Renowned historian and legal practitioner Yaw Anokye Frimpong has explained why Opoku Ware Senior High School, often referred to as OWASS, was not named after a saint.
According to him, Kwame Nkrumah proposed to the Ashanti Chief, Prempeh II, that the Catholic school that was being established in Santasi, a suburb of Kumasi, be named after the former king.
Speaking in an interview with Max Morning Agenda in Accra on Wednesday, Anokye Frimpong said that the boys school was established in 1952 during the reign of Nkrumah’s bosom friend, Nana Prempeh II.
He said around that time, all the schools emerging were named after Catholic saints and priests, citing St. Johns and Archbishop Porter girls, all located at Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western region, as examples.
In light of this, Anokye Frimpong said Nkrumah incited Prempeh II to name the school after Opoku Ware, noting that he was greater than the saints being named after the schools established in the country.
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Talking about why Nkrumah proposed the name Opoku Ware, he said he was the first “Asantehene” to have established the Ashanti Kingdom as an empire.
Throughout his reign, the historian said Opoku ware carried out a series of campaigns that expanded the Ashanti Empire across Ghana and eastern Ivory Coast.
“In domestic affairs, the Asantehene supported industry and manufacturing. He also carried out state reforms that included the creation of new offices for the administration of the state,” he said.
Anokye Frimpong indicated that those works by Opoku Ware made him a celebrated icon in the history of the Ashantis.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
