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DOORWAY TO SUCCESS?:

RECONSTRUCTING AFRICAN CAREERS IN

EUROPEAN BUSINESS FROM COMPANY HOUSE

MAGAZINES AND ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS

DMITRI VAN DEN BERSSELAAR

UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL1

I

The largely literate African employees of European businesses during the

colonial and postcolonial period have not been studied as a group, unlike

miners, railway workers and colonial intermediaries.2 This group has never-

theless been of great importance. Many of its members became part of the

core of the management of African-owned enterprises and organizations,

others started their own businesses or became successful politicians.3

African employees of European business, alongside government employ-

ees, formed the basis of the rapidly growing middle classes during the peri-

od after the Second World War. They gave their children a Western-styleeducation, often at well-respected schools. In many local communities the

History in Africa 38 (2011), 257294

1I would like to acknowledge the support of Unilever PLC, of the Department of History

in the University of Liverpool, and of the IGK re:work, Work and Life-Cycle in Global

Historical Perspective, at the Humboldt University, Berlin. I thank Diane Backhouse and

Jeannette Strickland of Unilever PLC, as well as Bernice Natue and Theophilus Tandoh

of Unilever Ghana Ltd for all their help with the project. I also thank Stephanie Decker,

the re:work fellows, and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback on earlier versionsof this article.2Benjamin N. Lawrance, Emily L. Osborn, and Richard L. Roberts (eds.), Intermediaries,

Interpreters, and Clerks. African Employees in the Making of Colonial Africa (Madison,

2006).3Tom Forrest, The Advance of African Capital. The Growth of Nigerian Private Enter-

prise (Edinburgh, 1994); Peter C. Garlick, African Traders and Economic Development

in Ghana (Oxford, 1971); Joe Appiah, Autobiography of an African Patriot (Accra,

1996).


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260 Dmitri van den Bersselaar

ed goods UAC was accused of exploitative practices. The company

became a target for African nationalist politicians, who claimed that colo-

nial administrators worked closely together with foreign businesses like

UAC, to the detriment of African entrepreneurs and consumers alike. Ten-

sions came to a head in Ghana in 1948, when an earlier boycott of non-

African enterprises gave way to widespread rioting and looting of foreign

businesses throughout the countrys coastal and central areas; UAC was the

worst-hit company. Although Nigeria and other colonies did not experience

the same violence as Ghana, nationalist politics was an important force

there as well, and tensions were rife. By 1950 it had become clear that colo-

nial rule would end soon, and that foreign companies would have to engagewith their critics if they planned to remain in business after political

decolonisation. Goodwill advertising was one response to these political cir-

cumstances.9

A first clue to the impact of this political context can be found in the

advertising campaigns which UAC ran in the early 1950s in Ghana and

Nigeria aimed at improving the image of the company, emphasizing the

contributions it made to West African society and the opportunities it

offered to its employees. One advertisement, captioned Doorway to suc-

cess (image 1), declared that many are finding their opportunity with The

United Africa Company which sets no limit on the promotion to which any

of its employees may attain and actively encourages the advancement of

every one of its employees, adding that: To-day, nearly one in four of the

West African Managerial Trading staff is an African, with full managerial

status and occupying a position of trust and initiative in the service of the

Company and participating in every important aspect of its administra-tion.10 The message is illustrated with a drawing of a smiling African man,

wearing a suit, sitting at a desk with telephone, dictating something to a sub-

ordinate. The view out of his office door with a freshly-painted sign

MANAGER is of a room full of clerks working at their desks. Door-

way to success was intended to reach audiences outside the company and

do two things: to build up goodwill for the Company, and to encourage tal-

ented Africans to consider a career with UAC. The Company needed to

recruit more educated Africans as part of its Africanization strategy: to

increase the number of Africans in responsible management positions hith-

9Stephanie Decker, Corporate Legitimacy and Advertising: British Companies and the

Rhetoric of Development in West Africa, 1950-1970, Business History Review 81

(2007), 59-86.10UARM UAC/1/11/20/1 Guardbook UAC Ltd Goodwill (c.1949-1954).


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Reconstructing African Careers in European Business 261

Image 1: Doorway to success: an example of adverts used in West Africa during the1950s to improve the image to the United Africa Company (UAC) and to attract newqualified African applicants. [UARM UAC/1/11/20/1Guardbook UAC Ltd. Goodwill(c.1949-1954)] Reproduced with kind permission of Unilever from originals in Unilever

Archives.


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erto dominated by Europeans.11 Africanization was a common response to

decolonization and the rise of African nationalism, and UAC found that it

was competing with branches of the colonial administration and other busi-

nesses for the services of a limited number of educated Africans. As many

Africans appeared drawn towards working for branches of the decolonizing

state apparatus, UAC decided to explain the advantages of a career in Euro-

pean business to prospective employees.12

UACs doorway to success was narrow: only a small percentage of its

African staff was employed at the management level, and over 95% of

employees had roles such as clerks, bookkeepers, or laborers. In contrast,

nearly all European staff were engaged in management roles. UAC conclud-ed that in addition to improving its image and attracting more highly quali-

fied African applicants, it had to improve relations with its existing employ-

ees. The company realized that nationalist politics and labor demands tested

the loyalty of its workers. Management thought it possible that some work-

ers could be convinced by the arguments of the nationalists. It also noted

that during nationalist protests, loyal UAC workers had faced physical

intimidation, or had been denounced by nationalists as stooges on plac-

ards all over town.13 By fostering a sense of esprit de corps and pride in

the Company, senior management hoped that employees would work loyal-

ly and without complaining, would defend UAC when talking with mem-

bers of the public, and would decide to pursue a career within the organisa-

tion rather than take up a lucrative offer elsewhere. The methods for achiev-

ing this included long service awards, perks (such as free medical care),

staff parties, organized sports activities, and company house magazines. In

Ghana, the free company newsletter Gold Coast UAC News, later re-namedThe Unicorn, was launched in December 1949. In the first issue, P.H. Fitz-

Gerald, the General Manager, summarized his ambition for the magazine as

follows: I believe this paper will help to keep the staff together and give

them a further interest in working for our Company.14 The magazine

actively fostered a sense of team spirit among the employees, and encour-

aged them to see themselves as forming the UAC family. A good example

11Fieldhouse,Merchant Capital, 175-82.12UARM UAC/1/11/18/2/19 Joseph: UAC Recruitment Cartoon Report (1955);

UARM UAC/1/11/18/2/27 Men of Tomorrow (1960); UARM UAC/1/11/18/2/28 A

Career for you with UAC[1960s].13UARM UAC/2/20/3/2 K.R. Adams to P.H. Fitz-Gerald, 2 February 1950.14UARM UAC/2/20/3/6/1 A message from the General Manager Mr P.H. Fitz-Ger-

ald,Gold Coast UAC News1.1 (1949), 3.


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of the tone sought can be found in the short contribution Mr Azu recounts

his experience in Nigeria. Mr Azu narrates how he travelled from Ghana to

Nigeria, and how, when he was taking a stroll in the street in Warri, he was

approached by a man on a bicycle: He smiled, greeted me, and asked very

pleasantly: By the way are you working with the U.A.C.? You look like a

stranger to this country but your tie... Yes indeed I was wearing my U.A.C.

tie. We were friends right off. Thanks to the U.A.C. tie.15 A couple of

years later, E.C. Adzim reported how he was saved by the company tie,

when a stranger offered him free overnight accommodation upon recogniz-

ing his UAC tie. He concludes: I considered the mans gesture as a sort of

kindness I would have missed if I had not worn my Company tie. So nexttime any member of staff travels, he should make sure he puts on his U.A.C.

tie.16

More than fifty years later, in September 2010, I interviewed former

UAC employees in and around Accra. These interviews are part of a larger

project to document the experiences of former UAC employees living in

Ghana, Nigeria and the UK through oral history interviews. The recordings

and their transcriptions will be added to the UAC collection in the Unilever

archive. The interviews in the UK are conducted by Unilever staff with

training in oral history interview skills. The interviews in Ghana and Nige-

ria are conducted by me. Most of the individuals to be interviewed in Ghana

and Nigeria have been identified by corporate communications staff at

Unilever Ghana and Unilever Nigeria, who also arrange the appointments

and logistics. The people I have interviewed so far are two-thirds male and

most worked for UAC at the level of manager or above. No one wore a

company tie when I interviewed them, and the company spirit createdthrough the house magazines and other company activities was not

embraced wholeheartedly by my interviewees. Nevertheless, nearly every-

one expressed pride in having worked for UAC. Furthermore, all talked

about the existence of a distinct UAC identity and about a set of values

and business practices that UAC people ascribed to.

The creation of this collection of oral history interviews concerned

with the experiences and memories of the interviewee has more in com-

mon with the practice of oral history as it developed in Europe and North

America, than it has with the use of oral traditions to uncover precolonial

15Mr Azu recounts his experience in Nigeria, Gold Coast UAC News5.6 (1954), 6.16UARM UAC/2/20/3/6/3 E.C. Adzim, How the company tie saved me, The Unicorn

8.7 (1962), 7.


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history commonly associated with African oral historiography.17 David

Henige has highlighted some of the problems associated with the use of oral

traditions to reconstruct precolonial history, particular the presence of recent

feedback from written sources in what purport to be traditions that have

been orally transmitted through the ages.18 Heniges methodological con-

cerns were important and influenced subsequent research in oral traditions.

The issues are somewhat different in the case of oral history interviews with

literate Africans who relate their experiences of the colonial and postcolo-

nial period. In such interviews, the written and the oral cannot, of course, be

so neatly separated conceptually.19 In fact, one would expect that former

employees memories of working with UAC would be to some extent influ-enced by the company magazines and other company communications, as

well as by other written texts such as published biographies, self-improve-

ment books, and religious tracts.20 How the workplace is remembered will

also be influenced by the individuals experiences after leaving the Compa-

ny, as well as the individuals stage in the life cycle at the time of the inter-

view. As a result, the interviews reflect as much the interviewees coherent

presentation of the self through the narrating of their career history, as their

attempts to remember details about their experiences working for the Com-

pany.

In the remainder of this article I will explore the usefulness of the com-

pany magazine and oral history interviews with former employees as

sources for historians interested in the careers and work experiences of

African employees in European business. In the following section I will

introduce the UAC, with a focus on its operations in Ghana. I will sketch

some of the key changes in the company for the entire period from its for-mation in 1929 until its merger with Lever Brothers Ghana in 1992, so far

as these changes impacted on how the company related to its African

employees. After this, I will explore how UAC work and careers are repre-

17David Henige, Where Seldom Is Heard a Discouraging Word: Method in Oral Histo-

ry,Oral History Review14 (1986), 35-42.18

David Henige, The Problem of Feedback in Oral Tradition: Four Examples from theFante Coastlands, Journal of African History 14 (1973), 223-35; David Henige, Oral

Historiography (London, 1982).19David W. Cohen, Luise White, and Stephan F. Miescher, Introduction: Voices, Words,

and African History in: Luise White, Stephan F. Miescher, and David W. Cohen (eds.),

African Words, African Voices. Critical Practices in Oral History (Bloomington IN,

2001), 15.20Karin Barber (ed.),Africas Hidden Histories: Everyday Literacy and Making the Self

(Bloomington IN, 2006).


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sented in the Gold Coast UAC News and The Unicorn. A further section

will discuss the ways in which Ghanaian former UAC employees reflect on

their careers and on their experiences working for the company. A final sec-

tion will reflect on the relation (and tensions) between corporate culture and

remembered individual experiences.

II

Any attempt to characterize working for the United Africa Company is

complicated by two factors: firstly the rapid changes the company under-went after the Second World War, and secondly the sheer diversity of its

activities in West Africa. UAC was created in 1929 through the amalgama-

tion of a number of existing trading firms active in West Africa. This merg-

er caused a first complication, as rather than to rationalize operations under

a single UAC brand, existing operations and brands were allowed to coex-

ist. During the 1930s and 1940s, UAC focused predominantly on trading:

on the one hand the buying up of African produce such as palm oil, bulking

and transporting these to the coast for export; on the other hand the importa-

tion of a broad range of products from Europe and elsewhere, including

cloth, liquor, building materials, bicycles, haberdashery and so on. This

trade was conducted from a network of stores throughout West Africa. In

addition to the stores intended for Africans, UAC also operated a smaller

number of Kingsway Stores intended for Europeans and African elites,

which carried many luxury items including European foodstuffs. To support

these activities, UAC ran an agency providing shipping services includingthe loading and unloading of vessels using surf boats and also owned its

own shipping line, Palm Line.

During this period, UAC employed several hundred Europeans as man-

agers, wholesale and retail storekeepers, and in a number of functions

requiring specialized technical expertise. The thousands of Africans were

mostly employed in subordinate positions, including as clerks and book-

keepers, drivers, watchmen, laborers, and as crews of surf boats. There were

a number of African wholesale and retail storekeepers, and a small number

of African managers: thirty-nine in 1939.21 In addition to the people directly

employed by UAC, there also existed the category of credit customers

who, although technically customers, had very similar responsibilities as the

21Fieldhouse,Merchant Capital, 375.


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storekeepers had, and related to the company in a similar way.22 African

storekeepers, credit customers and managers all had significant responsibili-

ties and were entrusted with large amounts of goods and money. Neverthe-

less, in 1948 an internal UAC report noted the existence of racial discrimi-

nation and racialism, documenting several instances of discriminatory

behaviour of Europeans towards African co-workers. Some European man-

agers had never invited an African into their houses, and the clubs that

European managers were members of, were not always open to African

managers. The salary structure was also racialized, and experienced African

managers resented the fact that they had to teach the job to newly arrived

and inexperienced European recruits who earned twice their salaries.23After 1948 two developments changed the experience of working for

UAC. The first was Africanization, already mentioned. This process not

only resulted in more Africans being promoted to managers or higher posi-

tions, but also saw a change in the gender balance of the workforce. Up

until the Second World War, the Companys employees were almost exclu-

sively male, while a large proportion of its credit customers who were key

to the business model and influential in deciding which goods of which

quality were carried against which price were female. This changed after

the war, when more and more women were employed in sales, secretarial

and other functions, and shortly thereafter also as managers. In Ghana the

first female manager was appointed in 1952: Martha Sylvia Dadzie, who

had qualified as an optician in Britain.24 Although it was company policy to

hire young women from good families as sales assistants for the Kingsway

department stores, UAC does not appear to have had a policy aimed at hir-

ing more women as managers. The increase in females in such positionswas probably a side-effect of the competition between foreign firms and

government to recruit from among the relatively small number of qualified

Africans.

The second development was UACs expansion from trading into local

production. This meant a further diversification of the kind of businesses

and roles that UAC employees might be engaged in. New enterprises that

were started in Ghana in the decades following the Second Word War

included machete production (Crocodile matchets), plywood manufacture,

creams and pomades (Nku cream), cold storage and sausage manufacture,

vehicle assembly, beer brewing (Guinness and Star) and textile printing. A

22Murillo, The Devil We Know.23Fieldhouse,Merchant Capital, 340-41.24Gold Coast UAC News3.11 (1952), 1.


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network of garages was established to service the vehicles imported or

assembled by UAC, and an advertising agency was set up to market the

products that were developed and manufactured locally. By the 1970s, UAC

employees worked across a broad range of different businesses, and new

recruits did not always realize that they were joining UAC when they first

started to work for one of the enterprises in the UAC Group.25 Furthermore,

the relationship between UAC Group Head Office in Accra and the various

divisions was not without tensions as local divisions often felt insufficiently

resourced and supported. Tensions also arose from the teams of auditors

that Head Office sent out to check on the finances and procedures of local

operations. Hence it is not surprising that corporate management identifiedthe need to keep the staff together to make people who worked for dif-

ferent branches of UAC realize that they worked for the same company and

had shared interests. To facilitate career development, the company also had

to establish a diverse training program, including mechanical and technical

skills training, sales training, and financial and management training.

Generalizing about working for UAC is difficult because of the large size

of the company, the diversity of activities that UAC engaged in, and the

segmented company structure. During the 1980s, to these existing complex-

ities were added the consequences of the 1981 Rawlings revolution and sub-

sequent shortages in imported and locally produced commodities. The func-

tion of management was complicated by workers committees that were

formed as part of the revolutionary ideology, and which could wield consid-

erable influence because they had the backing of the Provisional National

Defence Council (PNDC). In 1982, for instance, UAC lost control of its tex-

tile printing business in Tema when there was a revolt in the factory overplanned redundancies, resulting in the take-over of the factory by a workers

committee. UAC continued to market the products made in the factory, but

never regained control of the production facility.26 The limitations on the

importation of commodities and the collapse of the transport infrastructure

meant that many UAC divisions had to improvise to stay in business. For

example, the management of the upmarket Kingsway Stores, which had

become known for its luxury imported branded goods, decided to send lor-

ries to the countryside to buy up yams, spinach, plantains and other local

foodstuffs. For Kingsway Stores to sell such basic commodities was

unheard of, but they were snapped up by the customers.27 The 1980s were

25Interview with Kofi Boateng, Tema, 24 September 2010.26Interview with Kofi Bayitse, Tema, 20 September 2010.27Interview with Deborah Quartey, Tema, 20 September 2010.


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years of insecurity for UAC employees. There were redundancies in most

divisions, and the business as a whole experienced a steady decline. When

import licences were abolished in 1989 and import tariffs lowered, most

UAC businesses were uncompetitive in a market suddenly swamped by

cheap imports. UAC embarked upon a major restructuring, closing down

certain businesses such as Kingsway Stores, and selling off others such as

the breweries. UAC Ghana ceased to exist in 1992 when its remaining busi-

ness was merged with that of Lever Brothers to form Unilever Ghana Limit-

ed. The restructuring process was very painful for UAC employees. A rela-

tively small group of employees was transferred to Unilever Ghana, which

was a much smaller business than UAC with different core competencies,so could only absorb a small percentage of UAC people. Another group

continued to do the work they used to do as UAC employees, but now as

independent businesses for instance as key distributors for Unilever prod-

ucts. A further group were moved to another employer when their division

was sold to another company, as was the case for workers in the textile busi-

ness and the breweries. However, many employees were made redundant

and lost their jobs.28

III

Between 1949 and 1993 UAC published its house magazine Gold Coast

UAC News, renamed in 1955 to The Unicorn. As mentioned above, Gold

Coast UAC Newswas started as an attempt to improve the relations between

the company and its employees at a time when the company was facing con-siderable criticism from African nationalists. The first editor of the newslet-

ter was John Thomson Alexander, the UAC Information Officer. Alexander

had begun his UAC career in 1938 in Nigeria, and had been transferred to

Ghana in 1945 as Labor/Staff Manager.29 There is no record of Alexander

having received specific journalistic training, but he will probably have

been familiar with existing company magazines, such as Unilevers long-

established Progress magazine and Port Sunlight News, with which the

Gold Coast UAC News had a lot in common. From the first issue, Alexan-

der intended that the magazine would not only contain articles prepared by

28Interview with Ishmael Yamson, Accra, 20 September 2010.29Chart of the Companys Gold Coast Coronation Year Administrative Organisation,

Gold Coast UAC News4.6 (1953), 4-5.


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him and his staff, but also contributions written by UAC employees work-

ing at different locations and in various parts of the organisation. While he

published several poems and more general observations submitted by

employees, it is clear that he had their contributions carefully edited to help

achieve the aims of informing and motivating staff, and to foster among

them a sense of belonging to the UAC family. Most articles highlight staff

achievements or initiatives worth emulating. The contribution Staff organ-

ise canteen at Cape Coast for example concludes: () it is gratifying to

learn of the enterprise of the Cape Coast staff. Mr Simon Jonah who runs

the canteen, and his associations have certainly earned the approval and

admiration of their fellows.30Articles published in the UAC house magazines can be grouped into five

categories with the following themes: the sense of belonging to a UAC

family; the career development of African employees through training

and promotions; the benefits that UAC staff received; how UAC rewards

loyalty; and educating staff about aspects of the business. I will now look at

these five themes in more detail.

The articles promoting a sense of belonging to UAC make up the largest

category in terms of the number of contributions, and in many of the

newsletters issues also in terms of the amount of space taken up, even

though these articles were often quite short. Several regular sections are

devoted to this. The first is Notes from the Districts. Under this heading

are published brief notices relating to UAC employees, mainly of a personal

nature. Included are notices of staff members going on leave or being trans-

ferred to another station, and reports of the send-offs organized for them.

For instance, when F.K. Dedzo was sent on transfer from Keta to Tarkwa,the Branch Manager attended the send-off and reportedly made a very sub-

stantial contribution to the festivities by a gift of beer. The party was a

great success.31 When P.K. Dzathor went on leave and transfer, his col-

leagues at the Accra head office presented him with a book entitled The

Amazing Results of Positive Thinking.32 Frequent mention is made of wed-

dings, often as part of the shorter Notes but also in dedicated articles,

which were often illustrated with large-sized photographs of the newly-

weds. When other UAC staff are among the well-wishers in the photographs

they are identified together with their job title. Births of children of employ-

30Gold Coast UAC News1.1 (1949), 1.31Gold Coast UAC News1.3 (1950), 5.32The Unicorn9.4 (1963), 2.


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ees are mentioned (though not systematically), as are Christenings. A Baby

picture competition was held to which staff could submit photographs of

their offspring.33 The newsletters also report the deaths of employees next-

of-kin, and extend condolences. The attainment of scholarships and acade-

mic qualifications by employees children is also reported. The house maga-

zines thus consistently write about the families of employees in terms of the

nuclear family, of father, mother and their children. It is not clear whether

this simply reflects Mr Alexanders understanding of the family based on

his own, British, experience; whether UAC employees were more likely to

have embraced the idea of the nuclear family; or whether the Company was

actively trying to nuclearize the family life of its employees.Many contributions focus on the achievements of individual members of

staff, including their gaining additional qualifications or being interviewed

on the radio. A particular favourite for reporting was the taking up of a

chieftaincy position by staff or former staff. For instance, the September

1963 issue ofThe Unicorncarried a photograph captioned Former Textiles

Depot-Keeper made Chief (image 2), which shows the installation of G.E.

Bilson who had left UAC the previous May after thirty-six years of ser-

vice as Mankrado of Eyiakrom-Nkodwo.34 Sometimes, members of staff

left the company to take up such a chieftaincy position, as Peter Wayo did,

who resigned from his job as Assistant Hardware Wholesale Storekeeper to

become the Suisu Nabtse of Odumasi Krobo.35 Other UAC people contin-

ued to work for the Company after taking up a traditional office. Not only

would the newsletter report on their selection, there were also articles about

the traditional festivals they celebrated. For example, Celebrating

Akwambo festival shows a photograph of the durbar of Nana KwesiPamfo, otherwise known as J.E. Etuah, Wholesale Storekeeper of the Hard-

ware Department at Dunkwa. It shows K.A. Coleman-Paittoo, Assistant

Merchandise Manager, paying his respects to Nana Pamfo, with D.M.

Attabra of the Merchandise Department and H.R.A. Okoe, the Company

Personnel Manager, looking on.36 The achievements and careers of UAC

employees and pensioners are also described in their obituaries. Of course,

the funeral of a (former) employee required proper representation from the

management, and from (former) colleagues, reported in detail in the Com-

pany newsletter. For instance, when M.T.D. Lassey died, after fourteen

33Gold Coast UAC News3.11 (1952), 1.34The Unicorn9.9 (1963), back cover.35Gold Coast UAC News1.4 (1950), 3.36The Unicorn9.11 (1963), 6.


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years of retirement, The Unicorn reported that his widow was presentedwith the sum of Nc 10.50 on behalf of the UAC Pensioners Association.

Mr Lassey had retired as a Storekeeper, having worked with the Company

for twenty-four years.37 The editor of the newsletter thus pushes a clear,

consistent message: UAC workers should be interested in the well-being

and flourishing of other UAC staff, regardless of whether they have ever

met the person, simply because they all belong to the same UAC family.

A second regular section originally called Station sport highlighted

the sports activities of employees. These could be individual sporting

achievements, such as that of J.O. Majekodunmi of the UAC Accounts

Department, who won a medal in the 1950 British Empire Games held in

New Zealand, or the selection, in 1952, of A.O. Lawson for the Olympic

37The Unicorn14.6 (1968), 9.

Image 2: Former textiles depot-keeper made chief: Riding in a palanquin is Mr G.E. Bil-son, a retired member of staff, on the day of his installation as Mankrado of Eyiakrom-Nkodwo in the Eyan Denkyira traditional area. Mr Bilsons stool name is Nana KobinahAndoh II. He retired from the Company in May this year with 36 years service to hiscredit. [UARM UAC/2/20/3/6/3 The Unicorn 9.9 (1963)] Reproduced with kind permis-sion of Unilever from originals in Unilever Archives.


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Games.38 However, most contributions are about UAC teams and competi-

tions. The Company organized sporting activities and strongly encouraged

its employees to take part. Soccer was particularly prominent. Many towns

had a UAC football team that played in local amateur leagues. In Accra,

there were so many teams from different UAC divisions and departments,

that their fixtures such as Accra Motors vs. Distribution Centre or

Lighterage vs. Swanmill were organized into a league of their own. The

match results were of course reported in the Gold Coast UAC Newstogether

with appropriate comment. In October 1950, when the Swanmill team was

trailing the league, the editor quipped: Poor old Swanmill! Even though

you do have dancing classes you are surely not going to let your footballsuffer?39 Special football matches were organized to celebrate specific

events, such as the departure of a manager.40 The newsletters frequently

noted the UACs material support, as was the case when the soccer team in

Nsawam received new jerseys and shorts. The jerseys were in the Company

colors of red and black, with the text U.A.C. Nsawam in gold on the

breast pocket.41 The Company also provided tennis courts for employees at

a number of its branches, and supported successful athletes amongst its staff

on an individual basis.42 However, UACs Ghanaian sportsmen were also

admonished for expecting special privileges from the Company, rather than

to train hard and make sacrifices for their sport.43 This somewhat unusual

for the pages of the Gold Coast UAC News critique of employees reflects

the dual agenda that UAC had with sports: supporting sports was about

team building and about company employees spending leisure time togeth-

er. At the same time, it was also about encouraging particular attributes in

their employees as individuals, including perseverance, competitiveness andambition.44

In addition to current employees and their immediate kin, the UAC

family, as constructed in the newsletters, included those who had retired

from the company after working loyally for many years, but not those who

had resigned from the company to work elsewhere. From 1968 onwardsThe

38

Gold Coast UAC News1.3 (1950), 6; Gold Coast UAC News3.5 (1952), 1.39Gold Coast UAC News1.11 (1950), 6.40G.C.M.T. match of the year,The Unicorn14.6 (1968), 16.41Gold Coast UAC News1.5 (1950), 6.42Gold Coast UAC News4.3 (1953), 1.43A challenge to U.A.C. sportsmen in the Gold Coast, Gold Coast UAC News 5.4

(1954), 6.44These last twenty-five years. A story of change and improvement, Gold Coast UAC

News5.5 (1954), 2-3.


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Unicorn contained a regular Pensioners page, while notices announcing

the retirement of members of staff can be found in every issue of the Cold

Coast UAC News and The Unicorn. Such notices typically include a brief

synopsis of the retirees career with UAC against the background of his

education, interests and personal achievements, usually illustrated with a

portrait photograph. For example, in 1952, when R.T. Abbey retired from

his position of Foreman in the Boat Building Department after thirty-nine

years of working for UAC, his life and career were the focus of a contribu-

tion titled A natural leader retires.45 The article starts from his birth in

1884 in James Town, Accra, and then traces his career as a carpenter work-

ing in Liberia (for Hammond Brothers), Ghana (for the Public WorksDepartment) and Nigeria (building canoes for Chief Degbeye). R.T. Abbey

joined a predecessor company of UAC in 1913, repairing surf boats in

Sekondi and in Accra. He was promoted to Foreman in 1942. He invested

his wages wisely: he built houses in Accra and Sekondi, and set up a farm in

Kwahu, employing three laborers. The article praises R.T. Abbeys hard

work (to the best of his ability), his tact, and his leading by example. Such

notices also give an indication of the retirees future plans. Like many

retirees, R.T. Abbey looked forward to farming. Others stated their intention

to return to their places of origin, which were often in Togo, Nigeria, Sierra

Leone or Liberia.

The newsletter emphasizes that the pensioners connections with the

Company do not end with their retirement party. In addition to their pen-

sions, retired employees continued to receive copies of the company maga-

zine, and many regularly visited work sites, presumably to socialize with

their former colleagues. Others set themselves up in businesses throughwhich they continued to have dealings with UAC, as was reported for

F.B.O. Lindsay, who did considerable business with the Company as a

transport owner.46 Pensioners are reported to have attended the ceremonies

during which long service awards were handed out to existing staff. Addi-

tionally, UAC organized pensioners reunions and an annual pensioners

lunch, the proceedings of which were covered in the company newsletters.

Obituaries of pensioners were a standard element of the newsletters. They

also carried regular portraits of retired but still active former employees,

usually published on the occasion of their birthday, their enstoolment as

45A natural leader retires Mr R.T. Abbey,Gold Coast UAC News3.8 (1952), 1.46Pensioners reunion at Cape Coast A great day for reminiscences, Gold Coast UAC

News1.6 (1950), 4.


18/38


Chief, their attendance at a UAC event, or as part of the Know our pen-

sioners series of articles.47 For example, an article published in 1968 about

eighty-two-year old G.B.A. Johnson, who had retired from the Company in

1946, stressed that he was as active today in Ada affairs as he was some

three decades ago when he was the Companys Agent in Ada.48 He is

described as a man of importance to his people who takes his civic duties

seriously, being the president of the Church committee, the treasurer of the

church, and a former member of the Ada Local Council Development Com-

mittee. It is noted that, through his influence, five schools had been opened

in and around Ada between 1937 and 1961. G.B.A. Johnsons approach to

community affairs is described as business-like, his capacity for devotedservice having been acquired through his UAC career. He takes pride in his

personal progress, but also credits the collaborative spirit of those belonging

to the UAC family, as well as the support that the Company provided:

When things were bad the Company stood by us, we all worked hard, and

in the end we pulled through.

The second main theme in the house magazines was that of the develop-

ment of African employees through training and promotions. This theme,

like the previous, was developed through different genres of articles. Firstly,

the newsletter editors made sure to announce the promotion of African

employees to management level or subsequent higher positions. Secondly,

there were extensive explanations of the various training schools, courses,

and forms of on the job training that were provided by UAC for its staff.

Finally, there were many articles that discussed how an individual member

of staff had benefited from a particular training course or development tra-

jectory. Additionally, the topic of training was also referred to when UACretirees were reported to jokingly call themselves graduates from the

Unilever University.49

The contributions announcing promotions were usually printed on the

front page and have titles such as Three new African managers, Nine

African managers appointed, or Mid-year promotion.50 They usually

start with a statement emphasizing UACs commitment to developing its

African employees and to promoting them to management status. This is

followed by short biographies of those promoted that include their careers to

47Old timers who still keep going,Gold Coast UAC News2.11 (1951), 3.48Ada pensioner takes keen interest in local affairs, The Unicorn14.4 (1968), 5-6.49Nsawam manager retires,Gold Coast UAC News3.3. (1952), 3.50Gold Coast UAC News5.2 (1954), 1; Gold Coast UAC News 5.13 (1954), 1; The Uni-

corn9.7 (1963), 4.


19/38


date, alongside portrait photographs. One of the articles sub-titled Three

men who followed in their fathers footsteps introduces P.C.K. Tamak-

loe: At 27 years of age he is the youngest of seven members of the United

Africa Company staff who are being promoted to management status at the

beginning of 1952. His father is the Companys popular manager at Tsito.

In 1944 he arranged for his son to be given a trial in the Companys service

at Akuse.51 The article also presents K.A. Cato, who was the son of

Ebenezer Cato. The latter had been with UAC for fifty-four years and had

another, younger, son likewise working with the Company. Also mentioned

are E.M. Ogoe (whose father worked with UAC as well) and H.C.E. Gbe-

demah, who were the first Africans promoted to management on the techni-cal side of the business, which is of particular importance, according to the

article, as this country advances steadily towards industrialisation and

mechanisation.52 In 1968, K.A. Coleman-Paittoo was appointed to the

Board of Directors of UAC of Ghana at the age of forty-one. The article that

reported this news provided the additional information that K.A. Coleman-

Paittoo had joined the Company in 1949, had been promoted to manage-

ment status in 1956, and had benefited from two management courses over-

seas sponsored by the Company.53 In 1954 it was reported that Juliana Law-

son had flown to the UK at the expense of the Company to take a course in

Corset Fitting at the Berlei School of Corsetry.54 The message of these arti-

cles is clear: UAC is keen to promote its African employees, and therefore

provides them with the training they need to reach the level where they can

get promoted. This costs the Company a heavy sum of money annually,

but this is money well spent: not only in ensuring increased efficiency of

its business but also in aiding the prosperity of the country. For as peopleare trained, they acquire skills which give the nation its wealth.55

The newsletters contain frequent features on the training courses for staff

and the technical training schools. They explain the kind of training that is

provided, which categories of staff it is intended for, and how staff will ben-

efit from taking part. They also provide general overviews of the UAC

training scheme, explaining which kind of training is done at the workplace,

51Seven new African managerial appointments,Gold Coast UAC News3.1 (1951), 1.52Seven new African managerial appointments,Gold Coast UAC News3.1 (1951), 1.53New UAC director,The Unicorn14.2 (1968), 2.54Miss Juliana Lawson of Kingsway Stores Accra off to UK, Gold Coast UAC News

5.6 (1954), 1; Kingsway lady supervisor takes diploma, Gold Coast UAC News 5.11

(1954), 3.55Training key note to progress, The Unicorn16.3 (1970), 10-14.


20/38


which courses are taught at specialized training schools or institutes in

Ghana, and what kind of specialized instruction is provided overseas,

usually in the UK. In relation to technical training in Ghana itself, the differ-

ence between a training course and an apprenticeship is explained, specify-

ing that during his four-year long apprenticeship a young employee cannot

leave the Company.56 In addition to these explanations, the newsletters fea-

ture many concrete examples. In December 1950, the Gold Coast UAC

News reported the introduction of a new training course about which

[e]nlightened members of the staff will be pleased to learn.57 The course

was called Training within industry for supervisors and intended to

improve managers skills in handling their staff. It was taught through fivetwo-hour long discussion groups on consecutive days of the week, with

those attending providing material for discussion out of their own experi-

ence. The course was first held in Accra, then repeated throughout Ghana

to encourage a more uniform approach to staff problems and treatment.58

Other featured initiatives included salesmanship courses, as well as courses

for typists, Sumlock operators and receptionists, held at venues throughout

the country. There were also several articles about the Technical School for

junior employees in the Motor Sales Department, where nomenclature, car

mechanics, and workplace safety were taught.59 The newsletters made it

clear that, in addition to the training that taught or improved skills of direct

relevance to performing a particular role, UAC also offered courses to more

generally improve the educational background of UAC African employ-

ees.60 These included courses in Economics and Accountancy, taught at the

workplace after office hours by staff from the universitys Extra Mural

Studies Department. Aimed at a higher level in the Company was the annualresidential course for managers, held at a prestigious location such as the

University of Ghana or the Ghana Institute of Management and Public

Administration. The aim of this course, according to the Chairman of UAC

56Overseas training for staff, The Unicorn 8.1 (1962), 8; Training the mechanics of

tomorrow,The Unicorn9.3 (1963), 5; New overseas training arrangements, The Uni-corn9.10 (1963), 6.57Innovation in staff training ascertaining the facts, Gold Coast UAC News 2.1

(1950), 3.58UAC continues with T.W.I.,Gold Coast UAC News3.2 (1952), 4.59Salesmanship course in Cape Coast, Gold Coast UAC News 5.6 (1954), 1; Techni-

cal School in M.S.D. Accra,Gold Coast UAC News 3.4 (1952), 2; Specialist training at

Kingsway,The Unicorn8.7 (1962), 8-9.60P.E.A. in Swanmill,Gold Coast UAC News2.11 (1951), 3.


21/38


of Ghana, quoted in The Unicorn, was to contribute to the production of

tomorrows senior management.61

The editors of The Unicorn often worked with individual members of

staff to describe the experience of staff training from a personal point of

view. For instance, in 1961 The Unicornpublished a report of a three-week

management training course held at the UAC Training College in Lagos,

Nigeria, from the perspective of D.A. Entsua. He devotes the first para-

graphs of his report to praising the Company for its commitment to staff

training, noting the considerable amount of money invested. He then

describes the course consisting of lectures, group discussions, debates on

business and current affairs and visits to factories and industrial areas, mak-ing special mention of the series of lectures on the rather important sub-

jects of Marketing, The Changing Concepts of Management and

Accounts Appreciation.62 Seventeen participants were on D.A. Entsuas

course, two of whom were from outside Nigeria. He ends his report with a

discussion of the benefits he gained from the course: The useful lectures

will definitely serve a useful purpose. Travelling from one country to anoth-

er to learn about the activities in that country, one gains more experience

and experience is an important asset in a business organisation.63 In 1971,

Harriet Djanguah wrote about a three-day telephonist/receptionist course

that she had been privileged to attend. She reported that among other

things she had been taught the correct use of the telephone within an

organisation, and how to avoid waste in the use of telephone, the habit of

taking down messages and also how to receive and direct visitors. Her

brief contribution concludes as follows: We have all gained a lot from the

course and are resolved to put into practice what we have been taught sothat we may become more efficient in our work.64 Stanley Blankson wrote

about the thrills in perishable foods training, detailing his travels through-

out Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, in the course of which he absorbed techni-

cal know-how and developed management skills.65 In 1977, The Unicorn

published a report on the UAC Managers Course held in Ghana, written by

Deborah Quartey, Haberdashery Sales Manager at Kingsway Stores. Her

61Managers Course IV,The Unicorn9.4 (1963), 8-10.62D.A. Entsua, A three-week course in Nigeria, The Unicorn7.12 (1961), 13.63D.A. Entsua, A three-week course in Nigeria, The Unicorn7.12 (1961), 13.64Harriet Djanguah, Report on telephonist/receptionist course, The Unicorn 17.4

(1971), 19.65Stanley Blankson, The thrills in perishable foods training, The Unicorn 18.1 (1972),

12-14.


22/38


report offers a detailed account of the various topics addressed during the

course, with relatively little personal reflection. Her conclusion expresses

gratitude to the course directors for the effort put into a well-organised and

very successful course which provides valuable information and gives

members an opportunity to meet other members of the family.66

The third main topic is that of the benefits enjoyed by UAC staff, the

three key benefits being scholarships for their children, free medical treat-

ment, and a pension upon retirement. While the availability of free medical

treatment is mentioned in the newsletters (and is of course written into the

employment contract), there is very little reporting that emphasizes the

availability of this benefit.67 More is made of the annual pension thatemployees can look forward to upon retirement. In 1952, the Gold Coast

UAC News printed a lengthy explanation of the working of the UAC

(African) Pension Fund, prefaced by the observation that [i]n these days of

world anxiety as to security and the future of ourselves and families, it is

comforting to know that in some measure such anxiety is unnecessary in our

own case.68 Similar explanations were published at regular intervals, pre-

sumably in an attempt to assuage the insecurity about the future felt by

many staff members.69 Increases of the amounts paid out were also report-

ed.70 The house magazines regularly printed statements from grateful pen-

sioners for the payments received.71

The potential staff benefit most broadly advertised was the availability of

scholarships for the children of UAC workers and pensioners. The scholar-

ship scheme had been established in 1948 and covered secondary school

education with all fees and expenses paid. However, there were only a few

places available each year often as few as six although UACs 14,000Ghanaian employees must have had thousands of children of school-going

age. The newsletters would announce the opening up of the annual competi-

tion, explaining who was eligible under the scheme and how an application

would have to be made. They emphasized that those who received the

66Deborah Quartey, UAC Managers Course XIX,The Unicorn23.3 (1977), 17.67

Free medical attention for staff. Strain of doctors fees lifted, Gold Coast UAC News1.4 (1950), 1; UARM UAC 1/10/2/2/2 UAC Personnel Department staff files second

series (1922-1981).68E.L. Frisby, What about the future? Gold Coast UAC News3.8 (1952), 4.69UAC internal image survey,The Unicorn17.3 (1971), 8-9.70Pensioners express thanks for pension increase,Gold Coast UAC News 3.12 (1952),

1.71Ada pensioner takes keen interest in local affairs,The Unicorn 14.4 (1968), 6; Pen-

sioners page,The Unicorn14.6 (1968), 9.


23/38


scholarships were under no obligation to UAC: There will be ample scope

for them to use their talents and if they can make a contribution to the coun-

trys well being they will have fulfilled the purpose for which the scholar-

ships were designed.72 The newsletters followed up with reporting on the

selection process. In 1953, the Gold Coast UAC News reported that it

looked as if all the Companys business is being done by the children of its

storekeepers, as during the interviews of applicants for scholarships a num-

ber of children had answered the question of how they spent their leisure

time by saying they helped their father in the store or took charge when he

was away.73 When the winners were announced at the very least the names

of the successful candidates were given, often alongside either photographsof the individual children, or a group photograph in which the girls wear

dresses and the boys shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Generally, the ratio

boys to girls among the winners was two to one. The number of applicants

and the number of scholarships actually awarded seem very low for the size

of the organisation: in 1962 there were forty-two applications, the highest

number to date, and the following year this number was down again to thir-

ty-three; the number of scholarships awarded fluctuated between six and

nine.74 The newsletters kept up a stream of reporting about the scholarships:

the holders of UAC scholarships were invited to tea parties with UAC direc-

tor F.J. Pedler; recipients of scholarships won essay competitions, received

school prizes, or successfully graduated from their colleges; and some

members of staff had scholarships for more than one of their children.75

They also reported about the subsequent careers of those who had received

scholarships: Wanyo Tay joined the army and received officer training at

Sandhurst in the UK; Ferdinand Tay got an executive post at the Ministry ofForeign Affairs; S.N. Amoah took up a senior appointment at the Ghana

Broadcasting System; Miss Stovie took up employment at Kingsway Stores,

Accra; Mr Entsua became a manager with UAC; and Peregrine Quist went

to the UK to study Medicine.76 In addition to such news items, the house

magazines published testimonials of grateful employees and pensioners,

such as Mr Darku-Amoo, a manager in the UAC insurance department, who

wrote:

72Scholarships for children of the staff,Gold Coast UAC News1.9 (1950), 4.73Company awards scholarships for 1953,Gold Coast UAC News4.2 (1953), 2.741963 secondary school scholarship awards,The Unicorn9.9 (1963), 2.75Tea parties for scholarship holders,Gold Coast UAC News4.4 (1953), 1.76The Companys secondary school scholarship scheme, The Unicorn8.3 (1962), 8-10.


24/38


With other responsibilities to shoulder, I am afraid it was not very easy pay-

ing the fees of my eldest daughter, Victoria at the Aburi Girls Secondary

School, and to most of my friends it seemed grand that Victorias younger

brother also passed the Common Entrance Examination and gained admit-tance to Mfantsipim, Cape Coast, but whatever good luck it was the after

effects would certainly have been burdensome if I had had to foot both bills.

It was a great relief therefore when John won one of our Companys scholar-

ships for a whole five-year period. This spontaneous gesture of our Company

is very generous and I am sure all members of our great family are proud and

grateful.77

The theory of the Company scholarships was that they were strictly awardedto the most promising candidates, that they supported individuals to develop

themselves through education, and that through this they contributed to the

development of the country more generally.

Where the UAC scholarship scheme was beneficial to a minority of its

employees, what it rewarded and supported was the ability and potential of

their offspring. In addition, UAC also operated schemes that more directly

rewarded loyalty to the company. In addition to the pensions already dis-

cussed, the two main schemes were long service awards and travel to the

UK. Loyal employees who received such rewards were frequently featured

in the house magazines. Already in 1931 G.B.A. Johnson was sent to

Europe to see the factories that made the goods we were selling. Looking

back at the age of eighty-two, he commented: Im not so easy to impress,

but thats one thing I shall not forget.78 In 1952, a long article on the front

page of the Gold Coast UAC News described the UK tour of three African

managers. In addition to a training course, the trip included social events,such as lunch with the Directors at Unilever House in London and a dinner

party given by the British Council, as well as visits to Unilever factories and

to companies whose products UAC sold in Ghana, such as Raleigh cycles.

The article also mentions that the managers met lots of friends and

acquaintances from the Gold Coast and is illustrated with a photograph of

one of them, K. Lomo, enjoying a trip down the Thames to Greenwich.79

Reports of such visits often contain references to certain attributes of the

European workforce compared to that of Ghana. For example, H.C.E. Gbe-

demah comments on the impressive care and control of the manufacturing

77The Companys secondary school scholarship scheme, The Unicorn8.3 (1962), 11.78Ada pensioner takes keen interest in local affairs, The Unicorn14.4 (1968), 6.79Gold Coast managers tour UK combining business with sightseeing, Gold Coast

UAC News3.10 (1952), 1.


25/38


process he observed at Electrolux in Luton, while J.A. Eghan comments on

how impressed he was by the workers he encountered in British factories,

because of their team spirit, their hard and diligent work, and particularly

their ability to do this with very little supervision.80 Meanwhile J.K.O. Otoo

was most impressed by the discipline of the laborers he encountered, and

particularly by the complete absence of a single lazy worker, while D.A.

Entsua commented on the systematic way in which the people worked.81

Travel to the UK usually contained an element of training, as mentioned

above, but could be largely about sightseeing. In 1953, Mr Melfa and Mr

Ebbah were invited to London as the Companys guests for the Coronation

of Queen Elizabeth.82 The house magazines make much of the trips to theUK, and emphasize how those who went came back, not only with new

impressions, but also somehow improved as result of their travel experi-

ence. For younger employees a trip to London often constituted a turning-

point in their UAC career, after which they were likely to be quickly pro-

moted. For older employees, a visit to Britain had more the character of a

reward for loyal service. C.C. Tamaklo, for instance, on the eve of his

retirement after forty-eight years of service, went to Scotland, Germany and

Italy for two months sight-seeing at the expense of the Company.83

Not all loyal employees could be rewarded with a trip to Britain. Instead,

UAC operated a detailed scheme to recognize its loyal employees with long

service certificates and gifts such as gold watches, silver brooches, clocks

and medals.84 A long service certificate was awarded after fifteen years of

service. To promote these certificates, the Gold Coast UAC News empha-

sized that U.A.C. STAFF CAN HAVE CERTIFICATES WITHOUT SIT-

TING AN EXAMINATION.85

After twenty-five years, pensionable staff,such as managers and bookkeepers, received a gold watch, while non-pen-

sionable staff, such as watchmen and manual laborers, received a silver

Company brooch decorated with red and black enamelling and a green

wreath.86 It appears that the gifts, in particular, were highly coveted by the

80H.C. Edugle Gbedemah, The sights of Britain, The Unicorn 8.1 (1962), 9; J.A.

Eghan, Work and play,The Unicorn8.1 (1962), 10.81J.K.O. Otoo, My experience abroad, The Unicorn 8.1 (1962), 10; D.A. Entsua,

Opportunities for study,The Unicorn8.1 (1962), 11.82Messrs Melfah and Ebbah dine with directors,Gold Coast UAC News4.7 (1953), 1.83Mr C.C. Tamaklo off to U.K.,The Unicorn8.5 (1962), 384UARM UAC/1/11/1/4/17 The United Africa Company Limited Management Bulletin

1.7 (1970).85Many loyal service certificates presented,Gold Coast UAC News2.4 (1951), 4.86First presentation of badge,Gold Coast UAC News4.9 (1953), 1.


26/38


staff.87 The certificates and gifts were formally presented during special cer-

emonies, the proceedings of which were reported in the house magazines.

The ceremonies had a standard format: they started with a formal talk about

how much UAC valued the services of their loyal staff, followed by short

comments on each individual. They ended with the serving of

refreshments.88 The house magazines tended to use the opportunity to print

short biographies of those who had served the Company for so long. For

example, about W.M. Ahlijah it was reported that he had joined a predeces-

sor of UAC in Accra in 1927. He was subsequently transferred to Cte

dIvoire in 1933, then to French Equatorial Africa in 1941, and came back

to Accra in 1947 as a depot keeper. He was transferred again in 1953 tobecome Acting Hardware Sales Manager in Tarkwa, which role he still ful-

filled when he was awarded a gold watch in 1954.89 In 1952, Gladys Edna

Moore was the first female employee to be awarded a long service certifi-

cate. Mrs Moore was Retail Storekeeper in Swedru, daughter of the Oman-

hene of Anomabo, and married to G.N. Moore, Produce Manager, Swe-

dru.90 The house magazines reported on the awards to make two points. The

first was that the awards reflected how much the Company appreciated its

staff: in a 1953 ceremony, the General Manager noted that [o]ur Company

was unique in the Gold Coast, in regarding the organisation as a large and

happy family, characterised by superb team work.91 The second point was

how pleased the recipients were with their gifts and hence with their

employer. For instance, in an interview with James Q. Annan, who had

retired from UAC after forty-six years of service, it was observed that [a]

feature of his reminiscing was the way Mr Annan kept taking out his gold

watch, the Companys long service award and putting back again.92

The last of the main themes in the company house magazines was that of

educating staff about aspects of the business. Articles on this subject includ-

ed announcements of the opening of new branches, and the presentation of

specific aspects of the business which employees might not have been

87UARM UAC/2/20/3/2 Bernard Fui Quarnooh to Staff Department, Unilever House,

London, 31 January 1940.88Watches for long service impressive ceremony at Accra, Gold Coast UAC News

1.6 (1950), 1; J. Ettson Ansah, Gold watches for long service you can claim yours if

you have given a quarter century loyal service to UAC, Gold Coast UAC News 2.3

(1951), 1.89Long service awards at Tarkwa,Gold Coast UAC News5.7 (1954), 3.90Lady storekeepers service recognised,Gold Coast UAC News3.12 (1952), 1.91Cape Coast long service awards,Gold Coast UAC News4.9 (1953), 1.92Old timers who still keep going,Gold Coast UAC News2.11 (1951), 3.


27/38


aware of, such as the Vehicle Assembly Plant in Tema, ATP Samreboi (tim-

ber and plywood), the housing for Kroo boys from Liberia who worked at

Accra, and the new self-service department at Kingsway Stores. Also

included were announcements relating to UAC as an organization, such as

the appointment of new directors, the re-organization of its business divi-

sions, the functioning of the Personnel Department, and the role of trade

unions.93 A number of articles discuss the procedures for Joint Consulta-

tion in the Company. Joint Consultative Committees had been introduced

in 1950, but according to The Unicorn, the aims and objectives of Joint

Consultation were still not fully understood in 1962. The article explained

that Joint Consultative Committees had a different remit from trade unionsand that they could not negotiate rates of pay or conditions of service. How-

ever, they could discuss matters such as efficiency, timekeeping, the tidi-

ness of the workplace, the handling of merchandise to prevent breakages,

safety and accident prevention, as well as sports and recreation. 94 It also

explained the technical procedures relating to Joint Consultation, such as:

What is an agenda?; What are minutes?; What should we talk about?;

and How should I behave at a meeting? emphasizing, for example, that

I must remember to say what I have to say during the meeting and not to

leave the meeting mumbling and grumbling about everything and every-

body.95 In 1970, in spite of all these efforts to explain the benefits of Joint

Consultation,The Unicornhad to acknowledge that many members of staff

were still of the opinion that it did not work well.96 Other articles explained

more general business principles, such as the concept of replacement cost,

the role of capital investment, and the importance of stock control.97

IV

One striking aspect of the newsletters message throughout more than four

decades of publication is its consistency. In every issue the Gold Coast

UAC Newsand The Unicorndocument: the existence of a supportive UAC

93New quarters for Kroo employees in Accra, Gold Coast UAC News 4.3 (1953), 1;

Help yourself at Kingsway Accra,Gold Coast UAC News 5.9 (1954), 3; Group per-

sonnel services,The Unicorn8.6 (1962), 4.94What Joint Consultation means to you, The Unicorn8.6 (1962), 8-9.95What Joint Consultation means to you, The Unicorn8.6 (1962), 8-9.96UAC internal image survey,The Unicorn17.3 (1971), 8-9.97Why does it cost more to buy imported goods? Gold Coast UAC News2.6 (1951), 2;

The need for foreign capital, Gold Coast UAC News2.8 (1951), 2.


28/38


family to which employees are happy and proud to belong; the Companys

commitment to training, developing and rewarding its employees; and the

existence of transparent procedures for staff consultation, promotions, and

the awarding of scholarships. One aspect that does change over time is the

tone in which articles are introduced that comment on aspects of the busi-

ness, promotions, or training schemes: around 1950, many articles are clear-

ly written with nationalist politics in mind. For instance, an article on the

cost of living referred to speculation in the press about a proposed boycott

of UAC and predicts that such a boycott would only benefit the middlemen

and drive up consumer prices. An article on the opening of a new store in

Cape Coast quotes the well-known Ghanaian nationalist, J.W. de GraftJohnson, who observed that [t]he Company are not only selling goods but

are also serving the country.98 During the later 1950s and the 1960s, there

is less concern with nationalist politics in the newsletter, but an emphasis on

the Companys contribution to Ghanas development remains. In fact, the

tone of the company house magazine is much more consistent than that of

the actual position of the company in the context of Ghanaian politics. In a

recent article on UAC and the development of consumer markets in Ghana,

Bianca Murillo has drawn our attention to Kwame Nkrumahs qualified

endorsement of Unilever in 1957 as the devil we know.99 Relations

between on the one hand Unilever and its subsidiary UAC, and on the other

hand the Ghanaian government, were complicated at the best of times, and

could change rapidly. Over the years, Unilever and UAC managed to get

government agreement for a whole range of industrial projects, but many of

these were temporarily blocked or had to be re-negotiated.100

From around 1970 the tone ofThe Unicorn changes again and becomesmore defensive of UACs contributions to the country: more emphasis is

placed on the appointing of African managers and on UAC as a responsible

company which gives its staff, its customers, and the country a fair deal. In

1972, for example, it quotes Christopher Richards, the Company Chairman,

as saying: You may have seen references in the press to foreign companies

which have been a drain on the foreign exchange resources of Ghana and I

think that you should know that this is an accusation which cannot be lev-

elled at the United Africa Group of Companies. This statement is followed

by an explanation of how UAC profits are re-invested and how new invest-

98Company opens another new building,Gold Coast UAC News5.5 (1954), 1.99Murillo, The Devil We Know, 1-2.100Fieldhouse,Merchant Capital, 405-09.


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ments were made through partnership agreements. Richards concludes: We

have been here a long time and a healthy and balanced economy is far more

important to us than any short-term profit advantage.101

Although thus framed within broader agendas of corporate relations and

nationalist politics, the company newsletters provide much useful informa-

tion about aspects of the careers of individuals working with UAC, in par-

ticular about their travels, training, transfers, promotions and retirement,

and sometimes also about their engagement with sports, their marriage, and

the achievements of their children. Combined with other (incomplete) data

from staff files, it is possible to flesh out the careers of many individual

employees from all the different lines of business and from all levels in theorganisation; with relatively more information being available about those

who reached management status. The newsletters of course also provide a

straightforward indication of how the Company wanted to be regarded by

its employees, and of the attitudes and activities that it was promoting

among them.

In spite of UACs unique position in Ghana, both its communication

strategy and the content of its messages, were not very unique. They were in

many respects similar to what North American and European companies

including UACs parent Unilever were doing around the same time in

newsletters for their North American and European employees.102 These

similarities include the idea of the company as a family, the rewarding of

loyal workers with gifts, and the representations of the Company hierarchy

and of how the workplace was gendered. The Gold Coast UAC News and

The Unicorn did, of course, include a sense of an African context, which

can be seen in the focus on chieftaincy, in the awareness of nationalism, andin the emphasis on UACs contribution to the development of the nation

through capital investment and staff training. However, it is clear that UAC

in spite of emphasizing its knowledge of the local West African social and

economic context organized its Ghanaian business along European lines

and attempted to inculcate European business concepts, values and attitudes

in its West African employees. This brings up two related questions of rele-

vance to the use of the newsletters as sources. First, to what extent and in

what ways were UAC employees shaped by working for the company,

101Re-union lunches for Group pensioners, The Unicorn18.1 (1972), 18.102John Griffiths, Give My Regards to Uncle Billy...: The Rites and Rituals of Compa-

ny Life at Lever Brothers, c.1900c.1990, Business History 37 (1995), 25-45; Charles

Dellheim, The Creation of Company Culture: Cadburys, 1861-1931, American Histori-

cal Review92 (1987), 13-44.


30/38


either through the messages in the newsletters or through the daily lived

experience of working in the organisation? And second, how representative

for the day-to-day experience of working with UAC were the events and

procedures that were described in the company magazines?

V

In 1970, UAC conducted an internal survey among its staff regarding their

opinion about the Company as an employer and corporate citizen. The sur-

vey suggests that many employees agreed with the house magazines repre-sentation of UAC as employer: a large majority thought that UAC rewards

hard work and initiative, that opportunities for promotion were better than

in most organisations, that the Company selects the best man for any job,

gives enough responsibility to Managers, offers better prospects to students

and provides better training facilities.103 In 2010, former UAC employees

still agreed with most of these points, noting that, ordinarily, UAC would

grow its own timber: identify people with talent and potential and grow

them into the various functions into the business over the years.104 Howev-

er, several of them were quite critical about the implementation of the pro-

cedures for promotions and the opportunities for training.

In theory, the procedures were straightforward enough: throughout its

existence, UAC operated a system whereby individuals would have annual

review meetings with their superior, on the basis of which an annual report

was to be drawn up in accordance with a set template. The template

changed a couple of times, but the function of the report remained the same:to report on the performance of the member of staff during the year and (if

appropriate) to recommend a bonus or pay-rise, to identify his or her poten-

tial and ambitions, to make recommendations to promote, transfer or retire

the member of staff, as well as to identify his or her training requirements in

this light. This report was then discussed with the staff member concerned,

whose views would be recorded on the form, and forwarded to the relevant

Divisional Manager or General Manager for comment, sign-off, and if

required a decision.105 According to former UAC employees, this proce-

103UAC internal image survey,The Unicorn17.3 (1971), 8-9.104Interview with Robert Adu-Mante, Accra, 24 September 2010.105Examples of the documents used are included in: UARM UAC/1/10/2/2 UAC Person-

nel Department Staff files.


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dure was rarely followed. When commenting on promotions and access to

training, rather than to discuss procedures, they emphasize the importance

of the personality of the individual manager, and of the working relationship

that the employee had with that manager. Also, training was not always

available to prepare employees for new roles: They developed you by

throwing you in at the deep end.106 Workers who found themselves

employed by Unilever Ghana after the winding up of UAC, comment that,

in their experience, procedures for annual review and career development

were adhered to much more consistently by Unilever Ghana, than UAC had

ever done. UAC gave us the discipline of the job, but not too much of the

formal training to broaden your perspectives.107 If these individual memo-ries are representative for a general pattern, then this would help to explain

the incomplete nature of the staff files in the archive: part of the material

that appears to be missing from the files might never have existed.

Although former employees felt that rules were not always consistently

followed in the field of training and promotion, overall they emphasize the

high standards to which UAC conducted its business: In Ghana anywhere

you mention UAC, the moment you say you are from UAC you are very

respected; () when you see a UAC man, you see an honest man. 108 They

are proud of UACs values and business practices, the Companys refusal to

engage with corruption (at least in principle), and its insistence that rules

had to be followed. They consider UAC standards to be higher than the gen-

eral standards in Ghana. They also say that the fact that they have absorbed

these values and practices sets them apart from the average professional,

and that this has also made them more desirable as employees for other

companies. People who left the company were grabbed by other business-es, and there are lots of opportunities and they are just looking for those

kind of skills.109 According to former auditor Kwasi Okoh, everybody

wanted a UAC person.110

One of the UAC values was that of punctuality. Elvis Armah, who

retired as a pensions specialist, remembers how he learnt about this value

upon joining the Company as a secretary. During his first weeks in employ-

ment he tended to arrive at his desk a couple of minutes after 7:30 am, even

though he had reached the building earlier, because he waited for his more

106Interview with Emmanuel Idun, Tema, 21 September 2010.107Interview with Kwabena Yentumi, Tema, 24 September 2010.108Interview with Augustine Kofi, Tema, 15 September 2010.109Interview with Emmanuel Idun, Tema, 21 September 2010.110Interview with Kwasi Okoh, Tema, 22 September 2010.


32/38


senior colleagues to enter the office first and sign their names. In doing so,

he showed proper respect to his seniors, but incurred the wrath of his Super-

visor, who after a few weeks pointed out to Elvis Armah that he had been

coming late to work consistently as his name showed below the red line

every day. From then on, Elvis Armah made sure he signed in before 7:30

am. He reflects: It became part of you, you always made sure () other

establishments were not so strict.111

When reflecting on their careers with UAC, former employees tend to

emphasize their achievements rather than the belonging to the UAC fami-

ly that had been promoted in the newsletters. Their individual achievement

already started with having gained employment with the Company, becauseUAC only pick the best.112 They remember a strict appointment process,

involving the successful completion of a competitive exam, an aptitude test

and a very competitive interview.113 Where the newsletters highlighted

cases of several family members all working with UAC as being a positive

phenomenon, former employees who had family members working with

UAC stress that this had nothing to do with their own appointment. Francis

Cato, who joined the Company in 1973 as an Accounts Clerk, points out

that, although he had an uncle and an aunt who both held influential posi-

tions in the Company, he got the job on merit through doing well in a com-

petitive exam. It was only after the exam that he found out that his aunt

worked in the same Division: Some people might even have thought that

she was instrumental in getting me in. No! I went on my own in search of a

job and thats how it started.114 Former employees also emphasise how

they achieved promotion through hard work and doing the job assigned to

them well.Promotions often involved transfer and travel. In the interviews, all for-

mer employees talked about the travel that came with working for UAC:

sometimes short trips for training (often abroad), in many cases having to

relocate for longer periods because of a transfer. Relocation is remembered

as a very positive experience, through which they gained strength and

important skills, and which was an indication of a successful career within

the company. The strength to operate successfully in a new environment,

with often different customs, a different language and different food, and to

111Interview with Elvis Armah, Accra, 21 September 2010.112Interview with Elvis Armah, Accra, 21 September 2010.113Interview with Robert Adu-Mante; on the aptitude test: interview with Deborah

Quartey, Tema, 20 September 2010.114Interview with Francis Cato, Tema, 15 September 2010.


33/38


respond positively to change, is regarded as an essential personal attribute

of the successful UAC professional. UAC employees were keen to go on

transfer. Elvis Armah remembers: I had wanted to go out from Accra () I

wanted to experience how it is to stay outside of Accra.115 Deborah

Quartey, who had joined UAC partly because they had outlets all over the

country and she loved travelling, having asked for a transfer for years,

demanded to know from her general manager: The men have been going

on transfer, so why cant I go on transfer? She was delighted when she was

eventually transferred to Tarkwa, even though she would be relocating with

her young children: I had no qualms, I wasnt worried; I wanted the experi-

ence and the adventure of it all.116 In contrast, relocation for work isdescribed more ambiguously in the newsletters. For example, the pages of

Gold Coast UAC Newscontain a poem by E.V. Badoe titled To Helena in

which the author writes about his loneliness after having been transferred

from Kumasi to Accra:

You are lonely but so am I

Restore that twinkle to your eye

For back to Kumasi I propose to hieOn Christmas, when our sorrows well bury

And once again well be merry

Forgetting the lonely days gone by

A comment by the editor explains that E.V. Badoe had been transferred

from Kumasi two months previously, and that [t]he change of climate and

diet in Accra caused him to have some skin upheavals which prevented himfrom coming to work.117 During his sickness he had been visited by a num-

ber of staff including his European higher-up, Mr Stanbury. While the

newsletter thus acknowledges that the transfer caused distress, it also points

out that E.V. Badoe is surrounded by caring and supportive UAC col-

leagues. The consequences of relocation for work are regularly mentioned

in the newsletters. About James Q. Annan, for instance, it was noted that

during a career of 46 years of working for the Company in Nigeria, he visit-

ed his native Ghana only twice on leave.118 In a 1972 article printed in The

115Interview with Elvis Armah, Accra, 21 September 2010.116Interview with Deborah Quartey, 20 September 2010.117Gold Coast UAC News2.1 (1950), 3.118Old timers who still keep going,Gold Coast UAC News2.11 (1951), 3.


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Unicorn, Jos Anyima-Ackah had written about The joy of being at home

on leave, noting:

At home on leave we have the chance to fulfil such social obligations as

lapsed funeral rites and the paying of homage to our elders. It is a time to

refresh our minds about the traditions and customs of our people. It is also a

time for us to enjoy some of the typical home-made dishes and drinks which

we often miss for a long time by being away from home. Finally, leave at

home enables us to acquaint ourselves with the developments that are taking

place there and what contributions we can make towards them.119

Another difference between the interviews and the newsletters is that for-

mer employees remember very little of the UAC parties, dances, and sports

activities that featured so frequently in the Gold Coast UAC News and The

Unicorn. They emphasize that they did not socialize as UAC, but had their

own networks. This is not to say that friendships did not develop between

employees, but these are remembered as individual relationships, rather

than having emerged out of a UAC belonging. Also, the relationships that

are remembered tend to be specifically those with direct superiors or with a

manager higher up, and much less about colleagues of the same level. These

can be around specific incidents such as when Emmanuel Idun was

repeatedly thrown out of the office of the General Manager of the GBO

Division, E.K. Agbenu and interpersonal problems, but they also remem-

ber emerging friendships.120 For instance, Kwabena Yentumi comments

about the manager he relieved in Hohoe: we became friends and remained

friends ever since.121

Some of the female UAC employees rememberinstances where unwelcome attention from male co-workers or superiors

complicated the daily experience of work, as well as opportunities for pro-

motion. Comfort Essuman experienced harassment from her direct boss on

a daily basis for about a year. Her parents advised her that work is very dif-

ficult to come by and that she should put up with it. She could not, and

complained to the UAC Personnel Manager, who was really good: He

gave advice on how to handle the situation and how to carry myself. 122 He

119J. Jos Anyima-Ackah, The joy of being at home on leave, The Unicorn 18.2 (1972),

20.120Interview with

38.1.Van Den Bersselaar

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Transcript of 38.1.Van Den Bersselaar