Akwasi Boakye made history as the world’s first Black mining engineer, breaking racial barriers and paving the way for Africans and people of African descent to enter fields that had long been dominated by Europeans.
He was the eldest son of Kwaku Dua II, King of the Ashanti Kingdom. In 1837, Boakye and his cousin, Kwame Poku, were sent to the Netherlands to receive an education as part of broader negotiations between the Ashanti and the Dutch regarding the recruitment of Ashanti soldiers for the Dutch East Indies Army.
Although Kwame Poku returned to the Gold Coast as planned, Boakye remained in the Netherlands.
He went on to study at the forerunner of Delft University, where he trained as a mining engineer and graduated in 1847.
In 1850, he was posted to the Dutch East Indies but faced racial discrimination from his superior, Cornelius de Groot van Embden. Following a legal battle, Boakye was awarded financial compensation in 1857, which included an estate south of Buitenzorg (now Bogor) in present-day West Java, Indonesia.
According to ghanaianmuseum.com, he was a member of the Association of Civil Engineers (later renamed the Association of Delft Engineers). In 1871, he rejoined as a member and correspondent for the Dutch East Indies.
Boakye passed away on June 9, 1904.
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In 1997, Dutch writer Arthur Japin researched the lives of Boakye and his cousin Poku, which later inspired his historical novel De zwarte met het witte hart (The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi).
JKB/MA
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