FERGUSON, GEORGE ESKEM

George Eskem Ferguson (July 14, 1864 – April 7, 1897), a Fante surveyor who, in the later years of the 19th century, worked for the British government in what are now the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana. As a result of the treaties he concluded with the rulers of the Dagomba (Dagbon), Mamprusi, Mossi, and other peoples, these regions linked their destiny with the Gold Coast, and today form an integral part of Ghana.

He was born at Anomabu, to Mr. and Mrs. R. A. Ferguson. He was educated at the local Wesleyan school, and at the Wesleyan Boys’ High School in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Returning home in 1879, he became a teacher at the Wesleyan school at Cape Coast but resigned to join the Civil Service in 1881.

In the same year he accompanied Sir Samuel Rowe, the newly-appointed governor, on a mission to Prasu, 55 mi (88 km) north of Cape Coast on the Pra River. This was at a time when an Asante invasion seemed imminent. He returned to become a junior clerk in the governor’s office, after having served for a short while as clerk to the Queen’s advocate. His interest in cartography was demonstrated by the map he produced in 1884, which showed the tribal divisions of the country, and was considered a classic of its kind.

In 1884, he also served on a mission sent out to prevent hostilities from breaking out between the Krobo and the Akwamu peoples, in the southeast of what is now Ghana. The success of this mission ultimately led to the absorption of the Akwamu into the British protectorate on the Gold Coast.
From this time onwards, he was engaged in travel-ling into the interior, and in compiling maps. In 1886 he served on the Angio-German Boundary Commission, which defined the frontier between the British-administered Gold Coast, and the German colony of Togoland to the east.

In 1887, while on a year’s study leave, he took a course in mining, metallurgy, assaying, and surveying at the Royal School of Mines in London, where he obtained a first-class certificate. From 1890 onwards, he led important political missions to Asante and elsewhere. His political and geographic knowledge of the inland regions was unsurpassed in his day. On November 25. 1890 he signed his first treaty, with the ruler of Atebubu, a state 85 mi (136 km) northeast of Kumase.

His report of his mission to Atebubu was published the following year. Apart from pointing out the richness of the areas covered both in agriculture and in minerals, he substantiated his conclusions with specimens of the natural products and of rocks. There were later sent to London for analysis Ferguson’s observations were so accurate, and of such scientific value, that the principal of the Royal School of Mines commended his work highly in his report to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. In the same year he was sent on an expedition to the state of Akyem Abuakwa to the northwest of Accra.

In 1893 he was appointed a surveyor of roads in the Gold Coast Public Works Department. At that time the British, the French, and the Germans were competing in the effective occupation of the West African hinterland. A Neutral Zone had been established between British and Germany territory, at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, with the understanding that neither party was to acquire exclusive influence within the zone, although chiefs living within the zone might conclude treaties affecting territories outside of it. But in 1893 the British in Accra discovered that the Germans were attempting to establish relations with other chiefs inside the Neutral Zone. Ferguson was therefore sent on a mission to counteract the German efforts.

On January 28, 1894, he concluded, on behalf of the British, a treaty with the tribes on the banks of the Volta who were not located in either Asante or the Neutral Zone. He also travelled widely in what are now the Northern and Upper Regions of Ghana, getting to know the people. In 1894 alone he concluded 18 treaties of friendship and trade with the rulers and chiefs of the peoples of these territories. Prominent among those with whom he signed treaties were the rulers of the Dagarti, Mamprusi, Mossi, and Dagomba peoples. Furthermore, in 1894 he settled a difference that might have led to a boundary dispute with the Germans. In the same year the Royal Geographical Society of England awarded him the Gill Memorial Grant, as well as a gold watch, in recognition of his valuable services to geography.

In 1897, Ferguson accompanied a British military expedition to what is now northwest Ghana and the adjacent region of the Ivory Coast to occupy the towns of Bona (now in the Ivory Coast) and Bole. in the western part of the present Northern Region of Ghana, both of which were threatened by the forces of Samory, the gifted military adventurer, whose power extended from the Upper Volta region to the Futa Djallon highlands in what is now the Republic of Guinea.

In the course of this campaign, the expedition was attacked by 8.000 of Samory’s men at Dawkta, in what is now the Ivory Coast, and was obliged to retreat eastward to Wa in what is now the Upper Region of Ghana, where they had previously established a fort. Again they were attacked, and, as the water supply had given out, were obliged to retreat. During this retreat, Ferguson who was wounded, fell into the hands of Samory’s troops, and was shot.

Ferguson succeeded in his assignments because, as an African, he enlisted the faith of the people, whom he respected, and whose way of living he understood. He therefore succeeded where a British officer with the same technical qualifications would have failed. He died on April 7. 1897, at the early age of 33, at the height of his career.

J. M. AKITA