Garbrah, John Kwabena Kaipro (1882–1962)

John Kwabena Kaipro Garbrah, the first ordained Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventist minister, was born in Shama in 1882.¹ He was the son of Opanin Kaipro Garbrah of Shama. He started his primary education at Shama and continued in Sekondi. After his middle school leaving certificate examination (MSLC) he started work as a teacher-evangelist at Kikam SDA School. C. A. Ackah employed two of the church evangelists as teachers at Kikam SDA School, namely J. A. Bonney and John K. K. Garbrah as teachers on full time salary.² This fact has been confirmed by other people. According to Professor Kofi Owusu-Mensa, “Teachers who served at the Kikam SDA School during the early years of its existence include J. D. Hayford, Francis Dolphin, J. A. Bonney, Samuel Duncan Morgan, and J. K. K. Garbrah.”³ Garbrah was a close friend and an employee of Christian Abraham Ackah of Kikam. They planned, together with others, to invite several Europeans to conduct evangelistic campaigns in Nzemaland. “Early in 1909, urgent request having come from the Gold Coast, C. E. F. Thompson went to Kikam and Axim, and conducted a series of meetings among the Nzemas…. And later, D. C. Babcock visited these points, held further meetings with the people, and baptized about fifty believers, organizing churches at Kikam and Axim.”⁴

Garbrah married Anna who worked with her husband throughout his ministry. Pastor Garbrah and his wife were blessed with six children, including Ama Garbrah and Kwesi Warabeh.

Garbrah was ordained as a minister in the Seventh-day Adventist church in May 1921 as a result of his hard work at Kikam, Axim, Agona in the Ashanti region, and other places. His ordination took place in Waterloo, Sierra Leone, making him the first ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister in Ghana. The next person to be ordained was Solomon Benjamin Essien of Kikam in 1935 at Agona, making these two the only ordained ministers in the country in 1935.⁵

Immediately after his ordination, J. K. K. Garbrah joined Thomas Bakar and Jesse Clifford as an advisory committee of the Ghana Mission. However, they took instructions from the general superintendent for the Seventh-day Church in West Africa in the person of Pastor Langford who was stationed in Sierra Leone. On October 12, 1921, Pastor Garbrah was sent to pastor in Kumasi. During this period, being the only Ghanaian at the mission headquarters at Agona, he influenced his two colleagues to transfer the headquarters from Agona to Kumasi, which they did in 1924; but in 1927 Pastor J. J. Hyde, the new superintendent for West Africa, returned the headquarters to Agona.⁶

In addition to pastoral work, J. K. K. Garbrah also established the first SDA school in Kumasi in January 1922. The school is on Bimpe Hill, Asafo. He headed the school from the very beginning until September 29, 1924, when he handed over the administration of the school to George O. Quainoo in order to focus on pastoral and administrative work. He conducted major evangelistic campaigns in Kumasi and won many souls in Kumasi between 1921 and 1924.

After a massive baptism in 1922, Jesse Clifford remarked that “The first fruits are now being seen on Garbrah’s pioneering work in Kumasi.”⁷ Even though Seventh-day Adventism got to Kumasi and its environs on October 21, 1914, during the trip of Pastor William H. S. Lewis, the church was not popular in Kumasi city until the time of Pastor Garbrah. The popularity of the Seventh-day Adventist church and the conduct of major public campaigns in Kumasi began with Pastor Garbrah, especially from 1921 onwards. In the later part of his ministry he was sent to pastor the churches in Osiem and Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern region. In addition to Western, Central, Ashanti, and Eastern regions, he also worked in other regions. He retired from active service in late 1935 and died in 1962 at the age of 74.

Pastor J. K. K. Garbrah will be remembered for being the first ordained Ghanaian minister, trainer of evangelists at Kikam SDA School, pioneering work in Kumasi, pioneer of Adventist education in Kumasi city, motivator behind the selection of Kumasi as the headquarters of the SDA church in Ghana, and the mega evangelistic campaigns he conducted during his time.⁸

Sources

Owusu-Mensah, Kofi Ghana Seventh-day Adventism: A History. Accra: Advent Press, 2005.

Olsen, Elesworth M. A History of The Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists, Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1925.

Polley-Kwofie, Kojo The Beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism in Ghana, Accra: Agape Publishing Ltd, 2010.

Notes

1. Willaim Animia Cobbina, retired pastor, interview by author, Adientem, Takoradi, November 24, 2018.↩

2. Kojo Polley-Kwofie, The Beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism in Ghana (Accra: Agape Publishing Ltd, 2010), 39.↩

3. Kofi Owusu Mensa, Ghana Seventh-day Adventism: A History (Accra: Advent Press, 2005), 100.↩

4. M Ellsworth Olsen, A History of The Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1925), 509.↩

5. Polley-Kwofie, 39.↩

6. Ibid.↩

7. Mensa, 185.↩

8. Ibid.↩