James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was born on October 18, 1875 at Anamabu on the Gold Coast (modern Ghana). His mother, Abna Andua, was of the same clan as Nana Prempeh, king of Ashanti; his father, Kodwo Kwegyir, was the "spokesman" of the chief of Anamabu district. James was their fourth child, his father's seventeenth.
Aggrey received his earliest education in a Methodist school at Cape Coast. In September 1898 he left home for the United States in search of higher education and entered Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina, where he was graduated in 1902.
Later in life he entered Columbia University where his intelligence, sincerity, and lack of any inferiority complex gained him the high esteem of Franklin H. Giddings and other professors. He was graduated with the degree of A. M. in 1922 and passed creditably the preliminary examinations for the degree of Ph. D.
Before leaving for the United States, Aggrey made a reputation as a teacher at Cape Coast.
For some years he was professor of English literature at Livingstone College and pastor of two small country churches. There he was brought into close contact with the actualities of Negro rural life and, in addition to preaching, he labored successfully for the material benefit of his people by establishing credit societies and like enterprises.
In 1920 he was chosen to be a member of the Phelps-Stokes African Education Commission which, under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, from July 1920 to June 1921, and again from January to June 1924, toured through Africa to inspect schools and to advise colonial governments and missionary societies on improved methods in educating Africans. Of this commission, which was to be very fruitful in results, Aggrey was one of the most useful members.
In July 1924 he was appointed by the British government assistant vice-principal of Prince of Wales' College at Achimota on the Gold Coast, erected on the initiative of Governor Sir Gordon Guggisberg, to be the germ of an African university.
In the early stages Aggrey proved his value by reconciling Africans to the program which aimed not at reproducing the scholastic tradition of America and Europe but at the attainment of a synthesis of African and Western cultures. He also showed unusual ability as a teacher.
In 1927 he returned to the United States with the intention of completing his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University but succumbed to meningitis in New York in the same year.
He became a Christian in his youth.
Subject to many disabilities in certain quarters, he consistently advocated close cooperation between white and black. In this he was a follower of Booker Washington rather than of Marcus Garvey.
Quotations:
“The surest way to keep people down is to educate the men and neglect the women. If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation. "
"I don’t care what you know; show me what you can do. Many of my people who get educated don’t work, but take to drink. They see white people drink, so they think they must drink too. They imitate the weakness of the white people, but not their greatness. They won’t imitate a white man working hard. .. If you play only the white notes on a piano you get only sharps; if only the black keys you get flats; but if you play the two together you get harmony and beautiful music. "
"Nothing but the best is good enough for Africa. "
Tall, slender, and of pleasing appearance, he never was other than intensely proud of his dark color and of his origin.
He was a winsome, humorous, powerful orator, who advocated his views before large audiences in America, Africa and Great Britain.
He married Rosebud Douglass, by whom he had four children: Abna Azalea, Kwegyir, Rosebud, and Orison.
