Air Commodore John Ebenezer Samuel de Graft-Hayford or Johnnie as
he was fondly called, was the son of the Rev. Mark Christian
Hayford, the Founder of the Gold Coast Baptist Church, and Mathilda
Emma Goy, a German school teacher. Born in London in 1912, he
received his education in Accra, Cape Coast, Germany and Scotland.
At the age of 19, he joined the Gold Coast Civil Service where he
remained for the next nine years. It was during this period that he
took an interest in boxing fighting under the name of "Chocolate
Kid" becoming the welterweight and middleweight champion of Ghana
and the middleweight champion of West Africa, retiring undefeated.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, he enlisted in the Royal
West African Frontier Force as a soldier rising through the ranks
and in 1946 was commissioned, and had attained the rank of captain
when demobilized in 1948. After a brief spell in the Colonial
office in London, he was appointed Secretary/Accountant of the Gold
Coast Cocoa Marketing Board where he spent the next nine years
rising to the position of General Manager. After a brief spell with
the Ghana Law School as its first Registrar, he was recalled into
the armed forces by Nkrumah in 1960 as the first Commanding Officer
of the people's militia Army Volunteer Force. Two years later, he
was promoted to Brigadier and redesignated Air Commodore to be the
first Ghanaian Chief of Air Force Staff. In 1963, he was
transferred to the Ghana High Commission, London as its first
Defence Adviser, a position he held for two years before going into
exile. Following the coup in 1966, he returned to Accra and was
appointed the National Organiser of the Workers Brigade, a role he
carried out for five years until its disbandment. He was Chairman
of the Ghana Legion, Chairman of the Ghana Boxing Board of Control,
Vice-President of the African Boxing Union and a Member of the
World Boxing Council. He acted as an adviser to Gen. Acheampong and
President Limann, and was a Member of the Constitutional Assembly.
In 1984, fearing for his well-being, he returned to the U.K. He had
a full life and one in which he enjoyed many experiences in varying
roles. The book paints an interesting picture of the Gold Coast to
the modern state of Ghana and after. It encapsulates the corruption
that he encountered during his life time, and also the ever
changing political scene which frustrated him and of which he
became a victim of on numerous occasions.
General
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