Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2020
Contrary to the belief that prisons never predated colonial rule in Africa, this article traces their emergence in the Gold Coast after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. During the era of ‘legitimate commerce’, West African merchants required liquidity to conduct long-distance trade. Rather than demand human pawns as interest on loans, merchants imprisoned debtors’ female relatives because women's sexual violation in prison incentivized kin to repay loans. When British colonists entered the Gold Coast, they discovered how important the prisons were to local credit. They thus allowed the institutions to continue, but without documentation. The so-called ‘native prisons’ did not enter indirect rule — and the colonial archive — until the 1940s. Contrary to studies of how Western states used prisons to control black labour after emancipation, this article excavates a ‘debt genealogy’ of the prison. In the Gold Coast, prisons helped manage cash flow after abolition by holding human hostages.
Many people read initial drafts of this essay, and many more offered their comments in conversation. I thank Emmanuel Akyeampong, Gareth Austin, Erin Braatz, Kelly Brignac, Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff, Dima Hurlbut, Olatunji Ojo, Nana Quarshie, Jake Christopher Richards, Rebecca Shumway, Ben Silverstein, Jon Soske, Diana Wylie, and Adam Ewing. I would also like to acknowledge Gregory Mann's helpful corrections and suggestions. I can be contacted at [email protected].
1 National Archives of the United Kingdom (NAUK) CO 96/130, Chief Justice to the Governor, 26 Jan. 1880.
2 Half of these testimonies are available in the Public Records and Archives Administration at Accra (PRAAD-Accra). See PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, Native Prisons Ordinance, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886. The others are in NAUK CO 96/191, Gold Coast no. 116, 10 Apr. 1888.
3 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, notes of evidence taken by S. M. Bennett in the appeal case of Oppon vs. Ackinie and Ghartey, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886.
4 NAUK-CO 96/191, testimony of J. Green in the appeal case of Oppon vs. Ackinie and Ghartey, 21 Apr. 1886.
5 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, ‘Questions Put to Mr. Cleland’, 24 Apr. 1886. Although described as the ‘Chief of James Town’, George Cleland was an independent wealthy merchant (obirempon) who had come to run his own court and prison, as other merchants had, in the nineteenth century. For background on Cleland, see Parker, J., Making the Town: Ga State and Society in Early Colonial Accra (Portsmouth, NH, 2000), 86Google Scholar.
6 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, testimony of R. Quasie in the appeal case of Oppon vs. Ackinie and Ghartey, 24 Apr. 1886.
7 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, notes of evidence, S. M. Bennett, 21 and 24 Apr. 1886.
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31 Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery, 39.
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39 NAUK CO 96/33, J. Thompson and others to G. Grey, 5 Jan. 1855.
40 NAUK CO 96/30, G. L. Heinz to Governor, 4 Aug. 1854.
41 NAUK CO 96/191, ‘Memorandum on Native Prisons’, 3 Dec. 1887.
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46 Methodist Missionary Society archives, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS-MMS) Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to Mrs. Freeman, 31 Jan. 1864.
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53 NAUK CO 96/131, Circular, 13 Apr. 1880.
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55 A. N. Allott describes how the earliest indigenous courts in the Gold Coast were comprised mainly of merchants and the asafo. See Allott, A. N., ‘Native Tribunals in the Gold Coast, 1844–1927: prolegomena to a study of native courts in Ghana’, Journal of African Law, 1:3 (1957), 166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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61 Parliamentary Papers, 1875, vol. LII (1140), enclosure 6 in no. 6, Quow Ouchin vs. Tawiah and Quay, 13 Apr. 1874.
62 Parliamentary Papers, 1875, vol. LII (1140), enclosure 1 in no. 6, J. Marshall to Johnson, 9 Apr. 1874.
63 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1477, statement by Quarmine, 25 Nov. 1887.
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70 NAUK CO 96/84, palaver between the King of Anomabu and the captains and headmen of Anomabu, 26 May 1869.
71 NAUK CO 96/84, Headmen of Anamaboe to H. Simpson, 8 May 1869.
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74 For example, the man imprisoned as ‘surety’ for his uncle was reported in the newspaper run by West African contributors, Western Echo, 30 Jan. 1886.
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76 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1476, testimony of Abina Affua in enquiry in Abakrampa, 2 May 1908.
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81 Robertson also notes a large (40 per cent) proportion of female domestic slave owners in colonial Accra. See Robertson, ‘Post-proclamation’, 224.
82 Gold Coast Leader, 10 Jan. 1920, 4.
83 Getz, Slavery, 61; SOAS-MMS Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to T. Hughes, 31 Jan. 1864.
84 SOAS-MMS Special Series/Biographical/West Africa/Box 597B, T. Freeman to J. Dawson, 20 Feb. 1864.
85 PRAAD-Accra CSO 21/7/101, testimony of Nana Ofori Atta in Native Tribunals enquiry, 21 Dec. 1942.
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89 Parliamentary Papers, 1865, vol. V, (412) ‘Report from the Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast) Together with the Proceedings of the Committee: Minutes of Evidence and Appendix’, 26 June 1865, 329. My emphasis added.
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93 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/328, Kingdon, ‘Memorandum on Bankruptcy’, Aug. 1919.
94 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/328, District Commissioner to Commissioner Central Province, 5 Nov. 1919.
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96 J. Parker has suggested that this measure was introduced primarily to ban Tackie Tawiah's prison in Accra. The evidence that he cites does not presently support this claim, but it could have been damaged in the two-decades between our consultations of the Accra archives. See Parker, Making the Town, 135.
97 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1476, Colonial Minutes, 3 Jan. 1906.
98 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1111, Colonial Minutes, 22 Mar. 1890.
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100 During stool disputes, the British often waited until chiefs used their unregistered prisons as a pretext for intervening in the stool disputes themselves. For example, see Public Records and Archives Administration at Ho (PRAAD-Ho) KE/C/67, Quarterly Report for Keta District, 31 Dec. 1924.
101 Public Records and Archives Administration at Sekondi (PRAAD-Sekondi) WR 24/1/396, Commissioner Western Province to Chief Commissioner, 6 Sept. 1945.
102 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1131, W. R. Rainsford, notes from inquiry, 1 Sept. 1923.
103 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/1503, ‘Notes on the seven Asafo companies of Cape Coast’, n.d.
104 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1, ‘Police officer shooting in the street’, 3 Aug. 1902.
105 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/410, ‘Ashanti Farmers’ Union’, n.d.; ‘Meeting Minutes at Adabraka’, 21 Jan. 1938.
106 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1105, Kwaku Amoah and others to Lord Passfield, 27 Sept. 1929; PRAAD-Cape Coast 23/1/724, W. J. A. Jones to Commissioner Central Province, 16 Sept. 1933; PRAAD-Sekondi WR 24/1/396, O. J. Collision to Commissioner Western Province, 2 Apr. 1947.
107 PRAAD-Accra CSO 21/7/81, J. C. Taggoe to H. Thomas, 12 Mar. 1943.
108 PRAAD-Sekondi WRG 21/1/210, A. Duncan-Johnstone to Director of Prisons, 23 Aug. 1933.
109 PRAAD-Accra ADM 11/1/1840, District Commissioner Axim to District Commissioner Sekondi, 12 May 1945.
110 PRAAD-Cape Coast ADM 23/1/724, District Commissioner to Commissioner Central Province, 14 Feb. 1936.
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