THE CROSSING OF THE GYAMAN TO THE CROSS OF LORRAINE: WARTIME POLITICS IN WEST ARICA, 1941-1942

Abstract

In January 1942 virtually the entire leadership of the Gyaman kingdom of the Abron crossed the border into Ghana (then the Gold Coast), seeking sanctuary from the Vichy controlled administration of the C6te d'Ivoire. Leaving the cercle of Bonduku, the Gyamanhene, joined by several thousand followers who risked their lives and property, declared that 'they had left a dead flag' and had come to 'continue war until victory and the liberation of France, our dear mother country'. The migration occurred at a time when the Gold Coast was completely encircled by hostile territory. This passage of the Gyaman court into Asante's North West Province is a little-known but extraordinary chapter in wartime politics in West Africa. This paper argues that the exodus involved a combination of'traditional' and 'modern' interests, as the Gyaman leaders skilfully manipulated the colonial system and the wartime situaiion to their own advantage. It reviews not only the sequence of events) but probes the roles played by British intelligence organizations in facilitating, if not . . . encouragmg, t le mlgratlon. IN 1939 THE FRENCH AND BRITISH braced themselves for yet another confrontation with the Germans. Both looked to their colonies to provide, as in the First World War, recruits and raw materials for the use of the metropoles. Neither Britain nor France envisioned that their colonial frontiers would one day divide enemies rather than allies. The collapse of the French Army in the spring of 1940, and the signing of the Armistice in June, had, however, precisely this consequence. France's West African colonies came under the control of the pro-Axis Vichy regime. The unthinkable had happened. Instead of peacetime concerns about smuggling, tax evasion, and the like, the Gold Coast government had now to worry about the very real possibility of an invasion being launched from the surrounding French territories. The situation was made even more tense when a number of early anti-Vichy French officers brought Nancy Lawler teaches at Oakton College in Illinois. She is grateful to the American Philosophical Society for a 1994 grant that made the research for this paper possible. An earlierversion was presented at the S.O.A.S. Graduate History Seminar inJanuary 1995 under the title, 'The Cross of Lorraine and the Crossing of The Gyaman'. She is indebted to Professors Robin Law and Richard Rathbone for their extremely helpful comments on this paper.