Educating an African Leadership: Achimota and the Teaching of African Culture in the Gold Coast

Abstract

Founded by the British colonial government in the Gold Coast in the 1920s, Achimota was an elite school that sig- naled the colonial government's commitment to the provi- sion of education and the concomitant belief in the role of education in managing the future of the nation. This study explores the contradictions of the school, in which "African culture" was used to substitute for anglicized activities, lessons, and entertainments within the school's dominant Western frame, "African culture" had to be transformed and reified. The school's practices were the result of interac- tion between the differing expectations of colonial officials, "traditional experts" brought in to teach customs and arts, local intelligentsia, expatriate and African teachers, and the students themselves. Achimota therefore provides a lens on the nuances and tensions within the colonial enterprise in Africa.