Ethiopia Unbound

J. E. Casely Hayford (1866-1930) was a Fante journalist, lawyer, educator, and politician. Born in Cape Coast, a city in what was then the British colony of Gold Coast, Hayford, who also went by Ekra-Agiman, belonged to a prominent family of cultural and political leaders. His father, a Methodist minister, was a politician; his mother was the descendant of an Irish trader and an African woman. Educated at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, he was a follower of Liberian pan-Africanist Edward Wilmot Blyden. When Hayford was dismissed from his role as principal at Accra Wesleyan Boys’ High School, he began working as a journalist. In 1893, he traveled to London to study law and was called to the Bar three years later. In 1896, Hayford returned to Ghana with his wife Adelaide to establish a private law practice. In the twentieth century, he devoted himself to African emancipation as a journalist, politician, and activist. He was president of the Aborigine’s Rights Protection Society, a member of the Gold Coast’s Legislative Council, and a patron of the West African Students’ Union. In addition, Hayford gained an international audience with speeches at the International Conference of the Negro in 1912 and in his role as delegate to the League of Nations in 1920. His 1911 novel Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation is considered the first work of pan-African fiction and one of the first English novels written by an African author.