Biography of dr kwegyir aggrey

Gold Coast-born American educator (–)

James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey (18 October – 30 July ) was an intellectual, missionary, and teacher. He was born in the Gold Coast, British West Africa (modern Ghana) and later emigrated to the United States, but returned to Africa for several years.

He was the first Vice Principal of Achimota College.^[1]

Biography

Aggrey was born in Anomabu, the son of Princess Abena Anowa of Ajumako and Okyeame Prince Kodwo Kwegyir, the Chief Linguist in the court of the master chieftain King Amonoo IV of Anomabu.

Biography of dr kwegyir aggrey Biography [ edit ]. He married an American woman and remained in Salisbury on the faculty of the College, also taking an active role as a pastor of rural Amez churches. In Aggrey sailed to the United States to be trained as a missionary. Retrieved 25 November

A relative to the Sam family and Cobbah of Komenda. In June , he was baptized in a municipality in the Gold Coast and accepted his Christian first name James. His full name was given as James Emman Kodwo Mensa Otsiwadu Humamfunsam Kwegyir Aggrey. He attended Wesleyan High School (now Mfantsipim School) Cape Coast, where the teachers noted that he was precocious, already studying Greek and Latin, and he subsequently rose to become the school's headmaster.^[2]

In , at the age of 23, Aggrey was selected due to his education to be trained in the United States as a missionary.

On 10 July , he agreed, and left the Gold Coast for the United States, where he settled in Salisbury, North Carolina, and attended Livingstone College. He studied a variety of subjects at the university, including chemistry, physics, logic, economics and politics. In May he graduated from the university with three academic degrees. Aggrey was very talented at languages and was said to have spoken (besides English) French, German, Ancient and Modern Greek, and Latin.

In November , he was appointed a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Salisbury. In he married Rose Douglas, a native of Virginia, with whom he had four children. In the same year he began to teach at Livingstone College. In he earned his doctorate in theology, and in followed a doctorate in osteopathy.

In the same year he transferred employment to a small municipality to North Carolina. Between and Aggrey took up further studies at what is now known as Columbia University, where he studied sociology, psychology and the Japanese language.

In Paul Monroe, a member of the Phelps Stokes Fund offered Aggrey the opportunity to attend a research expedition to Africa to determine which measures were necessary for the improvement of education in Africa.

Aggrey accepted and visited what are now ten different countries in Africa, where he collected and analyzed education data. In he visited Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Gold Coast now Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. In he visited the Belgian Congo, Angola and South Africa.

During this journey Aggrey made a significant impression and underscored the importance of education among some people who would become important figures in Africa, including Hastings Kamuzu Banda, later president of Malawi, Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of Nigeria, and Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana.

In Ghana, Aggrey delivered a lecture that persuaded Governor Guggisberg that Achimota College should be co-educational:

"The surest way to keep people down is to educate the men and neglect the women. If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation."

In South Africa, Aggrey delivered a lecture that used the keys of the piano as an image of racial harmony:

"I don't care what you know; show me what you can do.

Many of my people who get educated don't work, but take to drink.

Biography of dr kwegyir aggrey quotes In Paul Monroe , a member of the Phelps Stokes Fund offered Aggrey the opportunity to attend a research expedition to Africa to determine which measures were necessary for the improvement of education in Africa. Gordon, J. If you play only the white notes on a piano you get only sharps; if only the black keys you get flats; but if you play the two together you get harmony and beautiful music. As the only African on the commission he attracted immense interest when he addressed African audiences, and in Britain and the USA he became equally well-known as an interpreter of Africa to whites.

They see white people drink, so they think they must drink too. They imitate the weakness of the white people, but not their greatness. They won't imitate a white man working hard If you play only the white notes on a piano you get only sharps; if only the black keys you get flats; but if you play the two together you get harmony and beautiful music."^[3]

This image was the inspiration for the name adopted by the journal of the League of Coloured Peoples, The Keys.^[4]

In , Aggrey was appointed by the Gold Coast governor Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg as the First Vice Principal of Achimota College in Accra.

Aggrey designed the emblem of Achimota College. He resettled with his wife and children at the college, north of Accra.

In May , he returned to the United States, and in July admitted to a hospital in Harlem, New York, where he died later that month.

Aggrey is buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Salisbury, North Carolina.^[5]

Writing

Legacy

In Aggrey House, London, was set up as a hostel for African students and students of African descent, and was named after Aggrey.^[6]

In November , the City of Salisbury, North Carolina, and the State of North Carolina honored Dr.

Aggrey and Mrs. Rose Aggrey with a historical marker^[7] at their Salisbury, North Carolina, home in recognition of their contributions to the City of Salisbury and the State of North Carolina. It was believed this was the first marker State of North Carolina had installed to honor a couple.^[5]

Buildings named for Aggrey include Aggrey Student Union at Livingstone College, and J.E.K.

Aggrey Memorial Gymtorium at Landis Elementary School, built in the former location of Aggrey Memorial High School, built in for African-American children.^[5]

Freeman Aggrey House in his alma mater, Mfantsipim School, was named after him and Methodist priest, Rev. Freeman. A boys' residential house at Achimota School, Aggrey House, was named in his honor.

In , Aggrey's picture appeared on the 5-cedi bill.^[5]

Aggrey has been named after a chapel belonging to the A.M.E. Zion Church in Mamprobi, Accra, Ghana. Aggrey House at Alliance High School in Kenya is named after him.

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Aggrey is quoted as saying: "Nothing but the best is good enough for Africa."^[8] (This is sometimes worded as "Nothing but the best is good enough for the African."^[9])

In , the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church took over the management of a private school founded by Rev. A. W. E. Appiah, a nephew of Dr.

J. E. K. Aggrey and named the school Aggrey Memorial A.M.E. Zion Senior High School. This senior high school is presently located in Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana.^[10]

In , Nigerian educator, statesman, activist and politician Dr Alvan Azinna Ikoku. established a Co-Educational Secondary School in Nigeria: the Aggrey Memorial Secondary School, located in Arochukwu and named after his mentor James E.

K. Aggrey.^[11]

His eponymous great-nephew was the Ghanaian diplomat James Aggrey-Orleans.^[12]

There are numerous people in Africa and the Americas who are named after Aggrey such as Aggrey Burke.

Notes

References

External links