Wed, 21 Mar 2007 Feature Article

Yaa Asantewaa Incarnate!!! – A Tribute to Hon. Hawa Yakubu

It is with indescribable shock, sadness and sorrow that I express my condolences to the family, relatives and friends of Ms. Hawa Yakubu, former member of the Ghana National Assembly and Minister of Tourism in the Government of the New Patriotic Party.
I hope that Ghanaians could take solace and pride in Mama Hawa's sterling courage in speaking truth to injustice and tyranny at a time when our country was in dire need of principled and patriotic men.
In essence, the Honorable Hawa Yakubu was the bravest “Man” of our time; a citizen who was more than a match for the megalomaniacal reprobates of the so-called Provisional National Democratic Congress (for such was how she initially distinguished herself).
I will personally miss the “Iron Lady,” because Hawa Yakubu typified for me the fearless and indefatigable kind of woman that I wish every Ghanaian woman could become, if only to run the terrorists and terror-mongers amidst us out of Parliament and out of town.
Obaa Katakyie, Dammirifua! Obaa Katakyie Okwanso Kosekose! Obaa Katakyie, Ghanaman D'wase Ahenewa!
(Brave Woman, Peace, Be Still! Warrior-Woman, Safe Passage! Courageous Woman, Ghanaians Will Forever Be In Your Debt!!!)

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., Department of English, Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City.

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD, taught Print Journalism at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City, for more than 20 years. He is also a former Book Review Editor of The New York Amsterdam News.. More He holds Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laude) in English, Communications and Africana Studies from The City College of New York of The City University of New York, where he was named a Ford Foundation Undergraduate Fellow and the first recipient of the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award in English Poetry (Creative Writing) in 1988.

The author was part of the "socially revolutionary" team of undergraduate journalists at City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY), who won First-Prize certificates for Best Community Reporting from the Columbia University School of Journalism, for three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990.

Born April 8, 1963, in Ghana; naturalized U.S. citizen; son of Kwame (an educator) and Dorothy (maiden name, Sintim) Okoampa-Ahoofe; children: Abena Aninwaa, Kwame III. Ethnicity: "African." Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1990; Temple University, M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 1998. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian—Ecumenist." Hobbies and other interests: Political philosophy.

CAREER: Ghana National Cultural Center, Kumasi, poet, 1979–84; Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, worked as instructor in English; Technical Career Institutes, New York, NY, instructor in English, 1991–94; Indiana State University, Terre Haute, instructor in history, 1994–95; Nassau Community College, Garden City, NY, member of English faculty. Participant in World Bank African "Brain-Gain" pilot project.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, National Council of Teachers of English, African Studies Association, Community College Humanities Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Essay award, Nassau Review, 1999.Column: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

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Yaa Asantewaa Incarnate!!! – A Tribute to Hon. Hawa Yakubu

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