Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford
| J. E. Casely Hayford | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford 29 September 1866 Cape Coast, Gold Coast |
| Died | 11 August 1930 (aged 63) |
| Occupation | Journalist, lawyer, educator, politician |
Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford, MBE, or Ekra-Agiman (29 September 1866 – 11 August 1930) was a Ghanaian journalist, editor, author, lawyer, educator, and politician who supported pan-African nationalism.
Joseph Ephraim Casely Hayford was born on 29 September 1866 in Cape Coast, in the British Gold Coast colony, now Ghana.
His family, part of the Fante Anona clan, was part of the prominent coastal elite, and also had European ancestry. His father Joseph de Graft Hayford (1840–1919), was educated and ordained as a minister in the Methodist church; he was a prominent figure in Ghanaian politics. His mother was from the Brew dynasty, descended from the 18th-century European trader Richard Brew and his African concubine. Brew settled in this area about 1745.
Casely was one of Joseph's middle names; he adopted Casely Hayford as a non-hyphenated double surname. His brothers were Ernest Hayford, a doctor, and the Reverend Mark Hayford, a minister.
Casely Hayford attended Wesley Boys' High School in Cape Coast, and Fourah Bay College in Freetown, Sierra Leone. While in Freetown, Casely Hayford became an avid follower of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the foremost pan-African figure at the time, who edited Negro, the first explicitly pan-African journal in West Africa.
Upon returning to Ghana, Casely Hayford became a high school teacher. He eventually was promoted to principal at Accra Wesleyan Boys' High School. He was dismissed from his position at the school for his political activism.
In 1885 he began working as a journalist for the Western Echo, which was owned by his maternal uncle James Hutton Brew. By 1888 Casely Hayford was the editor, and he renamed the paper as the Gold Coast Echo.. From 1890 to 1896 he was co-proprietor of the Gold Coast Chronicle. He also wrote articles for the Wesleyan Methodist Times.
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