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Judicial and Legal Records in the National Archives of Ghana/Accra: An Introduction for Users

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Pino Akotia
Pino Akotia*
Affiliation:
National Archives, Ghana
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Extract

Judicial and legal records in the National Archives of Ghana headquarters repositories are important primary source materials for historians, social scientists, and other researchers, and in particular practicing lawyers. The holdings of the national archives service, both in Accra and its network, cover records relating to the political and bureaucratic activities of government. This paper focuses on the Accra holdings pertaining to judicial and legal records, in order to draw attention to the decisive attractiveness of these record series in general and, in particular, the Accra judicial and legal records to a generation inclined to both quantification and sociological analysis and to provide a guide to prospective users.

The headquarters of the national archives service, where the judicial and legal records are located, is situated on Castle Road in Accra near the junction with Barnes Road. The offices are open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. The search room functions between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The formal requirement for admission to use the archives materials is the searcher's ticket obtained from the Search Room Officer on the spot.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 20 , 1993 , pp. 361 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1993

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References

Notes

1. For an analysis of court records as historical records see Solomon, Rayman L., “Legal History and the Role of Court Records,” American Archivist 42 (1979): 195–98Google Scholar; Connor, Seymour V., “Legal Materials as Sources of History,” American Archivist 23 (1960): 157–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. The jurisdiction of the West African Court of Appeal in Ghana extended to the Gold Coast Colony, Asante, the Northern Territories, and British Togoland.

3. Cape Coast High Court records described as miscellanea cover the period from 1835 to 1844. Miscellanea numbers 22-24 are preserved in the Cape Coast Archives.

4. Cape Coast is important in Ghana's legal history largely because of its role as the commercial and administrative headquarters of the Royal African Company and later the Company of Merchants. When Crown rule commenced in 1821, Cape Coast remained the administrative headquarters until 1877, when the seat of political administration was resited in Accra. The earliest surviving legal records in Cape Coast date to 1826, a period when civil authority was vested in individuals as justices of the peace. Even though Cape Coast lost is predominant position in Ghana following the resiting of the seat of political administration, it served as headquarters of the Central Province and home of Ghana nationalists.

5. SCT 44, Accessions Numbers 1482, 1403, 1404, and 1424 are preserved in the Eastern Regional Archives, Koforidua.

6. District Court records outside the twelve subseries preserved in Accra are deposited in the respective Regional Archives repositories in Kumase, Ho, and Tamale. The Akuse records are mixed in with the Ho subseries.

7. The 1935 reforms led to the Courts' Ordinance of 1935. This was the brainchild of H. G. Bushe, legal Adviser to the Colonial Office. The Ordinance unified legislation in Ghana for the first time and was a reflection of the general dissatisfaction with the existence of separate laws in the country.

8. H. G. Weinberg was a German Jewish refugee in the employ of the Accra Rehousing Committee.

9. As the government's most senior legal adviser, the Attorney General had been a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils since 1877. In 1951, however, and as prelude to the changes which affected the pre-eminence of the Attorney General, the Coussey Committee recommended, among other things, changing the title of the Attorney General to Legal Secretary. When the 1957 Constitution was promulgated, the office of Attorney General had become a post in the public service. See the 1957 Independence Constitution, s. 15(2). In view of these constitutional provisions, the Attorney General retained responsibility only for the initiation and discontinuing of prosecution. The Minister of Justice, on the other hand, became responsible for both cabinet and parliamentary business. The 1960 Republican Constitution restored to the Attorney General the pre-eminence he had traditionally enjoyed in the legal sphere. See the 1960 Republican Constitution, s. 47.

10. See ADM 15/1/10 (letter No. 623/93) relating to a request by the Colonial Secretary to the Attorney General for his opinion on the proposed scheme to deport prostitutes and other undesirables from the mining district of Prestea.

11. The Local Committee of the Society for Comparative Legislation was established in Ghana in 1903, its president being the Chief Justice. The Society had offices in the Law Officer's Department in Victoriaborg, where a quarterly report was published. The Society's reports served to draw attention to changes and innovations in the law.

12. Court Act 9 s. 104.

13. Dumett, R. E., Survey of Research Materials in the National Archives of Ghana (Basel, 1974). 14.Google Scholar