Just like Akufo-Addo, Danquah 'had a weird obsession for naming places' -- Nii Moi Thompson recounts how the president’s late uncle wanted to name the Northern Territories as 'Fergusonia'

Economist Nii Moi Thompson

Just like President Nana Akufo-Addo's penchant for renaming places, his late uncle, J B Danquah -- one of the Big Six in Ghana's pre-independence history -- had a "weird obsession" for giving names to places, Economist Nii Moi Thompson has said.
In an article titled: 'Beware, the tribal supremacists: Myths of J.B. Danquah and the Big Six', wherein he criticised President Akufo-Addo's recent hint at renaming the University of Ghana after his late uncle who, the president said would "not be far-fetched" to describe as the "founder" of Ghana's premier institution of higher learning, Dr Thompson said: "Danquah ... had a weird obsession for naming places, like the president does today".


For instance, Dr Thopmson recounted that Danquah "had proposed, without any consultations, that the Northern Territories be renamed Fergusonia, after Ekem Ferguson, the surveyor from Anomabo who had done much work in the North".

The idea, he noted, "was rejected by the British, much like his previous suggestion to rename the Gold Coast Akanland, and later Akan-Ga, when he was reminded that there were more than Akans in the colony".

Dr Thompson said Danquah, "like the president today and his fellow tribalists, was married to a Ga woman" at the time.

He said J B Danquah's "most 'valiant' name-changing effort was his suggestion, after the 1948 riots that he and his relatives be put in charge of the Gold Coast, under the name Ghanaland".

"The idea, of course, was laughed off by the British", Dr Thompson narrated.

In his view, Danquah "pioneered the tribalism that his inward-looking descendants are now perfecting with national resources", pointing out: "Remember the president’s statement, 'Yen Akanfo' during his desperate struggle to win power – and destroy the country?"