1860-1899 | Burning towns and cities | Ghana | Looting and plunder

The British sack the Ashanti Capital of Kumasi

ByAlisdare Hickson

6 February 1874 By the autumn of 1873, Britain was becoming increasingly exasperated by ongoing resistance to its colonisation of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and, in December, Prime Minister William Gladstone authorised the dispatch of 2,500 redcoats, as well as thousands of West Indian troops, to the coastal town of Cape Coast. From there,…

1940-1949 | Ghana

‘A bloody good show’ – officer congratulated for killing 3 protesters

ByAlisdare Hickson

28 February 1948 Today in 1948, Superintendent Colin Ismay was congratulated on a ‘bloody good show’ by the Gold Coast’s Colonial Police Commissioner . He had just shot dead three unarmed ex-servicemen who had been protesting in Accra, the country’s major port and administrative capital, for the long delayed payment of their promised pensions.  The…