Peter Awoonor-Renner
Peter Awoonor-Renner was a Sierra Leone-born Gold Coast lawyer and an active member of the Gold Coast Aborigines' Rights Protection Society (ARPS) founded in 1897 in Cape Coast.
Early years
[edit]Peter Awoonor-Renner was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone about 1861, the son of William Renner, a merchant. He trained as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn, London, commencing his pupilage on 22 May 1880 when he was just 19 years old. He was called to the bar on 18 April, 1883.[1] In 1884 Awoonor-Renner travelled to the Gold Coast, becoming the second qualified African to practice law there.[2]
Legal career
[edit]In 1897 the British attempted to introduce a Lands Bill in the Gold Coast. There was significant opposition to the Bill which was seen as usurping the traditional rights of indigenous people to their own land. Protests culminated in a legal challenge being made to the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast, on behalf of the ARPS, by John Mensah Sarbah, assisted by Awoonor-Renner and C.J. Bannerman.[3][4] Despite the legal arguments put before the Legislative Council the Bill was only withdrawn in 1898 when a delegation travelled from the Gold Coast to Britain to petition the colonial secretary, Joseph Chamberlain.
Personal life
[edit]Awoonor-Renner married Hannah Smith on 24 June 1886 in St. Helier, Jersey. He was 25, she was 23.[5][6] Hannah gave birth to their son on 16 August 1891. He was christened Ernest Spencer de Jersey Awoonor-Renner on 18 September 1891 in St Brelade, Jersey.[7]
Awoonor-Renner attended Christ Church in Cape Coast.[8]
He travelled with his family from the Gold Coast to Britain, arriving in Liverpool on 4 July 1926.[9]
Later years
[edit]Awoonor- Renner was awarded an OBE in 1937 for public services in the Gold Coast.[10] He passed away in 1938[11]
Legacy
[edit]Awoonor-Renner is related to Africans who were involved in independence struggles. He was the father of Bankole Awoonor-Renner, a journalist and political agitator involved in the struggle for independence of the Gold Coast.[12][13][14] He was also the maternal grandfather of Sally Mugabe, the first wife of Robert Mugabe, who was involved in the Zimbabwe independence struggle, alongside her husband.[15]
Awoonor-Renner features in The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities. He is described as Captain of the Gold Coast Territorial Force.[16]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Foster, Joseph (1885). Men-at-the-bar : a biographical hand-list of the members of the various Inns of Court, including Her Majesty's judges, etc. Cornell University Library. London : Printed for the author by Hazell, Watson, and Viney. p. 389.
- ^ "Pioneer African legal practitioners and a new social order - MyJoyOnline". www.myjoyonline.com. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
- ^ Kimble, David (1971). A political history of Ghana. The rise of Gold Coast nationalism 1850-1928 (Reprinted ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Pr. p. 345. ISBN 978-0-19-821623-0.
- ^ Tenkorang, S. (1973). "John Mensah Sarbah, 1864-1910". Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. 14 (1): 65–78. ISSN 0855-3246.
- ^ "Marriages". The Times. 1886-07-21. p. 1. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ^ "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
- ^ "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
- ^ Jenkins, Paul (1974). "The Anglican Church in Ghana, 1905-24 (ii)". Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. 15 (2): 177–200. ISSN 0855-3246.
- ^ "Ancestry Library Edition". ancestrylibrary.proquest.com. Retrieved 2025-04-29.
- ^ "New Year Honours". The Times. 1937-02-01. pp. 8–. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ^ "Public Appointments". The Times. 1939-04-05. p. 3. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ^ "Ghana Opposition To Unite". The Times. 1957-10-08. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-01-03.
- ^ Hanretta, Sean (2011). "'Kaffir' Renner's Conversion: Being Muslim in Public in Colonial Ghana". Past & Present (210): 187–220. ISSN 0031-2746.
- ^ Awoonor-Renner, Bankole (1943). This Africa. Central Books.
- ^ Kachingwe, Sarah L.; Zimbabwe, eds. (1994). Sally Mugabe, a woman with a mission. Harare: Dept. of Information and Publicity. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-7974-1426-6.
- ^ Doortmont (2005). The Pen-Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities by Charles Francis Hutchison: A Collective Biography of Elite Society in the Gold Coast Colony. African Sources for African History. Leiden Boston: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-14097-4.