George Ekem Ferguson the designer of the map of Ghana
George Ekem Ferguson
George Ekem Ferguson was a man of great abilities. Born in 1864 at Anomabo, he attended school at Cape Coast and later continued his education at Wesleyan High School in Freetown.
Upon his return, he worked briefly as a teacher before joining the civil service in 1881, where he became the clerk to the Governor. His exceptional abilities soon earned him a government scholarship to study surveying and mapmaking at the Royal School of Mines in England.
Throughout his life, Ferguson was a keen observer, and his experience in Europe likely heightened his awareness of the power the Industrial Revolution had given to Europeans.
After returning to Cape Coast, he was assigned the task of building good relations with the people of Attebubu and writing a report on them.
On August 10, 1899, the British and the French signed a peaceful treaty to demarcate the boundary between the Gold Coast and the Ivory Coast. Governor Griffith, then the Governor of the Gold Coast, chose George Ekem Ferguson, a Fante surveyor from the Gold Coast, for this important mission.
It was George Ekem Ferguson who designed the map of Ghana.
Ferguson showed himself to be highly skilled in building relationships with people, which led the British Government to rely on him to make treaties with the rulers of the peoples north of Ashanti. In this work, he was often more successful than either the French or the Germans.
READ: September 7, 1817: Anglo-Ashanti Treaty signed
On one occasion, the French arrived in Wa and attempted to make a treaty with the chief, but the chief informed them that he had already made a treaty with Mr. Ekem Ferguson. The French dismissed it, calling it “of no account” and referring to it as the treaty “of a black man.” However, the chief refused to agree with them, and this is one of the reasons why Wa is part of Ghana today. It was the scramble for Africa that led George Ekem Ferguson to assist the British in taking over the North.
Some of Ferguson’s efforts to unite peoples were undone by the colonial powers. In 1898, the present Western and Northern boundaries of Ghana were determined by the British and French in Europe.
READ: Aston University Ferguson Scholarship – Study In The UK
George Ekem Ferguson, one of the key cartographers and designers of the map of Ghana. He died in 1897 as a result of his wounds.
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