Honouring Prof Albert Adu Boahen

Those privileged to know Prof Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen, who was gathered unto his fathers on 24 May 2006, will remember, when their minds transport them back into times past, a man who was full of fun and could make a joke out of almost everything.

And yet they also knew that fun-loving guy as someone who was an extremely serious person. He not only taught thousands of students history himself but also procured for Legon's Department of history – which he headed for a time – lecturers who could expand the knowledge of history which he helped to impart.

And then he wrote books! Books which could be read, also, by those not fortunate enough to study history at Legon. Through his books, students from all over West Africa and beyond – including African-Americans keen to repair the damage done to their intellects by racist propagandists masquerading as historians who told all manner of “Tarzan”-type stories about their Mother Continent – gained a true knowledge of the real past of African societies and how foreigners did influence and shape them but by no means created them out of nothing, so to speak.

Such a man never really dies when he physically disappears from the world. For how can he be dead when, every single day, someone somewhere says to himself, or herself, with astonishment, as he or she reads one of Boahen's books, “Ei, so? I didn't know that before?!”

Thatcould mean an introduction to the heroic feats of Yaa Asantewaa; the Islamic clerks who wrote down in Arabic, in real time, the history they discovered in non-Muslim West Africa; or documents in “strange” languages detailing the Dutch and Portuguese manner of trading with the people of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), as against the modus operandi employed by the British or the Danes.

An Akan proverb says that “the crab does not beget a bird” [ɔkɔtɔnnwo anomaa] and this has proved true of the offspring Adu Boahen left behind. Some have achieved world fame already and others are similarly earning a reputation for themselves in various fields of life. They could very easily forget that they are the offspring of a renowned professor, in that they do not need to use his name to advance their own careers. But brains they have inherited, and they have therefore been capable of realising that it would be seemly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his death with a special EVENT on the date on which he died, which also happened, fortuitously, to be his birthday.

Under the theme: “FREEDOM AND JUSTICE – REMEMBERING A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN- PROF ALBERT KWADWO ADU BOHEN (24TH MAY 1932 -24^thMAY 2006) 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION,” the Event will be held at 3.00 P.M. on Tuesday, 24^thMay 2016, at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra. It promises to be as intellectually stimulating as any that has ever been held in Ghana.

The chairman for the occasion will be Nana Dr S K B Asante, Paramount Chief of Asante Asokore and former Solicitor-General of Ghana. Nana Asante was a classmate of Adu Boahen's at Asokore Methodist School. So what a boon is it to find him able and willing to preside over this celebration of his classmate's life and work.

Nana Asante has worked as an Attorney at the World Bank in Washington, among the many other important international positions he has held. Currently, he is a member of the Ashanti Region House of Chiefs, the National House of Chiefs, the Judicial Council of Ghana and the National Peace Council.

The first main speaker will be Professor Ado Fenning, himself a historian of no mean repute and a former student and teaching colleague of Adu Boahen's at Legon. His topic will be: REMEMBERING A SCHOLAR AND A STATESMAN. Because he worked closely with Adu Boahen, Prof Fenning is best placed to let the world know what sort of person Adu Boahen really was; how Adu viewed the task of discovering history and sharing it with others through teaching; and Adu's uncanny ability to inspire and guide budding historians to carve careers for themselves in the teaching of history.

Prof Ado Fenning will be followed by Prof H. Kwasi Prempeh, who will speak on “FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THE CULTURE OF SILENCE.” Prof Prempeh is very well known for his learned commentaries on all manner of political and legal issues, both in the national media and – especially – on the Internet. This will be an opportunity for many of those who have crossed swords with Kwasi without knowing what he looks like in real life, to encounter him in person.

Then will come the “Keynote Address”, which with humility, I acknowledge will be delivered by myself. My topic – which I announce here for the first time – will be: DOES HISTORY MATTER? I shall endeavour to link the historical knowledge that Adu Boahen possessed with his realisation that he should actively seek to influence his nation's life by aspiring to lead the country personally as its president. Why was this idea so strongly implanted in him that he was not afraid to confront the military head-on but took military rule to the cleaners in 1988, during his game-changing Danquah Memorial lectures on the “Culture of Silence In Ghana”?

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo,who was head-hunted to join the dangerous campaign waged with Adu and others in the Movement For Freedom and Justice against military rule earlier, under the late General Kutu Acheampong, will give the closing remarks.

This will be followed by a vote of thanks given – appropriately – by Prof (Mrs) Akosua Perbi, Acting head of Adu Boahen's old Department at the University of Ghana, Legon, namely, the Department of History.

The evening will not be all solemn, however, despite the double-headed nature of the theme, which manages seamlessly to embrace both history and politics. There will be an Art Exhibition and also, a Musical Interludeby a cultural group. Anauction of art worksby some amazing Ghanaian artists – including a painting by the redoubtable Prof Ablade Glover – will take place. Proceeds from the art auction and from the auction of books by Dr Adu Boahen, will form part of the seed money with which an Adu Boahen Foundation is being established.

The two MCs at the Event are both well known to me and I can guarantee that they will ensure there's never a dull moment to be endured. They are Dr Ebow Daniel, who harbours a sack of jokes in his head, and Ambassador James Aggrey-Orleans, a truly great elocutionist.

See you there then? Please do come – if it's at all possible!