From the Archive: Gold Coast gains independence from Britain

The Gold Coast found itself on the cusp of becoming the first African country within the Commonwealth to gain independence from Britain exactly fifty-three years ago this week following a landmark decision from the UK government.

Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd, in a statement to the British parliament on 11 May 1956, told MPs that his government, led by Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, would seek elections in the Gold Coast on a new constitution for the territory.

Mr Lennox-Boyd, speaking to MPs in the House of Commons, said: “We can only achieve our common aim of the early independence of that country within the Commonwealth in one way and in one way alone - that is, to demonstrate to the world that the peoples of the Gold Coast have had a full and free opportunity to consider their constitution and to express their views on it in a general election.”

“Her Majesty's Government will be ready to accept a motion calling for independence within the Commonwealth passed by a reasonable majority in a newly elected legislature.”

A British colony in West Africa since 1821, the Gold Coast became fully independent a year later on 6 March 1957, after nationalist Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah comfortably won support for a new constitution. Renamed Ghana, the new African state encompassed the territories of Gold Coast, the Ashanti protectorate, the British Togoland and the Northern Territories.

Mr Nkrumah, a leading advocate of Pan-Africanism, played a central role in the march toward independence. Founding the Convention People's Party in 1948, Mr Nkrumah campaigned on a platform for immediate self-government and, in 1951, became Prime Minister in the first elections in the Gold Coast held under universal franchise.

In the years after independence both Ghana and Mr Nkrumah continued to be active members of the Commonwealth. In 1964, Mr Nkrumah was instrumental in proposing a “central clearing house” to take over the administrative functions of the Commonwealth from the British Government.

Mr Nkrumah’s idea, proposed in 1964 at a meeting of Commonwealth prime ministers and backed by the governments of Trinidad & Tobago and Pakistan, led to the creation of the Commonwealth Secretariat, today based in London.

Secretariat Links:

• Country Profile: Ghana