Who is George Alfred Grant (Paa Grant)?
George Alfred Grant, commonly known
as Paa Grant, was a Ghanaian entrepreneur and political agitator revered as the
pioneer of "Gold Coast Politics" due to his relentless campaign
against African colonization in the Gold Coast region.
He was born on the 15th of August,
1878 in Beyin, Western Nzema, Gold Coast – now Ghana.
He enrolled at Wesleyan School in
Cape Coast, now known as Mfantsipim Senior High School, the first Senior High School
established in Ghana. Following his completion of secondary education, Paa Grant
received private tuition in business development from Joseph D. Abraham, a
trusted associate of his father.
As a result of his expertise in
business management, he secured a job at a timber company in Axim, then later
in Ivory Coast for a period of five years.
Paa Grant, the forgotten father of Ghana's independence whose tomb
He seized an opportunity to travel to
London in 1905, nine years before the First World War (WW I) broke out in 1914.
He established business relationships with influential businessmen which created
a network of timber companies in Europe and America for him to enhance his
expertise in establishing business ventures of his own overseas. He founded his
own enterprises in London, Liverpool and Hamburg between 1920 and 1922.
Following his success abroad, he
returned to Ghana (Gold Coast) to expand his business operations. This included
the establishment of timer shops in Dunkwa, Akim Abuakwa, and Sekondi.
In his political endeavours, Alfred
Grant was appointed a member of the Legislative Council representing Sekondi.
He was also a member of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS), the
initial nationalist movement in the colony. Grant played a pivotal role in many
development projects including the introduction of street lights and pipe-borne
water to Sekondi and Axim.
After the World War II, Grant
observed the unjust colonial practices that were undermining indigenous African
customs and traditions in the Gold Coast. Determined to address the biased
representation of African interests, he sought to combat colonialism. With the
objective of ousting colonial rule, he convened a meeting with J. B. Danquah
and others to inaugurate a nationalist party. This gathering, attended by
approximately 40 individuals, including lawyers R. A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward
Akufo-Addo, and Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, took place in Saltpond and
culminated in the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) on 4th
August, 1947.
This marked the formation of the
first political party in the Gold Coast (Ghana), aimed at achieving
self-governance. Upon the recommendation of Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Kwame Nkrumah
was elected as the UGCC General Secretary. Paa Grant generously covered
Nkrumah's £100 boat fare from the United Kingdom to Ghana, enabling him to
assume the role of General Secretary of the Party.
Subsequently, Nkrumah resigned from
the UGCC due to diverging objectives and founded the Convention People's Party
(CPP) in 1949. Grant, on the other hand, shifted his focus toward his business
endeavours rather than political activities. Nonetheless, they both maintained
contact, and Nkrumah visited Grant two days before his passing in Axim on 30th
October 1956, at the age of 78.
In recognition of Paa Grant’s pivotal
role in the quest for independence, President Akufo-Addo announced on January
12, 2018, during a special congregation at the university, renamed the
University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in the Western Region of Ghana to
George Grant University of Mines and Technology.
This renaming honored Grant as a
founding father of Ghana's independence movement and a native of the Western
Region.