Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0142/01423.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 567 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01423}
$Pretitle{353}
$Title{Ghana
Chapter 3B.   Colonial Administration}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{government
chiefs
british
members
councils
new
constitution
political
african
coast}
$Date{1970}
$Log{}
Country:     Ghana
Book:        Area Handbook for Ghana
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1970

Chapter 3B.   Colonial Administration

     Beginning in 1850 the Gold Coast Colony was administered by the governor,
who was assisted by the Executive Council and the Legislative Council. The
Executive Council was an advisory body, consisting of not more than five
senior European officials, that recommended laws and voted taxes, subject to
the governor's approval. The Legislative Council was composed of official
members, including those of the Executive Council, and unofficial members.
Initially, unofficial members were chosen from local British commercial
interests. After 1900 the Legislative Council included six Africans-three
chiefs and three prominent individuals from the Europeanized communities of
Accra, Cape Coast, and Sekondi. Until 1925 all members were appointed by the
governor. The official members always outnumbered the unofficial members by at
least one.

     The gradual emergence of centralized colonial government brought about
unified control by government departments over the services through which
local needs were supplied, although the actual administration of these
services was still delegated to local officials or councils. Specific duties
and responsibilities came to be clearly delineated, and the role of
traditional states in local rule was outlined in a series of successive
ordinances.

     The structure of local government had its roots in tradition. Village
councils of chiefs and elders dealt with the immediate needs of a locality and
provided for its required services. Traditional law and order had been almost
exclusively in the hands of these councils, which developed general
responsibility for the overall welfare of their locality. The councils,
however, ruled by consent rather than by right. The chiefs were elected by the
ruling strata of the society and required the approval of the commoners. The
unseating or destooling (see Glossary) of a chief by his elders was a fairly
common practice if he failed to meet the desires or expectations of the
community.

     The British authorities adopted a system known as indirect rule as an
economic means of administering the country and ensuring order. Until the
beginning of the twentieth century the major impact of colonial rule had been
to weaken traditional forms of government in order to build direct ties
between the British authorities and the population. After 1902, however, the
addition of Ashanti and the Northern Territories made this task too heavy. In
order to lighten the administrative load, the chiefs and elders were again
given wide latitude in running their own affairs. A fundamental difference in
the status of the traditional authorities was thus created. In the precolonial
system the chiefs and elders had been ultimately responsible to their people.
Under indirect rule they were responsible to the colonial authorities who
supported them. In many respects, therefore, the power of the chiefs was
greater than it had been before.

     Many of the chiefs involved came to regard themselves as a ruling
aristocracy, and their counsels were generally heeded by the government, which
often rewarded them with honors, decorations, and knighthood. Indirect rule
tended to preserve traditional forms and sources of power, however, and, by
its inherent conservatism, failed to provide opportunities for the growing
number of educated young men anxious to find a niche in their country's
development. Various interests saw other sources of dissatisfaction: there was
not sufficient cooperation between the councils and the central government;
the local authorities were felt to be too much under the domination of the
British commissioners; and the self-perpetuating authority in the hands of a
few particular families was viewed as failing to represent properly the true
interests of the people.

     In 1925 provincial councils of chiefs were established, partly to give
the chiefs a "national" function. This move was followed by the Native
Administration Ordinance in 1927, replacing a document of 1883. The aim of the
new ordinance was to define more clearly and regulate the powers and areas of
jurisdiction of the chiefs and councils. Councils were given specific
responsibilities over disputed elections and the unseating of chiefs; the
procedure for the election of chiefs was set forth; and judicial powers were
defined and delegated. Councils were entrusted with the role of defining
customary law in their areas (the government had to pass on their decisions),
and the provincial councils were empowered to become tribunals to decide
matters of customary law when the dispute lay between chiefs of different
hierarchies. Until 1939, when the Native Treasuries Ordinance was passed,
however, there was no provision for local budgets.

     In 1935 the Native Authorities Ordinance joined the central colonial
government and the local authorities in a single governing concept. New Native
Authorities, appointed by the governor, were given wide powers of local
government but were placed under the supervision of the central government's
provincial commissioners, who assured that their policies would be those of
the central government.

     The joint provincial councils and moves to strengthen them were not
popular. By British standards, the chiefs were not given enough power to be
effective instruments of indirect rule, whereas articulate Africans saw in the
reforms a British move to increase the power of the chiefs in order to utilize
them in a decreasingly democratic system of government.

Economic and Social Development

     The years of British administration of the Gold Coast during the
twentieth century was an era of significant progress in social, economic, and
educational development. Communications were greatly improved; new crops were
introduced and developed; minerals and timber were increasingly exploited; and
more schools were being built. The advantages of modern science and technology
were pushed into ever-widening spheres of the country's hinterland.

     The railroad, begun in 1898, was extended until it covered most of the
important commercial centers of the south. After the introduction of motor
vehicles at the beginning of the twentieth century, road construction moved
forward; by 1918, 1,200 miles of road had been built, and by 1937 there were
6,000 miles of road (see ch. 2, Physical Environment and Population).
Telegraph, telephone, and postal services were increased and improved, and
cable and radio services and air and steamship lines were developed to link
the country with the outside world.

     Cocoa, introduced in 1879, brought about the first major change among the
peoples of the interior as its cultivation quickly expanded into the mainstay
of the nation's economy. By the 1920s the country was exporting more than half
of the world's entire cocoa supply. Gold exports continued, and timber and
manganese further increased external earnings, stimulating and financing the
internal developments in infrastructure and social services. Only cocoa
production was in African hands, however; exports and imports were largely in
British hands, as was the limited manufacturing carried out within the
country. A good deal of local trade was conducted by Lebanese and Indian
immigrants. The Cocoa Marketing Board was formed in 1947 to assist the farmers
and stabilize the production and sale of their crops.

     One of the most progressive governors of the era was Sir Frederick Gordon
Guggisberg, who held office from 1919 to 1927. His far-reaching plans for the
colony were greatly assisted by the prosperous state of the country's economy
during his period of office