Joe Appiah

Joseph Emmanuel "Joe" Appiah ( born November 16, 1918 in Adum, Kumasi, Ghana; † 6 July 1990 in Kumasi, Ghana ) was one of the most famous lawyers, diplomats and politicians of Ghana. Especially in the forties and fifties Appiah committed in the former British colony of the Gold Coast for the country's independence. He is an advocate of Pan-African ideas.

Training

Joe Appiah was taught as a student at Wesley College, Mfantipim, Ghana. He was educated in London at the Middle Temple to lawyers. During World War II Appiah transport officer was first with service in Takoradi and later in Freetown, Sierra Leone in the service of the United Africa Company.

Career

During his stay in England he was Chairman of the West African Students ' Union ( WASU ). During this time succeeded Appiah 's leading Unabhägigkeitspolitikern Africa partially receive close contact. Also, Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president later, counted among the close friends of Joe Appiah. Nkrumah was best man at wedding with Peggy Cripps Appiah in 1953., The wedding between Joe and the later author Peggy excited as marriage of a white man of the British upper class with an African considerable media attention.

Appiah and his family returned at the end of 1954 to Ghana. Soon after, broke the close friendship with Kwame Nkrumah and Appiah became a follower of the Party National Liberation Movement (NLM ). In the 1957 elections, he won for the party NLM parliamentary seat for the constituency Atwima - Amansie. Nkrumah transformed Ghana 's young democracy shortly after independence continuously into a one-party state has to offer. To the ever increasing power of Nkrumah counter closed and due to a new law on political parties that almost all opposition parties forbade despite various parliamentary seats, almost all opposition parties merged to form the United Party (UP). Also Appiah was an important member of the UP, next to JB Danquah Kofi Busia Abrefa and Nii Amaa Ollennu.

On the occasion of an assassination attempt against him in 1961, Nkrumah was the main opposition politician put in prison. The adhesion of Appiah and other well-known opposition politicians such as JB Danquah and Victor Owusu began on 3 October 1961 and was supported by Nkrumah on various deportation laws that occurred 1957-1958 in Ghana in force to crush the political opposition. Appiah was detained at Ussher Fort. On October 23, followed by further detention by members of the government under Nkrumah as Ebenezer Ako Adjei - or Tarwiah Adamafio. The detainees were never delivered to a court, but were detained without charge. They were accused against the Ghanaian government and directly against Nkrumah high treason and conspiracy.

Even before the overthrow of Nkrumah in a military coup in 1966 by Akwasi Appiah Amankwaa Afrifa was released in late 1962 from his political imprisonment. Initially, he worked again in his law firm and was named after the end of the reign Nkrumah 's to an important person of the diplomatic and political life in Ghana until his retirement in 1978. Appiah founded the Justice Party in 1969/1970 from the time of the detention the Chairman of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL ) Komla A. Gbedemah leaderless NAL and three other small parties.

Appiah was charged under the military dictator Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, between January 1972 and 1978 with the Office of the Commissioner and Special Adviser to the heads of state Acheampong.

After his retirement from active politics Appiah moved back to Kumasi and went his duties as a member of the royal family in Kumasi to.

Others

Appiah was President of the Ghana Bar Association.

Family

Joe Appiah is the son of James Appiah and Adwoa Akyaa. Both parents are on of the most important royal family of Ghana, which make up the Ashantehne. James Appiah was headmaster and elder of the Methodist Church.

Joe Appiah learned during his professional training in England, his future wife, Peggy Cripps, the youngest daughter of Sir Stafford Cripps and his wife Isobel Swithenbank know. Both were married in the presence of leading Ghanaian independence fighters in 1953 and spent most of her life in Ghana and have children together. Kwame Anthony Appiah (born 1954 ), Isobel Appiah, Adwoa Appiah and Abena Appiah are common children from this relationship.

Appiah has been buried in the cemetery in Old Tafo ( Old Tafo Cemetery ), now a district of Kumasi.

Writings

• Joe Appiah. The autobiography of an African patriot. New York: Praeger, 1990, ISBN 0-275-93672-4.