James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1875-10-18)18 October 1875 |
| Died | 30 July 1927(1927-07-30) (aged 51) |
| Nationality | Ghanaian |
| Education | Wesleyan High School Livingstone College Columbia University |
| Occupation(s) | Missionary and teacher |
James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (18 October 1875 – 30 July 1927) was an intellectual, missionary, and teacher. He was born in theGold Coast,British West Africa (modernGhana) and pursued a college education in theUnited States, returning toAfrica after earning his graduate degree at Columbia University. He was the first Vice Principal ofAchimota College.[1]
Aggrey was born inAnomabu, the son of Princess Abena Anowa ofAjumako and Okyeame Prince Kodwo Kwegyir, theChief Linguist in the court of the master chieftain King Amonoo IV ofAnomabu. A relative to the Sam family and Cobbah of Komenda. In June 1883, he was baptized in a municipality in the Gold Coast and accepted his Christian first name James. His full name was given as James Emman Kodwo Mensa Otsiwadu Humamfunsam Kwegyir Aggrey. He attended Wesleyan High School (nowMfantsipim School)Cape Coast, where the teachers noted that he was precocious, already studying Greek and Latin, and he subsequently rose to become the school's headmaster.[2]
In 1898, at the age of 23, Aggrey was selected due to his education to be trained in the United States as a missionary. On 10 July 1898, he agreed, and left the Gold Coast for the United States, where he settled inSalisbury, North Carolina, and attendedLivingstone College. He studied a variety of subjects at the university, includingchemistry,physics,logic,economics andpolitics. In May 1902 he graduated from the university with three academic degrees. Aggrey was very talented at languages and was said to have spoken (besides English) French, German, Ancient and Modern Greek, and Latin.
In November 1903, he was appointed a minister in theAfrican Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Salisbury. In 1905 he married Rose Douglas, a native of Virginia, with whom he had four children. In the same year he began to teach at Livingstone College. In 1912 he earned his doctorate intheology, and in 1914 followed a doctorate inosteopathy. In the same year he transferred employment to a small municipality to North Carolina. Between 1915 and 1917 Aggrey took up further studies at what is now known asColumbia University, where he studiedsociology,psychology and theJapanese language.
In 1920Paul Monroe, a member of thePhelps Stokes Fund offered Aggrey the opportunity to attend a research expedition to Africa to determine which measures were necessary for the improvement of education in Africa. Aggrey accepted and visited what are now ten different countries in Africa, where he collected and analyzed education data. In 1920 he visitedSierra Leone,Liberia, the Gold Coast now Ghana,Cameroon andNigeria. In 1921 he visited theBelgian Congo,Angola andSouth Africa.
During this journey Aggrey made a significant impression and underscored the importance of education among some people who would become important figures in Africa, includingHastings Kamuzu Banda, later president ofMalawi,Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of Nigeria, andKwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana.
In Ghana, Aggrey delivered a lecture that persuaded Governor Guggisberg that Achimota College should be co-educational:
"The surest way to keep people down is to educate the men and neglect the women. If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation."
InSouth Africa, Aggrey delivered a lecture that used the keys of the piano as an image of racial harmony:
"I don't care what you know; show me what you can do. Many of my people who get educated don't work, but take to drink. They see white people drink, so they think they must drink too. They imitate the weakness of the white people, but not their greatness. They won't imitate a white man working hard ... If you play only the white notes on a piano you get only sharps; if only the black keys you get flats; but if you play the two together you get harmony and beautiful music."[3]
This image was the inspiration for the name adopted by the journal of theLeague of Coloured Peoples,The Keys.[4]
In 1924, Aggrey was appointed by the Gold Coast governor SirFrederick Gordon Guggisberg as the First Vice Principal ofAchimota College inAccra. Aggrey designed the emblem of Achimota College. He resettled with his wife and children at the college, north of Accra.
In May 1927, he returned to the United States, and in July admitted to a hospital inHarlem, New York, where he died later that month.
Aggrey is buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina.[5]
In 1934Aggrey House, London, was set up as a hostel for African students and students of African descent, and was named after Aggrey.[6]
In November 2004, the City of Salisbury, North Carolina, and the State of North Carolina honored Dr. Aggrey and Mrs. Rose Aggrey with a historical marker[7] at their Salisbury, North Carolina, home in recognition of their contributions to the City of Salisbury and the State of North Carolina. It was believed this was the first marker State of North Carolina had installed to honor a couple.[5]
Buildings named for Aggrey include Aggrey Student Union at Livingstone College, and J.E.K. Aggrey Memorial Gymtorium atLandis Elementary School, built in the former location of Aggrey Memorial High School, built in 1933 forAfrican-American children.[5]
Freeman Aggrey House in his alma mater,Mfantsipim School, was named after him and Methodist priest, Rev. Freeman. A boys' residential house atAchimota School, Aggrey House, was named in his honor.
In 2017, Aggrey's picture appeared on the 5-cedi bill.[5]
Aggrey has been named after a chapel belonging to the A.M.E. Zion Church in Mamprobi, Accra, Ghana. Aggrey House atAlliance High School in Kenya is named after him.
Aggrey is quoted as saying: "Nothing but the best is good enough for Africa."[8] (This is sometimes worded as "Nothing but the best is good enough for the African."[9])
In 1947, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church took over the management of a private school founded by Rev. A. W. E. Appiah, a nephew of Dr. J. E. K. Aggrey and named the schoolAggrey Memorial A.M.E. Zion Senior High School. This senior high school is presently located in Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana.[10]
In 1932, Nigerian educator,statesman,activist andpolitician DrAlvan Azinna Ikoku. established a Co-Educational Secondary School in Nigeria: theAggrey Memorial Secondary School, located inArochukwu and named after his mentor James E. K. Aggrey.[11]
His eponymous great-nephew was the Ghanaian diplomatJames Aggrey-Orleans.[12]
There are numerous people in Africa and the Americas who are named after Aggrey such asAggrey Burke.
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Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
