17/07/2022
KING GHARTEY OF WINNEBA AND THE EFUTU STATE
Efutu derives from the Fantse word “efi tu”, meaning dust or filth clearing. According to oral history these group of people migrated from present day Sudan. Their journey towards the coast of Ghana shows that they settled in Bono, Bono east, Ashanti and finally arriving at their present location.
Efutu, a town about 15kms north of main Cape Coast township was where they settled before migrating to other parts of coastal Central Region. They were described as people with a lot of dust (Efutufo) due to their migration across the desert hence the name Efutu.
The Efutu people are part of the larger Estifuyefo group the Borbor group from Takyiman came to meet at the coast of present day Central Region. However, just like most Fante states, they have all been mixed together with the Borbor group creating the unique Mfantse language and culture.
KING GHARTEY AND THE FANTE CONFEDERATION(NATION)
King Ghartey IV (1820-1897) was King (Ɔdefa) of Winneba (Simpa), Merchant Prince, the first man to accurately measure the distance from the coast to Kumasi and the first President of the Fante Confederation.
This great son of Ghana was born Kwamena Akyeampong to King Gyateh Kumah III of Simpa and Obaapanyin Ekua Kaadze from Senya Breku. His father`s name Gyateh was anglicized to Ghartey.
His desire to see his native Gold Coasters manage their own affairs following the earlier British plan to leave Gold Coast, and ensure the development of Gold Coast saw him working together with other Gold Coast Fantes to form the Fante Confederation.
Unlike many other Gold Coast nationalists, King Ghartey did not have any formal Western education. As a boy, he worked as fisherman, and later as a seaman in English, Dutch and Portuguese ships. In these ships he worked cask repairer (cooper). He took the opportunity to learn to speak and write these three languages.
He went to Apam (Gomoa, Apaa) to work with the Stooves` Brothers factory (Trading Post). He was later transferred to Anomabo branch of the firm where he worked for 14 years. He became the prominent member of the town and involved with the town`s leading lights such as Rev W Parker, George Kuntu Blankson, F C Grant, Archibald Ferguson, John Sarbah (the elder), Robert Hutchison, Samuel Collins Brew and others.
In 1861, he joined Chapman Grant of Anomabo (The grand father of Paa Grant and the treasurer of the Fante Confederation) on his business tour to England. Here, Ghartey came into contact with the Temperance Society. He joined the fraternity and upon his return to Gold Coast, he formed the Gold Coast branch of Temperance Society at Anomabo. As a gift to the new members he had recruited at Anomabo, he constructed stone-nogged water well, which served as the only source of pure water until 1950s. Ghartey called his Temperance Society group as “Akɔnom nsufo” (water drinkers) and his stone-nogged well was to challenge the “akɔnom nsafo” (alcohol drinkers) to stop drinking alcohol and drink pure water from his well. He succeeded to get many people to stop drinking alcohol.
In 1862, Ghartey who has established himself as great business man at Gold Coast, having purchased Stooves Company and turned it into Ghartey Brothers with the headquarters at Anomabo, he was asked by the Methodist Mission in England to accompany William West, the superintendent of the Wesleyan Mission and also the Asante prince, Prince John Owusu Ansa, to Kumase on mission tour. It was during this tour that he accurately measured the distance from the coast to Kumasi and published it in his 1864 book, “A Guide to Kumasi,” a piece of literary document.
In 1862 the British were expected to withdraw their trading activities and local government from the Gold Coast following the protest at Cape Coast. The Fante Confederation was formed at Mankessim to replace the British and serve as a self rule government. Ghartey joined the Fante Confederation and became its first King-President.
He led the Confederation government from Mankessim, and was successful in his administration of its justice and finances, sometimes borrowing money from his own firm to meet public expenditure. He came to be regarded as “Governor of Gold Coast,” because of his wide powers, and a British withdrawal was expected.
Following the defeat of the Dutch at Elmina and Komenda by the Fante Confederacy, the Dutch left the coast entirely and sold all their forts and Castle to the British. The British rescinded their decision to leave the coast entirely but relocate from Cape Coast to Accra after Osu castle was sold to them by the Dutch.
King Ghartey died at Winneba on 30th July 1897. At least he was alive to see the formation of the Aborigines Right Protection Society (ARPS) in the historic day of 17 April 1897 in Cape Coast.
Source:
Agbodeka, Francis. "THE FANTI CONFEDERACY 1865: An Enquiry Into the Origins, Nature and Extent of an Early West African Protest Movement." Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 7 (1964): 82-123.
PRAAD-Accra, Ghartey Papers (1869-1897),
Kimble, David.
A political history of Ghana: the rise of Gold Coast nationalism, 1850-1928. Clarendon Press, 1963.
Laumann, Dennis Heinz. "Compradore-in-Arms': The Fante Confederation Project (1865)."
Sampson, Magnus J. Gold Coast men of affairs (past and present). Dawsons, 1937.
Sampson, Magnus J., and Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford. West African Leadership. F. Cass, 1969.
