DR. FERDINAND KWASI FIAWOO
Dr Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo (December 1891-1969) was an Ewe playwright, educator, and politician who became prominent in the middle decades of the 20th century. He was born and brought up in what was then a part of the German colony of Togo and is now the Volta Region of Ghana. His birth place was Wusuta, near Kpando, about 80mi. (128km) inland. He grew up in his hometown of Wuti, near the coastal part of Keta.
He entered school at age of 12 in 1903, leaving at the age of 19 after he had studied at the Wesleyan Methodist schools at Kpong and Akuse. Towns on the right bank of the Volta River. Some 45mi (72km) northeast of Accra, and at the Basel Mission School at Akuse.
He had hoped to become a teacher and a minister of religion, but his father objected because his older brother Joseph, who had trained for the ministry at Mfantsipim School in Cape Coast, had received no encouragement from the church. In 1910 he therefore took to commerce, becoming an assistant storekeeper to his brother Robert, who was with the trading firm of F. and A. Swany Ltd., at Atakpame, 100mi (160km) inland from Lome, the port capital of Togo. For some years thereafter he continued his commercial career, serving at various stations, including Lome, Denu, 15mi (24km) northeast of Keta Atiteti 25mi (40km) southwest of Keta, and Akuse where he became a manager.
In 1920, while on a business trip to Freetown, Sierra Leone, he met some young intellectuals whose academic education impressed him. On his return home he decided to improve his education, and began by taking a tuition course by mail while continuing his commercial career. As a result of his work for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E.Z), Ferdinand won a scholarship and left Accra to the United States on April 14 1928 to study at Johnson C. Smith University. Charlotte, North California. Within five years he had obtained degrees in arts and theology, as well as a state certificate in education.
In 1902 he wrote, in Ewe, his first drama entitled Toko Atolia. He won a prize from the International Institute of Africa Languages and Culture. He translated it into English under the title the Fifth Landing Stage and both versions were published and used in elementary and secondary schools and in training colleges in the Gold Coast..
On graduating from John Smith University, he was ordained at Gloversville, New York. He then returned to the Gold Coast, arriving in Keta in late 1933, and taking up duties there as superintendent and general manager of the A.M.E.Z. church and school.
In October 1937 his desire to advance education led him to found the Zion College of West Africa at Anloga., 12mi (19km) southwest of Keta. The college, now under government sponsorship, is the eldest secondary school in the Volta Region. Subsequently, he presented his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Pacegloria” – Africa Awakes to Glory”, to McKintley Roosevelt University in Chicago, which awarded him a doctorate in 1945.
In 1951 he was approached by the Joint Provincial Council of Chiefs to represent it as the traditional member for the Ewe state of Anlo, in what is now southeastern Ghana, in the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly, established under the Coussey Constitution. In the same year he was elected deputy speaker of the assembly, a post he held until 1954.
In 1953, as a result of a misunderstanding over taxes, his house was burned down, and his manuscripts and property destroyed. He ended his political career in 1954, when he lost his seat in an election. In subsequent years he served on several educational boards and committees, and was a member of the Akufo-Addo Constitutional Commission of the Second Republic of Ghana. (The constitution itself was drawn up by a constituent assembly.)
In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Grand Medal of the Republic of Ghana, an award established by the National Liberation Council (N.L.C) administration in 1967.
As an educator and a minister of religion, Dr. Fiawoo worked to blend Christian education with the best in African culture.
D.K. FIAWOO
