J.B. Danquah did not coin the name Ghana - Historian Anokye Frimpong

Lawyer and historian, Yaw Anokye Frimpong, has refuted assertions that the founder of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the late Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah, widely known as Dr. J.B. Danquah, was the one who propounded the name ‘Ghana’ to replace its previous name, Gold Coast, after the country’s independence.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews, on August 5, 2024, Anokye Frimpong pointed out that the name Ghana existed long before the country gained independence from the British in 1957.

He said that Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, established a school and named it Ghana National College nearly 10 years before the country’s liberation.

The historian added that the history books show that the name J.B. Danquah penned for an independent Gold Coast was Akanman.

“Speaking about Danquah, he lost his Abuakwa constituency seat to a nephew of his. J.B. was shocked to the marrow of his bones by this defeat. In 1955 the state council of his home state of Akyem Abuakwa, in recognition of all his services, enstooled J.B. as the Twafohene of Akyem Abuakwa. That was the highest accolade that he got to. He fizzled out.

“Nine full years before we had independence, Kwame Nkrumah had put together the students of Mfantsipim, Adisadel, and Augustine’s and their teachers who had been dismissed because they had gone out to support all the demonstrations for the 1948 riots. He put them together, set up a school at Cape Coast, and he called the name of the school Ghana National College. That was nine full years before Ghana's independence,” he said.

Anokye Frimpong added, “So please, I would never accept any argument to the effect that J.B. Danquah, who had written in all the thesis that he made that Ghana should be called Akanman, would metamorphose into becoming the originator of the name Ghana.”

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