Gottlieb Ababio Adom

The Reverend
Gottlieb Ababio Adom

Gottlieb A. Adom
Born (1904-11-17)17 November 1904
Accra, Gold Coast
Died 20 June 1979(1979-06-20) (aged 74)
Accra, Ghana
Nationality
Education Basel Mission Seminary, Akropong
Occupation
Spouse(s)
  • Kate Nana Sapon Hyde
    (m. 1936; annulled 1948)
  • Sophia Esi Atswei Odamtten
    (m. 1954)
Children 6
Parent(s)
  • Isaac Adom (father)
  • Elisabeth Ahinee Amarteifio (mother)
Relatives
Church
Ordained Ramseyer Training Centre at Abetifi, 1960
Offices held
 Editor, Christian Messenger (1966-1970)

Gottlieb Ababio Adom (17 November 1904 – †20 June 1979) was a Ghanaian educator, journalist, editor and Presbyterian clergyman who served as the Editor of the Christian Messenger, established in 1883 by the Basel Mission, as the official news publication of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana from 1966 to 1970.[1]

Early life and family

Gottlieb A. Adom was born on 17 November 1904 in Osu (Christiansborg).[1] His parents were Isaac G. Adom, a blacksmith of Osu-Adjumanko [2] and Elisabeth Ahinee Amarteifio of Osu Amantra, Odartey Sro Weku and of Asere, Accra.[1] He was named after the award-winning German ethnolinguist and philologist, Johann Gottlieb Christaller who translated the Bible into the Twi language with the help of two Akan linguists, David Asante and Theophilus Opoku.[3][4] Christaller was a two-time winner (1876; 1882) of the most prestigious linguistics prize, The Prix Volney, awarded since 1822, by the Institut de France "to recognize work in general and comparative linguistics. linguistics."[4][5]  Adom's parents both belonged to the Ga-Dangme ethnic group of Accra.[1]  Adom hailed from one of the royal families of Osu and was the grandson of Naa Botwe, Stool Mother of the Paramount Chief, the Osu Mantse’s Stool.[1] His step-brother was Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, the Gold Coast politician and lawyer, one of the founding leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and a member of "The Big Six", the group of political activists detained by the British colonial government after the 1948 Accra riots, kicking off the struggle for the attainment of Ghana's independence in 1957.[6] G. A. Adom was also the cousin of the Ghanaian barrister and judge, Nii Amaa Ollennu (1906 -1986) who became the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana during the Second Republic and additionally, serving as the Chairman of the Presidential Commission and the acting President of Ghana from 7 August 1970 to 31 August 1970.[7][8]

Education and training

He attended the Basel mission primary school at Osu.[1] He enrolled at the middle boarding school, The Salem School at Osu, graduating in 1922 with the Middle School Leaving Examination certificate.[1] The Salem School[9] was started in 1843 by three missionaries, Jamaican, Alexander Worthy Clerk[10][11][12] and Angolan-born Jamaican Catherine Mulgrave together with the Americo-Liberian George Thompson.[9] He was admitted for a five-year course in pedagogy and theology at the Basel Mission Seminary at Akropong (now Presbyterian Training College), founded in 1848 as the second oldest higher educational institution in West Africa after Fourah Bay College (founded in 1827)[13] in Freetown, Sierra Leone,[14] and graduated as a teacher-catechist in 1928.[1] In 1957, the year of Ghana’s independence, he took an advanced course in theology and congregational management at the Ramseyer Training Centre at Abetifi, and was ordained a church minister on 19 February 1960.[1] He later received a scholarship for a one-year training in journalism in Kitwe, Zambia from 1961 to 1962.[1]

Career

Teaching

He taught in various schools in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions: Nsawam, Osu, Teshie, Abokobi, Ada and Nungua.[1] He was also the school principal of his alma mater, The Salem School at Osu from 1955 to 1958[1][15] When the Osu Presbyterian Middle Day School was started in 1944, he offered to run it and work for free during the school’s first year.[1]

Journalism

The administration of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church appointed Adom to be the Editor of the Christian Messenger established in 1883 by the Basel Mission. as the church's news bulletin from 1966 to 1970 for a tenure of about four and a half years.[1] He was a member of the Review Committee which revised the New Testament in Ga and Dangme.[1] He was also a member of the Bible Society of Ghana.[1]

Clergy activities

As a minister, he pastored Presbyterian congregations at Accra Central, Osu, Kaajano and finally Adabraka (1970 - 1974) where he retired in August 1974 after 47 years of public service.[1] His ministerial work also took him to Basel, Geneva, Jerusalem, London, Rome and Tel Aviv.[1] In 1969, he was seconded for special service at the All Africa Conference of Churches held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.[1] He was the Ghanaian representative to the Eleanor Roosevelt Workshop on Human Relations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA.[1]

Personal life

Adom first married Kate Nana Sapon Hyde (1918 - 2009), the daughter of a surveyor from Christiansborg, Accra on 17 December 1936 but the marriage was annulled in 1948.[16] On 26 December 1954, he married Sophia Esi Atswei Odamtten (1922 - 2006), a Ga woman from La and Osu and of distant Danish ancestry whose father was an administrative clerk in the Gold Coast customs division at the Takoradi Harbour.[1] The Reverend Gottlieb Adom had six children: Harriet (Mrs. Boateng), Edward, George, Victor, Philip and Gloria (Mrs. Clerk).[1]

Odamtten was a schoolteacher and headmistress who co-founded the body, Pastors’ Wives Association (PWA) of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (now called Presbyterian Ministers’ Wives’ Conference (PMWC)) started in 1970, and was its first Secretary. [1][17] The association presently has strategic alliances with several sister organisations worldwide.[1] [17] Moreover, Sophia Odamtten was a niece of Charles Odamtten Easmon (1913 -1994), the first Ghanaian surgeon[18][19][20] whose mother, Kate Salome Odamtten and maternal uncle, Solomon Edmund Odamtten, a business magnate and politcal activist, were her paternal grandaunt and granduncle respectively. In addition, her paternal grandfather, Koney Odamete was of royal lineage and the first and original Kingmaker (Shikitele) of the La Mantse Traditional Stool - the paramount chieftaincy of the La people of Accra.[17][21][22] Odamete was also a nineteenth century Gold Coast fishing trawler magnate and general commodities merchant who owned a wooden barrel and distilled beverage business among other commercial activities.[1][17][23]

Death

Adom died of natural causes on 20 June 1979 at the Ridge Hospital in Accra.[1] His remains were buried in the “Presbyterian clergy quarter (section)” of the Osu Cemetery (formerly known as Christiansborg Civil Cemetery) in Accra.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Obituary: The Reverend Gottlieb Ababio Adom,. Accra: Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Funeral Bulletin. 29 June 1979.
  2. ↑ "FamilySearch.org". familysearch.org. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  3. ↑ "Christaller, Johannes Gotllieb, Ghana, Basel Mission". www.dacb.org. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  4. 1 2 "Christaller, Johann Gottlieb, Ghana, Basel Mission". www.dacb.org. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  5. ↑ Leopold, Joan, ed. (2014-04-11). The Prix Volney (2000 edition ed.). Springer. ISBN 9789401727600.
  6. ↑ "Emmanuel Odarkwei Obetsebi-Lamptey - Ghana Articles". 2016-08-17. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  7. ↑ "Official Web Site for the Judicial Service of the Republic of Ghana". 2005-04-14. Archived from the original on 14 April 2005. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  8. ↑ "Countries Ga-Gi". rulers.org. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  9. 1 2 "Homepage, Presbyterian Boys Boarding School, Osu Salem". osusalem.org. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  10. ↑ "Clerk, Nicholas Timothy, Ghana, Basel Mission". www.dacb.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  11. ↑ Debrunner, Hans W. (1965). Owura Nico, the Rev. Nicholas Timothy Clerk, 1862-1961,: Pioneer and church leader,. Watervile Pub. House. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017.
  12. ↑ Clerk, N. T. (1943). The Settlement of West Indian Emigrants in the Gold Coast 1843-1943 - A Centenary Sketch. Accra.
  13. ↑ "PRESEC | ALUMINI PORTAL". www.odadee.net (in Russian). Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  14. ↑ "About PUCG | Presbyterian University College, Ghana". www.presbyuniversity.edu.gh. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  15. ↑ "Presbyterian Boys Boarding School, Osu Salem". www.osusalem.org. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  16. ↑ "FamilySearch.org". familysearch.org. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Obituary: Mrs. Sophia Atswei Esi Adom (nee Odamtten). Accra: Presbyterian Church of Ghana Funeral Bulletin. 22 April 2006.
  18. ↑ Ashitey, Gilford A. (2001-01-01). Charles Odamtten Easmon: The Beacon. G.A. Ashitey. ISBN 9789988007089. Archived from the original on 19 November 2016.
  19. ↑ "London Lives: the Ghanaian Doctor". Time Out London. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  20. ↑ "Kwame Nkrumah’s Revolutionary Health Platform". www.ghanaweb.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
  21. ↑ "Ga facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Ga". www.encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  22. ↑ "A True History of The Ga Peoples". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2017-05-10.
  23. ↑ "FamilySearch.org". familysearch.org. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
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