{{Short description|Ghanaian lawyer and politician (1918–1990)}} {{Use Ghanaian English|date=January 2023}} {{use dmy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable <br> Nana | name = Joe Appiah | honorific_suffix = MP | image = | alt = | caption = Hon. Nana Joe Appiah | constituency_MP = Atwima-Amansie | parliament = Ghana | majority = <!--Can be repeated up to eight times by adding a number--> | term_start = 1957 | term_end = 1961 | predecessor = Isaac Joseph Adomako-Mensah | successor = Isaac Joseph Adomako-Mensah | birth_date = {{Birth date |1918|11|16|df=y}} | birth_place = Kumasi, Ghana. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1990|07|08|1918|11|16|df=y}} | death_place = Accra | resting_place = Tafo Cemetery, Kumasi | resting_place_coordinates = | birth_name = Joseph Emmanuel Appiah | party = National Liberation Movement | other_party = United Party<br/>Justice Party | spouse = Peggy Cripps | children = Kwame Anthony Appiah, Isobel Ama, Adwoa, Abena | relatives = Jackie Appiah (niece) | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = Politician, Lawyer and Diplomat | cabinet = | committees = | portfolio = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = }}
'''Joseph Emmanuel Appiah''', MP ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|p|i|ɑː}} {{respell|AP|ee|ah}}; 16 November 1918 – 8 July 1990)<ref name="obituary">{{Cite news |date=1990-07-12 |title=Joe Appiah Is Dead; Ghanaian Politician And Ex-Envoy, 71 (Published 1990) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/12/obituaries/joe-appiah-is-dead-ghanaian-politician-and-ex-envoy-71.html |access-date=2025-08-26 |language=en}}</ref> was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and statesman.
==Biography== He was born in Kumasi, Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), on 26 November 1918, to Nana James W.K. Appiah and Nana Adwoa Akyaa, members of the Ashanti imperial aristocracy. His father was a schoolmaster, Methodist leader, traditional nobleman and, finally, Chief Secretary of Asanteman – a position that gave him considerable influence in Ashanti affairs. Appiah was educated at Wesley College, Mfantsipim, and the Middle Temple.<ref name="Williams">{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Susan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a3Wt48ldWm0C&q=joe+appiah |title=Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation |date=2007-06-07 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-190092-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Duodu">{{Cite news |last=Duodu |first=Cameron |date=2006-03-06 |title=Peggy Appiah |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/06/guardianobituaries.mainsection |access-date=2025-08-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
During his time in the United Kingdom, he was closely involved with the West African Students' Union (WASU), eventually becoming its president.<ref name=Williams /> He came, through residence in London and involvement with WASU, to know many of the main players in the fight against imperial rule in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. Not least among these was Kwame Nkrumah, to whom he became very close. In 1945, Joe Appiah went to the Fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester, representing the West African Students' Union which was attended by many other future Ghanaian politicians.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Marika |title=Manchester and the 1945 Pan-African Congress |publisher=Savannah Press |year=1995 |isbn=0951972022 |location=London}}</ref>
Nkrumah was Appiah's first choice for best man at his wedding to Peggy Cripps in 1953 ("but the job went to arguably the more influential figure of George Padmore, a Trinidadian who was political mentor to African nationalist leaders, including Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta"<ref name=Duodu />). Their first child, son Kwame, was born in London in 1954, followed by daughters Ama (Isobel) (born 1955), Adwoa (born 1960) and Abena (born 1962).
The Appiah family returned to Ghana in late 1954. Soon after, Joe Appiah's close friendship with Kwame Nkrumah was ruined, as he was more popular with the people than Nkrumah. Appiah was later imprisoned for many years by Nkrumah to prevent him from entering national politics. Appiah joined the National Liberation Movement (NLM) party and won the Atwima-Amansie seat in 1957. The NLM was later to merge with other opposition parties to form the United Party.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.modernghana.com/news/227847/50/mr-rr-amponsah-was-no-innocent-abroad.html |title=Mr. R.R Amponsah was no innocent abroad |access-date=2010-07-24 |date=2009-07-17 |author=Ekow Nelson |publisher=ModernGhana.com}}</ref> After the General Afrifa-led coup that overthrew Nkrumah in 1966, he was asked to explain the new regime's motives to Ghana's friends and neighbours. Appiah was intermittently involved in public life as a diplomat and a government minister from then on until his retirement in 1978.<ref name=obituary/>
He returned to Kumasi, where he continued to fulfil his duties as a tribal elder. Following the death of his grand-uncle Yao Antony, he had become the head of their branch of the nobility of the Ashanti people. Prior to his own death, he served as the kingmaker and titular overlord of Nyaduom, a town that was founded centuries before by his ancestor Nana Akroma-Ampim I.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18WWLNlede.t.html|newspaper=The New York Times|title=A Slow Emancipation|author=Kwame Anthony Appiah|date= March 18, 2007|access-date=December 20, 2020}}</ref>
His autobiography ''Joe Appiah: The Autobiography of an African Patriot'' was published in 1990. Kwame Anthony Appiah's ''In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture'' was inspired by his father's easy cosmopolitanism.<ref name=obituary/>
His relationship with Peggy Cripps is said to be a major influence behind the film ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'', which won two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2006-02-16 |title=Peggy Appiah, 84, Author Who Bridged Two Cultures, Dies (Published 2006) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/world/africa/peggy-appiah-84-author-who-bridged-two-cultures-dies.html |access-date=2025-08-26 |language=en}}</ref>
Joe Appiah died in Accra on 8 July 1990, after an illness, and was buried at Tafo cemetery at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.<ref name=obituary/> His widow would buy and occupy the adjacent plot after her death in 2006.<ref name=Duodu/><ref name=Telegraph>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1511303/Peggy-Appiah.html |title= Peggy Appiah|newspaper=The Telegraph|date= 24 February 2006}}</ref> In 2008, Appiah's tomb was vandalised by unknown persons.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://enochdarfahfrimpong.blogspot.com/2008/06/paa-joe-appiahs-tomb-vandalised.html |title=Paa Joe Appiah's tomb vandalised |access-date=2010-07-24 |date=2008-06-09 |author=Enoch Darfah Frimpong }}</ref>
==Books== *{{cite book |title=Autobiography of an African Patriot |last=Appiah |first=Joe |author-link=Joe Appiah |year=1990 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-275-93672-3 |page=400 |id= {{ASIN|0275936724|country=uk}} }} *{{cite book |title=In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture |last=Appiah |first=Kwame Anthony |author-link=Kwame Anthony Appiah |year=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-506852-8 |page=256 |id= {{ASIN|0195068521|country=uk}} }}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/12/obituaries/joe-appiah-is-dead-ghanaian-politician-and-ex-envoy-71.html Obituary]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Appiah, Joe}} Category:Cripps–Appiah–Edun family Category:1918 births Category:1990 deaths Category:20th-century Ghanaian lawyers Category:Deaths from cancer in Ghana Category:Ghanaian activists Category:Ghanaian MPs 1956–1965 Category:Ghanaian pan-Africanists Category:Justice Party (Ghana) politicians Category:Mfantsipim School alumni Category:National Liberation Movement (Ghana) politicians Category:People from Kumasi Category:Politicians from Ashanti Region Category:United Party (Ghana) politicians