Raphael Armattoe

The New York Post called him "the ‘Irishman' from West Africa". Henry Swanzy of the BBC referred to him as the "African Paracelsus". And in 1949, a group of parliamentarians from Stormont, the Dáil and Westminster joined together to sign letters nominating Dr Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe for the Nobel Peace Prize. Who was this man who appears to have made such a great impression on all who knew him? Raphael Armattoe was born in August 1913 to a prominent family of the Ewe tribe in Togoland. After the First World War, the former German colony was divided into two mandates, one under French rule and the other British. Thus young Armattoe grew up speaking three European languages as well as his native Ewe, and was later to write and publish works in French, German and English. After receiving basic education at mission schools, in 1930 Armattoe left home to study in Germany. It is thought that the rise of the Nazis in Germany prompted the move to further studies in France While studying in Europe, Armattoe met a striking willowy and intelligent woman from Switzerland, Leonie (later known as ‘Marina') Schwartz, whom he married. Most of the people in Derry today who remember Armattoe have only vague recollections from childhood. Local writer Helen Morrison says, "Everyone would have known him. There were no black people in Derry at the time - yes, there were some servicemen and seamen during the war, but Armattoe was here even earlier. They said he was a marvellous doctor. He died young, you know. We were all very sad when we heard about it." Armattoe became more well-known in 1946 when he published his book on The Golden Age of West African Civilization and also made newspaper headlines when he claimed that the Russians had developed an atomic bomb the size of a tennis ball. Dr Armattoe never divulged the source of his information, but his statement was put to the U.S. President Truman at a press conference. The president denied any knowledge of the alleged Russian weapon. The publicity resulted in further speaking engagements for Dr Armattoe, not only in Derry and in Dublin, where he spoke at the Mansion House about "The Advance of Science in the Soviet Union", but in Sweden and the U.S. The period between Armattoe's first return to Africa and the end of his family's residence in Derry was particularly memorable, as in 1949, Doctor Armattoe was a panellist at a major conference in New York and was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace received massive publicity due to the attendance of delegates from the Soviet Union and the resultant anti-Communist picketing. Dr Armattoe's photograph appeared in the New York Post and the New York Times alongside some of the notorious Russians, including composer Dmitri Shostakovitch. The parliamentarians (mostly Nationalist and Labour) who nominated Dr Armattoe for the Nobel Prize did not seem to think it necessary to give much background information in their letters of nomination, writing little more than "in numerous publications he has advocated peaceable understanding between all Nations and races and is a noted supporter of settlement of differences between Nations by peaceable means."1 That was not enough to get Armattoe's name on to the shortlist. The 1949 prize went to John Boyd Orr, Director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation. By the end of 1950. the Armattoe family had left Derry for Kumasi. There Raphael Armattoe set up a medical clinic, but also embarked on new adventures in poetry and politics. His two books of poetry, Between the Forest and the Sea and Deep Down in the Black Man's Mind , are of continuing interest to students of African literature. Varying in both style and quality, the poems are evidence of Armattoe's broad readership and familiarity with the genre. Ireland, Germany and Switzerland all receive attention, but the poetry mostly features Africa and Africans. The poems about his family and ab