Ghanaian academic and diplomat (1909–2001)
Daniel Ahmling Chapman Nyaho (5 July 1909 – 13 July 2001) was a Ghanaian statesman, diplomat and academic. He was the first African appointee at the United Nations. He served as the Secretary to the cabinet in the first Convention People's Party government which shared the colony's administration with the colonial government. He also served as Ghana's ambassador to the United States of America and Ghana's permanent representative to the United Nations. In 1958, he became the first Ghanaian headmaster of Achimota College.
Born in Keta, a town in the Volta Region of Ghana, Chapman had his early education in his hometown, Keta and briefly in Togo. He entered Achimota School to train as a teacher through unusual circumstances and taught at his alma mater, Achimota College prior to entering Oxford University for his bachelor's degree. He returned as a senior tutor at Achimota College taking up other roles in the school.
Aside academia, Chapman developed strong interest in the sociopolitical situation of the people of his hometown and the Ewe ethnic group at large. He advocated for the unification of the Ewe people who had been dispersed into different colonial administrations by the colonial powers of the time. He was a founding member of the All-Ewe Conference (AEC) and also served as its first secretary. Through his engagements as a member of the conference, he gained appointment at the United Nations, becoming one of the earliest Africans to serve on the world's most powerful intergovernmental organization.
In 1954, Chapman returned to the Gold Coast to work as Secretary to the then Prime Minister of the Gold Coast, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He served in that capacity until 1957 when he was made Ghana's ambassador to the United States of America. While serving in that post, he also doubled as Ghana's permanent representative to the United Nations. Following the exit of the last expatriate Headmaster of Achimota College in 1958, Chapman returned to the school as its first Ghanaian and African Headmaster. He held this appointment until 1963. Chapman returned to the United Nations once more, and also served on various boards in Ghana following the 1966 coup d'état.
Chapman spent most of his retirement years as a consultant and a small scale farmer. He was also engaged in the activities of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences of which he was a member. Chapman died in 2001 at the age of 92.
Early life.
Family background.
Chapman was born on 5 July 1909 at Keta, a town in the Volta Region of Ghana, to Jane Atsiamesi Chapman ("née" Atriki) and William Chapman, a merchant and the brother of Chief James Ocloo I of Keta who served as an adviser to the paramount chief of the Anlo state, Togbi Amedor Kpeglo (1879–1906) of the Bate clan. His father, Mr. William Chapman (also known by the name of Klutse) was the son of Nyaho and grandson of Sokpui, chief of Dzelukope. His father (Klutse) was one of the first natives of the Anlo state to attend Cape Coast Castle School and it was there that he became known by the name William Henry Chapman. The name Chapman subsequently became the surname used by all the children of William Henry Chapman, including Daniel Ahmling Chapman. However, after a series of events, one in which he was asked by an American whether he did not have an African name; the other when his son was unable to gain admission into Oxford University the year he applied because authorities of the university mistakened him for an Englishman, and all places available for Englishmen had been taken leaving only vacancies for foreigners and consequently told he would be considered for admission in the next year. Daniel Ahmling Chapman resolved in 1964 to add his grandfather's name Nyaho to his name, and he became Daniel Ahmling Chapman Nyaho. He lost his father at the age of seven.
Early education.
His formal education begun at the Bremen Mission School at Keta. In 1919 he spent the school year at Lome he however returned to resume schooling at Keta. At the age of nine, he learnt to play the harmonium through the aid of a primer written in Ewe by the Bremen Missionaries. At the age of 10, he was able to join the nearby AME Zion church congregation in evening services to play the harmonium. It was around this period that one of his brothers arranged for him to have violin lessons. While at senior school, he helped his headmaster teach hymns, anthems and other songs to his school mates for the purposes of important occasions such as Good Friday, Easter, Christmas, Empire Day or school concerts.
By standard four (primary 4 or grade 4), he had begun nurturing dreams of becoming a teacher and later a catechist and a religious minister. At the period of his days in primary school, there were no secondary schools or training colleges in the Volta Region, secondary school education in Cape Coast were also beyond the financial means of many parents in the village. His original plan was to enter the Presbyterian Training College at Akropong to train as a teacher however, his focus changed to Achimota College due to the astir generated by Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey in the 1920s. His admiration for Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey was one of the reasons why he aspired to become a teacher by profession and his dream of entering Achimota College was a result of him (Dr. Aggrey) becoming vice principal of the school. Another reason for his choice was the opportunity of enrolling in the school on a scholarship, thus not paying school fees and also receiving stipends while in school. Chapman consequently set site for Accra to stay with one Carl Dey in hopes of enrolling in a school in Accra to sit for his Standard Seven School Leaving Examination and secure a scholarship to study at Achimota College. Things however could not go as planned as his school authorities in Keta were unable to send him a transfer certificate to enable him to enrol in a school in Accra. Chapman decided to return to Keta but prior to his return he wrote a letter to the Director of Education which read: "Dear Sir, I wish to go to Achimota College. If you send me I will work very hard". All hopes of attending Achimota College at the period seemed lost when Arthur Bolton, the head of the Teacher Training Department of Achimota College confirmed that Chapman was not qualified to enter Achimota College under the circumstances. Chapman later received a telegram from the Education Department in Accra which read in part: "Chapman's name added to Bolton's list. Apply for Bond Form, from the Director of Schools." Mr. Bolton who doubled as the director of schools visited Keta to interview candidates who wanted to enter Achimota College from the AME Zion School and the Roman Catholic School and Mr. Jiagge, a former class teacher of Chapman ceased the opportunity to narrate the ordeal of his former pupil to Bolton. Bolton could not help at that moment however, in the same year, the Education Department of the Gold Coast had organised an essay competition as part of the visit of the Prince of Wales to the country and Chapman's essay won the first prize in 1925. Bolton saw Chapman's name and recalled the story of Chapman as narrated to him by Mr. Jiagge and therefore decided to waive the prerequisit Standard Seven Certificate in Chapman's case to enroll him at Achimota College on a scholarship.
Teacher training.
In 1926, Chapman entered Achimota College which was then known as the Government Teachers' Training College prior to 1927. There, he was a year behind his brother Charles Chapman and Philip Gbeho, the famous musician, composer and educationist. Chapman's tutors included Rev. A. G. Fraser (the first principal of the school), Dr. J. E. K. Aggrey the first Assistant Vice-Principal who taught him history), W. E. F. Ward, D. T. Adams and Douglas Benzies. In school, Chapman often won awards for his academic performance. He was a student of George Steven, the art teacher who was responsible for the illustrations in R. S. Rattray's "Ashanti Folk Tales". The mouse on the cover of the book was his art work. Chapman completed his studies in 1929, with distinctions in three subjects: Woodwork, Music and Teaching, and missed a distinction in arts by a mark. Aside his regular academic subjects, Chapman gained interest and took courses in wood-work, beaten metal work, and music. While in school, he participated in other extra-curricular activities including serving as the secretary of the College Social Service Society, teaching some of the young boys shorthand at the college's Accra Boys, serving as the first prefect of Guggisberg House and becoming the Entertainment Secretary of the college in 1929. He was able to pass both the School Certificate and Teacher Training examinations despite all the engagements.
Teaching career and tertiary education.
Government Boys' School and return to Achimota College.
Chapman began his teaching career in January 1931 at the Government Boys' School in Accra. While in his third year at Achimota College, Douglas Benzies, his housemaster, encouraged him to consider studying the secondary school subjects leading to the Cambridge School Certificate concurrently with his teacher training course. He therefore spent the nights studying for the London Matriculation Examination while he taught woodwork during the day. After six months of teaching in the school, he was transferred back to Achimota College at the request of the school to become a junior member of the staff working as an assistant music master with Mr W. E. F. Ward, who was the music master. Chapman also taught Woodwork, Art, and Ewe (language, custom and institutions). At Achimota College, he sought permission to study with the regular intermediate degree students, and with the assistance of former housemaster and class teachers he prepared for the London University Intermediate B.A. degree. He obtained his University of London Intermediate B.A. in English, Latin, Economics and Geography in 1932.
Studies at Oxford University and return to Achimota College.
As a junior member of the staff, he served as an assistant housemaster. Chapman taught in the school for three years and in 1934 he was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. There, he studied at St. Peter's Hall (now St. Peter's College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford). The schorlaship scheme had been introduced by the Achimota Council in 1931 to send deserving students of the school to Oxford University and later Cambridge University to acquire further education and training similar to the type of training European administrators and senior officers received prior to their appointments in the colonies. The first recipient of the scholarship was Modjaben Dowuona. Following his results in the intermediate bachelor's degree examination and his commitment to other engagements of the school, the school's council awarded him the scholarship in 1933. Chapman was inspired to pursue Geography at undergraduate level by a Geography tutor and author called D. T. Adams. Chapman passed his preliminary courses and went on to obtain a second-class Honours degree in Geography, consequently becoming the first Gold Coast native to obtain a bachelor's degree in Geography.
Following his graduation as an undergraduate, he pursued a postgraduate programme in Pre-historic Archaeology prior to his return to Achimota School in 1937 where he took up a job as a senior Geography master. In addition to teaching Geography, Chapman was responsible for other administrative tasks, he supervised students' vacation teaching practice, served as a housemaster, a librarian, the secretary to the Principal's Advisory Committee and the staff representative on the Achimota College Council. He also took up a task of an Ewe-language examiner for the Cambridge University School Certificate Examination.
Eweland advocacy and first UN appointment.
Eweland advocacy.
While a teacher at Achimota College, Chapman was quite concerned with the social and political issues of the people of his hometown and the Ewe people at large. In 1939 he planned on opening a secondary school he hoped would have been completed and named Keta College. He completed a building started by his brother hoping it would serve as the nucleus of the college. He bought desks and chairs, and ordered and received consignments of the books for the college. He later gave up on the plan when the Director of Education was given the power to close down schools at his own discretion.
At Achimota College, he experienced the consequences