Do you know one of the European headmasters of the school and later head of the Wesleyan Mission in Ghana was a racist who did not believe in secondary education for Africans and wanted to destroy the school?
He thought all we needed were trade schools for boys and basic education for girls.
Like he wrote once, “… the Negro is not built so as to be on an equality – intellectually – with white races.”
His name was Rev Daniel Kemp.
From the time he arrived in the Gold Coast in 1887 till he retired in 1897, he did all he could to close the Wesley High school, the predecessor of Mfantsipim, down. He succeeded and got it shuttered up on Jan 24 1889.
The closure would not last though.
Through the efforts of Mensah Sarbah, Pietersen, Sam and others, the school reopened on Aug 1 1889 as “the Collegiate School.”
Even though Kemp thought the Collegiate School would produce “unmanageable men” and “conceited monkeys” (his exact words), with the help of the black members of the Synod, he regained control of the school again in 1890 and subsequently continued his nefarious ways. And yet somehow, he could never deliver that fatal blow.
The machinations of Kemp is one of the reasons the Fante elite and merchants led by Mensah Sarbah, Sam, Pieterson and others saw the need to start a school.
In 1905, they founded such an institution and named it “Mfantsipim School”. By now, the evil Kemp was gone and the new head of the Wesley Mission, Rev Bartrop, was working on saving the Collegiate School. Kemp had left it in a very bad shape.
Bartrop saw Mfantsipim as a threat. He also did not like the fact that the new school was secular. He reached out to Mensah Sarbah and suggested an amalgamation of the schools. The latter agreed and the two schools became one later in 1905. Mensah Sarbah insisted on the joint product keeping the name Mfantsipim with the motto “Dwen Hwɛ Kan”.
Thus the institution that started life as “Wesleyan High School” was now “Mfantsipim School”. From an initial 17, the amalgamated school had 25 boys by 1906.
However the joy would not last. Rev Bartrop could not find an European headmaster for the school. It was a must in those days. This led to the school bleeding teachers, and students. Money and accommodations were also problems. By the time Bartrop finally found an European headmaster and he arrived at the school in November 1907, there were only 8 boys left, and not even a teacher!