Gold Coast Legislative Election, 1951 - Background

Background

Amongst growing calls for self-governance, such as the 1948 Accra Riots and unrest (which led to the arrest of the Big Six), the Coussey Committee was commissioned by the United Kingdom government. Its report led to the 1951 constitution, which gave the Executive Council an African majority, and created an 84-member Legislative Assembly, 38 of which were to be elected by the people, 37 representing territorial councils, six appointed to represent commercial interests and three ex-officio members appointed by the Governor. Those representing commercial interests and appointed by the Governor were all white.

Nkrumah's aide and later Finance Minister Komla Agbeli Gbedemah is credited with organizing the entire campaign while he (Nkrumah) was still in Fort James prison, detained by the colonial government. Nkrumah duly won the Accra Central Municipal seat.

Read more about this topic:  Gold Coast Legislative Election, 1951

Famous quotes containing the word background:

    In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.
    Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)

    Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)