Writings of John Mensah Sarbah

John Mensah Sarbah (1864-1910) was born on the Gold Coast in West Africa. In his teens he was sent to London for legal training and was called to the bar in 1887 - the first African barrister from his country to qualify in this way. Later, Mensah Sarbah became a leading critic of British colonial rule, especially in connection with land ownership. Sarbah, the lawyer, argued that land in Africa belonged to someone, and that therefore its confiscation by the British was illegal. He also appealed to the principle "no taxation without representation". The three volumes in this set comprise Mensah Sarbah's only books, and they contain all of his important writings on the theory and practice of government in West Africa, chief among them the Fanti National Constitution (1906). The Fanti were (and remain) a community living on what is now the Ghanaian coast, culturally distinct from the Ashanti, whose domination they feared. After 300 years of contact with traders, etc., they had become thoroughly westernized. Sarbah proposes that the Fanti draw upon their own traditions and institutions as well as western ideas to develop their own more or less autonomous state, under British protection.He is thus one of the first modern African nationalist thinkers to consider in detail a "nationbuilding" project.