BROWN, JOSEPH PETER

Joseph Peter Brown (April 16, 1843 – September 23, 1932) was a Fante teacher, scholar, and politician who defended African interests during the colonial period and was a founding member of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (A.R.P.S.).

PHOTO CAPTION: Joseph Peter Brown. SOURCE: EA Library

Born in Dixcove, 15 miles (24 km) west of what is now the port of Takoradi, he was the son of a Wesleyan minister, the Rev. Brown. Until his father died in 1854, he was educated at schools in the towns where his father served. Afterward, Brown attended the Cape Coast elementary school.

In 1862, he and William Davies (who subsequently became a priest) were sent by the superintendent of the Wesleyan mission, the Rev. William West, to the Theological Institution at King Tom’s Point in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for further education.

They returned in 1864 and began teaching at the Wesleyan elementary school in Cape Coast. During this time, Brown and his friend, D. L. Carr (who traveled to London in 1865 as a representative of King John Aggrey of Cape Coast, who ruled from 1865-66), wrote an Mfantsi Grammar (1868), which was severely criticised by the Basel missionary and linguist, the Rev. J. G. Christaller, author of A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language Called Tshi (1875), for adhering too closely to English grammar rules. Brown took the criticism seriously and published a revised edition in 1913.

When John Sarbah Sr., father of John Mensah Sarbah, the nationalist lawyer, retired from the headmastership of the school in 1870, Brown was appointed to the position. He held it until 1873 when he joined the army that fought against the Asante in the war of 1873-74 (the Sagrenti war). He served as a lieutenant in the Volunteer Corps attached to the 2nd West Indian Regiment but later resigned to become an interpreter. He was present at the battle of Amoafo, near Bekwai to the south of Kumase, which was fought on January 31, 1874.

Upon concluding his service, he received enough pay to enable him, later in 1874, to hold the wedding to his second wife, which he had postponed at the outbreak of the war. (He was married three times: first to Dorothy May Mills, then to Catherine Sam from 1874-1915, and finally to Emma Clinton, who survived him.)

After the war, Brown left teaching for commerce, joining the British trading firm of F. & A. Swanzy, of which he eventually became the general agent. Commerce was one pathway to politics during that period, and Brown engaged fully in it. It was at his house in Cape Coast that he met with J. W. de Graft Johnson, the lawyer; John Mensah Sarbah; and Chief J. D. Abraham to organise a movement protesting against the Lands Bill of 1897, which if enacted by the British, would have jeopardised the African land tenure system. The movement led to the founding of the A.R.P.S., of which Brown was one of the first three vice presidents. (The society made representations to the British that resulted in the withdrawal of the bill in 1898.)

In the years that followed, the society came to hold most of the unofficial seats on the Gold Coast Legislative Council. By then, Brown had been appointed president of the society and was nominated to the Legislative Council to replace Chief John van der Puije of James Town, Accra, serving as a council member from 1904 to 1909. He worked with Sarbah and others to help prevent the passing of laws harmful to Africans.

He was interested in constitutional development, and with J. E. Caseley Hayford, the nationalist, and others, sought to influence the British governor, Sir Gordon Guggisberg [term of office 1919-27], when he made proposals for the 1925 Constitution. The A.R.P.S. suggested a representation system that would have made the society an electoral college, but Guggisberg rejected this.

In the 1920s, Brown and other society members worked closely with the National Congress of British West Africa (an organisation based in Accra, which grouped together representatives from The Gambia, the Gold Coast, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone), although the Aborigines’ group held more parochial views – both movements opposed the 1925 Guggisberg Constitution as well as the Native Administration Ordinance of 1927, which strengthened the power of the chiefs and traditional authorities.

In 1928, “Father” Brown, as he was affectionately known, again became president of the society, although most decisions were made by W. E. G. (Kobina) Sekyi, a Cape Coast lawyer. After the society lost its battle to block the passage of the Native Administration Ordinance due to the loss of support from the chiefs, its tactics changed, and under the leadership of Casely Hayford, its members began cooperating with the British and sought to enact change through the Legislative Council. By this time, however, Brown had become too old to play an active role in politics. Nevertheless, he continued to hold the presidency of the society until his death.

Brown was a staunch Wesleyan and had vowed to die a Wesleyan. However, this wish, at least technically, could not be fulfilled because the various Methodist groups on the Gold Coast had combined to form the Methodist Church three days before his death in 1932.

L.H OFOSU-APPIAH