John Mensah Sarbah

John Mensah Sarbah (June 3, 1864, Cape Coast – 1910) was born on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in West Africa.

After completing his secondary education at Mfantsipim in his teens, he was sent to London for legal training and was called to the bar in 1887 – the first African barrister from his country to qualify in this way.

Later, Mensah Sarbah became a leading critic of British colonial rule, especially in connection with land ownership. Sarbah, the lawyer, argued that land in Africa belonged to someone, and that therefore its confiscation by the British was illegal. He also appealed to the principle 'no taxation without representation'.

European imperialism created complex pressures for new African leaders. John Mensah Sarbah chose a path of utilizing Western standards in defence of African rights. A member of the Fante tribe on the Gold Coast, in the area now known as Ghana, Mensah Sarbah was a scholarly man who trained in English law and was the first African from his region to be admitted to the English bar.

Mensah Sarbah used English constitutional arguments to claim that the British had no right to rule the Gold Coast and were consistently violating established African Laws. He actively urged expended responsibilities fro educated Africans who could preserve Africa's traditional communal virtues. His multi-volume Fante National Constitution (1906) followed from his elaborate research on customary law. He also founded several organizations designed to protect traditional African land titles in British legislation of 1898. Mensah Sarbah thus worded in two world, an early example of a leader striving to unite Western methods and African goals.