Kodzo Ayeke

Kodzo Afelete Ayeke (22May 192320May 1985) was a Ghanaian politician, teacher, journalist, lawyer, and author. He was a member of parliament for Ho West, getting twice elected into parliament in 1954 and 1956 as a Togoland Congress member before joining the United Party on the ban of the Togoland Congress in 1958. As a journalist, he founded the Togoland Vanguard the first ever newspaper in the then Trans-Volta Togoland. An ethnic Ewe, he published two novels in the Ewe language, Asitsu Atoawo and Hlobiabia.

Early life and education Kodzo Ayeke was born in Taviefe on 22 May 1923, the son of Augustus Ayeke and Ella Kafe Ayeke. His father, Augustus, was a carpenter and farmer at Taviefe. Kodzo was the grandson of Bele Komla, a famed local priest of Taviefe.

Civil service, teaching and journalism After his secondary education, he joined the Gold Coast Civil Service in 1947. He was stationed at the Head Office of the Customs and Excise Department (now the Customs Excise and Preventive Service). In 1950, Ayeke left the civil service and joined an Ewe Christian minister at Ve-Koloenu. There, he became a teacher at a newly founded school, Togo Academy, and taught at the school until 1953.

In 1953, Ayeke founded and became editor of the Togoland Vanguard, a newspaper he operated from Hohoe. The Togoland Vanguard was the first ever newspaper in the Trans-Volta Togoland a UN trust territory under British trusteeship. Through his paper, he became an advocate of the Togoland Unification Movement, which sought for the Trans-Volta to be one country with French Togoland. In 1956, Ayeke got re-elected into parliament as MP for Ho West. This time, he was one of two members of the Togoland Congress to be elected into parliament.

In parliament, Ayeke continued his advocacy for the reunification of Trans-Volta with French Togoland. He led the Togoland Congress during the 1956 British Togoland status plebiscite to campaign for votes against unification with the Gold Coast. Ayeke also sought for the Togoland Academy to be placed on the government-assisted school list. In 1959, Ayeke argued against the renaming of Trans-Volta/Togoland Region as Volta Region. He criticised Nkrumah’s spending on the creation of an office to advise on African Affairs and his appointment of George Padmore to that office.

In November 1957, Ayeke and S. G. Antor, the two Togoland Congress parliamentarians, were arrested and charged with riots in Alanvanyo, a town in the then Trans-Volta Togoland. In March 1958, both men were sentenced to six years imprisonment by a High Court in Ho which ruled them guilty, but on a further hearing by the Court of Appeal in June 1958, they were released to re-join parliament.

In 1960, Ayeke resigned as member of parliament for the Ho West constituency and was succeeded by Hans Kofi Boni through a bye-election. In 1961, Ayeke left Ghana for Togo where he became a political refugee. In October 1965, he left Togo for West Germany and thereafter settled in England in 1966. There, Ayeke was chairman of the London branch of the Progress Party formed to contest elections in Ghana during Ghana's Second Republic from 1969 to 1972.

In Ghana's Third Republic, Ayeke was the chairman of the Volta Regional Branch of the Popular Front Party from 1979 to 1981. He published a third book in English, a collection of his poems titled Blackman's Image. He also left behind two unpublished political manuscripts, Africa Looks Ahead and The Ugly Side, and an unpublished novel, The Divine Mission. The Five Rivals, his English rendition of his Ewe-written book Asitsu Atoawo, was also left behind to be published posthumously.