You’re in Ghana and you’re at the market. You’ve got all of your produce selected and the maame tells you, “15 cedi.” You open your wallet and pull out a 20 cedi note and see six faces looking back at you. In fact, all of the paper money in your wallet has these same six faces staring out at you. These men are collectively known as Ghana’s Big Six. But who were they and why are they important enough to be on all of the money?
The Big Six are comprised of Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori Atta. All of these men were founding members of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), a political party formed in the late 1940s in order to agitate for independence.
These men became known as “the Big Six” following their collective arrest by the British colonial government.
The Story of the Arrest of the Big Six
In 1948, Nii Kwabena Bonne II called for a boycott of European goods as a response to the rising prices from the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM). The boycott coincided with a march by veterans who were not receiving their pensions from the British military for their service in World War II. Nkrumah and Danquah had addressed the veterans and given them their support.
On 28 February 1948, the veterans had marched to Christiansborg Castle, the seat of the colonial government, to demand their payments. They were met by police who ordered them to disperse, which they refused. Superintendent Colin Imray, a British police officer, order the police to open fire on the veterans, killing three of them. This touched off riots throughout Accra for the following five days.
On the same day, after the riots began, the UGCC sent a cable to London demanding self-governance. The next day, the Riot Act was read and the six men were arrested. Following their arrest, many teachers and students demonstrated in support of them, and were subsequently fired or dismissed from their positions.
Ako-Adjei, Akufo-Addo, Danquah, Obetsebi-Lamptey and Atta all turned on and blamed Nkrumah for their arrest, possibly leading to the fracture and his eventual departure from the UGCC.
Regardless, this event was one of the first mass events and demonstrations of the Ghanaian people of their unhappiness with the colonial government and support of the men demanding self-governance.