Makers of Ghana’s journalism, foundation layers

The history of communicating information through use of the African gong-gong and the drum, dates back to ancient times.

Information was, in those days, disseminated to a collection of people through the gong-gong beater.

The dextrous gong-gong beater, usually a man, beat the gong-gong to get people to come around from various directions, and then he would impart the information by word of mouth.

Information so imparted, was, usually, a message from the chief of the area where the professional gong-gong beater operated.

Besides the traditional ruler, any person could engage the gong-gong beater to disseminate information or a message on his or her behalf.

The drum was another instrument of communication.

It could be used to spread information or a message across short or long distances – through ‘’drum language’’.

It was the talking drum that was used and the drummers were experts in the traditional art and act.

Spreading information or messages through the gong-gong and the talking drum fall within what is described today as interpersonal communication.

It was interpersonal because it was face-to-face and the spread and number of persons involved were limited.

The tools for mass communication, that is, dissemination of news to a mass of persons through the newspaper, magazine, radio and television, came to Africa late.

Acta Diurna was the first work of journalism and was circulated in ancient Rome.

It was a new sheet published daily from 59 BCE.

Notizie Scritte, or written notices, were produced in Venice, Rome in 1556.

It was sold at one gazzetta, that was the name for a Venetian coin.

Eventually, the cost of one Notizie Scritte, that is, one gazzetta, became the name by which the newspaper was identified.

Gazetta was hand written and carried news that were political, economic and military in nature.

In Germany, hand written chronicles of important events were in use by 1400 to spread commercial, military and political news.

Use of printing machines to spread information started in France and England after 1600.

Communicating information to a large number of people through the modern communication media, or mass communication, came to the Gold Coast, now Ghana, in the 19th Century.

Governor Sir Charles MacCarthy was Governor of Sierra Leone from 1817 to 1823 and Governor of the Gold Coast from 1822 to 1823.

He was founder and editor of the first newspaper published in the Gold Coast.

Royal Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer was its name.

Volume one, number one of the newspaper appeared on April 2, 1822 after Governor MacCarthy began work at the Cape Coast Castle as Governor of the Gold Coast.

While he was Governor of Sierra Leone, he edited The Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser there.

The Sierra Leone Royal Gazette is believed to be the first newspaper published in Black Africa.

It was first published in 1801 in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone was then a British colony established for freed slaves from British colonies and was, for some time, administered by companies under royal charter.

The companies then needed a newspaper to promote their business, political and military activities.

That explained why Sierra Leone was fortunate to become, probably, the first country to host the first newspaper of Black Africa.

Like its Sierra Leone counterpart, the purpose of the Gold Coast Gazette was to provide information to the merchants of the Gold Coast, civil servants and educated Ghanaians in the British colony.

It was also aimed at spreading literacy and promoting economic, social and cultural development through reading.

It was handwritten, for some time, until printing machines were acquired.

Governor MacCarthy died in the first British war with the Asantes in the Gold Coast in 1823 – the Battle of Nsamakow.

Gold Coast Gazette, as an organ of the colonial government, continued to circulate until 1825.

Thirty-three years later, the Gold Coast saw the birth of the second newspaper, the Accra Herald.

It appeared in 1858 and lasted for 16 years, that is up to 1874.

The Accra Herald, which later changed its name to West African Herald, was edited by Charles Bannerman, a Ghanaian with a Scottish background.

His father was James Samuel Bannerman, son of an Accra woman and a Scottish officer in the Gold Coast colonial office, Col. Henry Bannerman.     

James Bannerman had four sons, Charles, Samuel, Edmund and James.

Charles and Edmund were instrumental in the founding and publishing of what appeared to be the first newspaper published by an African in Black Africa.

Early issues of the Accra (West African) Herald were hand written and later, the proprietors acquired printing machines that greatly facilitated their work and increased circulation.

When Charles died in 1872, Edmund, his brother and assistant, took over as editor of the newspaper.

What kind of journalism did the Bannerman brothers practise?

To some educated Ghanaians in those days, the Gold Coast Gazette was an instrument for promoting British colonial settlement and keeping the Gold Coast people under subjugation.

According to Prof. KAB Jones-Quartey in his book, History, Politics and Early Press in Ghana (1975), the Bannerman brothers did not pursue a glove-in-hand editorial policy with the colonial British administration in the Gold Coast.

The Accra (West African) Herald, edited by Ghanaians, did what was expected of them in their editorials and news and feature articles content.

They attacked the colonial administration and its principal civil officers when and where the paper thought they erred and praised them for good governance.

Of the Bannerman brothers and the nature of their journalism, Jones-Quartey wrote in his book, published jointly with the University of Ghana School of Journalism and Mass Communication: “Apart from reports of their journalism, their professionalism in law and administration, their participation in and even promotion of business enterprise of voluntary association of progress, and national as well as nationalistic activities, there were other reports about clashes with government and with the law involving matters of public policy on the one hand, and private conduct on the other; about violent quarrels between Edmund Bannerman and governors as well as Chief Justices and about reprimands, reproaches and punishments meted out against various of the brothers at different times.

“There were even reports of imprisonment and fines for criminal as well as civil offences brought against all four Bannerman brothers

“This aspect of the matter does not destroy and perhaps actually sharpen by its intriguing nature, the reputation of these newspaper pioneers.”

Indeed, it was in the spirit of “publish and be dammed” of those pioneering days.

As dedicated journalists, the Bannerman brothers published and were, sometimes, damned. I believe they suffered for a good cause – agitation for good governance in the Gold Coast and ultimate independence for the motherland.

The pioneers of Ghana’s journalism had respect for the law and authority and practised honest, conscientious and courageous journalism.

In writing this article, I decided to imitate the traditional proverbial Sankofa bird – to look back at the Golden Age of Ghanaian journalism and to draw attention to their brand of journalism that helped Ghana to attain independence.

Political independence for the Gold Coast was their goal and objective.

With laboriously handwritten news items on foolscap paper, replaced by make-shift printing machines, the pioneers laid the foundation.

In our time, the task for Ghanaian journalists is to use mass and social media to work towards the achievement of financial and economic independence for Ghana and Africa.

The role of the mass and social media in promoting national development must not be over stressed.

Many books about the use of the media to promote national development have been published.

Among them are: Mass Media and National Development: The Role of Information in Developing countries (1964) by Wilbur Schramm; and Communication and Development: A Study of Two Indian Villages (1966) by Lakshmana Rao.

Latter-day Ghanaian journalists must not let Ghana, the motherland, down by refraining from practising dedicated and conscientious high standard journalism that the country needs in the fight against poverty and under-development.

 Email: therson.cofie@yahoo.com