The Accra Post Office

By Kuukuwa Manful

The Accra Post Office photographed around 1915 - 1917. Image Source. Basel Mission Archives

The first “modern” British Post Office - in Ghana was set cup by the British colonial settlers in Cape Coat in the then Gold Coast in 1853. That post office was primarily concerned with exchanging mail between the Gold Coast and the United Kingdom. By 1873 the postal service had expanded to include other towns in the colony including Elmina and Keta (Agbenyega Adedze, 2008 ).

In 1877 after the colonial government decided to move the capital from Cape Coast to Accra, the headquarters of the postal service was set up in Accra. Plans were put in place to construct a building befitting the status of the Central Post Office, and the building was completed in the 1880s.

According to historian Agbenyega Adedze, the first stamps were issued in 1875 and “depicted Queen Victoria”, and the last ever British stamps were issued in 1956 and depicted the “geography, political and economic realities of the Gold Coast” with images such as “the map of West Africa showing Ghana” drawn by “the post office draughtsman”, “a photograph of Christianborg Castle taken by the West African Photographic Service”, and the “emblem of the Joint Provincial Council, drawn by B. A. Johnston of Axim representing a stool and three state swords”

Photographs of the Accra Post Office. circa 1915

“This collection was exhibited in the Gold Coast section of the British Empire Exhibition 1924 and were deposited at the Royal Colonial Institute on the instruction of Major W.T.E. Wallace, Acting Postmaster General of the Gold Coast”

Source: Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library