I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson - Gold Coast Politics

Gold Coast Politics

On the invitation of R.B. Wuta-Ofei, editor of the Gold Coast Spectator, Wallace-Johnson settled in the Gold Coast, where he would gain his first experience in mass politics. At the time, there had already been some anticolonial activity in the Gold Coast. A number of Gold Coasters published articles in the Negro Worker and others had attended the First International Conference of Negro Workers. Many individuals voiced their anticolonial sentiments in privately-operated newspapers. One noteworthy group of men who had strong anticolonial sentiments met at the house of Joseph Ocquaye, the founder of a private school in Nsawam and manager of the Vox Populi newspaper. These men, all respected in their communities, belonged to the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, a once popular political force. They intended to either revive the political influence the society carried or to create a new organization altogether. The group, which became the predecessor to the Gold Coast chapter of the West African Youth League, found a fresh dynamic leader in Wallace-Johnson.

Wallace-Johnson did not immediately involve himself in Gold Coast politics. He surveyed the political atmosphere and reestablished connections he had made in his trips to Europe. Most of his activities involved political agitation, as he began working with the Gold Coast Drivers' Union, and started contributing articles to local newspapers like the Gold Coast Spectator, the Vox Populi and the Gold Coast Provincial Pioneer. He also helped workers who suffered injustice by preparing legal documentation for cases. Overall, he tried to raise political expectations regarding peoples' rights and their ability to influence political decision-making. Through contacts in London, he arranged for questions to be asked by sympathetic left wing Labour Party members in the British Parliament about working conditions and rights in the colonies. Wallace-Johnson also established a new form of mass demonstrations, in which members of the traditional elite no longer dominated African politics. In Wallace-Johnson's reformation of mass meetings, ordinary citizens could vocalize their political opinions. These people took full advantage of the new system; they frequently lambasted colonial authorities and the political establishment, in general. The idea won Wallace-Johnson widespread acclaim and adulation.

He also initiated a fund to assist the legal appeal team in the Scottsboro case in the United States. The case, in which nine young African-Americans were sentenced to death for raping two white women (who were found to have fabricated the entire story), sent shockwaves to liberal and radical political organizations around the world. The Communist Party sought to raise funds for the appeal, using the case as proof of the injustices suffered in a capitalist society. Wallace-Johnson used the case to rally Gold Coasters to support their brethren in the United States. He spoke at public events, claiming that black people could not be treated fairly in a white-dominated government. The colonial government, with full knowledge of Wallace-Johnson's political connections and his deportation from Nigeria, detained him for questioning, but did not arrest him. He used the experience to further his agenda in an article featured in the "Negro Worker". He stated that "British imperialists and white-washed missionaries" had tried to impede his fundraising activities.

He increased his campaigning for civil liberties and improved working conditions after a June 1934 mining disaster in Prestea killed 41 people. At the time, there was no legislation providing the conditions and guidelines for workers' compensation. Mining companies had poor safety records and they underpaid the families of miners injured or killed on the job. Wallace-Johnson disguised himself as a miner to witness first-hand the working conditions there. His experiences gained him some political leverage, which he used to convince the colonial government and the Colonial Office to pass legislation that would improve working conditions and increase workers' compensation. Miners and relatives of the killed miners also protested at mass meetings, and liberal members of Parliament questioned the Conservative government regarding how they intended to address the matter.