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Biography of J. E. Casely HayfordName: J. E. Casely HayfordBirth Date: September 29, 1866 Death Date: August 11, 1903 Place of Birth: Cape Coast, Ghana Nationality: Ghanaian Gender: Male Occupations: politician, lawyer, journalist J. E. Casely Hayford J. E. Casely Hayford (1866-1903) was a Gold Coast lawyer, politician, journalist, and educator. He was a leading pan-African nationalist.On Sept. 29, 1866, J. E. Casely Hayford was born of a prominent family in the coastal town of Cape Coast. He attended the Wesleyan Boys' High School there and Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone (1872-1874). In Freetown, at this time the leading educational and pan-African center in western Africa, Hayford became a staunch admirer and disciple of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the foremost pan-African figure of his time, who edited the Negro, the first explicitly pan-African journal in West Africa.Although a militant advocate of African and pan-African causes, Hayford never became bitter and always acted "constitutionally." He was a dapper man of medium height, charming, and with a keen sense of humor. To point up the hypocrisy of "Christians," he often referred to himself as a "pagan." He was no prig: …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…of some 50 British West African delegates which resulted in the National Congress of British West Africa. The Congress met on three subsequent occasions: Freetown in 1923, Bathurst at the turn of the year 1925/1926, and Lagos in 1929. The Congress lacked mass support and did not realize any of its goals. However, it did act as an important stimulus to African nationalism. With Hayford's death on Aug. 11, 1930, the guiding spirit of the Congress was removed, and it became defunct. Associated Works Ethiopia Unbound Further Reading There is no biography of Hayford. His Ethiopa Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation (1911; 2d ed. 1969) includes an analysis of his work and a biographical sketch by F. Nnabuenyi Ugonna. There is a short biographical sketch of Hayford in Magnus J. Sampson, Gold Coast Men of Affairs (1937), but the chronology is often weak or confused. His political activities are briefly analyzed in David Kimble, A Political History of Ghana (1963). |