“Father of Gold Coast Politics”, Paa Grant

George Alfred Grant also known as Paa Grant was a Ghanaian business merchants and political activist and he is considered as the father of “Gold Coast Politics” because of his efforts to end colonization in Gold Coast.

He was born on 15th August,1878 at Beyin.

He attended Wesleyan School now Mfantsipim Senior High School first Senior High School in Ghana.

After his secondary education,Paa was given a private tuition on Business development by Joseph D. Abraham, a loyal friend of his father.

Due to the knowledge he acquire in business organisation,he was employed in a timber industry at Axim for five years.

He had an opportunity travelled in 1905 in London when the World War II has started.

He contacted expert and prominent businessmen in Europe and America to build up his knowledge in business set up.

He established his own industry in London, Liverpool and it environs in the year 1920 and 1923 respectively.

Upon his success in abroad,he came back to Ghana (Gold Coast) to expand his business.

He did so by establishing business in Dunkwa, Akim and other commercial towns.

On his political journey, Alfred Grant became a member of the Legislative council and also member of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS), first nationalist movement in the colony.

After the Second World War, Grant noticed that Africans in the Gold Coast were suffering many colonial practices that were unfair to their indigenous practices and culture.

He decided to take action to deal with the discriminatory representation of African interests.

With his aims and objectives to drive colonialism away, He invited J. B. Danquah and others to a meeting to launch a nationalist party. Some 40 people, including lawyers R. A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, and Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, met in Saltpond and it end up forming United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC)  on 4 August  1947, with the goal of achieving self-government. He served as the Chairman of the party.

Kwame Nkrumah was elected UGCC secretary general, after being recommended by Ebenezer Ako-Adjei a friend

Paa Grant paid Nkrumah’s £100 boat fare to return to Ghana from United Kingdom to become the General secretary of the Party

Later Nkrumah resign from the UGCC  due to the difference in aims to drive harsh British government away.

Fast forward Nkrumah formed Convention People’s Party (CPP) in 1949, and Grant eventually concentrated more on his businesses than politics.

However, they maintained contact, and Nkrumah visited him two days before Grant’s death in Axim on 30 October 1956, at the age of 78.

In honour of hi role in the struggle for Independence, On 12 January 2018, President Akufo-Addo announced during a special congregation held at the university, the renaming of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) which is located in the Western Region of Ghana, to the George Grant University of Mines and Technology in honour of him being a founding father of Ghana’s fight towards independence and also being a native of the western region.