NANKA-BRUCE, FREDERICK VICTOR

Frederick Victor Nanka-Bruce (October 19, 1878-July 12, 1953) was one of the first African medical doctors on the Gold Coast. He was also a newspaper proprietor, and participated in the nationalist politics of his day, serving as Secretary of the National Congress of British West Africa, which came into being at the end of World War I.

He was born on October 19, 1878, to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Bruce of Accra, and was educated at the Accra Government School and at the Wesleyan Boys’ School, Lagos, Nigeria. On leaving Nigeria, in the hope of becoming a doctor, he became an apprentice pharmacist at the Colonial Hospital in Accra. When the British governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson, and his entourage went to Kumase to address the Asante chiefs about the surrender of the Golden Stool in 1900, Nanka-Bruce accompanied the party. The entire party was besieged in Kumase Fort during the Yaa Asantewa War of 1900-01, and Nanka-Bruce was subsequently awarded a medal by the British for his services.

In 1901, he went to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study medicine at Edinburgh University. There he came into contact with students from various parts of the world and took an active part in students’ politics. When the British colonial government drew up a pamphlet for the West African Medical Service, which proposed to discriminate against African and non-European doctors, Nanka-Bruce was one of the seven West African students at Edinburgh who persuaded the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine to appeal to the Colonial Office to reject the proposals. But the Colonial Office maintained its position.

Upon graduating in 1907, he returned to the Gold Coast to practise medicine. During the plague of 1908 his services were highly commended by the colonial government. But the racial discrimination practised by the government led him to take an active part in politics.

Accra at about that time had no newspaper, so in July 1918 Nanka-Bruce, together with three others, revived the Gold Coast Independent, originally published from 1895-98. For a time he also acted as editor. The newspaper, which was controlled by the Bruce family, continued publication until 1955. Nanka-Bruce also founded another newspaper the Daily Echo, in 1935, and this too continued publication until 1955.

As a doctor, he was concerned about the high rate of infant mortality, and the mortality among mothers in childbirth, and urged the government to tackle the problem realistically. He was made a member of the government committee which considered all aspects of the problem and recommended the establishment of maternity hospitals and children’s welfare centers in Accra, Cape Coast, Sekondi, and Kumase.

When J. E. Casely Hayford, T. Hutton Mills, and others decided in about 1917 to establish the West African Conference, which later became the National Congress of British West Africa, Nanka-Bruce wrote in February 1919 on behalf of the “Gold Coast Section of the Projected West African Conference” to ask the British governor when he would receive a delegation. He enclosed the conference’s resolutions which were to be cabled to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, the British Prime Minister, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, and each of the heads of the Allied Powers to enable the voice of West Africa to be heard at the Peace Conference held at the end of World War I.

The British governor, Sir Hugh Clifford (term of office 1912-19), asked for clarification of certain points, met a deputation, and later informed the Secretary of State that he had received resolutions from “a body of influential educated natives.

During the first meeting of the Congress in Accra in March 1920, Nanka-Bruce introduced the subject of a West African Press Union for discussion. Though not a member of the Congress delegation that was sent to England to ask for self-government and other constitutional changes, he nevertheless travelled there to see what the outcome might be.

He was a strong critic of the Guggisberg Constitution of 1925, which strengthened the authority of the chiefs, and favoured elected representation on the Legislative Council. He was a leader of the Accra Ratepayers’ Association which was formed in 1927. In 1931, he was elected the municipal member for Accra in the Legislative Council, in a contest in which he beat Kojo Thompson, an Accra barrister, by 806 to 558. He took an active part in the council’s debates. In March 1934 he moved the amendment for the rejection of the Waterworks Bill, which sought to shift the costs of water supplies for the coastal cities from the government to the taxpayer. He also spoke vehemently against the Sedition Bill of 1934, which sought to extend the definition of sedition.

In 1935, he lost his seat in the Legislative Council to Kojo Thompson. He petitioned against the election results but was unsuccessful. For the next ten years, he influenced national politics mainly through his newspapers and on the platform of the Accra Ratepayers’ Association. In 1946 he was elected as the second municipal member for Accra on the Legislative Council, where he served until its dissolution in 1950.

Politics did not prevent him from devoting much of his time to medical practice. He had clinics in Accra, and in other towns in the Eastern Province, and was a popular doctor. He died on July 12, 1953.

L. H. OFOSU-APPIAH