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Raphael Armattoe

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Raphael E. G. Armattoe
Born12 August 1913
Keta, Gold Coast
Died22 December 1953
Hamburg, Germany
NationalityGhanaian
Known forAbochi drug against parasites, 'Cure' for Swollen-Shoot

Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe(12 August 1913 - 22 December 1953) was aGhanaianscientist and political activist.[1]He was nominated for the 1948Nobel Peace Prizeand was a campaigner for unification of British and French Togoland. He was called by theNew York Post"the 'Irishman' from West Africa", and the BBC producerHenry Swanzyreferred to him as the "AfricanParacelsus".[2]

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Armattoe was born atKetain theGold Coast(in what is now theVolta RegionofGhana). He received his early education inLomé,Togoland before completing his primary education inDenu,Gold Coast. Between 1925 and 1928 he attended secondary school atMfantsipim School,Cape Coast.[3]

AsTogolandchanged from German to British and French hands, Armattoe ended up being fluent in German, French and English; whilst also being fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.[3]He also spoke his nativeEwe language.He left forGermanyin 1930 for further studies, with most of his tertiary education was in Germany andFrance.

He apparently left Germany for France due to risingNazism.He continued his studies in anthropology, literature and Medicine at theSorbonne.[4]

Research, science and medicine[edit]

Armattoe moved toEdinburgh,where he qualified to practice medicine.

He then got a locum job inBelfast,Northern Ireland,and following that worked at the Civil Defence first-aid post in Brooke Park,Derry,between 1939 and 1945. After theSecond World War,he opened a medical practice at his home on Northland Road in Derry.[4]He later established and became the director of the Lomeshie Research Centre, named after his mother.

In 1947, he attended the Nobel Prize laureation ceremonies with his friendErwin Schrödinger,who won theNobel Prize in Physicsin 1933, being the only African amongst the thousand intellectuals invited to attend the event inStockholm.[3]Schrödinger later wrote the foreword for Armattoe's bookThe Golden Age of West African Civilization.Armattoe later successfully applied for an anthropological research grant worth £3,000 at the time from theWenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.At the age of just 35 he was nominated for theNobel Peace Prizein 1948.[5]The Abochi drug which can cure guinea-worms, toothaches, bronchitis, boils and allied diseases patent was later bought by a prominent Nigerian drug company at the time.[3]

At this stage, he started being more involved with writing and giving talks, especially relating toanthropology.He was described by some who knew him as a marvellous doctor and a good speaker.[6]Through association with international scientific societies he is regarded as one of the very few scientists at the time to understand atomic energy.[3]

Later in 1948 he returned to West Africa, where he conducted research mainly on Ewe physical anthropology but also set up a medical clinic atKumasiin theAshanti Region.He also turned his attention to poetry, writing and politics. His first collection of poems wasBetween the Forest and the Sea(1950). His next collection,Deep Down in the Black Man's Mind,was published in 1954, after his death.[4]

Politics[edit]

Armattoe andKwame Nkrumahfirst met at the 1945Pan-African CongressinManchester;[7]a conference attended by many future Ghanaians politicians as well asHastings Banda,Jomo KenyattaandW. E. B. Du Bois.[8]Though they both favoured independence for the colonies, Nkrumah was centrist while Armattoe was federalist. He joined theGhana Congress Partyrather than Nkrumah'sConvention People's Party.[4]

Armattoe maintained contact with W. E. B. Du Bois who partook in his studyTestament to Youth.[9][10][11]

He belonged to theEweethnic group who he sought the unification of its people who were divided by colonial powers betweenBritish Togoland,the Gold Coast andFrench Togoland;he wanted its people united as one Ewe nation-state being active within theTogoland Congress,advocating forEwe Unification.[4][6]

In 1953, Armattoe addressed theUnited NationsinNew York Cityregarding Togoland and the "Eweland Question", whichDie Weltat the time regarded as one of the most important documents in African History in the 20th Century.[3][12]

Family[edit]

His father Glikpo Armattoe was a merchant of Palime, Togoland, who traded mainly with the Germans and also studied local indigenous languages.[13][4]Armattoe was married to Swiss-born Leony Elizabeth Schwartz, who was also known as "Marina". They had two daughters, the elder, Irusia, being born inDerry.Armattoe and his family lived at Kumasi in Ghana until his death.[14]

Death and legacy[edit]

Armattoe fell ill and died in a hospital inHamburg.His wife reported that he said he had been poisoned by some unknown persons. He had apparently been attacked previously by supporters of Kwame Nkrumah,[4][6]for withholding the cure to swollen shoot unless the government approached him in a respectful manner having chosen to distance himself from Nkrumah's Government.[3][15]

Inscribed on his gravestone in Hamburg are the words "Africa's Greatest Nationalist".[3]

A blue plaque in his honour was unveiled by the Ulster History Circle at 7 Northland Road, Derry, where Armattoe lived from 1939 to 1945 and carried on his practice as a GP.[16][17]

Essays and publications[edit]

  • Articles, mainly on medical subjects, reprinted from periodicals.ASINB000WETQ54.
  • Japan's Place in the Sun.1932
  • Uber Die Heutige Einstellung Der Wissenschaft.1933
  • Moeurs et Coiturnes Togolaises.1939
  • The Pattern Youth: An interim report.1943.ASINB0007KF9CW.
  • A Dental Survey of the British Isles.1943. p. 5.ASINB0007KF9D6.
  • A Racial Survey of the British People... Lecture.Londonderry Sentinel.1944.ASINB000WEXNRQ.
  • The Swiss Contribution to Western Civilization.Dundalk: Dundalgan Press. 1944.ASINB00408QC0A.
  • Armattoe, Raphael;Gaetano De Gennaro;Erwin Schroedinger; Albert Schweitzer (1945).Homage to Three Great Men: Schweitzer, Schroedinger, De Gennaro.Londonderry Sentinel.ASINB000WEQ18O.
  • The Golden Age of West African Civilization.The Londonderry Sentinel for the Lomeshie Research Centre. 1946.ASINB0006EUHIA.
  • Anthropology in Portugal.1946
  • Armattoe, Raphael (1946).Space, Time, and Race; Or, The Age of Man in America.p. 16.ASINB0007JLE22.
  • Personal Recollections of the Nobel Laureation Festival of 1947: With an appendix listing all the distinguished guests at the Nobel banquet.Lomeshie Research Centre. 1948. p. 62.ASINB0007J26WO.
  • Between the Forest and the Sea: Collected Poems.Armattoe. 1950. p. 78.ASINB0000CHOO0.
  • Selected Correspondence with Men of Science.1951
  • Anaphylaxis (A medical treatise).1952
  • Testament to Youth.1953
  • The Ewes in Eweland.1954 (An anthropological study)
  • Dawn over Africa.1954 (Novel)
  • Deep Down in the Black Man's Mind: Poems.Ilfracombe: Alfred H. Stockwell. 1954. p. 112.ASINB0000CIX8L.
  • Wiegraebe, P.; Raphael Armattoe (1954).Early Ghanaian Poetry.Periodicals Service Company.ISBN978-0-8115-3039-2.

References[edit]

  1. ^Amenumey, D. E. K. (2002). "1".Outstanding Ewes of the 20th Century. Profiles of Fifteen Firsts.Vol. 1. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. pp. 1–12.ISBN9964-978-83-9.
  2. ^Philippa Robinson,"Dr. Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe (1913 – 1953): Physician and writer",Dictionary of Ulster Biography.
  3. ^abcdefghEphson, Isaac S. (1969).Gallery of Gold Coast Celebrities, 1632-1958.Ilen Publications.
  4. ^abcdefgPhilippa Robinson."R. E. G. Armattoe: the 'Irishman' from West Africa".History Publications Ltd. Archived fromthe originalon 20 March 2012.Retrieved25 August2010.
  5. ^"Armattoe, R. E. G.", inMakers of Modern Africa,London: Africa Journal Ltd, 1981, p. 61.
  6. ^abcFraser, Robert(4 September 1986).West African Poetry: A Critical History.Cambridge University Press.p. 364.ISBN978-0-521-31223-3.Retrieved25 August2010.
  7. ^Nkrumah, Kwame (1957).The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah.Nelson.ISBN978-0-7178-0293-7.
  8. ^Adi, Hakim; Sherwood, Marika (1995).The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress Revisited.New Beacon Books.ISBN978-1-873201-12-1.
  9. ^"Letter from R. E. G. Armattoe to W. E. B. Du Bois, November 16, 1950".credo.library.umass.edu.Retrieved16 May2023.
  10. ^"Lomeshie Research Centre Testament to Youth questionnaire, ca. July 1947".credo.library.umass.edu.Retrieved16 May2023.
  11. ^"Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Lomeshie Research Centre, September 24, 1947".credo.library.umass.edu.Retrieved16 May2023.
  12. ^"Armattoe, Raphael", in Keith A. P. Sandiford,A Black Studies Primer: Heroes and Heroines of the African Diaspora,Hansib Publications, 2008, p. 46.
  13. ^Ephson, Isaac S. (1969).Gallery of Gold Coast Celebrities, 1632-1958.Ilen Publications.
  14. ^"Irusia Armattoe".Ray White. Archived fromthe originalon 15 July 2011.Retrieved25 August2010.
  15. ^Austin, Dennis (1964).Politics in Ghana, 1946-1960.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-285046-1.
  16. ^"Blue plaque for physician, anthropologist and writer from West Africa",Ulster History Circle, 20 September 2012.
  17. ^"Blue plaque for Dr Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe",Ulster History Circle, 2 October 2012.

External links and sources[edit]

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