Ghanaians have over the years been known for making significant impacts across the globe. From politics to beauty and fashion, business to sports, you will find Ghanaians, home or abroad, positively affecting their respective fields of operations.
One such remarkable story is that of Ghanaian lawyer and politician, Joseph Emmanuel Appiah, who defied the odds of interracial marriages at the time and went ahead to make his English aristocrat girlfriend his wife.
The marriage between Joe Appiah, as he was popularly referred to, and Peggy Cripps, the daughter of the British Ambassador to Russia in 1953, later inspired the 1967 Hollywood comedy-drama movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
The story of Appiah and Peggy Cripps was even more remarkable and controversial, as they faced opposition and outrage from both sides of the Atlantic.
Joe Appiah was born in Kumasi in 1918 into a prominent Ashanti family. He later on went to study law in England and became a close friend and ally of Kwame Nkrumah.
Peggy Cripps, on the other hand, was born in 1914 to Sir Stafford Cripps, a former chancellor of the Exchequer and Britain’s ambassador to Russia, and Lady Isobel Cripps.
The two met at a student dance in England and their connection quickly blossomed into a relationship.
The news of their impending marriage sent shockwaves across England with many expressing their disdain at the union. But they went ahead to tie the knot in 1953 at the St John’s Church in attires that symbolised their unique backgrounds.
Joe Appiah wore a Ghanaian Kente cloth while Peggy was dressed in the gown of her mother, embroidered in silk brocade.
George Padmore, a journalist, author, and pan-Africanist was Joe Appiah’s best man.
In 1954, the couple relocated to Ghana.
Their unconventional love story eventually became the inspiration for the Hollywood comedy-drama movie, “Guess Who’s Coming Home.”
Joe Appiah died in Accra after an illness and was buried at the Tafo cemetery at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on July 8, 1990.
Peggy Cripps bought a plot at Tafo cemetery in Kumasi, so that when she also died, she would not be sent back to England, but be buried next to her husband, who died in 1990. She died on February 11, 2006.
Source: www.ghanaweb.com