Meet Annie Jiagge Ghana's first female lawyer and judge
- Trailblazer Annie Jiagge became Ghana's first female lawyer and judge in 1959
- She was a principal drafter of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and a co-founder of the organisation that became Women's World Banking
- She was Headmistress and schoolteacher at the Evangelical Presbyterian Girls School from 1940 to 1946
- From 1993 until her death on June 12, 1996, Jiagge served on Ghana's Council of State
- Annie Jiagge was awarded the Grand Medal of Ghana and the Gimbles International Award for Humanitarian Works in 1969
Annie Jiagge made remarkable strides when she became Ghana’s first female lawyer and judge in 1959 while being exceptionally instrumental in advocating for justice for various abuses against women.
Born on October 7, 1918 in Lomé, French Togoland, Annie Ruth Jiagge was a Ghanaian lawyer, judge and women's rights activist.
The revered woman became Ghana’s female lawyer and also the first woman in Ghana and the Commonwealth of Nations to become a judge.
Annie Ruth Jiagge was a principal drafter of the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and a co-founder of the organisation that became Women's World Banking.
Her parents, Henrietta Baëta and Presbyterian minister, Robert Domingo Baëta, were both school teachers who belonged to the Ewe ethnic group of southeastern Ghana and Togo.
Annie Ruth Jiagge was one of eight children, though only Annie and her siblings Christian, Lily, and William lived to adulthood.
Her older brother, Christian Baëta was an academic and Presbyterian minister who was elected the Synod Clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of the Gold Coast from 1945 to 1949 and was instrumental in the establishment of the University of Ghana, Legon in 1948.
Annie Ruth Jiagge attended Achimota College and earned her teacher's certificate in 1937.
She was Headmistress and Schoolteacher at the Evangelical Presbyterian Girls School from 1940 to 1946.
Source: UGC
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After the buildings of the Evangelical Presbyterian School for Girls were washed away by the ocean in 1940, the girls were moved to the Evangelical Presbyterian School for Boys.
The school was overcrowded and Baeta knew it would be difficult to find funding for new buildings.
She approached the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Choir and transformed it into a drama group that put on the George F. Rool musical David the Shepherd Boy.
The performances were successful and the group was invited to perform in major Gold Coast cities and in Togo.
Baeta was able to raise funds for a new school for the girls that was built by December 1945. Her time with the Evangelical Presbyterian Girls School was fulfilling but left her restless.
She passed the London Matriculation Examination in 1945. She was admitted to the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1946.
Her male colleagues from the Gold Coast urged her to abandon her studies, thinking them too difficult for a woman.
One offered to arrange a position for her at the Paris Academy to study dress design but she told them she would return to the Gold Coast if she didn't pass her first examination.
She passed, and was no longer bothered by the men. She received her LLB in 1949 and was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn the following year.
Annie Ruth Jiagge also participated in religious and social work during her free time in London.
She worked with youth camps organised by the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and was elected to the Executive Committee of the World YWCA during her final years as a student.
She established a private practice upon her return to the Gold Coast in 1950. She led a public relations initiative to establish a national YWCA for the colony and a documentary film was produced as part of the drive to educate the public about the organisation.
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Baeta married Fred Jiagge on 10 January 1953. She gave up the Bar and became a magistrate for the Bench in June 1953.
In 1954, she began regularly attending the conferences of the World Council of Churches. From 1955 to 1960, she was president of the YWCA. She and her husband adopted a child, Rheinhold, in 1959. In 1959, she became a judge for the Circuit Court.
Jiagge was awarded the Grand Medal of Ghana and the Gimbles International Award for Humanitarian Works in 1969.
She was named a judge of the Court of Appeal that same year, the highest court in Ghana at the time. She was the first female judge of the Court of Appeal and was awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Ghana in 1974.
From 1993 until her death on 12 June 1996, Jiagge served on Ghana's Council of State
The Justice Annie Jiagge Memorial Lectures were established by the Ministry of Women and Children in 2009.
A boarding house, the Annie Baëta Jiagge House, formerly, House 17, at her alma mater, Achimota School was named in her memory in recognition of her role as a trailblazer in the legal profession in Ghana.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
