Peggy Cripps
Encyclopedia
Enid Margaret "Peggy" Appiah, MBE
(b. 21 May 1921 - 11 February 2006) was a British
children's author
, philanthropist
and socialite
. She was the daughter of the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps
and Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps
, and the wife of Ghanaian lawyer and political activist Nana
Joe Appiah
.
, just across the county border from the home of her parents, Stafford Cripps and Isobel (née) Swithinbank, in the village of Filkins
, Oxfordshire
, the youngest of four children.
The family had only recently moved into Goodfellows, the home in Filkins where Peggy grew up; a Cotswold-style manor house, whose decoration and development owed much to the influence of Sir Lawrence Weaver, the architect, who was, with his wife, Kathleen, one of the Cripps' closest friends. Lady Weaver died in 1927 of pneumonia. When Sir Lawrence also died in 1930, their two sons, Purcell and Toby, were, in effect, adopted by the Crippses. In later life, Peggy always regarded them as her brothers.
: they were a solidly upper middle-class family. Her paternal grandfather, Lord Parmoor, was a lawyer who had been ennobled in 1914, when he became a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Joseph Cripps, had been MP for Cirencester
. Lord Parmoor had represented Stroud
in the House of Commons.
The political connections of her maternal side were also impressive. Two of her maternal grandmother's sisters were married to the MPs Charles Edward Henry Hobhouse
and Leonard Henry Courtney, Baron Courtney. Another great-aunt, Beatrice, was married to Sidney Webb, who served with her grandfather Lord Parmoor in the first Labour Government, in 1924, and was Secretary of State for the Colonies in the second Labour government in 1929, where he served in cabinet with Lord Parmoor, as Lord President of the Council, and was joined later by Stafford, as Solicitor General. (It was at this time that her father was knighted.)
The Cripps family were devout Anglicans. Lord Parmoor was an ecclesiastical lawyer, a member—and in 1911 the Chairman—of the house of Laymen in the Province of Canterbury, Vicar General of various English provinces, and author of Cripps on Church and Clergy. Stafford Cripps is said to have been the first layman to preach in St Paul's Cathedral
. When Peggy Cripps was preparing for her confirmation, she told her parents that she had doubts about some of the thirty-nine articles of faith of the Church of England, and her father arranged for her to discuss them with his friend, William Temple
, Archbishop of York (later Archbishop of Canterbury). Peggy used to enjoy telling people that as they had gone through the 39 articles, each time she had expressed a doubt, the Archbishop had said, "Yes, I find that one very difficult, too!"
, and later at Maltman's Green, a boarding school in Buckinghamshire
, where she and a group of friends attended a Quaker Meeting House. Through her parents’ connections, she also began to learn something of the world outside England. In 1938 she and her family spent several months in Jamaica, and in the same year Jawaharlal Nehru
, with whom Stafford had begun an extensive correspondence as a result of his interest in the development of democracy in the British colonies, visited Goodfellows with his daughter Indira
.
to study the history of art in Florence. The Second World War was looming and she had to return hurriedly to England
from Florence. She declined her place at Edinburgh University, enrolling instead at the Whitehall Secretarial College, which had been evacuated to Dorset
with the onset of bombing in London
, so she could start work immediately.
Once she had completed her training, she was able to set off to join her father in Moscow
, where he was then British Ambassador and she was able to be useful as a secretary in the embassy. Because the direct route to Moscow
would have required traveling through German-occupied Europe, she and her mother and her sister Theresa, traveled to Russia by way of Canada
, crossing the continent on the Canadian Pacific Railway
and then passing through Japan
and China
and crossing the Soviet Union
by rail.
In Moscow
, Peggy did secretarial work for her father and became friends with the daughters of the Yugoslav and Chinese ambassadors, and the daughter of an Iranian diplomat, who was to remain a life-long friend. In 1941, at the age of 20, with her parents in London
, and her sister in Iran, she was left in charge of the evacuation of the British Embassy, with the German invasion of Russia
looming. Since she was officially a secretary in the Foreign Service, she found herself working for a Mr. Cook in the consular department in Teheran. Later on, when the British Army took over the Iranian railway system, she worked as a secretary for the Brigadier who was in charge.
In 1942, she returned to England
, accompanying her father, who was returning from a visit to India
. They traveled through the Middle East
on a seaplane, landing on Lake Galilee in Palestine
and the Nile
in Egypt
, where she was able to see the pyramids of Egypt. This was also her first visit to the African continent. For the rest of the war she worked in the Ministry of Information, first in the Indian Division and then in the Soviet Relations Division, where she was able to use her knowledge of the Russian language
in her work. As her father committed himself full time to politics, and to the reduced income that came with the loss of his legal practice, the family left Goodfellows and moved into a smaller house at Frith Hill, Gloucestershire
, although her brother John eventually took over the running of the farm at Filkins.
At the end of the war, Peggy had a nervous breakdown. She had given up her place at university to be useful during the war; now she found herself experienced but unqualified for the job she was already doing. She was sent to Switzerland
to recover at the Maximilian Bircher-Benner
clinic in Zurich
, spent a summer in Lugano
studying painting, and returned to London
to take up the study of art full time at the Anglo-French Art Centre in St. John’s Wood, in London. Then she took up painting in a small studio in the apartment of the artist Feliks Topolski
and attended life-classes at Hammersmith Art School, under the tutelage of Carel Weight.
Throughout this period she was in close and regular touch with her parents, even though her father was increasingly busy with his political work. With the Labour Party
victory in the 1945 election
at the end of the War, Stafford had entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, where he spent most of his time working on negotiations with the leaders of Indian independence, including Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah. In November 1947, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer
and most of the rest of his life he helped to manage the beginnings of the post-War recovery of Britain and the creation of the modern welfare state.
In 1942, her mother had agreed to lead a campaign to raise money for aid to the people of China
, who were facing great suffering as a result of the Japanese invasion, floods, disease and famine. Six years later, the Chinese government invited Lady Cripps to visit their country so that she could see what was being done with the money and express their gratitude for the work of British United Aid to China. Peggy went along as one of her mother’s traveling companions. Since the money was meant to be used to help all the Chinese, they both stayed with General and Madame Chiang Kai-shek
. She visited the Communist "Liberated Areas" in Yenan, where Peggy met Chou En Lai and Madame Mao. On their way back from China
, she and her mother traveled through Burma and India
.
, Russia
, Iran
, China
, Burma and India
, and her family’s friendship with people like the Nehrus, Peggy, who was now in her mid twenties, knew many people from many countries and also knew much more about life outside England
, indeed outside Europe
, than most of her contemporaries. This experience, along with her deep Christian
commitments, led her to work for cooperation among peoples; and in the late 1940s she started to work for an organization called Racial Unity, which had been started by Miss Attlee, sister of the Prime Minister, as well as becoming active in the Youth Department of the World Council of Churches
(WCC). It was through her work for Racial Unity, of which she was secretary in 1952, that she first met Joseph Emmanuel Appiah
who was President of the West African Students' Union. Their friendship grew fast and in January 1952, he proposed and she accepted.
At the time, however, Stafford Cripps was extremely ill. In May 1951 he had been taken to the Maximilian Bircher-Benner
clinic in Zurich
(where Peggy had recovered many years before) and was eventually thought well enough to return home to the family home at Frith Hill. But in early January 1952 he was flown back to Zurich
, where he died nearly four months later. As a result of this illness, Isobel decided that it would be best if the engagement should be kept secret. Then, once he died, custom required that the engagement not be announced for another year. In the meanwhile, Peggy’s mother suggested that she should visit the Gold Coast
on her own, traveling out by steamship to see the country of her intended husband.
, when she arrived, having flown back urgently on the death of his granduncle, Yao Antony, whom he was to succeed as head of his branch of the nobility
of the Ashanti people. She traveled to Kumasi
on Christmas Eve 1952, where she was reunited with her fiancé, and met his family, for the first time, with him, on Christmas Day. On New Year’s Eve she attended the Watch Night Service at the Wesley Methodist Church in Kumasi
, worshiping for the first time in the church which was to celebrate her funeral more than fifty years later. She also visited the campus of what was to be Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
, then a one-year old teacher’s training college, for the first time; a campus where she was to send her children to primary school and where, at the age of 84, in the last year of her life, she received an honorary degree of doctor of letters, to her great delight.
, crossed the Volta
and entered French Togoland
, in the east, and traveled to Elmina
in the west. There was much speculation as to what she was doing in Ghana, and because the engagement had not been announced, she could not explain the real reason for her visit. She told the Daily Graphic that "[As] a member of a political family in Britain, I am very interested in the people of the Gold Coast and in their political advancement". Along with her future husband's family she met many prominent Ghanaians: the Asantehene, Mrs. Aggrey, wife of the founder of the Achimota School
, Kofi Antuban, the artist, Nene Mate Koli, as well as such leaders of the independence movement as Kwame Nkrumah
, Kojo Gbedemah, Kojo Botsio
, and Krobo Edusei.
The announcement of their engagement in 1953 produced a firestorm of comment in Britain and around the world; and when Peggy Cripps and Joe Appiah were married in June 1953, the occasion was front-page news in Britain, in Ghana
, and many other countries and the event was one of the social events of the year. George Padmore
, the West Indian Pan-Africanist was best man, deputising for Kwame Nkrumah
, who was too busy as the new leader of Government Business to attend himself. Hugh Gaitskell, Stafford’s successor as Chancellor was there, as were Michael Foot
, future leader of the Labour party, Lady Quist, the wife of the Speaker of the Gold Coast Assembly, and Krishna Menon
, India’s ambassador to the United Nations
. A Jamaican newspaper commented that there were "top-hatted and frock-coated British aristocrats... ex-Cabinet Ministers... as well as several Tory and Socialist members of Parliament." The real attraction, however, was the kente cloth
worn not only by the bridegroom but by many of his relatives and friends. Coverage in newspapers around the world ranged from the hostile to skeptical to admiring.
Peggy and Joe took their honeymoon in France
and returned to England where Joe was to finish his legal training at the Middle Temple
. In May 1954 their first son, Kwame Anthony Appiah
, was born (amid another flutter of newspaper publicity) and in November the young family arrived in the Gold Coast to begin their new life. During this period, while Joe was developing a legal career and beginning his life as a politician, Peggy focused most of her energy on her young family —- Ama was born in 1955, Adwoa in 1960 and Abena in 1962 —- and on working as a secretary and legal assistant in his law office and for his constituents, supporting her husband as she had supported her father. She learned to wear cloth, started attending funerals, and got to know her husband’s family and his father’s family as well. They built themselves a home in Mbrom, where their neighbors were Victor Owusu, another senior NLM politician, John Brew, and, across the street, Joe Appiah's father, J.W.K. Appiah and his wife, Aunty Jane.
For more than thirty years, beginning in the late 1950s, Peggy’s extensive library at Mbrom was made available to the children of the neighbourhood, who could come and read children’s books, and, as they grew older, the novels and poetry she had collected. Among her most prized collections were many of the volumes of the Heinemann African Writers' series. Other frequent visitors to the house included the traders who brought her the goldweights they had acquired on their collecting trips through the villages and towns of Ghana
. She also took an interest in the education and welfare of a number of young people, who became part of her extended family, among them Isobel Kusi-Obodom, whose father died in Nkrumah’s prisons, and Dr. Joe Appiah-Kusi of Seattle.
. She also worked with Dr. Alex Kyerematen for the development of the Cultural Center in Kumasi. She served on the Committee of the Children's Home, worked with the home for the Destitute in Bekwai
, and in later years she became a patron of the Ghana National Association for the Blind. When her husband was imprisoned at the orders of Kwame Nkrumah
in October 1961, she refused to leave the country and a deportation order was withdrawn when a front-page article appeared in the British press describing her situation.
Around this time her son, Kwame, was very ill. The following month, Queen Elizabeth II made her first visit to Ghana
. While inspecting the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
in Kumasi
, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and President Nkrumah passed by the boy's bed. Since he had a picture of his parents displayed on his bedside table, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had visited Kumasi previously and had met Peggy Appiah, turned back, as he was leaving, to send his regards. President Nkrumah's reported anger at being embarrassed in this way -this was the husband of a foreign head of state sending a greeting to the wife of a man Nkrumah had in political detention — was reportedly one of the reasons that Kwame Appiah's doctor was deported.
The combination of her anxieties about her husband and her son put her under a great deal of strain, which was increased by the fact that she was pregnant at the time with her youngest child, Abena, who was extremely ill for much of her infancy. Nevertheless, she continued to maintain a stable home for her children and to work quietly for her husband's release, with the assistance of her mother, Lady Cripps, who was able to visit her son-in-law at Ussher Fort in 1962.
Lady Cripps returned to England with her sick grandson. Just before Christmas 1962, Joe was released from prison and allowed to return to legal practice. The anxieties of the final years of the Nkrumah
regime were relieved in 1966, by the coup that ousted Nkrumah. In the years that followed, as her children were abroad at boarding schools and universities, and her husband was active once more in Ghanaian politics and as an ambassador for the nation, she stayed mostly in Kumasi
, providing the base from which he could travel out into the world, secure in the knowledge that Peggy was taking care of things on the home front. She kept an eye on the properties he had inherited from his grand-uncle. Despite her family’s extensive political involvements, Peggy herself was not particularly interested in party politics. She supported her husband, of course. But her own contributions were through the wide range of social work she engaged in. She became interested in and knowledgeable about Akan art and folklore, as she acquired a major goldweight collection, began collecting and translating proverbs, and learned Ananse stories, many of them from her husband. For three decades, a visit to her house and her goldweight collection was one of the highlights of a visit to Ashanti for visitors interested in its art. Starting in the mid-1960s she began to publish a series of volumes of Ananse stories, retold for children, which became widely known in Africa, England and America and throughout the English-speaking world.
Beginning with Ananse the Spider: Tales from an Ashanti Village in 1966, and followed by Tales of an Ashanti Father, she went on to publish the Children of Ananse in 1968, The Pineapple Child and Other Tales from Asante in 1969, Why There are So Many Roads in 1972, and Why the Hyena Does Not Care for Fish and Other Tales from the Ashanti Gold Weights in 1977. She also published a series of readers to help Ghanaian children learn English: The Lost Earring, Yao and the Python, Abena and the Python, Afua and the Mouse and Kofi and the Crow, as well as a series of novels for children and adults, including Gift of the Mmoatia and Ring of Gold, and two volumes of poetry. Perhaps, her most important publication, however, which was the result of nearly five decades of work was Bu Me Bé: Proverbs of the Akan, a collection of over 7,000 Twi proverbs, which was launched in Accra in 2002.
In 1985, she and Joe traveled abroad together to visit their friend Kamuzu Banda, President of Malawi
, whom they had known during his period of exile in Ghana, to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of Malawi’s independence. They traveled widely around the country, before going on to stay with their daughter, Abena, who was then living in Zimbabwe
, and Ama, who was working in Angola
. Later on in the decade, they made a visit to Ama in Norway
, where Joe was diagnosed with the cancer that claimed his life in 1990.
, telling anyone who asked her when she was “going home,” that she was home already. She moved into a smaller house, which she built in a compound with a house for her daughter Abena, continued to work for her church, and went on studying Akan folklore. She visited her son and her daughters in the United States
, Namibia
and Nigeria
, and was visited in turn by her children and sons-in-law, and her six grandsons, Kristian, Anthony and Kojo, children of Ama and Klaus Endresen; and Tomiwa, Lamide and Tobi, children of Adwoa and Ola Edun. In the house next to her, with her daughter Abena, were her two grandchildren, Mimi and Mame Yaa.
"for services to UK/Ghanaian relations and community welfare".
In the final years of her life, as she became increasingly limited in her movements, she continued to be the center of a wide network of family and friends, and a caring household led by her housekeeper, Ma Rose. As she wrote at the end of her autobiography, published in 1995: “I thank God for all He has given me and the happiness He has brought me."
in Kumasi
.
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(b. 21 May 1921 - 11 February 2006) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
children's author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
and socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
. She was the daughter of the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps
Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...
and Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps
Isobel Cripps
Dame Isobel Cripps, GBE , also known as Lady Cripps, was a British overseas aid organiser and the wife of Sir Stafford Cripps....
, and the wife of Ghanaian lawyer and political activist Nana
Nana (title)
Nana is a Ghanaian title.Amongst the Akan clans of Ghana, the word Nana generally denotes social eminence derived from either nobility or advanced age. It is most often used as a pre-nominal honorific by individuals who are entitled to it due to the former of the two ....
Joe Appiah
Joe Appiah
Nana Joseph Emmanuel "Joe" Appiah, MP was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and statesman. He was born in Kumasi to Nana James Appiah and Nana Adwoa Akyaa, members of the Ashanti imperial aristocracy...
.
Early life
Enid Margaret Cripps was born in Goodfellows, GloucestershireGloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, just across the county border from the home of her parents, Stafford Cripps and Isobel (née) Swithinbank, in the village of Filkins
Filkins
Filkins is a village in the civil parish of Filkins and Broughton Poggs, about southwest of Carterton in Oxfordshire.-History:The Gothic Revival architect G.E. Street built the Church of England parish church of Saint Peter in 1855-1857...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, the youngest of four children.
The family had only recently moved into Goodfellows, the home in Filkins where Peggy grew up; a Cotswold-style manor house, whose decoration and development owed much to the influence of Sir Lawrence Weaver, the architect, who was, with his wife, Kathleen, one of the Cripps' closest friends. Lady Weaver died in 1927 of pneumonia. When Sir Lawrence also died in 1930, their two sons, Purcell and Toby, were, in effect, adopted by the Crippses. In later life, Peggy always regarded them as her brothers.
Childhood
Growing up in the country, in the care of her mother and her beloved nanny, Elsie Lawrence, and with the companionship of her sister Theresa, she spent much of her childhood exploring the English countryside, collecting the wildflowers and the fruits and mushrooms that grew in the hedgerows and meadows of the 500 acres (2 km²) of her father's farm and the surrounding woods and fields. As members of the British Wildflower Society, she and her sister learned how to identify plants and got to know the common and Latin names of many of them. She was to transfer this interest in later years to the flora of Ghana. This love of the countryside was something that united her family. Her brother, Sir John Cripps, not only farmed at Filkins, but edited The Countryman and was later the European Countryside Commissioner.Family
On her father's side, the family had long lived in GloucestershireGloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
: they were a solidly upper middle-class family. Her paternal grandfather, Lord Parmoor, was a lawyer who had been ennobled in 1914, when he became a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Joseph Cripps, had been MP for Cirencester
Cirencester
Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...
. Lord Parmoor had represented Stroud
Stroud
Stroud a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.Stroud may also refer to:*Stroud, New South Wales, Australia*Stroud, Ontario, Canada*Stroud , Gloucestershire, UK*Stroud...
in the House of Commons.
The political connections of her maternal side were also impressive. Two of her maternal grandmother's sisters were married to the MPs Charles Edward Henry Hobhouse
Charles Edward Henry Hobhouse
Sir Charles Edward Henry Hobhouse, 4th Baronet PC, TD, JP was a British Liberal politician. He was a member of the Liberal cabinet of H. H...
and Leonard Henry Courtney, Baron Courtney. Another great-aunt, Beatrice, was married to Sidney Webb, who served with her grandfather Lord Parmoor in the first Labour Government, in 1924, and was Secretary of State for the Colonies in the second Labour government in 1929, where he served in cabinet with Lord Parmoor, as Lord President of the Council, and was joined later by Stafford, as Solicitor General. (It was at this time that her father was knighted.)
The Cripps family were devout Anglicans. Lord Parmoor was an ecclesiastical lawyer, a member—and in 1911 the Chairman—of the house of Laymen in the Province of Canterbury, Vicar General of various English provinces, and author of Cripps on Church and Clergy. Stafford Cripps is said to have been the first layman to preach in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
. When Peggy Cripps was preparing for her confirmation, she told her parents that she had doubts about some of the thirty-nine articles of faith of the Church of England, and her father arranged for her to discuss them with his friend, William Temple
William Temple (archbishop)
William Temple was a priest in the Church of England. He served as Bishop of Manchester , Archbishop of York , and Archbishop of Canterbury ....
, Archbishop of York (later Archbishop of Canterbury). Peggy used to enjoy telling people that as they had gone through the 39 articles, each time she had expressed a doubt, the Archbishop had said, "Yes, I find that one very difficult, too!"
Education
She had a conventional education for a young woman of her class and time. She was educated first at a day school at Queen's College, Harley StreetQueen's College, London
Queen's College is an independent school for girls aged 11–18. It is located in central London at numbers 43-49, Harley Street. Founded in 1848 by F. D. Maurice, Professor of English Literature and History at King's College London along with a committee of patrons, the College was the first...
, and later at Maltman's Green, a boarding school in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
, where she and a group of friends attended a Quaker Meeting House. Through her parents’ connections, she also began to learn something of the world outside England. In 1938 she and her family spent several months in Jamaica, and in the same year Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
, with whom Stafford had begun an extensive correspondence as a result of his interest in the development of democracy in the British colonies, visited Goodfellows with his daughter Indira
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
.
"Off to study"
After finishing school, she applied to Edinburgh University, but first went off to ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to study the history of art in Florence. The Second World War was looming and she had to return hurriedly to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from Florence. She declined her place at Edinburgh University, enrolling instead at the Whitehall Secretarial College, which had been evacuated to Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
with the onset of bombing in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, so she could start work immediately.
Once she had completed her training, she was able to set off to join her father in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where he was then British Ambassador and she was able to be useful as a secretary in the embassy. Because the direct route to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
would have required traveling through German-occupied Europe, she and her mother and her sister Theresa, traveled to Russia by way of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, crossing the continent on the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
and then passing through Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and crossing the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
by rail.
In Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Peggy did secretarial work for her father and became friends with the daughters of the Yugoslav and Chinese ambassadors, and the daughter of an Iranian diplomat, who was to remain a life-long friend. In 1941, at the age of 20, with her parents in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and her sister in Iran, she was left in charge of the evacuation of the British Embassy, with the German invasion of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
looming. Since she was officially a secretary in the Foreign Service, she found herself working for a Mr. Cook in the consular department in Teheran. Later on, when the British Army took over the Iranian railway system, she worked as a secretary for the Brigadier who was in charge.
In 1942, she returned to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, accompanying her father, who was returning from a visit to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. They traveled through the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
on a seaplane, landing on Lake Galilee in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, where she was able to see the pyramids of Egypt. This was also her first visit to the African continent. For the rest of the war she worked in the Ministry of Information, first in the Indian Division and then in the Soviet Relations Division, where she was able to use her knowledge of the Russian language
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
in her work. As her father committed himself full time to politics, and to the reduced income that came with the loss of his legal practice, the family left Goodfellows and moved into a smaller house at Frith Hill, Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, although her brother John eventually took over the running of the farm at Filkins.
At the end of the war, Peggy had a nervous breakdown. She had given up her place at university to be useful during the war; now she found herself experienced but unqualified for the job she was already doing. She was sent to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
to recover at the Maximilian Bircher-Benner
Maximilian Bircher-Benner
Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner was a Swiss physician and a pioneer in nutritional research....
clinic in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, spent a summer in Lugano
Lugano
Lugano is a city of inhabitants in the city proper and a total of over 145,000 people in the agglomeration/city region, in the south of Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which borders Italy...
studying painting, and returned to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to take up the study of art full time at the Anglo-French Art Centre in St. John’s Wood, in London. Then she took up painting in a small studio in the apartment of the artist Feliks Topolski
Feliks Topolski
Feliks Topolski RA was a Polish-born British expressionist painter and draughtsman.- Life :Felix Topolski was born on 14 August 1907 in Warsaw...
and attended life-classes at Hammersmith Art School, under the tutelage of Carel Weight.
Throughout this period she was in close and regular touch with her parents, even though her father was increasingly busy with his political work. With the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
victory in the 1945 election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
at the end of the War, Stafford had entered the cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, where he spent most of his time working on negotiations with the leaders of Indian independence, including Gandhi, Nehru and Jinnah. In November 1947, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
and most of the rest of his life he helped to manage the beginnings of the post-War recovery of Britain and the creation of the modern welfare state.
In 1942, her mother had agreed to lead a campaign to raise money for aid to the people of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, who were facing great suffering as a result of the Japanese invasion, floods, disease and famine. Six years later, the Chinese government invited Lady Cripps to visit their country so that she could see what was being done with the money and express their gratitude for the work of British United Aid to China. Peggy went along as one of her mother’s traveling companions. Since the money was meant to be used to help all the Chinese, they both stayed with General and Madame Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
. She visited the Communist "Liberated Areas" in Yenan, where Peggy met Chou En Lai and Madame Mao. On their way back from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, she and her mother traveled through Burma and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Engagement
As a result of her experiences in JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Burma and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and her family’s friendship with people like the Nehrus, Peggy, who was now in her mid twenties, knew many people from many countries and also knew much more about life outside England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, indeed outside Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, than most of her contemporaries. This experience, along with her deep Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
commitments, led her to work for cooperation among peoples; and in the late 1940s she started to work for an organization called Racial Unity, which had been started by Miss Attlee, sister of the Prime Minister, as well as becoming active in the Youth Department of the World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
(WCC). It was through her work for Racial Unity, of which she was secretary in 1952, that she first met Joseph Emmanuel Appiah
Joe Appiah
Nana Joseph Emmanuel "Joe" Appiah, MP was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and statesman. He was born in Kumasi to Nana James Appiah and Nana Adwoa Akyaa, members of the Ashanti imperial aristocracy...
who was President of the West African Students' Union. Their friendship grew fast and in January 1952, he proposed and she accepted.
At the time, however, Stafford Cripps was extremely ill. In May 1951 he had been taken to the Maximilian Bircher-Benner
Maximilian Bircher-Benner
Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner was a Swiss physician and a pioneer in nutritional research....
clinic in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
(where Peggy had recovered many years before) and was eventually thought well enough to return home to the family home at Frith Hill. But in early January 1952 he was flown back to Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, where he died nearly four months later. As a result of this illness, Isobel decided that it would be best if the engagement should be kept secret. Then, once he died, custom required that the engagement not be announced for another year. In the meanwhile, Peggy’s mother suggested that she should visit the Gold Coast
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
on her own, traveling out by steamship to see the country of her intended husband.
Ghana
Much to her surprise, Joe was already at home in KumasiKumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, when she arrived, having flown back urgently on the death of his granduncle, Yao Antony, whom he was to succeed as head of his branch of the nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
of the Ashanti people. She traveled to Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
on Christmas Eve 1952, where she was reunited with her fiancé, and met his family, for the first time, with him, on Christmas Day. On New Year’s Eve she attended the Watch Night Service at the Wesley Methodist Church in Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, worshiping for the first time in the church which was to celebrate her funeral more than fifty years later. She also visited the campus of what was to be Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is a university located in Kumasi, Ghana.It is the second public university established in the country. The University has its roots in the plans of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I to establish a university in Kumasi as part of his drive...
, then a one-year old teacher’s training college, for the first time; a campus where she was to send her children to primary school and where, at the age of 84, in the last year of her life, she received an honorary degree of doctor of letters, to her great delight.
At home
On her first trip to Africa, she traveled as far north as NavrongoNavrongo
Navrongo is in Ghana, near its northern border. It is the capital of Kassena-Nankana District – which is within the Upper East Region of Ghana.Navrongo is an important market town, known for its cathedral and its grotto....
, crossed the Volta
Volta River
The Volta is a river in western Africa that drains into the Gulf of Guinea. It has three main tributaries—the Black Volta, White Volta and Red Volta...
and entered French Togoland
Togoland
Togoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana. The colony was established during the period generally known as the "Scramble for Africa"...
, in the east, and traveled to Elmina
Elmina
Elmina, is a town in the Central Region, situated on a south-facing bay on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ghana, about 12 km west of Cape Coast...
in the west. There was much speculation as to what she was doing in Ghana, and because the engagement had not been announced, she could not explain the real reason for her visit. She told the Daily Graphic that "[As] a member of a political family in Britain, I am very interested in the people of the Gold Coast and in their political advancement". Along with her future husband's family she met many prominent Ghanaians: the Asantehene, Mrs. Aggrey, wife of the founder of the Achimota School
Achimota School
Achimota School , is an elite and highly selective co-educational secondary school located at Achimota in Accra, Ghana. It was established and commenced operations in 1924 and formally opened in 1927 by Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg -- then governor of the Gold Coast...
, Kofi Antuban, the artist, Nene Mate Koli, as well as such leaders of the independence movement as Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, Kojo Gbedemah, Kojo Botsio
Kojo Botsio
Kojo Botsio was a Ghanaian diplomat and politician. He studied in Britain, where he became the treasurer of the West African National Secretariat and an acting warden for the West African Students' Union...
, and Krobo Edusei.
The announcement of their engagement in 1953 produced a firestorm of comment in Britain and around the world; and when Peggy Cripps and Joe Appiah were married in June 1953, the occasion was front-page news in Britain, in Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, and many other countries and the event was one of the social events of the year. George Padmore
George Padmore
George Padmore , born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist in his later years.-Early years:...
, the West Indian Pan-Africanist was best man, deputising for Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
, who was too busy as the new leader of Government Business to attend himself. Hugh Gaitskell, Stafford’s successor as Chancellor was there, as were Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
, future leader of the Labour party, Lady Quist, the wife of the Speaker of the Gold Coast Assembly, and Krishna Menon
Krishna Menon
Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon , commonly referred to as Krishna Menon, was an Indian nationalist, diplomat and statesman, described as the second most powerful man in India by Time Magazine and others, after his ally and intimate friend, Jawaharlal Nehru.Described as "vitriolic,...
, India’s ambassador to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. A Jamaican newspaper commented that there were "top-hatted and frock-coated British aristocrats... ex-Cabinet Ministers... as well as several Tory and Socialist members of Parliament." The real attraction, however, was the kente cloth
Kente cloth
Kente cloth, known locally as nwentoma, is a type of silk and cotton fabric made of interwoven cloth strips and is native to the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast.- Etymology :...
worn not only by the bridegroom but by many of his relatives and friends. Coverage in newspapers around the world ranged from the hostile to skeptical to admiring.
Peggy and Joe took their honeymoon in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and returned to England where Joe was to finish his legal training at the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
. In May 1954 their first son, Kwame Anthony Appiah
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a Ghanaian-British-American philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge...
, was born (amid another flutter of newspaper publicity) and in November the young family arrived in the Gold Coast to begin their new life. During this period, while Joe was developing a legal career and beginning his life as a politician, Peggy focused most of her energy on her young family —- Ama was born in 1955, Adwoa in 1960 and Abena in 1962 —- and on working as a secretary and legal assistant in his law office and for his constituents, supporting her husband as she had supported her father. She learned to wear cloth, started attending funerals, and got to know her husband’s family and his father’s family as well. They built themselves a home in Mbrom, where their neighbors were Victor Owusu, another senior NLM politician, John Brew, and, across the street, Joe Appiah's father, J.W.K. Appiah and his wife, Aunty Jane.
For more than thirty years, beginning in the late 1950s, Peggy’s extensive library at Mbrom was made available to the children of the neighbourhood, who could come and read children’s books, and, as they grew older, the novels and poetry she had collected. Among her most prized collections were many of the volumes of the Heinemann African Writers' series. Other frequent visitors to the house included the traders who brought her the goldweights they had acquired on their collecting trips through the villages and towns of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. She also took an interest in the education and welfare of a number of young people, who became part of her extended family, among them Isobel Kusi-Obodom, whose father died in Nkrumah’s prisons, and Dr. Joe Appiah-Kusi of Seattle.
Politics
After Joe Appiah was elected to Parliament in 1956, prior to independence, Peggy Appiah continued to provide a secure home to which he could return from his political struggles, forget about politics, and rest in the bosom of his family. Peggy chose to join St. George's Church in KumasiKumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
. She also worked with Dr. Alex Kyerematen for the development of the Cultural Center in Kumasi. She served on the Committee of the Children's Home, worked with the home for the Destitute in Bekwai
Bekwai
Bekwai is a town in Ghana. It is the capital of Amansie East District in the Ashanti Region.- References :...
, and in later years she became a patron of the Ghana National Association for the Blind. When her husband was imprisoned at the orders of Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
in October 1961, she refused to leave the country and a deportation order was withdrawn when a front-page article appeared in the British press describing her situation.
Around this time her son, Kwame, was very ill. The following month, Queen Elizabeth II made her first visit to Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
. While inspecting the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, is the second-largest hospital in the country and the only tertiary health institution in the Ashanti Region. It is the main referral hospital for the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.The hospital was built in...
in Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and President Nkrumah passed by the boy's bed. Since he had a picture of his parents displayed on his bedside table, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had visited Kumasi previously and had met Peggy Appiah, turned back, as he was leaving, to send his regards. President Nkrumah's reported anger at being embarrassed in this way -this was the husband of a foreign head of state sending a greeting to the wife of a man Nkrumah had in political detention — was reportedly one of the reasons that Kwame Appiah's doctor was deported.
The combination of her anxieties about her husband and her son put her under a great deal of strain, which was increased by the fact that she was pregnant at the time with her youngest child, Abena, who was extremely ill for much of her infancy. Nevertheless, she continued to maintain a stable home for her children and to work quietly for her husband's release, with the assistance of her mother, Lady Cripps, who was able to visit her son-in-law at Ussher Fort in 1962.
Lady Cripps returned to England with her sick grandson. Just before Christmas 1962, Joe was released from prison and allowed to return to legal practice. The anxieties of the final years of the Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
regime were relieved in 1966, by the coup that ousted Nkrumah. In the years that followed, as her children were abroad at boarding schools and universities, and her husband was active once more in Ghanaian politics and as an ambassador for the nation, she stayed mostly in Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
, providing the base from which he could travel out into the world, secure in the knowledge that Peggy was taking care of things on the home front. She kept an eye on the properties he had inherited from his grand-uncle. Despite her family’s extensive political involvements, Peggy herself was not particularly interested in party politics. She supported her husband, of course. But her own contributions were through the wide range of social work she engaged in. She became interested in and knowledgeable about Akan art and folklore, as she acquired a major goldweight collection, began collecting and translating proverbs, and learned Ananse stories, many of them from her husband. For three decades, a visit to her house and her goldweight collection was one of the highlights of a visit to Ashanti for visitors interested in its art. Starting in the mid-1960s she began to publish a series of volumes of Ananse stories, retold for children, which became widely known in Africa, England and America and throughout the English-speaking world.
Beginning with Ananse the Spider: Tales from an Ashanti Village in 1966, and followed by Tales of an Ashanti Father, she went on to publish the Children of Ananse in 1968, The Pineapple Child and Other Tales from Asante in 1969, Why There are So Many Roads in 1972, and Why the Hyena Does Not Care for Fish and Other Tales from the Ashanti Gold Weights in 1977. She also published a series of readers to help Ghanaian children learn English: The Lost Earring, Yao and the Python, Abena and the Python, Afua and the Mouse and Kofi and the Crow, as well as a series of novels for children and adults, including Gift of the Mmoatia and Ring of Gold, and two volumes of poetry. Perhaps, her most important publication, however, which was the result of nearly five decades of work was Bu Me Bé: Proverbs of the Akan, a collection of over 7,000 Twi proverbs, which was launched in Accra in 2002.
In 1985, she and Joe traveled abroad together to visit their friend Kamuzu Banda, President of Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, whom they had known during his period of exile in Ghana, to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of Malawi’s independence. They traveled widely around the country, before going on to stay with their daughter, Abena, who was then living in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, and Ama, who was working in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
. Later on in the decade, they made a visit to Ama in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, where Joe was diagnosed with the cancer that claimed his life in 1990.
Final years
In 1990, a widow, Peggy Appiah never considered leaving GhanaGhana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, telling anyone who asked her when she was “going home,” that she was home already. She moved into a smaller house, which she built in a compound with a house for her daughter Abena, continued to work for her church, and went on studying Akan folklore. She visited her son and her daughters in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, and was visited in turn by her children and sons-in-law, and her six grandsons, Kristian, Anthony and Kojo, children of Ama and Klaus Endresen; and Tomiwa, Lamide and Tobi, children of Adwoa and Ola Edun. In the house next to her, with her daughter Abena, were her two grandchildren, Mimi and Mame Yaa.
Awards
In 1996, Queen Elizabeth II awarded her the MBEMBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
"for services to UK/Ghanaian relations and community welfare".
Last years
In 2001, she visited England for the last time to celebrate her eightieth birthday with the surviving members of her own generation in her family and her children and grandchildren, along with many nephews and nieces and great-nephews and nieces.In the final years of her life, as she became increasingly limited in her movements, she continued to be the center of a wide network of family and friends, and a caring household led by her housekeeper, Ma Rose. As she wrote at the end of her autobiography, published in 1995: “I thank God for all He has given me and the happiness He has brought me."
Death
Peggy Appiah died on 11 February 2006, aged 84, from undisclosed causes, at the Komfo Anokye Teaching HospitalKomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, is the second-largest hospital in the country and the only tertiary health institution in the Ashanti Region. It is the main referral hospital for the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.The hospital was built in...
in Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
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Publications
- Bu Me Be: Akan Proverbs. Africa World Press, 2006.
- Busy body. Accra: Asempa, 1995.
- Rattletat. New Namibia Books, 1995.
- The Rubbish Heap. Accra: Asempa, 1995.
- Kyekyekulee, Grandmother's Tales. Accra: Quick Service Books, 1993.
- Kofi and the Crow. Accra: Quick Service Books, 1991.
- Afua and the Mouse. Accra: Quick Service Books, 1991.
- Abena and the Python. Accra: Quick Service Books, 1991.
- The Twins. Accra: Quick Service Books, 1991.
- Tales of an Ashanti Father. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
- A Dirge too Soon. Accra: Ghana Publishing, 1976.
- Ring of Gold. London: Deutsch, 1976.
- Why there are so many Roads. Lagos: African University Press, 1972.
- Gift of the Mmoatia. Accra: Ghana Publishing, 1972.
- Why the Hyena does not care for Fish and other tales from the Ashanti gold weights. London: Deutsch, 1971.
- A Smell of Onions. London: Longman, 1971.
- The Lost Earring. London: Evans, 1971.
- Yao and the Python. London: Evans, 1971.
- The Pineapple child and other tales from Ashanti. London: Evans, 1969.
- The Children of Ananse. London: Evans, 1968.
- Ananse the Spider: Tales from an Ashanti village. New York: Pantheon, 1966.
Sources
- Brozan, Nadine. "Peggy Appiah, 84, Author Who Bridged Two Cultures, Dies." New York Times, "International," 16 February 2006.
- Tucker, Nicholas. "Peggy Appiah: Daughter of Stafford Cripps who dedicated herself to creating a children's literature for Ghana". The Independent, "Obituaries," 17 February, 2006.
- Addai-Sebo, Akyaaba. "The Legacy Of Peggy Appiah--A Tribute." The New Times Online. Sunday, April 9, 2006.
- Akosah, Kwabena Sarpong. Tribute for Peggy Appiah. Homepage Ghana, 19 February 2006.