Ngô Đình Khả (吳廷可,ôĐìnhKhả 1856–1923 but some sources state 1850–1925) was a high-ranking Catholic mandarin in the Court of the Emperor Thành Thái in Huế, Vietnam. He helped establishing the Quoc Hoc in Hue and was also a confidant to the emperor. He strongly opposed the French dominance of the Hue Court and when the French grew tired of Emperor Thành Thái's attempts to rein in their growing influence, Kha was the only member of the Council of Ministers to refuse to sign a petition requesting the emperor's abdication. This led to him gaining widespread renown for his loyalty. However, it also led to his removal from the court and his subsequent banishment to his home village. Kha is best known for being the patriarch of the Ngô Dinh family, which was the most prominent Vietnamese Catholic family. His son Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam and his son Ngô Đình Thục was the third Vietnamese Catholic Bishop. Kha has sometimes been seen as a collaborator with the French. However, more recent scholarship has shown that he may be a forgotten nationalist.
Background
Early life
Michael Ngô Dinh Kha was born in 1856 in Le Thuy in Quảng Bình Province. He was the son of James Ngô Dinh Niem and Ursula Khoa. It was recorded that Ngô Dinh Niem was a mandarin but there are some controversies as Kha had claimed to be a first-generation mandarin.
Education
In Penang, he became well versed in Latin and French as well as Western Philosophy. However, Penang was a melting-pot of cultures from Vietnam to Southern China, Siam, Korea and India. Students from these different areas lived and studied together and this led to them being more globally-minded. Many of those who went to the seminary did not end up becoming priests but served in administration.
Tragedy
Tragedy struck the Ngô family while Kha was still studying in the MEP Seminary in Penang.This included most of his family members, except his mother who managed to escape. However, the Van Than (Intellectual Period) movement was an offshoot from the Cần Vương Movement that emerged after Emperor Hàm Nghi was captured in 1888. It was led primarily by scholar officials. This would mean that he would have already graduated from the seminary by then and so it may not have been the Van Than militia that committed this act. Other sources claimed that the riot was led by Buddhist monks, in the 1880s, that nearly wiped out the Ngô family and that more than a hundred members of the Ngô family had perished in the fire. Both these timelines are odd because sources claim that he had returned in the 1870s.
Return to Vietnam
When Kha returned to Vietnam in the late 1870s, he had originally planned to become a Catholic priest. However, the newly established French colonial state needed someone to help them with interpreting. Thus, together with Nguyễn Hữu Bài, Kha became an interpreter. Later, he joined the Nguyễn civil service. He managed to pass all the sessions of the Imperial Examinations owing to his firm grasp of the Chinese Classics. Following that, he left the service to take care of his mother.
Quoc Hoc
Due to his strength in both the Chinese Confucian Classics and in the European languages and philosophy, Emperor Thành Thái requested that Kha build and head a National Institute (Quốc Học) that would combine Eastern and Western studies. This suited Kha who was a strong proponent of the Franco-Annamite curriculum. The Franco-Annamite schools were not meant as a form of assimilation but rather "an improvement of indigenous skills through relevant education". The Quoc Hoc was established on 17 September 1896 in the eighth year to Thành Thái's reign. Ngô Dinh Kha was the Principal of the school. A Saigon newspaper article published when Kha's son Thuc was getting ordained a bishop praise Kha for, "In an era when the Annamite elite, represented by Mandarins, was hostile to modern progress, Kha had the courage to take on the difficult task of mediating between the prejudices of the mandarins and the need for modern progress.
Notable graduates of the Quoc Hoc included Võ Nguyên Giáp and Phạm Văn Đồng. Ho Chi Minh also attended the school but dropped out in 1909 when his father lost his post as a district chief.
Other positions
Following his service to the Quoc Hoc, Kha joined the palace first as Commander or the Palace Guards and then as the Minister of Rites. He was also an imperial tutor who tutored the emperor and his brothers in French. In 1902, the Emperor granted him the title of Great Scholar Assistant to the Throne.