100 Years of Adisadel College: Dreams, Altruism, Service and
Academic Excellence
By Levi Yafetto, Ph.D.
Elliot House, 1993
4th. January 2010
It was a dream of the Anglican
Church’s missionary organization, the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), to establish an institution
to train and groom children (specifically sons) of Anglican
parents to work for the church. That dream began at Topp Yard,
Cape Coast, Ghana, in one storey building on January 4, 1910.
With twenty-nine exuberant boys, later to be known as the
“Foundation Scholars,” the founder, The Right Reverend Dr.
Nathaniel Temple Hamlyn started the SPG Grammar School.
Two years later, in 1912, a remarkable event took place in
the annals of the school’s short existence. In his book
Reminiscences of Adisadel, G. McLean Amissah succinctly
writes: “In 1912, the Grammar School presented her first batch
of students for the College of Preceptors examination. And
what pride did the School not have when it was announced that
all the candidates had passed! Above all else, one of the
candidates, James Hector Mayne, set a record of the College of
Preceptors examination for West Africa by securing six
distinctions at a sitting!”
It was sad that the founder left the country for good the
same year. Nevertheless, the tutors and students of the School
never looked back. They played up!
A standard of excellence to stand the test of time had been
set by the gallant twenty-nine, marking the beginning of a
remarkable journey of enviable, success story of the SPG
Grammar School, which later became known as the St. Nicholas
Grammar School, and now Adisadel College.
Adisadel College, together with her students, through the
years, have known no bounds in pursuit of excellence in almost
every endeavor of human life; students and alumni (hereafter
referred to as Santaclausians) have expectantly excelled in
academics and their chosen careers not only in Ghana, but
around the world. Their contributions to the development of
Ghana alone cannot be quantified in any measure; from politics
through academia, law, medicine, sports, music, commerce and
industry, engineering, science and technology, banking and
finance… to philanthropy, Santaclausians have made their mark
in Ghana’s history.
Today, Adisadel College is exactly 100 years old!
We have every good reason imaginable under the sun to
celebrate all the School’s achievements, and what
Santaclausians (individually and collectively) have achieved
through service to mankind.
As we pat ourselves on the back, one thing remains vital,
though: The Anglican Church, the founder of the School, the
foundation scholars, pioneering tutors, and the early
generations of students deserve every Santaclausian’s praise
and indebtedness. They do deserve these, for, from very humble
beginnings, they persistently overcame varied limitations that
confronted their zeal to pursue their dreams to the hilt.
From this persistence, a tradition was bequeathed to us:
the “do-it-yourself” tradition known among Santaclausians as
“The Adisadel Spirit.”
It all began when, under the leadership of John Alan
Knight, the need arose for the School to relocate to a more
spacious location that would accommodate an ever-increasing
student population at Topp Yard. Not allowing anything to
stand in their way, the students resolved to make the Hill Top
of Adisadel, a land released to the school by the Ebiradze
stool family, a permanent home. This they achieved by building
from scratch Hamlyn House, the Acropolis and the Sanatorium.
John Alan Knight described this feat as “wholly impossible.”
In his own words, G. McLean Amissah, then a little boy
attending Cape Coast Government Boys’ School, vividly shares a
personal, touching story in his book. He writes: “I felt
enthused too as I watched the boys walk, several of them
barefooted, all the way through the thickets via Aboom to
Adisadel hill where they busied themselves in their school
building project. The boys were divided into groups, each
assigned various tasks, such as clearing the land, digging,
carting sand and stones and making cement blocks. It was
fascinating to see some of the boys actually putting up the
building under the direction of the enthusiastic foreman from
Asuantsi Trade School.”
He goes on further: “Determination was writ large on the
faces of the boys. The boys sang the School “Ode” as they
laboured and toiled in the sun seemingly unmindful of all
inconveniences to themselves. This daring spirit of the boys
excited my imagination and made me long to become a student of
the School. It seemed to me great to participate in such an
adventure.”
Dreams, aspirations, action, faith, perseverance,
self-service, camaraderie, adventure, all put together … and
today, on the Hill of Adisadel, stand these elegant buildings
of monumental proportions that evidently validate the result
of unwavering will of boys who sacrificed and labored for
generations then unborn, but now living to tell stories of
what that sacrifice means to them. For generations yet to be
born, they shall continue to remain a symbol of altruism and
an epitome of scholarship.
It’s not by chance that we are Santaclausians, for we were
destined to walk within the walls of this great educational
institution on the hill.
It is at Adisadel College that we imbibed those
aforementioned attributes of our forebears that transformed
boys to men, in order to serve and make a lasting change in
whatever capacity we could imagine; it is at Adisadel College
that we learned to “Think Big” for School and Nation; and it
is there that we were nurtured and molded into great men among
men.
Putting all together, it is there that we were given to
carry into the world only one message: “Vel Primus Vel Cum
Primis” (Either the First or with the First). This maxim
Santaclausians live and die for; we don’t compromise that!
In the next 100 years, we must endeavor to ensure that the
perpetual flame of excellence lit by the foundation scholars
never quenches: we have no reason to stop dreaming and
persevering, neither do we have one to stop upholding The
Adisadel Spirit. Together, Santaclausians must uplift Adisadel
College to where it’s supposed to be, now and the future.
We pray, lead us to greater heights, O Lord… Fiat!
Long Live Adisadel College! Long Live Santaclausians!
Long Live Ghana!
Acknowledgement: My sincere appreciation goes
to Frank Indome (Ebiradze ’80), Suleman and Paulina for their
useful comments. Reference: G. McLean Amissah (1980) Reminiscences of
Adisadel: A historical sketch of Adisadel College. Afram
Publications (Gh) Ltd.
For further information on Adisadel College please go to:
http://www.adisadelcollege.net
