1842-1956

William Esuman-Gwira Sekyi popularly known as Kobina Sekyi was a Ghanaian author, journalist and lawyer.  He played a big role in Ghana’s early years of nationalism and in the Pan African movement.   Sekyi was born in Cape Coast, Ghana to John Gladstone Sackey, a head teacher of the Weslyan School in Cape Coast and Wilhemina Pietersen.

He went to Mfantsipim School and later to the University of London to study philosophy.  He was escorted to the UK by his maternal grandfather.  Sekyi was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1918.  He became a lawyer in the Gold Coast. Sekyi also became the president of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society, succeeding his uncle Mr. Henry van Hien, an executive member of the National Congress of British West Africa and was a member of the Coussey Committee for constitutional change.

Sekyi got married to Lilly Anna Cleanand.  She was the daughter of John Peter Cleanand and Elizabeth Vroom.

He’s best known for ‘The Blinkards’ a play he wrote which was published in 1920.  The play is a satire, looking at the attitudes of

Ghanaian elites who had taken on European culture and values to be their own.   It was well received by the local press when premiered in 1916 and is considered one of the first novels authored in English by an African and was highly influential in shaping the growth of African literature. His novel ‘The Anglo-Fante’ was the first English-language novel written in the Cape Coast.

Sekyi was also an editor and journalist working in Ghana for several newspapers and as the editor of the Accra Evening News  he used this platform to push nationalist and Pan-African ideas.  Sekyi’s work has been a source of inspiration to generations of African writers, and he will be remembered for his commitment to fighting for the rights of indigenous people and his contribution to the early years of Ghana’s nationalism.

After an experience, Kobina Sekyi vowed never to wear European clothes and became the first lawyer to appear in a colonial court clad in ‘ntoma’.  He walked barefoot, never sat in a car and ate only indigenous foods.

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobina_Sekyi