Kobina Arku Korsah

Sir Kobina Arku Korsah (3 April 1894 – 25 January 1967) was the first Chief Justice of Ghana (then the Gold Coast) in 1956.

Biography

Born in Saltpond, Korsah was educated at Mfantsipim School, Fourah Bay College (BA degree in 1915),

Korsah returned to the Gold Coast in 1919 practising as a barrister specialising in commercial law. He also became political active. He joined the National Congress of British West Africa, attaining the role of assistant secretary of the Cape Coast branch in 1922. The same year he was elected as a member of the Gold Coast Aborigines’ Right Protection Society executive.

Korsah won the Cape Coast seat in the 1927 Gold Coast general election. He was one of nine Africans to be represented in the Legislative Assembly at the time. He was re-elected for the same seat in 1931 and 1935 general elections.

In 1942, Nana Sir Ofori Atta and Sir Arku Korsah were the first two Ghanaians to be appointed to the Executive Council of the Legislative Council by the then Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Alan Burns.

Korsah was one of the 20 founding members of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1959.

After the Kulungugu attack on President Kwame Nkrumah in August 1962, Sir Arku Korsah presided over the trial of five defendants. At the end of that trial, three of the accused were found not guilty and this displeased the Nkrumah government. Nkrumah sacked Sir Arku as Chief Justice in December 1963 unconstitutionally.