JOSEPH EPHRAIM CASELY HAYFORD (1866–1930)

Pioneer of Pan-African Nationalism, Journalist, Lawyer, and Author

Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford, MBE (29 September 1866 – 11 August 1930), popularly known as Ekra-Agyeman, was a distinguished Fante intellectual, journalist, lawyer, educator, author, and politician of the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana). One of the foremost advocates of African political rights and cultural identity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he is remembered as a founder of the National Congress of British West Africa (1920) and as the author of Ethiopia Unbound (1911), regarded as one of the first Pan-African novels in English. Born in Cape Coast in the British Gold Coast on 29 September 1866, Casely Hayford came from a prominent Fante Anona clan family, deeply rooted in both local chieftaincy and the Euro-African elite. His father, Joseph de Graft Hayford (1840–1919), was a Methodist minister and political figure, while his mother, Mary de Graft Hayford (née Brew), descended from the influential Brew family of Anomabu—traders and political leaders with links to both African nobility and European commerce. Casely Hayford attended Wesley Boys’ High School(later Mfantsipim) in Cape Coast, and then Fourah Bay Collegein Freetown, Sierra Leone. During his time in Freetown, he became strongly influenced by Edward Wilmot Blyden, the pioneering Pan-Africanist and editor of Negro, the first explicitly Pan-African journal in West Africa.

Returning to the Gold Coast, Casely Hayford began his career as a teacher and later became principal of Accra Wesleyan Boys’ High School. However, his outspoken political views led to his dismissal. In 1885, he joined the Western Echo, a newspaper owned by his maternal uncle James Hutton Brew, one of the earliest Gold Coast journalists. By 1888, he had become editor, renaming it the Gold Coast Echo. From 1890 to 1896, he co-owned the Gold Coast Chronicle, and he contributed frequently to the Wesleyan Methodist Times. These roles sharpened his political voice and deepened his commitment to defending African rights under colonial rule.

Legal Training and Public Life

In 1893, Casely Hayford travelled to London to study law at the Inner Templeand at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was called to the Bar on 17 November 1896, returning to the Gold Coast the same year with his second wife, Adelaide Smith, to begin legal practice in Cape Coast, Axim, Sekondi, and Accra. Alongside law, he continued journalism as editor of the Gold Coast Leader, and in 1904, he was instrumental in the founding of Mfantsipim School. After the death of John Mensah Sarbah in 1910, he succeeded him as president of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (ARPS), the Gold Coast’s first organized anti-colonial political movement. Casely Hayford dedicated much of his intellectual and political career to land rights, cultural preservation, and African self-determination. He opposed colonial laws such as the Crown Lands Bill of 1897 and the Forest Ordinance of 1911, which threatened African communal land tenure. In his seminal book, Gold Coast Native Institutions (1903), he analyzed Fante and Asante political traditions and advocated for a self-governing Gold Coast within a broader British federation. His ideas linked African identity and stability with the protection of customary institutions, a theme he developed throughout his career. He maintained transnational connections with Black intellectuals worldwide, corresponding with W. E. B. Du Bois, supporting Booker T. Washington’s International Conference on the Negro (1912), and aiding Dusé Mohamed Ali in founding the African Times and Orient Review.

National Congress of British West Africa

In 1916, Casely Hayford entered the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast. Recognized for his public service, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1919. The same year, he spearheaded the creation of the National Congress of British West Africa (NCBWA), the first regional nationalist organization uniting leaders from the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia. In 1920, he travelled to London as the Congress’s representative to petition the Colonial Office and address the League of Nations Union, demanding constitutional reforms. Though criticized for achieving limited concessions, the Congress laid the foundation for later West African nationalist movements. Casely Hayford remained a respected elder statesman until his death, serving as the first patron of the West African Students’ Union (1925) and as municipal member for Sekondi (1927). Casely Hayford is celebrated as a literary pioneer for his novel Ethiopia Unbound (1911), often cited as the first major Pan-African fiction in English. Blending narrative, philosophy, and political commentary, the novel juxtaposes Africa and England while debating freedom, identity, and cultural emancipation. It remains a cornerstone of African nationalist literature.

Marriage, Family, and Legacy

Casely Hayford married twice. His first wife, Beatrice Madeline Pinnock, bore him a son, Archie Casely-Hayford, who later became Ghana’s first Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the First Republic. His second wife, Adelaide Smith, of Sierra Leonean Creole heritage, was herself a writer and educationist. Together they had a daughter, Gladys May Casely-Hayford (Aquah Laluah), a poet and teacher renowned for her contribution to early West African literature. The Casely-Hayford family became one of the most prominent African and later Black British families, contributing to public service, law, literature, and the arts across generations. Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford died on 11 August 1930. The National Congress of British West Africa, which he founded, dissolved soon after, but its influence endured. Today, Casely Hayford is remembered as a forerunner of Pan-African nationalism, a bridge between traditional African institutions and modern political reforms, and one of the earliest African thinkers to articulate a vision of continental unity and cultural pride. His work as lawyer, journalist, writer, and political leader paved the way for the independence movements of the mid-20th century.