The Kibi murder trial

An undated, typescript account, with manuscript annotations, of a murder trial in the Supreme Court of the Gold Coast, November 1944, as recorded in the notes of Mr Justice Mustafa Fuad, edited by Madge Field, 230 pages. The eight defenders were found guilty of the murder of Akyia Mensah, who disappeared after the funeral rites of Paramount Chief Omanhene Nana Sir Ofori Ata of Akyem Abuakwa. This was alleged to be a case of ritual sacrifice. There is a glossary, notes on the historical background and an editor's commentary. The document is accompanied by three pieces of correspondence between Jean Davies and Terry Barringer, R.C.S. Librarian, 19 February, 26 February and 3 March 1994.

Margaret Joyce Field was an anthropologist who spent many years in the Gold Coast. She was the author of 'Religion and medicine of the Gã people' (1937) and 'Search for security: an ethno-psychiatric study of rural Ghana' (1966).

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

The document was given to Mr Davies, First Lecturer in Law at the University of the Gold Coast, by Margaret Field in 1969. It was presented to the R.C.S. by Mrs Jean F. Davies, 19 February 1994.

Includes index.

MSS 448

MSS Addenda, vol. I.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

For further information about the case see H.A. Nuamah, 'Murder in the palace at Kibi: an account of Kibi ritual murder case' (1979), RCS 448m963.

This collection level description was created by RAS using information from the original typescript catalogue.

Field, Margaret Joyce, fl 1937-1971, anthropologist