Teachers` Certificate examination in 1895 and was awarded a prize by the Gold Coast Executive Council. A fierce opponent of British oppression, he joined the Aborigines` Rights Protection Society (ARPS) and took part in the agitation against the notorious Lands Bill of 1897. He became secretary of ARPS as well as the editor of its newspaper the Gold Cost Methodist Times. In 1898 he left for the United States on a scholarship to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church in New York City. He emerged with his BA in 1902, winning the Gold Medal as the best graduate that year and in 1912 was awarded a PhD from Hood Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alter teaching for some years at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, he was appointed a member ol` the Commission established in 1920 to enquire into education in Africa. Three years later he was also a member of the body which investigated educational conditions in East Africa. Aggrey finally returned to the Gold Coast to help establish Achimota College near Accra, but he died shortly afterwards on 30 July 1927. He was deepley mourned throughout Africa, Europe and the United States. Achimota College named a Memorial Chapel and a House after him. A staunch believer in interracial harmony, he oftern made the remark that "You can play a tune of sorts on the white piano keys, and you can play a tune of sorts on the black keys, but for harmony you must use both the black and the white". His symbol of the black and white keys became the emblem of Achimota College. A private school, the Aggrey Studio in Barbados, West Indies, was also named after him. Publishing surprisingly little himself, his ideas appear mainly in various biographical studies and it is a reflection of his enormous reputation that his life has inspired so many biographies.