Akyem Abuakwa’s Historian Tells His Own Story

If anyone reads with real diligence, Professor Robert Addo-Fening’s autobiography, 'Abrewa Nana' he or she won’t fail to notice that the author loves the idea of being an Akyenkwaa(son of Akyem Abuakwa).

He has already published what scholars call a 'seminal' work: 'Akyem Abuakwa 1700-1943: From Ofori Panin to Sir Ofori Atta', which constitutes the most authoritative history of Akyem Abuakwa, so far written.

Because of the detail and amazing scholarship exhibited in that book by Professor Addo-Fening, the book was first published, not in the UK but in Norway. It served as Title No 19 in the series, 'Trondheim Studies In History', published by the Faculty of Arts of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

It also chalked for itself, the accolade of being No 1 in the African Series of the University’s Trondheim Studies in History. Thus, Prof. Addo Fening helped to reinforce the notion that “If it’s from Ghana, then it must be Number One in Africa!

The thoroughness of the research in that book was brought home to me when Professor Addo-Fening revealed in it that my own grand-mother, Nana Afia Boatemaa, who was the Okyenhene’s Nifahene (the first woman to become both the substantive chief and later the queen mother of Asiakwa) had given evidence in an enquiry into certain aspects Abuakwa history.

My father, Okyeame Kwame Adade, was Nana Boatemaa's Okyeame, and growing up at her feet, I used to hear her carry out some spectacular name-dropping. She would tell a court hearing, over which she was presiding, that “It was the ‘Komisan‘ (Chief Commissioner) or 'DC' who had ruled that this or that should or should not happen.” It didn’t mean anything to me, of course — until I read Addo-Fening.

This sense of relevance can also be gleaned in the new book by Addo-Fening, his autobiography (which is to be launched at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra, at 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday the 17^th of April 2019. The launch will be chaired by no less a person than the Juabenhene, Nana Otuo Serebour II [Chairman of the Council of State] with the Okyenhene, Osagyefuor Amoatia Ofori Panin, as the guest of honour).

The skill employed by Prof. Addo-Fening in writing his autobiography is something to marvel at. He ensures that the book is not only about the life of one person (himself) but that what happens in that person's life is integrated into the history of Ghana itself. So if the reader is bored by history, he/she will enjoy the life-story of the writer, whilst, if he/she is not particularly interested in the writer's life, he/she will still be enthralled by the history of Ghana that forms the backdrop to the author's life-story.

The thoroughness of Professor Ado-Fening’s research is striking. He has kept diaries in which he notes down events of importance. So the accuracy of the detail he unveils is astounding. Even obscure secondary school teachers through whose hands he passed, get potted biographies in the book. Important aspects of Akyem Abuakwa State affairs, such as the origin of the State Scholarships instituted by the late Nana Sir Ofori Atta The First (of which Addo-Fening himself was a beneficiary) are skillfully sketched out.

We learn about Osino Presbyterian Primary School and its “one table and chair (for the teacher) and two benches” (for the pupils). The conditions under which Addo-Fening obtained his first taste of education will be familiar to many other Ghanaians brought up in the rural areas. The professor also tells us vividly of the realities that confront children who grow up in villages and have to spend quite a bit of time farming with their parents.

Step by step, the author takes us through life as it was led by a young Ghanaian who passes from the elementary school system to a secondary school in Accra; qualifies as a teacher at the 'Kumasi Legon' (the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) and then, studying part-time through a correspondence course, obtains entry to the University of Ghana, Legon to read history. We also learn of how it was to travel to far-away Australia to take a post-graduate course at Canberra.

Along the way, Addo-Fening takes time to tutor the reader in the economic history of cocoa production in Ghana; the reaction of cocoa farmers to the cocoa rehabilitation campaign and a host of other interesting historical events in the Ghana of the 1940s till date.

Prof. Addo-Fening succeeds in teaching Akyem why the people of Akyem used to boast that “Meye Akyenkwaa a menom Birem“, (I am an Akyem-born who drinks from the Birem River). This pride also explains the anger with which some Akyems view those in their midst who can, today, stoop so low as to use excavators and bulldozers to lay waste to Akyem Abuakwa's rivers and streams in search of gold.

Born on 7 March 1935 (he thus missed being born on the same day as Ghana's birthday, by a single day!) Professor Addo-Fening has taught history to many students at Legon; he's been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at San Diego; and he's held scholarly positions at other American universities. He has written six books — and counting!

Prof. Addo-Fening has been honoured with the title 'Okyeman Kanea'(Illuminating Lamp of Akyem Abuakwa] and if you are able to read his book, you will appreciate why that title may be changed to 'Ghana Kanea'!

I say to him, “Well done, Prof!”

*Abrewa Nana: A trajectory of Life by Robert Addo-Fenning

Published by DIGIBOOKS, P.O. BOX BT 1, TEMA, GHANA

Tel.+233-303-414-720/+233-246-493-842

ISBN: 978-9988-2-8560-9

BY CAMERON DUODU