Akua Asabea Ayisi
{{Short description|Ghanaian journalist and High Court judge (1927–2010)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Akua Asabea Ayisi
| order1 =
| office = High Court Judge
| birth_name = Akua Asabea Ayisi
| birth_date = 3 April 1927
| birth_place = Mampong Akuapem, Ghana
| death_date = {{death date and age|21 April 2010| April 1927|df=y}}
| other_names =
| known_for = First female journalist and High Court Judge in Ghana
| education = Newnham College, University of Cambridge
| employer =
| occupation = Lawyer and journalist
| spouse =
| children =
| relatives = Tetteh Quarshie, Akosua Tuntum Nahana
| website =
| nationality =
}}
Akua Asabea Ayisi (3 April 1927 – 21 April 2010) was a feminist, former High Court Judge and the first female Ghanaian journalist.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ghanaguardian.com/22-amazing-females-hold-title-first-ghanaian-woman/|title=22 Amazing Females Who Hold The Title Of 'The First Ghanaian Woman' |first=Kandey |last=Alhassan|date=5 January 2017|work=Ghanaguardian.com|access-date=2 November 2017}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.modernghana.com/news/914597/ghanas-first-female-journalist-akua-asabea-ayisi.html|title=Ghana's first female journalist Akua Asabea Ayisi|last=Tuntum Nahana|first=Akosua|date=9 February 2019|website=modernghana.com|access-date=23 March 2019}} During the rise of the Ghanaian independence movement, Akua Asabea Ayisi trained as a journalist with Mabel Dove-Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, who would later become the country's first prime minister and president.
Ayisi's position as editor of the women's column, which focused on women's issues, in the Accra Evening News newspaper was considered radical action at that time.{{Cite news|url=https://www.modernghana.com/news/649778/mabel-dove-danquah-a-trailblazing-author-feminist-politic.html|title=Mabel Dove-Danquah: A Trailblazing Author, Feminist, Politician, Activist & Journalist|last=Kwarteng|first=Francis|work=Modern Ghana|date=17 October 2015|access-date=25 November 2017}}
Family and early life
Akua Asabea Ayisi was born on 3 April 1927, in Akuapim-Mampong. She was the eighth child of 10 born to Mercy Adebra Mensah and Okyeame Kofi Ayisi.
Kofi Ayisi was a royal and linguist for the King, who was also his relative. Some of Akua Asabea Ayisi's uncles were royal fetish priests. Kofi Ayisi had 70 children, 10 of those by Mercy Adebra. Ayisi's mother, Mercy Adebra's grandfather, Tetteh Quarshie, planted the first cocoa tree in Ghana. Mercy Adebra, an aggressive woman who wanted to be independent, eventually left Kofi Ayisi and moved to Accra to be close to her family, who were Gas.
Akua Asabea Ayisi attended primary school at Presbyterian Primary in Mampong, and subsequently the Presbyterian Girls School in Osu, Accra. She then went to the Government Secretarial School to complete her education. In those days, it was rare for a woman to receive such a high level of education. However, her mother strongly believed in women's education.
Career and activism
After joining the Convention People's Party (CPP), led by Kwame Nkrumah, Ayisi became the first female journalist recorded in Ghana (1948). She worked alongside Nkrumah on the Accra Evening News, a daily newspaper established by the former president in 1948, and wrote political pamphlets that demanded independence and mobilized the Ghanaian people to oppose colonial rule.{{Cite journal|last=Adomako Ampofo|first=Akosua|date=1 October 2008|title=Collective Activism: The Domestic Violence Bill becoming Law in Ghana|journal=African and Asian Studies|volume=7|issue=4|pages=395–421|doi=10.1163/156921008X359597|issn=1569-2094}} She edited the women's column on the front page of the newspaper – a section introduced by Nkrumah as part of his aim to elevate women in Ghana via expanding the educational provision of girls.{{Cite book|title=The political and social thought of Kwame Nkrumah|last=Biney|first= Ama|author-link=Ama Biney|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|others=Palgrave Connect (Online service)|isbn=9780230118645|location=New York|oclc=714088713}} The launching of the Accra Evening News on 6 March 1949 coincided with Nkrumah's removal from the office of the General Secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) Party. Through the newspaper, Nkrumah wanted to fight for "full self-government, not in the shortest possible time, but now."{{Cite book|title=Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-Cultural Thought and Politics: An African-Centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution|date=8 March 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780203505694|doi=10.4324/9780203505694|last1=Botwe-Asamoah|first1=Kwame}} Having created several newspapers and publications during his time as a student activist, Nkrumah considered the press a key instrument for education and political mobilization.
In August 1948, along with Kofi Baako, editor of Cape Coast Daily Mail, and Saki Scheck, editor of the Takoradi Times, Ayisi embarked on country-wide lecture tours, promoting resistance against imperialist rule.{{Cite book|title=The flagbearers of Ghana|last=Vieta|first= Kojo T.|date=2000|publisher=Ena Publications|isbn=9988004621|edition=School |location=Accra|oclc=48093337}} She later became Kwame Nkrumah's first private secretary (1950–56) and helped Nkrumah write pro-independence slogans to combat British imperial rule, such as "die with the imperialists."
She took part in a series of political protests dubbed "Positive Action campaign" and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for her involvement.{{Cite book|title=The Ghana reader : history, culture, politics|editor1-last=Konadu|editor1-first= Kwasi|editor2=Clifford C. Campbell|isbn=9780822359845|location=Durham|oclc=906010731|date = 3 February 2016}} The protests included strikes that called for a boycott of foreign businesses, which encouraged several rebellions throughout the Gold Coast colony.{{Cite web|url=http://iacenter.org/africa/ghana100509/|title=Nkrumah and Ghana's independence struggle|first=Abayomi|last= Azikiwe|website=iacenter.org|date=4 October 2009|access-date=25 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201032919/http://iacenter.org/africa/ghana100509/|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}
Ayisi is considered to have played a key role in the formulation and implementation of Nkrumah's cultural policies.
Shortly after independence, Ayisi went to Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, where she studied History, matriculating in 1959.{{cite news|url=https://150.newn.cam.ac.uk/feminist-radical-histories/akua-asabea-ayisi/|title=Akua Asabea Ayisi {{!}} Feminist & Radical Histories at Newnham|first=Rosa|last= Campbell|website=Newnham College, University of Cambridge|date=March 2022 |access-date=21 January 2023}} She was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1963. From 1963 to 1964, she is recorded by Newnham College records as working at the Paris-Sorbonne University.{{cite news|url=https://150.newn.cam.ac.uk/celebrating150/150-years-of-pathfinders-pioneers/akua-asabea-ayisi-nc-1959/|title=Akua Asabea Ayisi, Judge and Journalist|website=Newnham Alumnae|date=13 January 2021 |publisher=Newnham College, University of Cambridge|access-date=21 January 2023}}
Subsequently returning to Ghana, Ayisi began work as a barrister, and would ultimately become a High Court Judge. Due to her apolitical occupation, she was not harmed when the military overthrew Kwame Nkrumah's government.
In 1968, she took part in the constitutional assembly responsible for writing the new constitution following Kwame Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966.
In 1969, Ayisi was one of the first women to run for parliament, doing so in the Akuapem North District, and ultimately losing. In 1978, she helped draft the new constitution instituted by General Akuffo, when Ghana changed from Supreme Military Council (SMC) to democratic rule.
References
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Category:20th-century Ghanaian judges
Category:Ghanaian women journalists
Category:Members of Lincoln's Inn