SC@150: Early Gold Coast Lawyers Had Asante Royal Roots – Historian
Two of the earliest prominent lawyers on the Gold Coast were directly linked to the Asante royal family, as revealed by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, the Director of the Manhyia Museum.
Delivering the second lecture at the Supreme Court’s 150th Anniversary on July 16, 2026, he said Thomas Korle Hutton-Mills and Charles James Bannerman of Accra traced their roots partly to the family of Asantehene Osei Yaw Akoto, who reigned from 1824 to 1833.
“Though the last two were Ga, they also traced their roots partly to the family of the Asantehene Osei Yaw Akoto of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II’s direct matrilineal line,” Mr Agyeman-Dua stated.
He said the connection highlights the deep historical ties between chieftaincy and the legal profession long before Ghana’s independence.
Mr Agyeman-Duah noted that when an Asante diplomatic delegation travelled to London in 1892 to protest the invasion of Kumasi, they secured the services of Fanti lawyer Kofi Asaam from Anomabo.
Other early legal figures who supported the effort included JE Casely-Hayford, a Cambridge and Inner Temple graduate, who later campaigned for Prempeh I’s return from Seychelles.
Meanwhile, the first Asante lawyer, Sir Edward Asafu-Adjaye, started practising in Kumasi after 1927 and supported the Asantehene Prempeh II in the affairs of the Ashanti Confederacy Council from 1935, when some relief came.
He said it took another generation from the 1940s – Victor Owusu, Joe Appiah, Kwabena Kesse, Effah, Thomas Totoe, later Justice Adusei, Dr Taylor and others to give more confidence to this system.
“Owusu was at one time described as the best lawyer Asante had produced, and when he passed, the national papers came to the conclusion that he was the best attorney general ever, a view endorsed by the former President, Nana Akufo-Addo.”
Story by Hajara Fuseini
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