University of Ghana campus
Lawyer and historian, Yaw Anokye Frimpong, has narrated events that led to the evolution of a university that used to be an appendage of University of London, into what has come to be known as the University of Ghana.
According to him, the rhetoric by NPP stalwarts, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, and the late Prof Adu Boahen that Joseph Boakye Danquah built the University of Ghana is erroneous.
He stated emphatically, while speaking on Onua TV’s “Maakye” on March 10, 2025, that the highly patronised tertiary institution was built under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.
In an attempt to correct the widely propagated fact bothering on who established the University of Ghana, he clarified that claims that JB Danquah built University of Ghana are false.
“In the past, there was no university called University of Ghana. The university that was operational at the time was called the University College of the Gold Coast and it was sited on Achimota School campus.
“It is this institution that Nkrumah, after being made president, suggested to the colonial masters to change into the University of Ghana,” he recounted.
According to the historian, the British rejected the proposal because it was a university college affiliated to the University of London.
“All the lecturers at a certain point, apart from Kofi Abrefa Busia, were all Britons. Busia was the first Black professor who was a lecturer at the Institute of the African Studies. Prior to the opening of University of Ghana, he was teaching African Studies, which in our time would be the department of Sociology.
He further explained that the facility continued to be called the University of Gold Coast till July 1, 1960 when Ghana became a republic.
“If Nkrumah had not declared us a republic on July 1, the charter and supporting documents needed to elevate the University College of the Gold Coast to an autonomous university would have hit a snug.
“The governor of the time, Lord Listowel, rejected it because of the queen. So, it was not signed until Ghana was declared a republic on July 1, 1960,” he said.
He indicated that the University of Ghana was formally opened in 1961 after Kwame Nkrumah became president and presented the charter before Parliament to be approved.
VPO/AE
Meanwhile, catch the first in the series of our special episodes on Forgotten Forts on People and Places on GhanaWeb TV below. This episode focuses on Fort Amsterdam at Abandze:
