Some 4,600 years ago, the beacon of African science, the ancient Egyptian polymath, Imhotep, wrote, “Life is a race between Civilization and Barbarism.” In 1920 H.G. Wells wrote, “History is becoming more and more a race between Education and Catastrophe.”

Both are right. Nothing is more important to the future of the African Union than the breadth and usefulness of an authentic African education, especially one of high pedigree. Not because kindergarten, basic, and secondary education are less important; success at every level of education obviously depends on what has gone before. But for better or worse, the quality of post-secondary education and research affects the value and eminence of education at every level.

This brings us to Ashesi University in Ghana – one of many such new colleges raising ground in Ghana, at every corner, in a bid to lure the progressively conscious, no matter how parochially-minded, and the highly ambitious students in the country into a supposed sophisticated learning space. Along with their parents. No doubt, the middle class in Ghana, and across the continent is beaming with collective hope and fervor. This generation believes it can achieve what their parents tried, but failed – a higher and higher standard of living.

Some of these dreams will be realized, others will be quenched. But it is within this viable but putrid space of fermentation of hopes and dreams, of men and women, of Africans, that colleges like Ashesi thrive. Wanting to strive for something a little better than the conditions they have been born into, Ghanaian students and those from other nearby African countries, who are otherwise very intelligent apprentices, are driven into the academic spaces of schools like Ashesi University and invariably into the open arms of a sustained western educational effort in Africa.

Supposedly founded by “a visionary African,” Ashesi claims it “fosters ethical leadership and innovative thinking for a new Africa.” Only, when the facts are examined, the “new Africa” envisioned here does not seem to square with the team – the old Africa – that has been stitched together to work for the realization of the aspirations of a whole continent of people.

The school also claims that it is “an African-initiated, world-class, non-profit, four-year University.” But the information from its own website, paints a different picture. The evidence points to a school that doubles in unbridled hypocrisy. This is a school that seems to twist the arm of ethics and lies horribly in the face of facts and any innovative thinking.

Worse yet, this is a school gallivanting the country and the West African region in the name of bringing higher and higher education to Africans. It claims its brand of education will uplift the continent from her stupor.

A close examination of the facts shows that Ashesi University is not an African-initiated college, nor is it an African or a Ghanaian school. It is neither here to foster ethical leadership nor is it committed to innovative African thinking.

A cursory look at Ashesi’s Executive Team reveals an unnerving image. This group is made up of the ‘founder and president in name, Mr. Patrick Awuah, who is, of course, Ghanaian. A man who holds degrees from two U.S. universities – an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School.

Located in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College is a private liberal arts college that sits 10 miles from the city of Philadelphia, a city populated with a significant 44 percent African American population of the total 6 million residents who live in the metropolis. Swarthmore however can only boast a mere 6 percent African American student body.

Add to this, it costs a whopping 50,000.00 dollars to attend this school every year. Haas Business School, on the other hand, costs about this much in tuition alone. Located in Berkeley, in the state of California, Haas is part of a public school system in the United States that can only boast a putrid 0.4 percent African American student population.

That much is common in all American Universities – public or private. Much of the free market and the federal government in the United States have found a way to keep more than 35 million African Americans largely out of the premises of higher education.

It is in this light that we must examine Ashesi University and the people helming its affairs in Ghana.

At Ashesi, the Provost and the Associate Provost are both white American women, evidently, with degrees from universities in the United States of America. The question arises – why would the Executive Committee of a university that stresses an Africa-centric education and ingenuity be comprised of two white American women – Marcia Grant and Suzanne Buchele?

Are Ghanaian universities now incapable of finding two African women to fill the role of Provost and Associate Provost, especially in a country that has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the world? A mirror image harkens back to the United States itself – where Blacks continue to experience disproportionately high unemployment rates – where historically Black Colleges (HBCUs) are still headed and manned, in essence, by white men and women for absolutely no educational achievement reason.

In the US, there are only 106 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) compared to more than 2600 historically white colleges and universities, according to the Association of American Colleges and Universities. There is very little debate over the overwhelming marginalization of Black teachers and administrators in these white schools, but even the HBCUs employ more whites as administrators and teachers than Blacks. Why?

Much ado about what the particular training of these women – Marcia Grant and Suzanne Buchele – bring to Ghana. Is it their unique experiences as white women who were born privileged, bred sumptuously, and educated at the behest of poor and working class African Americans? What unique insight do these women, raised in arguably the most racist nation the world has ever known, bring to Ghana?

In other words, what role could white women from the U.S come to play in Ghana, in an educational system full of Black students, that could be so helpful, when they do not seem to have a track record of helping poor African American children back in the U.S.?

When examined carefully, this is not even a case of ‘take the log out of your eye before you speak of the speck in my eye’ scenario. No, there is more.

 

The Real Ashesi

It turns out that the truth behind Ashesi’s unique origins is the United States itself. Ashesi University was actually founded by Ashesi University Foundation, which is a non-profit organization, based in Seattle, WA, in the United States. Not Ghana.

This explains why over 80 percent of Ashesi University’s Board of Trustees are white and American, some with various degrees from US universities: Aprile Age, Yaw Asare-Aboagye, Patrick Awuah, Neil Collins, Emer Dooley, Conrad Gehrmann, Sylvie Gomis-Tanoh, Kristi Helgeson, Peter O. Koelle, Scott Kucirek, Nina Marini, Lisa Norton, Patrick Nutor, Gurdeep Pall, Ruth Warren, Todd Warren (Chairman of the Board), and Peter Woicke.

In addition, the non-profit foundation in the United States may still have Patrick Awuah as the President, but once this Ghanaian is retired, who knows what? With three white American women – Joanna Bargeron, Mary Fryett and Amy Marie Barbour – occupying the roles of Vice President, Development Officer, and Donor Relations Coordinator respectively, the key to the success of Ashesi University in Ghana lies almost exclusively in the hands of white Americans.

Furthermore, the group of Key Staff members of the university – manning the everyday affairs of Ashesi University – is 75 percent white.

Having established that, after all, Ashesi is not an African venture, let alone one comprised of an African administration, or one that we could clearly admit was committed to educating Africans, we must scrutinize why this group of white Americans is interested in the education business in Ghana.

Currently, an Ashesi education costs a whamming 4,000.00 dollars, per student, per semester, in tuition and books. This means that after housing, food, medical and other miscellaneous expenses are included, a Ghanaian student can expect to pay close to a total sum of 15,000.00 dollars for only one year’s education.

Any student from outside Ghana – that is, from Benin, Nigeria or any other African country for that matter – registering at this institution can expect to cough up even more money.

As far as West Africa is concerned, this not just an expensive education, it is exorbitant. For a country like Ghana, which ranks 126th among countries in the world in GDP per Capita standing (in both Purchasing Power Parity or Nominal terms), the price for enrolling at a university like Ashesi is beyond extortionate.

Exactly who is Ashesi serving in Ghana? Who can pay for such a luxurious “education” in the backdrop of a country that is struggling to pay her basic school teachers a fair wage and continues to acquire foreign loans to build small roads in Accra?

As it often turns out, this may not necessarily be the most important question to ask. Perhaps what needs to be ascertained is whether Ashesi University is in the business of bringing the much tooted top-of-the-edge education it claims to offer, to the wider Ghanaian population. Or not.

One thing can be sure. Ghana’s poor economy may not necessarily be a basis for withholding the charging of obscene amounts of money for an English, Math and Science education. What is perhaps true is that the crème de la crème of the population are fully capable of dolling out 60,000 dollars for a four-year education for a child who can barely qualify for a high school education, let alone deserving of a college tutelage.

The top percenters of Ghana, rich as they might come, adore their fellow American capitalists as much, and hence would rather build a 10 million dollar mansion in the middle of a marsh without even realizing, than pay for the paving of a feeder road to their grandmother’s village.

Or at the least, if there are people in Ghana who can afford the kind of expensive education Ashesi offers, then of course, that money is going to help build wonderful institutions for white children in the country from whence the Ashesi administrators come – the United States. Ashesi’s revenues, whether for-profit or for non-profit, only go to benefit the community from which Ashesi has come – Seattle, Washington, USA.

Who gets the money? It’s right there on their website for anyone to see.

The Ashesi model, which the “visionary” in Patrick Awuah seems to have picked up from Haas Business School and which he seems to have adequately learned during his apprenticeship at Microsoft, is not new.

The model was concocted in American universities, and it has by and large been adopted across the board in order to make more and more profits for shareholders, even though these universities continue to retain their non-profit status with tax-payers. In the U.S., universities have become not just institutions of higher learning; they have become the educational Wall Street where the goal of administration is solely to maximize profits for stakeholders.

Discussions in the U.S. have centered on how this model, like that of Ashesi, has contributed to failing colleges over time. There is ample evidence that such colleges in the U.S. have poor educational outcomes, out-of-control tuitions and crippling student loan debts, which are in no doubt part and parcel of the Ashesi model.

Very soon, this orderliness we see in the expansion of the American Ashesi University Foundation into West Africa will be just a secondary symptom of a more pernicious trend: the creeping corporatism of the American university system into Ghana.

That is, not just the literal corporations that are commanding more and more physical space at universities — the Starbucks outposts, the Barnes & Noble as campus bookstore, the Visa card that is used to buy meals at the dining halls and so forth.

Soon enough, poor Ghanaian students dying to obtain an Ashesi degree, and the like, may not even know that they are enrolling at a university today that is setting them up in a vast array of for-profit systems that each take a little slice along the way: student loans distributed on fee-laden A.T.M. cards, college theater tickets sold to them by Ticketmaster, ludicrously expensive athletic apparel brought to them by Nike, Adidas, and Puma.

 

Ghana’s Nkrumah Educational Model Under Threat

To fully comprehend this trend one must first understand the kind of transformation to the Ghanaian educational model, which was laid down by Nkrumah’s Vision that the Ashesi model threatens to overthrow in order that we might yet understand the capital forces underpinning the new trend, not only in Ghana but across the United States and the world at large.

In the 1950s when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became Ghana’s first Head of State – as opposed to a 50 year British Colonial Occupation – the affordability and the free access to basic education and free universities created an upsurge of literates and college students across the country. This surge continued well through the ’80s, when the University of Ghana and the University of Science and Technology, together with new Nursing Schools, Teacher Training Colleges and various Regional Polytechnics, were the very heart of intense public discourse, passionate learning, and vocal citizen involvement in the issues of the times.

It was during this time, too, that Ghanaian students had a thriving African professoriate and that students were given access to a variety of subject areas and the possibility of broad learning. Vocational Training stood at the center of a post-secondary education and students were exposed to subjects at the heart of any sustainable development. Moreover, Cultural Training in tune with African philosophy, Ghanaian Language literature, African history, African religions, and African cultures offered to foster a more egalitarian and well-rounded education.

Of course, something else happened, beginning in the late ‘70s into the ‘80s — the uprisings and growing numbers of citizens, like Jerry John Rawlings, with only an Achimota Secondary School education, took part in popular dissent — against corrupt high ranking military Heads of State, against tribalism, against destruction of our traditional markets and cultures in a growing corporatized culture brought home by a new imperialist western strategy.

Where did much of that revolt incubate? Where did large numbers of well-educated, intellectual, and vocal Ghanaians congregate? On campuses. Who didn’t like the outcome of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s? The huge corporations in the West, which wanted to safeguard their investments in Ghana, the tribal war-mongers like Dr. K.A. Busia and Nana Akuffo-Addo — who would keep us divided based on our ethnic groups, our gender, and perhaps where we may have obtained a bachelor’s education.

In tandem, where did much of the popular dissent emanate from in the US in the ‘60s? On college campuses. The uprisings in the U.S — against the Vietnam War, against racism, against destruction of the environment in a growing corporatized American culture, against homophobia etc.—were started by American students who had been freely educated largely through the 1950s when the GI bill, and the affordability and sometimes free access to universities were key to the American vision.

Given the opportunity, American Corporations would have liked nothing more than to shut down the universities in the ‘60s or to force the hand of government in Ghana, in the late ‘70s, to defund a free basic education. Destroy them outright. But a country claiming to have democratic values can’t just shut down its universities and direct other nations, by force, to erase any semblance of a free and fair higher learning opportunity for all. That would reveal something about that country which would not support the image it is determined to portray — that of a country of freedom, justice and opportunity for all.

 

U.S. Corporatism Storms African Shores

So, how do you kill the universities of the country without showing your hand? And how exactly can you expand this dictatorship across the Oceans, into Africa and beyond, to ensure a continued amassing of wealth without the headache or threat of a concerted popular dissent by students or the youth?

First, you continue to defund public education – especially, higher education. The cost for attending the University of Ghana, the University of Science and Technology and the University of Cape Coast, has risen in the past few decades with no end in sight. Teachers and Nurses under training no longer receive benefits, as they did under Nkrumah, and a Polytechnic education no longer means much in Ghana, let alone the West African sub-region.

Second, you deprofessionalize and impoverish the professors of Ghana. The tenured professors of public universities do not have to do a single research or publish any new knowledge. In turn, you do not have to pay them well. Further, you continue to create a surplus of underemployed and unemployed graduates with Masters and Doctorate degrees.

One way to achieve this surplus is to entice universities in the U.S to continue to admit Ghanaian students into PhD programs of little value to the Ghanaian educational system. PhDs in Biotechnology, Organizational Leadership, Business Administration, and Organizational Psychology are useless to a country that cannot seem to bolster her agricultural and mineral resources potential.

Third, you move through ambush utilizing corporate models like Ashesi University into Ghana. Even better, move it in with a Blackface – preferably a Ghanaian at the helm to escape any suspicion of a post-colonial imperialism.

Fourth, you move in a managerial and administrative class who take over governance of the university. In Ashesi’s case, these managers are white American women from the U.S. who already administer the daily operations of the Ashesi University Foundation.

In the U.S. for example, from the ‘70s until onwards, the number of full-time faculty jobs in colleges have shrunk, while the number of full-time administrative jobs have exploded. Ghana is facing a similar trend. Ashesi has a Board of Trustees with 17 white Americans and only 4 Ghanaians. As the school continues to expand, more white American administrators would have to be employed and housed in gated neighborhoods around the country. That kind of gentrification will also bring with it, some social problems never before faced in Ghana.

Lastly, you destroy an otherwise thriving Ghanaian student population. While Ashesi, and other colleges like it, might claim to offer hope of a better life, their corporatized model is ruining the lives of Ghanaian students. This is accomplished through a two-prong tactic. First, you dumb down and destroy the quality of the education so that no one can actually learn to think, question, or reason. Instead, students learn to obey, to withstand “tests” and “exams,” to follow rules, to endure absurdity and abuse.

The second prong:  You make college so insanely unaffordable – like Ashesi’s 60,000 dollar price tag for a 4-year degree in Ghana – which only the wealthiest students from the wealthiest of families can afford without going into huge debt. Today, across the board in Ghana, tuition continues to soar even in public schools. This is the most directly dangerous situation for unsuspecting Ghanaian students and their parents: pulling them into crippling debt that will follow them throughout their lives and into the grave.

In this light, Ashesi’s so-called Scholarship Program comes readily to mind. The U.S. Foundation claims it makes an Ashesi education available to Africans who cannot afford it with some scholarships and largely loans, thanks to a “13 million dollar partnership with The MasterCard Foundation in Canada.” In which case, another foreign financial company in MasterCard stands to rake in huge profits.

These shady partnerships that have formed between the lending institutions and the Financial Aid Departments of universities will continue and become entrenched within the Ghanaian context. But it is an unholy alliance. In the U.S., there have been plenty of kick-back scandals between colleges and lenders — and Ghanaians can be sure there is plenty undiscovered shady business going on between Ashesi and MasterCard.

This control of how the university is run, with a flood of corporate money – so-called “partners in education” – results in changing the values, mission, and meaning of a college education from one where an educated Ghanaian citizenry is perceived as a social good, where intellect and reasoning are developed, to a place of technical training alone, focused on getting a job at a huge corporation in Ghana, which is also setup by a U.S. or otherwise foreign multinational.

Soon, that corporate culture is going to totally seize the narrative in Ghana, the way it has already ensnared the U.S. — university will no longer be attended for the development of the mind. It will soon be a place to go and buy a degree in order to get a good job or even, just stay employed.

Colleges like Ashesi University rely on private sector methods of revenue generation such as private corporations (like Ashesi University Foundation of Seattle), patents, marketing strategies, corporate partnerships, campus rentals, and for-profit e-learning enterprises. To cut costs further, such a university will employ non-Ghanaian – probably American – employee service contractors to streamline their financial operations.

Soon, tuition costs will be out of control because of administrative, executive, and mentoring salaries – all for white American workers at Ashesi – and the loan numbers will keep growing, risking a life of indebtedness for most of our Ghanaian students. Further, there is absolutely no incentive on the part of this corporatized university to care.

African students, like their American counterparts, will soon be presented with a dazzling array of advertisements and offers: glasses at the campus for-profit vision center, car insurance through some giant financial company, spring break through a package deal offered by one multinational after the other.

Such transition of big universities in America to the corporatized model that Ashesi is, have not boded well for the communities in which they are built. The University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Chicago, Princeton University, Yale University, etc. are fast expanding oases in the midst of deserts of poverty and destitution. Whether it is the city of Philadelphia, or Harlem, or Chicago, or Princeton, or New Haven, African American neighborhoods are being gentrified every day in the name of the expansion of research institutions.

Almost none of the African American students who attend High Schools in these university neighborhoods make it to the Ivy clad towers of these corporate universities. They can’t pay. Ashesi is starting this trend outside Accra where soon, not even students in the vicinity of the university will be able to afford to pay to attend the college.

If this was the University of Ghana where students of Achimota High School, Presbyterian Boys, or the West African High School could not attend because they couldn’t qualify or pay, Ghanaians would have thrown their arms in alarm. But what’s coming is much worse.

Through a propaganda machine, Ghanaian students, armed with the belief of their parents, their K-12 teachers, their high school counselors, one after another, are convinced by constant repetition that they have to go to such colleges to attain promising middle class lives and careers. Ghanaian students are convinced that even the tuition debt is “worth it” merely to realize much too late that the pursuit of a mirage only indentures them.

After all is said and done, this Ashesi Foundation in the U.S. did not arrive in Ghana to build a center for excellence. What Ghanaians need to do is: be alert. And stay alert. The machinations of the Ashesi University Foundation are oddly similar to the Colonial Regime that built almost all of Ghana’s Missionary Schools and succeeded in teaching Ghanaians to hate themselves and be afraid to fight the colonialists.

What is an American non-profit doing in the Ghanaian education business? Is this a Blackface conglomerate? And is money the only goal? Or does it have something much bigger planned for Ghana and West Africa?

These are questions and concerns that are worth pondering over as we watch Ashesi and other foreign-funded colleges crop into in every corner of the country.

Otherwise this legion of capitalists and bureaucrats would come to Ghana and enable a world of pitiless surveillance; no segment of campus life, no matter how small, would be left without some administrator who worries about it. Piece by piece, every corner of the average Ghanaian campus will slowly be made congruent with a single, totalizing vision.

The rise of endless brushed-metal-and-glass buildings at Ashesi University represents the aesthetic dimension of this ideology. Bent into place by a small army of apparatchiks, the contemporary Ghanaian college might slowly become as meticulously art-directed and branded as a J. Crew catalog. Like Niketown or Disneyworld, Ashesi might just become the model for the average Ghanaian college campus to leave anyone who visits with the distinct impression of a one-party state and a pocketful of debt.

 

 

Nefetiti, also at Grandmother Africa, has penned a summary of public responses to this article here:Public Response: Ashesi University, College Corporatism, and African Futures.

Akosua Abeka’s followup essay detailing the issues raised here and in response to various critics, including Mr. Patrick Awuah’s comments can be found here: Ashesi University – The Vicissitudes of a Foreign Liberal Arts Education in Ghana.

 

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123 COMMENTS

  1. Let us put this Ashesi story in the rightful perspective. This is a continuation of conversation we had earlier about the origins of the university and what it means in the larger context of a world that has come to be dominated by money, lots of money in education. And not only that, the exploitation of the poor in order to amass insane amounts of wealth in the name of education. For Ashesi, I examine the facts. Clearly the facts are more painful than we are willing to accept. All things do some good. Even capitalism. But eventually, some things become the evil that society has always wanted to avoid. We have to be circumspect. We have to tell the truth, and be open minded in arresting a path through a rabbit hole as far as Ghana’s education is concerned.

    • I am student in the University. The views I am about to expressed are sicncere, not unguided conclusions devoid of logic as yours. You shocked me by describing your far-fetched sentiments, the truth. I am sorry they cannot even form a truth. The truth is Ashesi is engineering the ideal calibre of students Ghana needs, the students Africa needs. The students are happy, the corporate world is benefiting and Africa has started reaping the fruits of Ashesi’s efforts.

        • Most of you here don’t get it. A few do! I am elated. And that’s par for the course. You’re STILL not reading (and understanding), folks. Start with the regulars of English comprehension and when you master that, move on. Most of you folks are not ready yet. Start at the beginning of my essay – way above – and take your time. Read it ALL and THINK about what it says.

          Then, and only then, (re)-read my “standard concerns” of your vituperative support for an Ashesi educational model in Ghana above, and apply that template for yourselves. It works every time.

          If I had you in a 6th grade English class, I’d have you seeing it in no time. I’d make you do what I say or I’d send you to the principal’s office. You’d get it.

          • Akosua, Well done for your boldness in telling the truth. Africans who aren’t conscience will never understand. You article serves as an alarm bell, Ashesi University we are all watching closely… I agree with everything you said, thank you for articulating it in such a logical manner.

            For those of you who think Akosua is speaking gibberish, perhaps you should read Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s book Neo Colonialism, the last stage of imperialism, it would help put Akosua’s submission in better perspective.

    • Akosua Abeka, this is a bunch of nonsense. If you have weird, concocted views about whites, this is really a sad way to draw Ashesi into this.

      My name is Hene Aku Kwapong and I worked with Patrick at Microsoft. Idea of Ashesi was born over lunch among a group of Ghanaians at Microsoft just sitting around shooting the breeze before Patrick left for business school. And that is why most of us at Microsoft and our bosses put up resources to make it happen.

      If you have a different idea of education based on your excellent education from University of Ghana, advocate it. But don’t call into repute other models while playing the race card.

      You have no idea how great minds are educated. You also have no idea how big problems are solved. So please stick to your dream whatever it is and let us build ours.

      I am very very disappointed in you as a fellow Ghanaian. We will build.

      • Hene

        She has no idea, let alone a different one. She is just spewing hate, like most Ghanaians do when they see a good thing. If we are to Psychoanalyze her rant, we will see a picture of a hateful woman who cannot stand her self. Ignore her.

      • Dear Hene Aku Kwapong. This is no attempt at refuting Akosua Abeka’s candid points. You are bloviating at best.

        However, I am certainly not surprised you worked at Microsoft, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Exxon-Mobil – which altogether still are parts of the problem in Ghana, African and the World. I can recount their exploits on African soil, but I choose to wait on you. Let me share but one example, Exxon-Mobil by the way is part of the oil, gas, and mining giants who employ crafty tax-avoidance strategies, severely understating the value of their assets in African countries and assigning the bulk of their income to subsidiaries in tax havens such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and the Marshall Islands.

        Microsoft? The company that is making billions off of poor tax-payer’s research in the US? And still feels that it invented the planet? Or do you not know how Microsoft was born? What would you know about race Mr. Hene Aku? Race Card? Please! You are just one of those ungrateful African men, given opportunity through the hard work, blood and toil of poor African Americans who fought and died for Civil and Human Rights in the Unites States. What would you know about Race? By the way, your ancestors sold these people into bondage in the first place. And you dare to talk about the race card? How bold and carnal.

        Plus, while you were busy gathering over lunch at Microsoft, Akosua Abeka and co., were busy wiping away your grandmother’s behind! Foolish man. While you were busy thinking ‘for Ghana’ in the comforts of your US company, Akosua Abeka was busy thinking with Ghanaians. You talk of the University of Ghana as if it’s the University of Oklahoma. You talk of the University of Ghana as if it was Swarthmore. Swarthmore? You kidding?

        I too, am very very disappointed at you comments. Can you not hold a discussion without the insults? Akosua has not attacked Dr. Patrick Awuah. At all. We all believe that he is a good man. Sure, with good intentions. But the road to Hell was equally paved with good intentions. You might be Patrick’s bulldog, Akosua is obviously not. She shares candid criticism. This will help him. On the other hand, you don’t help!

        None of you has addressed the fact that Ashesi University if a US Non-profit University in Ghana. Why is that? Can you not identify facts from prose? What nonsense questioning the Ghanaian that Akosua Abeka is. What coonery and buffoonery!

        • Solomon, is that an intellectual debate? You are really enlightening me. My Ashesi and American-education teaches me to address the situation not attack the person. Hene Aku Kwapong might be privileged. In fact, too privileged but do you know what he did to get to where he is? You have nothing against the man so Exxon, Microsoft and Royal Bank of Scotland; na them dey suffer.

          Ashesi is not the best education ever invented in the world or even in Ghana but let us be honest, Ashesi is churning out Africa’s greatest leaders. Just live the next 10 years and see. Sometimes, let us accept the truth. I got about 80% scholarship to attend Ashesi and dude, I will go back over and over and over and over again! Work with Ashesi grads and 9/10 will blow your mind with how much effort they put in. You think we are all chasing jobs? Hehee,.. attend Ashesi for just a day and you’ll understand the diversity that goes on.

          You make a lot of proclamations with your dear sister Akosua which honestly it will take me a year to deconstruct. A US Non-profit in Ghana? OMG, let me educate you. Majority of the world’s wealth is held in the West. The US more precisely has a lot of rich people than Ghana. When Patrick started Ashesi, you think he didn’t think of getting funding from Africans? Ask yourself how many will give. If you will donate just $10,000 every month then Henry can go to sleep and we will set up the board wherever you want. For now it is not the case. So you know the smart thing to do, build the foundation where you can get the most money and use it where it is needed the most, education for Africans. This I am afraid is common sense and a lot of founders use this strategy.

          • Another bleating goat from Ashesi! “OMG, let me educate you. Majority of the world’s wealth is held in the West.” I can’t believe you can make such a comment and keep your mandibles on. The west has all the wealth? You mean the Dollars – that paper – they print and bring everywhere, and you, like a goat, accept it? There you are sitting on Gold, Diamonds, Cocoa, Farm Lands, Water Bodies, Oil – all of which this West, you claim can only boast of a few – but you think this West is Wealthier than Ghana? What a fool! What a rascal of an education you received from Ashesi. I am not surprised that your ancestors sold their brothers and sisters into slavery and accepted colonialism like it was Christmas. You goat, you good-for-nothing Dau, you too will sell Ghana soon. Your children and your children’s children will suffer. With that Ashesi education bleating animals like you receive, Africans will soon be extinct. You are so comfortable with having white women descend from the States and Europe to teach you, educate you, in what? But I understand, you have no idea what’s going on in the world. The same way you accept this paper called the Dollar or the Pound and give away your resources reminds me of the same way your idiotic ancestors – those uncouth humans – sold their own people to white people for what? Cowries! Did you know that? Cowries? White people took boat trips to the Caribbean, collected cowries, brought bags of it to the Gold Coast and your foolish ancestors accepted these cowries and gave away their fellow Africans into slavery. You, like them, are animals! And with this Ashesi education, we shall soon be thrown into another era of white oppression. Abua!

          • Solomon, do you have to be verbally abusive to everyone who dissents from your views?Come on!! Akosua might be wrong or right in her assertions but we always agree to disagree. No need for big worded insults. Be measured and refined in what spews out of you. You embarrass me

        • Solomon,

          You sure are an angry man. I cannot understand the bitterness in you response, railing unnecessarily at people defending what they do believe in. The structure of Ashesi university does not necessarily make it an evil corporate, and you are unfair in your criticism. There are many evils perpetuated by Man over many thousands of years and for which we all are paying the price today. Ashesi may end up developing leaders capable of transforming Ghana in the years to come.

      • What’s the point of introducing University of Ghana into your bitter-crafted speech? You could have made your point without it? You feel hurt and defensive, and that’s a bad news. Ashesi mustn’t be proud of such sentimental attempt. Simply attempt to discredit the thoughts therein than the writer.
        How could you charge $60,000 for a 4-year university education in Ghana? It’s insane… have had a lot of respect for Ashesi until now.

      • As a Pro Ashesi Advocate you dont seem to appreciate the money barrier that your School has created.
        Even in America the wealthy class sees tuition and Board going beyond its affordability and to make matters worst student debt that some will pay for decades to come.
        The Ivy league is beyond the reach of even the middle Class.

        Ghana is a developing Nation and many parents cannot afford such a school that requires payment in US Dollars.
        What will our ancestors say about these Schools that are us more westernized than ever.
        P.Awuah is just remaking Swarthmore back into Ghana without taking into account the Customary Background of Ghana.
        Our Other Schools and Universities cannot fund such a dream.
        Moreover will the School shares its presence with even the Makola and Agbobloshi People unlike those who went to Legon UCC or KNUST.
        Do you dream but a dream becomes more real when shared with other peoples.
        She doesnt have a hatred of white people.But my brother white people despite their kindness have in majority shown more prejudice in education towards people of Colour especially in America and the UK.
        Why do have HBCUs and Black churches in US.
        Black people want to integrate but the whites decided to Create their own world without Blacks in them.
        Look at what happened to SA back in the 20th Century.
        Even the UK wants to see more affordability in education even for the working class.
        Hence the uproar over Top up fees within the UK System back in 2009 and 2010.

    • Akosua, you have spoken well, and I understand from this writing your desire for a kind of education that best suits one that most matches the core of the African belief and practice. By this piece, I sense you are questioning the kind of governance structure we have, too. In fact, I sense that you are questioning our identity even louder than what is boldly communicated in the text. Good, yeah, I will say.

      Thinking carefully, however, I am moved to understand whether any of the claims made do not amount to libel, in a stretched sense. I state emphatically that some statements appear to be truth, but really are entirely wrong and scandalous and damaging, and this amounts to being charged for libel.
      You do not appear apologetic, neither do you appear to lack knowledge of the status of Ashesi in any reasonable sense; you appear to know everything, though you contradict your intellect by using ”may” in some instances. That suggests you are not certain of the idea you are conveying, yet you sounded too sure of damaging the hard-earned dignity of a college that binds no individual to anything. Can you justify this statement:

      ”…and Ghanaians can be sure there is plenty undiscovered shady business going on between Ashesi and MasterCard”?

      I am a MasterCard Foundation Scholar. I have been on this package for the past four years. What do I not know of the values of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program? It only seeks to guarantee one financially challenged student a brighter future, a future that is purely chosen by the Scholar. Ashesi only facilitates the processes to achieving that future; it really stipulates nothing strange to that. It is, therefore, worrying how you strategically paint that package you have not even created for the ordinary person on the street.

      I will like to know how you are enriching the live of the ordinary person who cannot even read your opinions expressed in English. What educational system have you set up for one to compare to Ashesi’s? It will be really helpful to learn of what tangible contributions you are making in people’s lives.

      Remember, I do not pretend I know everything. I am only seeking to learn from you.

      • Keep minting your rosy perspectives about MasterCard ’till they finally descend proper on Ghana. Do you even know what MasterCard is and what it does? Are you really that naive? MasterCard is a credit business. Another way to put that is, they are in the business of making sure you get into debt, so you can pay them interests, high interests! Your scholarship might be free today. But let’s wait, they will come proper, and when they do, your children and their children’s children will be running helter skelter.

        • OMG Ares. What naivety? I have received scholarships from companies I don’t even know. How exactly will they come back to us? Throw student loans and mortgage at us?

  2. Akosua M. Abeka; i am neither a faculty staff in that college nor any distance family related but I think, it will be unfair to the brand, fought to build with sweat and cash to be analysed in this manner. I am yet to critically study your script for my input. If we accept intellectual perspective on moral grounds,then understand that; the most difficulty in modern enterprise is to build a brand equity, to wake-up in the next day drag to mud.

  3. I am an alumni of Ashesi and saw the 1st crop of students who were accepted and was there to see those who graduated 3 years ago. While Ashesi does have it’s flaws and part of which are a model on Western Universities, the biggest flaw of which I see is student loans and the implications, I feel it’s easy to stand back and criticize someone’s dream when we aren’t offering an alternate.
    Patrick Awuah left a comfortable job at Microsoft, came back and invested almost all his personal money into his dream and spent years seeking funding for it, and I was there to see it grow from less than 100 students to roughly 600 it has today.

    Having tried several times to get African ideas off the ground and been blocked by fellow Africans who were more interested in either stealing my ideas, humoring me and doing nothing, I can understand why Patrick would extend his network to non-Africans to get things moving.

    It’s easy to say, ‘Find black women to fill the roles’, harder finding people who won’t waste your time. I have, several times.

    His goals may not be as ‘black’ as someone elses. But is it fair to vilify it entirely because ‘thats not what we would do’?

    Education, the kind that allows us to compete with the wider world isn’t one of sitting under a hut and learning crafts. It isn’t free of charge. Perhaps $5000 a year is steep for most, but do we appreciate the logistic of training leaders with the best education available without scrimping on the cost of teachers and teacher-student ratio to achieve it?

    40% of Ashesi students are either on a grant or funding, so they aren’t full-fee paying.

    I was fortunate enough to have parents who could afford it fully. And I feel I got a decent education. I am no less African, or less Pan-African for it. In deed, part of my renewed Pan-Africanism has to do with my education as much as my upbringing by a pan-African Father and grandfather.

  4. The case of Ashesi reminds one of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. It was established and funded with private American money. The graduates they produce are wedded to the neoliberal economic orthodoxy of the US and actively promote western interests in Russia. They are in fact called self hating Russophobes. Ashesi controlled by white Americans might unwittingly produce such graduates in Africa. How clever to produce an African elite suffused with Western thinking and subservient to the metropole.

  5. Jonas – There is NOTHING in the curriculum to support that assumption. There is however a very strong Africana curriculum, that many American exchange students have come in to learn alongside African students amazed to find out things about their own continent they had never known before.

    I feel we are confusing xenophobia with Pan-African interest

  7. The article is wonderful crafted as one of the genius qualities of Akosua however my dear friend there is something I have realised in my few years of existence on earth, that knowledge lacking wisdom is fatal to humanity.

    Now all the presentation stipulate experience of the past according to people studies as projected mathematically in your piece extrapolating it to present and the future, which time could prove such also wrong.

    I have also realised everything founded on this earth or possible created by man has both advantages and disadvantages depending on where one chose to present his argument from all will be logic to the truth but may not be neccessarily be the truth.

    I have again also realised that, for one to suffer or to be relieve from any crises of this world, highly depends on the skillful ability to moderate variables with respect to time.

    This implies if one claim to be Afrocentric such should be measured under “moderate clause”; knowing that too much of everything is bad this I see it not as man made but a natural law in my experience in my private and professional life.

    Most of the attribute of our failures in Africa least I talk about Europe because their failure is not my business, is simple we lack the ability to moderate factors with respect to time, to work in our advantage. We are most at times stuck with past errors to judge present wrongly.

  8. I sometime ask myself; why has African economy failed, unless we have accepted, the defeat that;the whites are superior creatures than blacks, such that their equation could not be circumvent to our advantage through our genius action.

    These are ordinary men of blood with intellect which we blacks claims to be superior in every faculty to surpass them, yet their puzzle is unsolvable questions to us, get me sick and tired of our too much talking but lack execution, as super human of God first creation of earth. Wasting all our effort in blame games and complains. Hmmmm.

    Our solution is very simple, if we can not create the system, we should turn the system to our advantage by moderating it genuisly with respect to time.
    At least they can not control our human actions but could control the system created by them; for us to work within it boundary.

    What is stopping us to do just that. We just wasting our time doing blame game business.

    White guys are using their brain, let use our own to prove them wrong; than our present inferiority complex debate that continue to fuel the nonsense of blasphemy to us in the case of Trump.

  9. Yaw Djin. It is possibly without foreign money to start something from Ghana for Ghana and by Ghanaians. You just have to wait a little longer. Harvard wasn’t built over a year or 13 years. Nor was Cambridge. Because Africans travel and see so much, they come home impatiently attacking everything and everybody. Life takes time. It has always taken time. Awuah could or should have realized that a superb University in Ghana can be built. That he could start it. That in a couple of generations it could become something more profound. A thousand miles journey begins with a single step. But western educated Africans, and those who look up to the west are always in a rush. When you are in a rush, you might even make a deal with the devil. I think Awuah and Ashesi have made deals with the devil.

    • Yes, those who had their education in the west are always in a rush. You think so?.

      What I have also observed is, most of the time, they are the people that actually propel Africa forward. I think Nkrumah, Wangari Mathai of Kenya, Strive Masiyiwa of Zimbawe, Dr. Johnson Sirleaf, Kofi Annan, were always in a rush. But they have established some legacies across the continent. On the flip side, I tend not to see many people educated solely in Ghana initiate productive and economically viable ventures in Ghana. What they do is to step on the toes of fellow Ghanaians who are extracting themselves to give Ghana a future.

      How could you have contradicted yourself so easily. Here you are advocating that, a Ghanaian university should be fully separated from the West and devoid of all Western influence, Yet stressing that the same University used the methods Harvard and Cambridge used to established themselves. Yes, Havard and Cambridge have come a long way, but don’t you think that, Ghana is late? The methods Havard and Cambridge used to establised themselves will be of little help to us.

    • It’s funny how your examples (Harvard and Cambridge) are not African. Oops! Maybe it is because there is nothing to point to on Africa. Yet you nicely condescend one of the few trying to start a Harvard or Cambridge of Africa.
      If you want to continue bing patient for a more profound educational system, well and good. Yet at we 50 damn years of waiting, some of us are hopping on this wagon

      • You these good-for-nothing Africans! “It’s funny how your examples (Harvard and Cambridge) are not African. Oops! Maybe it is because there is nothing to point to on Africa?” Really? Look at these goats chewing the grass that Europeans continue to feed you. Do you not know that the modern university as we know it was built on the Timbuktu template? Did you even know that at the height of the scholarship that Timbuktu is known for, there were over 25,000 students from across Africa. You think Patrick Awuah is the first to start something from Africa? Right. I knew the education you were getting from Ashesi was below-par. I knew it.

        • Can you address the matter without attacking anyone? Cause honestly you are sounding like you’re mad you never attended Ashesi. “You good for nothing Africans” is that what I heard you say? So should I suppose you are from er….the West?
          By the way, no one is discounting what happened at Timbuktu but why has it not lasted? Why did you not refer to it instead you talk about Havard and Cambridge.
          Mehn….its good to fight for what one believes in but if this is the way you are going to go about it (name calling and baseless rants) then that’s enough evidence for me to stay away from your vision.
          Imma go back to being the goat I am. *chews my grass*

    • Now that you have realised that a superb University of Ghana could be built, we are depending on you to begin the thousand mile journey while Patrick works on his dream. We are expecting you to, at least ,give us the early workings of your rescue plan, the same one the likes of you and the writer came up with while Patrick was ” thinking for Ghana”- so we can share our “candid opinion” prose by prose, fact by fact.

      Patiently waiting….

  10. In all fairness, I try not to impugn the integrity of Mr. Awuah. I do not think he is a bad Ghanaian nor do I think I am more African than him. But I hope to call attention to an issue that has not yet made its way into Ghanaian discourse. We have to fully understand what the Ashesi Model can unleash on the Ghanaian Educational System. That is my fear. Anyone who has a full comprehension of the U.S. College System would see what is happening in Ghana and warn us. So, Yaw Djin, I do not doubt you received an education from Ashesi, a good one. Nor do I think Patrick Awuah should hoist the Pan-African flag on his campus. I do not really understand Pan-Africanism to be frank. But for whatever Nkrumah and W.E.B Dubois made it out to be, it still is a guiding principle for us. It should teach us to be wary of a people who colonized us, enslaved us, and brutalized us. They still do. Look at the U.S. any day. Tell me when a Black person is not shot, killed or dragged on the ground by white Cops? Racism is a real issue in the U.S. Therefore to see white women in Ghana, who you claim have the interests of Ghanaians at heart, is a bit worrying. Why don’t they go back to their countries and worry about their country folk – African Americans. No they won’t. They hate Blacks. They are in Ghana and Africa only for the money. They do not love you. Ask yourself a simple question: When has any Western nation helped any Black nation achieve development? Or sustainability. We ought to painfully look at facts. The Ashesi Model is not new. It’s been tried in the U.S. It has created many problems. My goal in this article is to bring attention to the devastation, over time, that the model now fully-creeped into all public universities, has brought on the American student population and working class. When you have 81 percent of your Board of Trustees as white people, especially Americans, you cannot evade the fear of a neo-imperialism through Financial and Market Capitalism. We can build schools in Ghana. But we ought to be patient. I can understand Mr. Awuah’s frustrations, but in no way makes his effort immune to criticism. Constructive criticism is what we need. I have candidly provided one. If Mr. Awuah were smart, he would read the article and tie the open ends of his model. Or he puts Ghana at a devastating risk.

    • You wrote, “We have to fully understand what the Ashesi Model can unleash on the Ghanaian Educational System.” What does this mean, really? It is your brilliant pre-supposition that the Ghanaian educational system is creating superb educational outcomes? And the Ashesi model will unleash some kind of snag to mess it up? WHAT? I must admit, you did write a very persuasive piece, albeit fraught with half-truths, propaganda and racial bitterness. Listen, I graduated from Central University and did KNUST for my second degree. Worked in both retail and investment banking for a while and quit to start a consulting company. You know what the biggest challenge is in starting a company in Ghana? Forget capital. Its finding the right talent, both entry-level and management, to drive a vision. I did not learn entrepreneurship within the four walls of the lecture theatre. In there, they don’t teach that stuff the way it ought to be taught, practically. 2008 I was a vault manager at Barclays bank, spintex branch when a little chap from Ashesi came for an internship. Everybody wanted the boy retained after the completion of his internship. Why? Well, I cannot in clear conscience attribute it to coincidence. There is something happening on that campus. The so-called model you so fear where students get information just to get jobs and not real education, well, that’s been happening for ages, Aunty Akosua Abeka, without the help of Ashesi. That is the standard operant condition of the Ghanaian educational system oo madam! I would have thought, you would deploy your brilliant capacity for rational thought, to conduct a real impact analysis (outcome reviews) on the contribution of Ashesi graduates in the private sector, public policy spaces and whatnot. But no, you chose to contaminate what would otherwise have been an informative advocacy brief with your racial prejudice. How in the name of human decency, are able to aver, that the presence of white women in Ghana is a “bit worrying” because they don’t have the interest of Ghanaians at heart? You think the Ghana Education Service does simply because we are kinsmen? I run a non-profit and we intervene in education and enterprise in the rural areas in Central Region. I have seen first hand the result of neglect. Teachers who have to beg for chalk, common chalk. You think these kids have a future? I would rather pay USD 60,000 for my child to be taught skills like robotics and Artificial Intelligence than pay 5000 for a grind machine that would churn out folks who would join unemployed graduates association after school. Critical thinking makes a difference. That is what in my view, Ashesi is providing. You should be more concerned about political corruption and policy inconsistency that impinges on the Ghanaian educational system than an entrepreneur’s effort to revolutionize quality in higher education no matter how costly. Even if it doesn’t sit well with your leftist views, please give credit where its due. It is sheer hypocrisy to use Ashesi as a platform for your proxy racial diatribe. Please bring me new data.

  11. Jonas, your fears, as exemplified in Russia, are equally mine. Ghana must be wary. Remember before we were colonized, no one told us we were going to be colonized. Before the slave trade, no one told Africans to be wary and develop the infrastructure to fight slavery and colonialism. Now, corporations are moving into an educational system in Ghana that wasn’t great in the first place. Now they want to cripple it. That is the first step towards re-colonization. They say we need to have democratic process but they say we must defund public schools – the education the population needs in order to fully partake in the democratic process. Education in Ghana is getting worse. Not better. We can reverse it. But we can start by calling a spade a spade. Ashesi is not a good model. It is not. All it will do is appeal to the youth in giving them a fancy education. In the end, that education will not be African. At all. Especially when you have white women from the U.S who hate their fellow African Americans trooping in, in the name of helping. Africa doesn’t need help. We need to be left alone.

    • Nkunimdini, thank you very much. You have put my heart at peace. What some he-knows-it-all king Solomon was saying up there dier and insulting everybody who disagrees with him, iIwas surprised, cos even the writer herself has not insulted those who posted dissenting views to her writer. Thanks once again for your exposition. Damaging one’s hard earned reputation is a NO NO

  12. Yaw Djin, when you say “There is NOTHING in the curriculum to support that assumption. There is however a very strong Africana curriculum, that many American exchange students have come in to learn alongside African students amazed to find out things about their own continent they had never known before.” You ought to be exceedingly cautious. I challenge you to visit New York University – they too have a strong Africana Curriculum. I challenge you to visit Hamilton College, they also have a strong African studies program. Visit Swarthmore, and the list goes on. How different is Ashesi from these other schools squatting mostly in Black neighborhoods but deny African Americans the education they deserve? America is a strange land, if we learn to understand it, we can fully comprehend the intentions of those white Americans who come to Ghana in the name of helping us. The University of Ghana and UST have had strong African Programs. Hell, they even have Dondology – an Nkrumah Curriculum. An Africana program does not stop an elite class of people from oppressing the rest. Any way, why have an Africana Curriculum in a school that is African? Should African still be a program in an African School? No. What Ashesi should do is make the entire educational process truly African and then they can introduce Ghanaians to a Europa Curriculum or an Americana Curriculum – where Ghanaians students can learn about Colonialism, Slavery, Racism and all the things that make those people the most savage bunch the world has ever known. Then, maybe, Africans can be wary and prevent getting bitten twice.

    • What actually goes into making the system “truly African”. You all are truly African, bringing down the little good others are trying to do while not offering any viable alternative. That Nkrumah thing you are talking about has not worked for the last 50 years so why are you still fighting for it just because someone introduced a “western type of education?”
      Give us a break!

    • OH….and by the way, if you’re arguing that the university style of education originated from Timbuktu and Patrick is adopting that why are you mad?

  13. I am currently a student of the university. The views I am about to express very sincere, aim at clearing the infinite accuastions you aired on this website.

    Before I continue, let me advise you to that Patrick holds a Doctrate degree and should be adressed as such, unless he gives you the chance to adress him otherwise. Additionally, Dr.. Patrick was not an “apprentice” at Microsoft as your shallow research misguided you.

    You labored hard in researching about staff composition, Board of Trustees and school fees, but you hardly expressed any hint to the invaluable contributions graduates of the unversity are making across the continent. Nor you showed and wrongdoing of the Americans you unduly attached because of Dr. Awuah’s vision. You were obsessed about discussing the tuition fews of Dr. Patrick Awuah’s alma mata, but blatantly ignored the value of the eudcation he recieved in those schools. How could you be so selective in an analysis, you said is “objective and the truth”?

    I agree Swathmore College’s school fees was exhorbitant, but the quality of education at Swathmore was, and is still far above that of University of Ghana, or any other univeristy in Ghana. There has always been money for value. I have observed Dr. Awuah both from afar and near, and I can assure that he is a real visionary. You seem to doubt this. The whole world acknowledges that, though.

    Now to Ashesi’s school fees. Ashesi’s education is a world class education, with small student-to-lecturer ratio, technologically equipped with many electronic databses for detail research purposes. Only few universities in Africa give their students real educational experience like Ashesi. It is not unfair to say to criticize the CEO of a multinational company simply because he earns higher than an intern in a small business? That is what you did.

    the management of Ashesi thought of affordabilty before this article, and know the economy of Ghana probably more than you can imagine. You amused when you touched on the the MasteraCard foundation scholarship, but you immdiately vered off. You should have tried hard to unearth the shoddy deals with the MCF scholarship, then your claims would have been fully. I and other over 200 students like me don’t and will never pay a pesewa for our entire college education, thanks to the MasterCard Foundation. Additionally, the university grants students scholarship, and only few people actually pay Ashesi’s full fees. But the monies they pay are worth it.

    I honestly think you were too earger to express your views that, you failed to researched about Ashesi’s curriculum and lecturer composition. The curriculum is purely African, with many Africana courses. Through the liberal arts system, every student takes Text and Meaning, in which all the bad legacies of colonialism are brought to light. I am far more inspired now to work in Africa than before ever before in my life.

    Ashesi’s education is a real life experience, which anybody who has Ghana’s and Africa’s future at heart should support. The students are happy, Ghana and Africa have started reaping the fruits of Dr.Awuah’s vision.

    • Sorry for the many writing flaws in the comment. Could not just manage my anger whilst commenting on the article.

  14. Awula Akosua M. Abeka — thanks for sharing this article. It is not an accurate account of Ashesi University’s origins and what it does. Yes, Ashesi currently has Caucasians in the Foundation office in Seattle, WA. There was an African-American woman – Leah McCullogh — there before but she passed away. The first Dean of Academic Affairs was a Ghanaian woman — Prof. Nana Apt. She has retired. Ashesi has Ghanaian and foreign visiting Professors who are experts in their field. Also, there are a lot of Ghanaians working at the campus as both academic and administrative staff. There are several Ghanaians who are professors including women. They all have the potential to rise to head their various departments. Two of the female professors are Prof. Esi Ansah and Prof. Ayorkor Korsah who are both GaDangme women. The Mastercard arrangement provides matching funds for scholarships for disadvantaged and academically deserving students. There are always people who will put a negative spin on anything that others do instead of starting something productive themselves!

  15. BTW, I have been close to Patrick Awuah since Feb 2001 and before the formal launch of Ashesi University. I have helped with various fundraising efforts including the recent Global Giving campaign for the Engineering School. I know the history of Ashesi University from the time of the initial brochure and before the first Board meeting. I helped to organize the first presentation to donors at the Overlake School in Redmond, WA. I have been involved with Ashesi as an informal advisor since inception. My role in the financial services industry prevented me from accepting a formal advisor role. Thank you.

  16. Thanks Audrey Quaye – I think it is important to keep a few things in perspective. All you have described strikes me as Colonialism. That is, we have Ghanaian and Black workers, however many. But the Board of Trustees, the Provost and her Associate of a school in Ghana, remain predominantly white and are foreigners. A foreign company, founded in Seattle, WA, USA, surely has opened a university in Ghana. That is fact. And they control it. That is also fact. It’s safe to say that Ashesi University is not a Ghanaian School, but an American institution in Ghana, along the lines of The American University in Cairo. We have no problem if it chooses to brand itself as such.

    So yes, Ashesi does not only have Caucasians in the Foundation. Caucasians number overwhelmingly, 80 percent of the Board of Trustees. Sure the rest of the office staff in the Home Office of Ashesi University, which is the USA, are equally Caucasians. Altogether this makes Ashesi University, not an African school by any stretch of the imagination, but an American institution on Ghanaian soil.

    Some have called it the beginning of an occupation, if I might add. I call it the beginning of an era where Caucasians are back in the business of Missionary work again in Africa. I thought we didn’t want Caucasians to be in control of our education. That’s why we fought for our independence, and for our freedom. But I guess we are slowly getting comfortable again as Caucasians are slowly controlling our education once again and hence our future.

    Plus, your last comment is not particularly helpful: “There are always people who will put a negative spin on anything that others do instead of starting something productive themselves!” Really? Criticism is not productive? Why do you feel this way? The fact that I raise a point of concern with Ashesi University, and about my community, means I am doing something unproductive? This kind of thinking stifles constructive debate and obstructs the very perspectives we need to make informed decisions about our lives and our communities. I think criticism is absolutely necessary.

    I am in no way impugning the character of Mr. Patrick Awuah, who you seem to revere. I am cocksure, you and Awuah have the best intentions. I do too. But the road to Hell was paved with the greatest of intentions. That is why folks, like myself, who point the constructive finger, are good for Ghana, for GaDangme, and for Africa. You shouldn’t take critique so personally. You must come to understand that a segment of the population has immediate and equal concerns. It is no mean spirit to bring them to everyone’s attention. That is what will make us stronger, better and wiser.

    • Akosua, do you know Ashesi has a Board? Do you know this board is a board of Ghanaian men and women? Do you know the role of the Ashesi University Foundation? Do you know the relationship between the foundation and the University? have you visited Ashesi to interact with students, staff and faculty?
      You can write – afterall it is a democratic world – freedom of speech. It is rather a shame, that a writer of your caliber will not research properly to present accurate facts. That a writer of your caliber cannot articulate your thoughts and arguments in a chronological manner. Perhaps you need coaching by some of the student coaches of the Ashesi Debate club or your article scrutinized for feedback by some of Ashesi’s student tutors. The sophomores (yes sophomores :)) in the research methods class could give you a few lessons in research methods to help you find the right facts.
      My point? Ashesi is transforming its students, equipping them with some much needed skills, confidence, and a hope that they can write their own life stories – great ones at that. You can call it whatever, we will call it a good university education. Not only is it changing the students, it is changing how higher education teaching and learning is done in the country and on the continent. Maybe, you should get involved in education by action, not just talk. talk is cheap. Drop your paper and pen, wear your educationist gear and come let us develop the next generation. Hold on! What will you teach them? We need to educate you first!

  17. This article defines “asinine”. Pure tosh, a dangerous mixture of the writers’s confusion and simple green-eyed envy. grandmotherafrica indeed.

    • Mr Ankomah,
      Don’t come bloviating here labeling the article as asinine. Is that what your “vaunted” education in the US taught you? If you have any constructive or cogent counterpoints, please present them. Or is this the state of logical reasoning in the law profession in Ghana now?

  18. Hatred and jealousy is what is killing Africans. What has Akufo Addo and Busia got to do with this? I’m young but I know the main person who succeeded in creating tribal divisions in ghana for the purpose of political gain. There is absolutely nothing intellectual about this article.

  19. Akosua Abena, I am an alumni of Ashesi University. You are helping neither yourself nor Ghana with this kind of ill-laden blatant criticisms. Have you ever had a conversation with Dr. Awuah? Have you ever visited the school? Do you know how the university was started in 2002? Did you bother to check the nationalities of the management at the time? Do you know the sacrifices he endured to get the school started? At the time I was there, the Director of Admissions was a Ghanaian Fafa Zormelo, the one after her was Ghanaian, Dean of Student Affairs Catherine Evans-Totoe Ghanaian, Prof Nana Apt dean of Academic Affairs Ghanaian, Director of Operations Mildred Wulf Ghanaian, many Ghanaians sat on the board….the list is endless. Ashesi is making huge transformations in Corporate Ghana and beyond and corporations and parents are acknowledging this everyday. Talk to corporate Ghana and parents. Whilst your concerns may be valid, there is less reason to take you serious with this particular write up. The need for intellectual relevance must not obscure our sense of judgment of others. Especially when they are making genuine efforts such as Ashesi. I advise that you take some time to go visit the school and perhaps sit in in one of the lectures.

  20. Akosua, you wrote that “Currently, an Ashesi education costs a whamming 4,000.00 dollars, per student, per semester, in tuition and books. This means that after housing, food, medical and other miscellaneous expenses are included, a Ghanaian student can expect to pay close to a total sum of 15,000.00 dollars for only one year’s education.” You consider this to be extortionate in a poor country.

    My view about the tuition fees is that Ashesi’s fees are not higher than the tuition fees charged by the University of Ghana Business school (UGBS) for its weekend/special masters degree programmes that cost $10,000 for one academic year ($5000 per semester) — minus housing, medical and other miscellaneous expenses. The cost of quality education in some of Ghana’s public Universities is similar, if not more. You are likely to accuse me of comparing apples with oranges because Ashesi offers an undergraduate degree programme whiles the UGBS’s special degree programmes are postgraduate. But the point is that the UGBS and Ashesi are both running their programmes in the same Ghana which, as you have pointed out, “ranks 126th among countries in the world in GDP per Capita standing (in both Purchasing Power Parity or Nominal terms)”. The cost of quality education in Ghana is high but they are usually over-subscribed by prospective students who desire nothing short of quality education!

    On the hand, it seems that you have some good points about the structure of Ashesi’s management team as being Western dominated, if the information provided is accurate. But I am confident that in the near future Ashesi’s graduates will be capable of dominating the management of their alma mater.

  21. You guys don’t have anything to do with your time….
    Especially you Akosua…… I’ve always wanted to know whether you like trains…. do you? 😀
    I really like… want to go on a pie-eating date?

  22. What’s really your problem with Ashesi and how the school is being operated? You claim to be African, pushing Africa’s image, but the platform you are using is the product of a white american, no? Maybe your blog has NEVER gotten that publicity, and, so, you NEED to write trash about the school so you can get some numbers. Get a life, man, and stop attacking hardworking folks who are trying to give a life to our nation. GET A LIFE

  23. Wow. I’ve read this article three times over two days. You asked some very valid questions in this article, in my opinion. But they only makeup about 5 percent of all you said. I’m no writer or researcher, you see, but I know that to make such an assertion, you should be absolutely 100% positive that you’re putting out the truth. Unless you are not interested in promoting the truth through your writing which would be a shame.

    You used some really hard words in your article which you must be able to support at any point in time. Are you sure if there was say a debate organized, you can support your claims with hard proof. If I may ask, have you ever been to Ashesi University’s campus? A have you ever interacted with the faculty, staff, students? Do you have first hand knowledge of the school you so easily condemn? Classes are open to visitors. You really should go there.

    Personally, I think you are grossly ignorant of what Ashesi University is and stands for. To make claims of such proportions, you should have gone deeper; find out more, be absolutely correct in your “findings”. Reading through your article I noticed just too many shallow insights about Ashesi.

    About 50% of the student population do not pay the fees you mentioned in the article. And about 20% or way more do not pay any fees at all. Your delivery just looks so painfully lopsided. It’s as though you have some “beef” with the institution. With all due respect, I plead with you to do some more OBJECTIVE research about the University. You would definitely have different views about the school if it’s really objective research.

    With every good wish,
    Richard

  24. “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” Aristotle’s own words perfectly describe this situation. Your opinions are definitely welcome because they prove one thing- that we are doing something. We ARE something. However, when your opinions start to shove fabricated shallow fairy tales in our faces to get us to view things from your perspective, that’s a little too unenlightened no? If you wanted to critique any aspect of Ashesi, did you really have to bash the scholarship system?That’s the last thing you should bash. Oh well, you are still entitled to their opinions no matter how untrue they are. I can’t believe I’m even replying to this. I can’t believe everyone else keeps responding. Akosua visit Ashesi sometime and they’d be glad to sit you down and address any of your pressing concerns. On a much brighter note, you’re getting what you want- attention. well done!

  25. There is always a better way of causing web traffic on your website. Writing sham and fib is definitely not the way to go my dear..
    Try something else, write novels or plays… that would be a better way to exercise your creativity and imagination girl..
    If you still insist on writing about Ashesi, at least do visit the immaculate campus(which was built, designed and equipped by Ghanaians with Ghanaian products), interview the students or Patrick(he will probably be in the queue for lunch or having a random conversation with a random student.*hint hint*), talk to the people of Berekusu, talk to the cleaners..gather data..gather facts.. gather truth..
    That is the way to go.. if you claim to be Afrocentric, and a Grandmother of Africa.
    We are not pissed at your lies..but the longer this article stays on here.. the more ruined your shaky reputation would dwindle.
    Love & hugs..from the Godmother of Africa.

  26. Akosua, your article reminds me of the parable the Lord Jesus told about the good Samaritan. He ended by asking “Who is your neighbour”? Remember that even priests and Levites passed by the man who was attacked by the armed robbers. Also remember that the Samaritan who offered this poor man support shared nothing in common with him. I am saying this because it seems you have a problem with the contribution of whites to Ashesi. Though we share less in common with them, I believe they can be likened to the good Samaritan. I hope you also do same.

    Thank you.

  27. Akosua I wonder what your problem is……..is it the competent ‘white’ women working in Ashesi? I bet you could find a black provost in some university some part of the world outside Africa.
    #ForgetRacism

    Or that Ashesi has sponsorship from MasterCard plus other great partnerships that the government of Ghana would beg for?
    #GoodBusinessPractices

    Is it the campus you don’t like? You should know a lot of money was invested in it because quality was more important for Ashesi. #NoMediocrities

    Or the fact that Ashesi decided to give people in Africa a taste of what quality education feels like?
    #QualityAssurance

    Do you know Ashesi is the only university I know in Ghana where students do not buy any classroom material?
    #NoExcuse4NotLearning

    Dumsor is everywhere in Ghana….. Do you know in Ashesi the light does not go off for more than 3 minutes? When your light goes off check out the beam of light on the hills.
    #ADifferentPlaceInGhana

    Do you also know that internet connectivity is available from every part of the campus 24/7? Kindly mention a university that cost 100 cedis and can give you that.
    #AshesiConnectsAfrica

    Did you get a professional auditor or accountant to cost all these things for you?
    #CheckYourFacts

    At least if you tried you would have known that the cost is nothing compared to the facilities they enjoy.
    #Cost>Price.

    You should have a conversation with an Ashesi student and a student from any other university – both picked at random. I will tell you this – there is one thing I know for sure… all being equal, the Ashesi student will be well read than the other student.
    #AshesiSeeksKnowledge

    And Yes I may agree with you that Ashesi has been built on the western model of education. But does being African mean rejecting any thing ‘white’? Does it mean every ‘white’ has evil intentions? Or the fact that a western education requires a student to discard thier African identity or held from think as an African?
    #NoBlacknWhiteRacism

    You should sit in an african philosophical thought class at Ashesi. There you probably would have heard of Nkrumah’s consciencism. There is nothing wrong with copying from a system that works and incorporating your own values to fit your local environment. That is the model the ashesi system has thrived on. And they have a track record. No wonder international organisations are giving him their money. There is nothing wrong with the way Ashesi does things.

    You sounded like an intellectual but after reading I wondered who could make you write this article and for what purpose. And again ashesi will tell you to focus on the problem not the people.

    I wonder why you mentioned Nkrumah’s model of education. Did you even forget he got a western education, came back home and after studying from them, went o to develop his models? Does anyone think Nkrumah would have developed it if he was on the farm with his grandmother since he couldn’t afford an education?

    You should be happy if someone you know gets admission into Ashesi. Like you said this is western ideologies brought to Ghana meaning you can learn the tricks of the ‘Whites’ and enjoy higher education on Ghanaian stool lands without being shot.
    That may be good enough …..

  28. Its just astonishing your implication that the Ashesi model will do some kind of harm to the Ghanaian educational system. That really had me laughing, really. Look around you, Auntie Akosua Abeka. I don’t know how many countries in Africa have an Unemployed Graduates Association. Do you know what that means? Lack of critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Do you know where they got it from? The superb “Ghanaian Educational System”. This is what your beloved African educational model has done. Nothing but a colonial relic. It teaches graduates functional subjects; HR, Finance, Accounting etc., and then how to prepare a good CV for that “dream job”. Those who teach entrepreneurship using the “non-Ashesi” model haven’t even started a table-top business before. Yet you wield your mighty pen to criticise an entrepreneur who seeks to revolutionise quality in higher education simply because it is “costly” in your view. I would have thought that you would deploy your brilliant capacity for rational thought to present a more comprehensive impact analysis of Ashesi university graduate in the private sector, public policy space and whatnot. But no, you chose to contaminate what would otherwise have been an informative advocacy brief with your racial prejudice. Hate Caucasians all you want, just don’t draw other people’s genuine effort into your proxy conflict. How in the name of human decency, can you aver these words…”…to see white women in Ghana, who you claim have the interests of Ghanaians at heart, is a bit worrying.” I work within both for-profit and non-profit space. My Foundation intervenes in education and enterprise in rural areas in the Central Region. I have seen first hand the face of neglect. Teachers begging for chalk, common chalk, in this day and age. You think a corrupt government and a clueless education service directorate have the interest of Ghanaians at heart? Why, because we are kinsmen? You had rather be oppressed by your own kind than be educated in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at a costly fee? Who has a brighter future, the neglected kids of Gomoa Pinanko Basic D/A primary or the educated Ashesi lad whose best interest is not shared by his Caucasian provost? That’s a perspective to take. Let’s face it, your veiled racial diatribe lack any policy legitimacy. That’s what you want us to believe, that there is a bigger policy issue of education quality with the incursion of the “Ashesi Model”. That lack of quality is here with us already. Ashesi is defining a new narrative. Please bring me new data. And whilst at it, please find a weaker institution for your proxy conflict on Caucasians. Am saving for a PhD in Ashesi. No need to go to Swathmore. Berekuso is just sultry. You should visit sometime.

  29. Magnificent article, Akosua. Articulate, substancial, solution centered! I sensed your opus approach, and here it is laid out before us.
    As the granduncle of Africa, being your mother’s cousin once removed, I consider it my duty to finish what you have started. I will go ahead and say what should have been done in lieu of what has.
    Let us begin, as you did, with the American-nes of Ashesi. This is, at best, clear for all to see. The curriculum is a liberal arts one based on an holly American notion that students should be versed in fields outside their chosen ones. What nonsense! In the days of old you were either a farmer or a blacksmith, never both! What business has a farmer knowing how a hoe is put together?
    Beyond that and probably more importantly, much of the curricula’s contents are based on American thoughts and ideas. To succeed we must return to African knowledge and wisdom. Patrick, if he wanted to do any good at all, should have journeyed on camelback to the Old Songhai empire, to Timbuktu, and to the Pharoahic lands along the Nile. A venture that would have seen him gather knowledge from the greatest civilizations the earth ever had the privilege of sustaining.

    I would continue, but granduncle knows not to belabour.

    Meh. Gratuitous. A bit soddy, if you ask me.

    • Ha hahaha aaaa..
      “As the granduncle of Africa, being your mother’s cousin once removed, I consider it my duty to finish what you have started “… apparently it is a family fling!

      “What nonsense! In the days of old you were either a farmer or a blacksmith, never both! What business has a farmer knowing how a hoe is put together?” But when did this turn into a joke?

      should have journeyed on camelback to the Old Songhai empire, to Timbuktu, and to the Pharoahic lands along the Nile – really? really???

      “Meh. Gratuitous. A bit soddy, if you ask me”

      Interesting comments Mr. Tigliwigli Ometahidio

  31. A rather interesting right up you have there. However, I must say your arguments were very biased. You talked about Ashesi’s tuition fees ($4000) being very expensive for the average Ghanaian but failed to mention that over 50% of Ashesi students are on scholarship. You capitalized on Ashesi’s provosts being white women but failed to address the fact that Ashesi’s faculty and Staff, the people that actually influence learning in the institution, are made up of over 70% Ghanaians.

    You should find time to visit Ashesi and to interact with the students, alumni and faculty. Only then, I believe , will you be able to measure the impact of Ashesi’s education and write a more credible essay.

  32. This is one of those ludicrous rants born out of hate rather than logic and common sense. Ashesi successful, or attempting to succeed where most have failed due to characters like you. Fortunately, freedom of speech does not necessarily result in one giving op on a good thing just because folks like you say so. The white folks at that University have done more for our education than you EVER will. Eat hour heart out.

  33. Akosua, my name is Joseph Amo Nti, alumn of Ashesi University. I must say, this was an entertaining read. Your BOLD assertions with irrelevant or no backing whatsoever intrigued me. Attacking the characters of Marcia and Susan as though you sat in a room with them as they plotted the destruction of Ghana. Did you do background research on how they got where they are or you just assumed that they were ‘privileged’ because they were ‘white’? Intetestingly, you spoke at length on student loans and its repercussions on the finances of students in the near future, my lady listen, no one on scholarship at Ashesi pays back a dime, come on now, your credibility is at stake here. And as far as ‘constructive criticism’ goes, comments on Asiedu Nketia’s fur coat were more constructive than this. Nonetheless your post wins the award for most baseless assertions made in a single blog post. And Mr Tigli, you lost me at that ‘ancient’ example you settled on by means of ‘rubishing’ a liberal arts education. It’s 2015, stop playing.

  34. Comment:i have read through Abenas comments and for me she sounds a little bitter and basically has an opinion about ashesies model that remains an opinion until shes managed to dig serious dirt that will support her suspicions that will be clear enough for all and stop championing racist emotions through her comments patrick Awuahs vision of a more practical open minded educational approach needs people who understand in his vision and realize the need to support it whats wrong if they are white Americans will Abena be ok if the ratio of blacks to whites Americans in the Ashesi program was 12:5 where more ghanains enjoyed Administrative positions .there is the need to realise that any progressive agenda geared towards African progress be it education or whatever should most definitely be a win win for all partnering in the agenda besides i have personally seen Ashesi create good opportunities of good quality education to people 5people i personally know who are not creme de la creme in society like Abena puts it and i have seen thier before and After and i must say Ashesi is the exposure and educational experience most Ghanaian people need to think entrepreneural and also be very lebral and open minded and also be productive in society .Good quality education is what we need i believe ashesi is doing a good job @ it and to be honest with you White people have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they are capable of managing thier own affairs including African peoples Affairs aswell lets face it until your own legon eeducation proves to me that you Abena can rise above the black and white blame games we are going no where because you certainly should be seeing things differently way above the black and white ideology of whatever you think we certainly do not want to be racist stop the black and white thing its getting old and thank God Nkrumah had western education its what got him thinking independence actually . they gave nkrumah an opportunity to study and he came up with independence for US after that what did we then do with all the material resources we have @ our disposal how do most ghanaians still think even after university education in leg. tech. etc. mostly people who are out of the box thinkers got there all on thier own through exposure and exprience not complimets to GH educational structure @ all where teachers threaten students about math and science and make them look taboo as if an A in math is better than an A in literature in English etc. lets face it if truely GH educational system is the key then all the economic students from legon should have the answers we need to get this country up and running GH school system is whack and outmoded we need something new and proper get this !!!! stop the black and white thing no need for that

  35. It’s rather funny that all those who claim they have received an Ashesi education completely miss the import of this fine piece by Akosua Abeka. We have a lot of work to do in Ghana. No doubt.

  37. Sister Akosua:
    First of all I must say this is a beautiful piece, fairly well researched, but rife with misleading comments about prominent Ghanaians (dead and alive) which I think takes away from an otherwise masterpiece. I share your sentiments towards the rapid rise in educational costs and the need to take a careful look at our educational system. As someone who has experienced systems – the US system you so blindly criticized and the Ghanaian system, I must say that your assertion about what the American educational system offers is abysmal at best.
    The worst part about your write up is your disdain for the white man who also happens to be the only reason why Africa had exemplary leaders in the past, and present, I might add. You have no clue that the reason why the black man seems downtrodden is because of the black man – in the case of a young African American it’s because there’s no Father, no leadership in their homes. It is true the the black man is still at a disadvantage, bit the ones that make it like Barack Obama, Dr. Ben Carson rather allowed their disadvantage to propel then to success.
    To think that you even blame the white man for our lack of quality in professorship is very pathetic. My not of advise to even get your special talent to a higher level is to make it devoid of politics and find a place in your mind to not see the color of ones skin but what they’re capable of. Thanks and keep up your questions to help Ghana but with major shift in your thinking.

  38. Even if Ashesi charges $100,000 per student per year what is the point? Ashesi is a private institution and so can charge fees consistent with the cost of running its programs. As a private institution they can set their prices whatever and let those who can afford apply for admission.

    She also talks about “authentic African education”. What does that even mean? She fails to make a single consistent argument.

  40. I am absolutely speechless! I am so proud of Patrick Awuah, the sacrifice he, his family and friends made to build such a world class institution. I think my best years ever career wise were those 4years I had the opportunity to be with Ashesi as a staff member working with one of the best teams ever to make this dream come true. I thank God for a man who looks for the best team not through the eyes of race but like Mandela, is more concerned about how he can harness all resources available to leave a lasting legacy for Africa and the world at large. I wonder what Akosua Abeka would do if Ashesi chooses the legal means to straighten out the facts.

  41. Sincerely, you are a good writer but trust me, you suck in stuff to do with objective research. You would do good in fiction articles. This is just a pile of psychobabble bullshit meant to seek attention through tarnishing the reputation of a world-recognized organization that has already succeeded in doing what people like you will never be brave to do. All you do is wallow in paranoia and blame games and too much talk without action. The big question is: Akosua, what the heck have you done to “save” Africa from her current misery? Oh, I forgot the one thing; you wrote this blog…?? .Tell whoever pays you to write these mediocre and subjective and of course racist-driven articles to suck it up!!!!#Haters wouldn’t stop Ashesi from moving forward. You are a true definition of ‘Enemy of Progress’, wake up my friend and face your paranoia…conspiracy theories wouldn’t solve African problems, actions will do…Ask Dr Patrick and am sure he will be willing to give you a goooood tutorial on the power of having an action-driven mindset versus a lazy-racist-driven mindset…as an Ashesi student, am learning to embrace diversity and be a global citizen unlike you who blurbs like an uneducated person or an ignorant moron. You claim racism is real in America (which is true) yet you don’t notice how racist you sound while analyzing Dr Marcia Grant and Dr Buchele. They are in Ashesi because of their qualifications and if you are better than them , why don’t you apply for the job? Akosua, I mean no offence but you really should wake up from your fake ‘pro-africanistic’ slumber…#AshesiStudent

  42. First of all Akosua, the tone of your writing does not come across as merely wanting to point out loop-holes that Mr. Awuah can learn from.You could’ve done this in love, and there would not even be the need for this article in the first place, and you would’ve won the admiration of the man whom you have now declared an enemy of your aspirations (including his followers, friends, loved ones and everybody who has and would ever go to Ashesi).You obviously made it clear however, that you wanted to start what was not in Ghanaian discourse, hence such an offensive tone of writing. My mentor once said that you can have the right information but carry it across with the wrong attitude, and as a result not be effective in your communication, in which case you have failed Akosua, because you candidly made enemies with this. In view of this, it would’ve been better if you didn’t even speak at all! The lack of such spiritual knowledge is what makes people unfulfilled in life even after filling their minds with all this stuff that can’t even win their own family on their side. And one thing about people who are never fulfilled is that they always have some sort of fear and confusion, especially about their identity, which Akosua you have evidently expressed. My advice is that be careful ; you folks go and open up books of dead intellectuals and mull over without any guardedness or spiritual maturity; Words are more than mere texts, they are seeds that bring forth their own kind; Besides the mind is the doorway to the Spirit, and you don’t know what spirits those dead intellectuals dabbled in; Be conscious of spiritual things first, so that you are being led by the Holy Spirit to study in order not to ruin your life by wanting to live the destinies of your so called ancestors who are in torment somewhere awaiting the day of judgement because of idolatry. I always say this, that African Americans and Black people for that matter have their own selves to blame for racial prejudices they suffer Why? because they toot racism too much forgetting that death and life lies in the power of the tongue, and that by a man’s words he shall be justified and by the same words he shall be condemned. If Black people always think and say that the whole world hates them then it will be so till thy Kingdom come, and until Black people wean themselves off this racial whip-dog attitude, and begin to assume their spiritual identity which no man can imprison, they will never know what it means to be free.Spiritual knowlegde is superior to intellectual knowledge so value these words Akua. There is a whole lot of freedom and success awaiting a beautiful and gifted sister such as you.The day I got conscious of this higher self, I stopped calling myself Black or African – in the spirit realm there is no skin colour and what you put forward as your foremost identity is what determines your limitations in life.
    with Love to Akosua.
    DK
    PS: And please don’t write a new article about how the Bible was written by Europeans…Lol!

  44. Mr Ace Ankomah
    Don’t come bloviating here by throwing words around like this article is trash. Offer some constructive counter points. Or is that what your “vaunted” education in the US taught you? Challenge the points presented in the article with cogent points if you have any.

  45. Hi, Akosua. I quite liked reading your piece. I must say though that while I was originally keen to hear your perspective, you started losing me and all your good intentions when you took on that derisive tone that mocked the ‘otherwise very intelligent apprentices’, and felt the need to berate others on the basis of the color of their skin.

    I had hoped for objectivity and a fresh perspective but rather, I was surprised to find the dated perspective that for something/someone to be considered African, it must be born on the African continent. Where does that leave the concept of African unity you raised if we don’t realise that Africanness is not defined by one’s location on the Google Map?

    With this being the foundation on which you build the ‘unbridled hypocrisy’ of Ashesi, you created a pretty shaky argument that seems to use half hearted research to back preconceived notions on the exclusive people and methods required to create a new Africa.

  46. I am a proud international student in Ashesi University college. It is so heartbreaking to hear that in this time and era you, Akosua Abeka, still believes and encourage racism. Where were you when Dr. Patrick Awuah come back to Ghana with the idea of a liberal arts college? If you did your reseach well, you would have realized that a great portion of the students are on financial aid. So your argument on exorbitant and extortionate fees has no basis. I get your love for Africa but you dont know how resouceful,supportive and effective “white americans” as you referred to, are helping in transforming Africa. If at all you want to seek publicity and sympathy,use the right format by telling our story how it is. Maybe you should study for a semester or two in Ashesi University then tell us what Ashesi and the faculty is all about! You are a hinderous to Africa’s development: you are so enamored on equality that you would rather prefer equality in undevelopment than unequality in development.

  47. Hi Akosua.

    Interesting article. I commend you for being a patriotic citizen and attempting to further the best interest of our nation Ghana..indeed we need to be less indifferent and bold enough to question systems and ideologies. In the same vein, I write.

    First of all, I am quite appalled at your hasty generalization that all Whites hate Blacks and are racist. To be honest, the only person that seems to be discriminating here is you but for some reason people assume that once we say, ‘racist’, it is the White man against the Black or Brown or whatever other colors ‘minorities’ come in. Kindly note, I am as Black as they come, but I could not agree less with your assertion that all Whites have an ulterior motive to undermine Blacks and profit from exploiting them. It is about time we stop crying wolf and playing the Black victim card at the least opportunity. There are Whites who leave their comfortable abodes and journey to African countries, inflicted with conflicts in order to lend a helping hand, at the risk of losing their lives. Do they have the profit making motive too? Indeed, not all Whites are saints, but I can say the same for Blacks and every other race!
    Regardless of whether you want to accept it or not..America has existed for at least 2 centuries and some change and as such is ripe with experience and advancements that Ghana as a nation is yet to attain. Even the Asians who are well versed in technological advancement, populate many American and European campuses. Why? Because they realize that they do not wield all knowledge and can learn and adopt certain policies from the Western world. The world is a global playing field now and I see nothing wrong with learning from those who have tried and tested systems which have worked for them and adapting that to our local context. We should rather commend Dr. Patrick Awuah for defying the brain drain mentality and coming back to effect change in his country, one person at a time.
    I am almost certain that if there were students in the Berekuso vicinity that met Ashesi’s qualifications, the Mastercard foundation will make an Ashesi education possible for them. Unfortunately, the basic level education provided to these students is so poor that most of them cannot meet the academic requirements in order to attend not just Ashesi but other tertiary institutions.

    I really tried to read your article objectively, but it is populated with too many factoids that discredit it.

  48. Here’s my view. The only point worth taking and reflecting critically about in the article is the corporatization of college education and its implication on the ultimate purpose/interests that college education serve or rather should serve in society. Another implication is the inevitable rise of future student indebtedness. The rest of Akosua’s piece is pretty silly, really–a fantastic well-intentioned but wrong-headed Pan-African literary hogwash steeped in excess paranoia. Her intense passion in the subject has taken on a religious fervor; she seems to have a lens that actually sees ghosts when there’s none.

    It’s true that a decent college education today comes at a financial cost that in my view is engineered to defeat the very purpose of that education. When students come out of college saddled with $40k + in loans, they become faithful, long-term henchmen to the establishment and its often impious appetites, derived from Ayn Ryan’s “greed is good dogma.” Wallstreet is a capable example. Ralph Waldo Emerson accurately observed that a man in debt is so far a slave. My point is something is inherently not right about a college education that costs $40k in a poor country like Ghana where average monthly salary is around $955 (http://goo.gl/T7TRA8), irrespective of the financial aid package; and this shouldn’t be about Patrick Awuah and Ashesi at all (the problem transcends him–look at the model of the mega-churches for a second. Same.)

    Let’s analyze the issue philosophically: what’s the founding philosophy behind college education (as opposed to every other endeavor)? When the ratio of cost of college education in a country vis-a-vis its average salary exceeds 40 by 1, could that education be fulfilling its critical role in society? Could that education truly be geared towards addressing the actual development needs of the country in question? I believe the eloquent Akosua Abeka could have taken a gentle leap to land on these questions without all the dramatic somersaults.

  49. Akosua,

    I honestly tried reading your interesting article but had to stop half way when I realised that the author was an ignorant member of the public.

    Clearly if you’d had an education at Ashesi you would have learnt to write articles properly and state your sources! Any intelligent person knows that.

    Secondly, your failure to make constructive criticism of what you believe is a flawed educational system at Ashesi makes your article sounded empty.

    Before I continue, let me state that I am a proud alum of Ashesi University and I believe in the values of this wonderful institution and Patrick Awuah’s dream. Indeed Ashesi is developing the next generation of ethical leaders.

    Yes, it may be relatively more expensive to be educated at Ashesi but that is the reason why the university has a scholarship fund which is currently being accessed by over 50% of the students enrolled. And guess what; the alumni are actually paying back their loans. This system here is widely practised by American universities. Even in the UK, local students receive loans to attend university and payback over their working life.

    By the way did you know that Ashesi is the only university in Ghana where more than 90% of I students gain employment within 3 months of graduation or post national service? Yup this is true and is based on facts. You can find out from employers of Ashesi graduates such as Barclays, Nestle, Ecobank, Databank, GE, Airtel, Vodafone, Fidelity Bank, Tullow Oil….., the list is endless. Oh and another fact: Ashesi graduates rise quickly in their careers. Most of them get to managerial levels within 5 years of work. Talk to any alum about this. They will confirm it.

    Akosua, you should find time and visit the Ashesi campus and interact with some of the alum. You may just decided to get another bachelor’s degree

  50. Hi Akosua. I must say I found your article quite interesting. You definitely had a lot to say. However I personally feel that most of the things you called facts were obtained with very minimal research. Did you visit Ashesi? Did you talk to staff, faculty, students or even alumni? How about employers that have worked with any Ashesi students, whether as full time employees or interns? No, from the information provided I believe not. That means all your information was gathered using secondary data from the internet and your very biased opinions. I don’t believe that alone is good enough to label all information provided as facts. Please do us all a favour and pay us a visit. We will welcome you with open arms and answer all your questions. Then you can attempt writing this piece again.
    Also, I feel you have very strong opinions about the ‘whites’ as you like to call them. At Ashesi, we believe the world is a global marketplace and globalisation is not a negative thing. That said, regardless of the colour of our skin or our cultural heritage, we all view each other as one people looking to achieve one goal. A better Africa filled with ethical and entrepreneurial leaders. We consider ourselves a people that have been able to rise above racism and all the pettiness that comes with it for the better good of our entire community. No doubt racism still exists at various points in the world today; but you defining who is white and whose not and advising that jobs are given based on skin colour rather than competence is only feeding the racism monster so it continues to grow and a recipe for disaster. We on the other hand believe in doing the opposite. Thank you

  51. Should I say you’ve done a good job? I don’t think so.
    Research. Wait! Do you know what that word means Akosua? Do you know what it entails? So I am guessing you had lunch with Mr Patrick Awuah,undercover or something and he told you he was an apprentice at Microsoft? So what he’s lying to us? I believe he’s an honest man. Or wait you worked at Microsoft with him too and both of you were apprentices? Oh and do you have something against ‘whites’? The provosts of the school are ‘white’ women…So what?! If they are not ‘black’ so what?! Akosua don’t disgrace yourself, please don’t. You’ve gotten the attention you wanted you can go to sleep now okay?

  52. The most random part was the inclusion of Busia and Akufo-Addo… I’m afraid I became quite cynical from that paragraph… the connection was not substantiated really. But that’s the blessing of the internet, everyone can write what they like. Freedom of speech and all that.

  53. I personally as a young woman have always had a problem with our education system. We have a system which does not support or accept creativity. We attend universities where sometimes your ability to pass out of a course is tied to buying materials sold by a lecturer; something which I presume wouldn’t happen at Ashesi. If you don’t have the skill to chew pour pass and forget, then forget about a first class. These very state unis you promote have done next to nothing for the students who pass through. If you haven’t observed, the education system in Ghana is messed up from the roots to the extent that International education is the order of the day. That is to say that parents have lost confidence in the rotten education system. Why don’t you seek for issues to be addressed from that point; then we can now defend talk about a university(Ashesi) which is producing individuals who think for themselves and are more proactive than the average ghanaian.
    I rest my case.
    NB: I understand that it’s difficult to accept anything different from what you are used to

  54. People let us take it on her.
    She has indicaed that this is an opinion piece. And truthfully opinions can be flawed

  55. Well I won’t say much different from what my friends have already said.

    I would like to think a part of you is struggling to view Ashesi as 100% Ghanaian institution.
    Maybe you were surprised to find that our board is not mostly Ghanaian. Or perhaps you were shocked
    to learn that we have people with different nationalities working at the school?

    You made this assertion because people of a certain color hold positions in the school? It is sad to think but maybe
    you think for Ashesi to be defined as an African institution everyone has to be from Africa? From the board to the staff?

    Wow.

    All I know is you ask the right questions but packaged them wrongly.

    Please ensure you do more thorough research before speaking about Dr. Awuah and the Ashesi story.

  56. Solomon Azumah-Gomez, intellectual arguments without insults is truly a rare gift. Thank you Ashesi.
    One question my brother, if Africa is so blessed and wealthy, what is the ONE THING YOU ARE DOING to make Africa’s future better. Just one thing!

  58. You raised some points worth discussing in the article. I feel it’s good that some questions were raised. Unfortunately I feel many of the commenters are right in that your article sounds one-sided and for some reason -maybe unintended- really vicious. Some of the points you make don’t seem to have enough research done. You also made no attempts at suggesting any solutions.
    I read up on you before even looking at the article and you seem like an intellectual. It makes sense then that, looking at your comment in the public response, you have dismissed all the comments as ‘garbage’. It’s disappointing that because you feel you’re well-read and right about everything in this article, no other argument is worth even considering.
    Like I said some of your points really needed to be brought up. They’re important. But admitting that you could have done this better is a mark of growth.

  61. Atiga Atingdui based on WHAT do you make this declaration? is it the same ignorance with which this lady writes?
    I am a lecturer, I have taught at Ashesi, and other places in Ghana. I am also a parent of a child who studies at Ashesi. I am also an employer of people who have studied at Ashesi. I am also a mentor to many Ashesi students, I have been a referee and written references for higher education to students from Ashesi and other places.
    whether from within or without I think I know the subject of Ashesi fairly well, whether as a lecturer or as a parent or as an affiliate or beneficiary of what Ashesi does.
    I ASSURE YOU THIS AKOSUA ABEKA LADY IS AS WRONG AS SAYING THE SUN RISES FROM THE WEST!!!!

    • She may be wrong, she may be right Kofi B Bentil. I honestly do not know. But I do know and believe she made her case intelligently.

      • Emphasis on critical thinking. Don’t swallow everything hook, line and sinker. Question the status quo. Make your points dispassionately. Accept when you realize you are wrong. Take the opportunity to learn more. Always think of the greater good. Be a true citizen. Help others. Be a positive difference. Chase excellence in everything.

        This is Ashesi in a nutshell. Take it from a pioneer student. Atiga Atingdui

        What the writer fails to touch on is how the graduates who have been “brainwashed” have fared outside the brainwashing school. lol. If you want to debate please do it seriously. Eg…pick a point from her article and buttress it with your view as to why you believe she had a point. Then lets others also share their view. Then you have an “intellectual” discourse. This “The article speaks for itself….” reminds me of people resorting to insults when they have nothing to say. So please come again.

        As for writing and speaking wonderfully, plenty people have that skills, me I am not one of them..infact me dieee its fooling I do plenty of. hehehe.

      • Atiga Atingdui Because she is capable of stringing together sentences in English, typical of a Western-educated cosmopolitan, and, in the fashion of some faux “black nationalist” intellectuals, conjure up all the right isms and bogeymen to smear all the “right” targets about which she knows pretty little or nothing! No, she is not intelligent. She is grossly miseducated, quite infantile, and full of herself. I meet many of such spoiled brats and haughty scions of privilege feeling special and superior in some of the best Western universities all the time. They love and are the very things they pretend to hate! In the end, they contribute nothing to the development and progress of Africa.

        • Well I disagree. She put together cogent arguments to buttress her points and she did it in a very informed manner. You may not agree with her conclusions or even her premises but her intelligence in my view is intact and unquestionable

          • Very good. What then is the point of writing screeds because American philanthropists decide to support Ashesi? This whole freeloading ‘black nationalism’ thing where people obtain badges of achievement merely by loud proclamations of their own purity, and the impurity of others, as opposed to contributing tangibly to the creation of the ideal Africa they want to see, has become comical. We’ve heard it all before.

          • Everyone who thinks that Americans putting up their hard-earned cash to support the growth of a well-resourced university in Accra is somehow evil and unAfrican should either opt to bear the burden or fund their own competing institutions, abi? It is getting tiresome. smile emoticon

          • Bright Simons In other words if you are poor and unemployed you ought to wait until you get a job with sufficient income to fund your own university before you can criticize the motives of other people?

            So before I can criticize car manufacture X I would first need to have bought shares in the automobile industry or have started my own car manufacture business?

            Would my taxes qualify me to speak my opinion about Ashesi? What about the donations Ashesi received from the GETFUND which is paid for by my taxes? Do I qualify now

          • You can certainly criticise Ashesi. But you cannot be a CREDIBLE critic of Ashesi ON ASPECTS of their operations for which you provide no coherent alternative strategy.

          • Well for starters I have not criticized Ashesi. I know very little of that institution to have an informed opinion about the matter at hand. What I have simply said is that a Ghanaian lady by name of Akosua Abeka put up a cogent case about why SHE is concerned about the motives of the OWNERS of the university. She has the right to openly state her case whether or not she can afford to set up an alternative or not….

          • Atiga Atingdui, please ignore anyone who muddies the water with emotions or insults. I like the fact that you are calmly airing your views. Sorry I had not read these inputs before putting my other comments up. Let me engage you now with a few questions if I may…

            1. Do you think the writer was able to present an objective view especially since it has the propensity to dent someone’s credibility?
            2. Did she mention anywhere that she actually made some attempt to contact Ashesi to get some information to help her examine her theories?
            3. If a Ghanaian based journalist had written this article, will you say he or she did a bad job?
            4. If you were writing this, will you write this article and pointing accusing fingers without providing proof?
            5. Do you think it is wrong to hold people to a higher standard and not accept mediocrity or one sided views on any issue?

            Please note that I am not saying her theories are wrong. I am only questioning why she failed to provide hard evidence to give her article more credibility. Simply implying there are shady deals doesnt mean there are. It is like me looking at your name and categorizing you based on what some girl with your surname did to me sometime ago hehehe….hope you get me. So take ur time answer and lets continue having this nice chat about the brilliant and intelligent write up. #Vim

            I think you are giving her too much applause for mediocrity. In articles

          • Lion I admire her ability to think outside the box. I don’t care who is under scrutiny because nobody is above critic. The issue is NOT about whether Dr. Awuah is a role model or not. It is not about whether he has been able to set up a university. She, in my estimation, is making an extrapolation on how the kind of education at Ashesi, given its structure, may impact Ghana’s wider educational needs

            I personally don’t have a view on the matter. I by no means consider myself an expert on Ashesi or Dr. Awuah. I do think that if i ever decide to enter that discussion her views are helpful to gain an another perspective. To cast disparaging invectives at someone for simply sharing her views i think is intellectually infantile.

          • Exactly my sentiment @Atiga. You don’t heap invectives on another because you disagree with their assertions.

  62. Pretty interesting reading. I think it is useful to test for the Americanization and commercial chaining claimed by the article. There may be some merit. Already there is sufficient evidence foreign higher education in fact the current imported system in general doesn’t make our so called intellectuals too bright. There is even so evidence of successful brainwashing. So perhaps more looking into this claim is required

  63. This is such rubbish!!! and we are not being defensive. we will call things what they are if we see them,
    Patrick Awuah Jr. cannot pull wool over everybody’s eyes!! if he was a charlatan, he won’t be where he is today!!!
    some of us have experienced what he is doing for ourselves and we are not push overs!! we would have told him straight if things were anything like this lady is trying to portray!!

    I have been in meetings with Patrick and the team where his soul has been bared and tough decisions have been made, which I marvelled at… as H Kwasi Prempeh asked, what does this Akosua person know? does he know the sacrifices Patrick made to get here?

    IF ANYBODY KNOWS HER, please TELL HER I as a lecturer, having personally experienced different universities and institutions in Ghana, and being the parent of a child studying at Ashesi, AM WILLING TO GIVE HER AN INTERVIEW AND INSIGHT INTO WHAT ASHESI IS AND STANDS FOR !! AND WHY PEOPLE LIKE HER ARE THE PROBLEM AND NOT PATRICK!!

    • Mr Bentil, I read the piece twice and in all fairness what she has a problem with is the model and not Patrick Awuah. Ashesi is definitely doing something good for Ghana but her call for majority black persons involvement in the running of a Ghanaian university is not too much to ask for.

      • That call in itself is not justified. Given, the foundation is established in the United States and people on the board, even though they may not necessarily be white, have lived and worked out in the U.S.
        But that is not to say the school is being run by non-Africans. From the director of Admissions, to the Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Financial Officer, down to head of the Office of Diversity, the nurses, the director of operations, the assistant dean (dean is Jamaican, not American) and about 80-90% of lecturers are African. Yes, AFRICAN!!! So how can she call for more involvement of black persons when it is already happening? Because she did not get her facts in the first place. She saw that the foundation was based in the US and a number of board members are non-Africans and she jumped to conclusions when those really working on the day to day affairs of the college and making the impact are as African as Africans come. Talk about the likes of Lloyd Amoah, Esi Ansah, Ayokor Korsah, Anthony Spio etc….AFRICANS!

  64. Intelligently researched and written, the article raises a lot of questions and instead of brandishing as hogwash, can we for a moment ask ourselves if these questions raised are true ? I believe it’s the intelligent thing to do, this is investigative journalism at its best. We as Ghanaians should fall into the habit of making a few people think for us and allow us to believe what is right or wrong from those warped lenses. Let’s examine everything carefully. Corporation sponsored universities seek the interest of the sponsoring entities, nothing is for free, even research in some of the universities here is geared toward the benefit of the body. He who pays the piper calls for the tune.

  65. Akosua, Close to 80% of board and lecturers of the Ghanaian universities you refer to studied outside this country too, precisely in the West. Is that not a form of colonization too?

  66. Excellent article … After having my bachelors in Ghana and masters in the states, I can relate to most of the things that the writer has said and I agree. I felt that she still could have discussed tribal politicians without mentioning any names since that cuts across a wide divide and mentioning names make it sound personal. Other than that, this is still an excellent piece that we must all consider … Unfortunately those that need it the most, are always the ones that seem to want it the least.
    For all those sticking their heads for Patrick Awuah, let’s not forget that a lot of people who stuck their heads for Obama before the presidency won’t do it again now if they had the chance to .

  67. A message Patrick sent to Ashesi Community, hope this rests the case:
    Fellow members of the Ashesi community,

    Yesterday, I received messages from friends and members of the Ashesi community about a blog criticizing our institution and characterizing our institution as some kind of neo-colonial project. Because of the number of comments I am getting in email, on social media and in the hallways, I feel compelled to share a few thoughts about this matter.

    Quite a few students and staff members asked me whether I had read the blog and if so, how I felt about this article. They seemed genuinely surprised when I said it didn’t bother me. My only regret is that five women on our team –Provost, Associate Provost and Ashesi Foundation staff– were singled out and personally attacked by the author of the article.

    The author does not know the sacrifices that these women have made –and continue to make– on behalf of our institution. The author has no idea how hard these women work, nor does she have an inkling about the contributions that these Women of Ashesi are making to our cause. The author does not know which one of these women grew up in Cote d’Ivoire, whose first words as an infant were spoken in Akan, and who feels very connected to West Africa. The author does not know these things because she did not do what good journalists do. She did not dig deeper.

    The article does not bother me because I know our purpose. I know what motivates me and the rest of the Ashesi community. The article does not bother me, because I have seen and am humbled by the tremendous impact Ashesi has had on the lives of many of our students. Above all, the article does not bother me because I believe that the work we do will make a positive contribution to our continent and the world. I consider it a privilege that my work has such meaning.

    We should take pride in the fact that 90 percent of the University Board of Directors are Ghanaian and that 40 percent of the board are women. We should take pride in the fact that 24 percent of the Foundation Board of Trustees are African. We should take pride in the fact that 55 percent of our students receive some form of scholarship and that 29 percent of our students pay nothing at all for tuition, room & board, or textbooks. We should take pride in the fact every building on our campus is wheelchair accessible. We should continue to be an inclusive community and a group of Africans who choose to collaborate with the world.

    I have intentionally not included a link to the blog in question in this message because I do not believe it deserves to be distributed any further. Having read the commentary on other articles on the blog, in addition to the Ashesi attack article, I have the impression that this blog received far more traffic yesterday than at any other time prior to the Ashesi attack. I think it is time to stop.

    I see that many people who know Ashesi or are part of our community are infuriated by this author. Let us spend our energies elsewhere. If you absolutely feel compelled to comment on the blog, please be polite. Frankly, I would rather have us focus on our work.

    If the author ever reaches out to visit our campus, let us host her warmly. Until then, this blog does not deserve any more of our time or space on our Facebook timelines.

    Patrick

    Patrick Awuah | Founder & President | Ashesi University College

    1 University Avenue, Berekuso
    PMB CT 3, Cantonments
    Accra, Ghana

  68. This platform is just full of naïve people including the author.
    White people who don’t have Africa at heart?
    Colonization 2.0?
    Ripping people off?
    Board in America to overtake Ghana?
    Please with all humility, do your homework. I know a lot of brilliant people from Legon, make them proud please. Be objective and critical not unnecessarily emotional.

  69. KB, I want to hear your brilliant idea on what Patrick should do. Perhaps close Ashesi and we all go to Legon like the author? Or what do you suggest I do for my kid? Take them to Timbuktu university?

  70. I’d like to think you have better things to do than attack a university that is doing it’s hardest to make Ghana a better place. But apparently you don’t.

    So rock on, keyboard warrior. I hope attacking others makes you sleep better at night.

  71. Some of the responses shocked me to the marrow especially the one in which an Ashesi alumnus claimed the West has more “resources” than Africa. I couldn’t believe it. Is this the “ethical leadership”, “critical thinking” and “entrepreneurship” being taught at Ashesi and codified as brainwashing to become slaves to ‘free markets’ and the global multinationals known for long gruelling hours? Is that the Western version of ethical integrity? To work obediently for the corporate elite who still maintain reasonable work-life balance like every human being should. It’s time for us to collectively wake up and realise that our damaged psyche needs some reconditioning to remember our true purpose. Komla Dumor readily comes to mind. The guy worked so hard for the corporate elite at the BBC only to die suddenly from excessive stress and heart disease, leaving a very young family and kids who of course would never have a father again.

  72. Akosua…. Am very very sad for you. Have you ever sat in an American university? Maybe i will suggest my alma mater Univ of Tx. I hope u try to enrol and if u do make sure its one of the great schools then you would appreciate when companies like Morgan Stanley and Goldman sachs come calling regardless of how much you paid in tuition. My younger brother enrolled in Ashesi and I paid his education throughout however the school was soooo understanding in tuition arrangements coupled with very cordial finance staff who never made it frustrating for him even when he had not paid his fees. I thank them sooo much for allowing him even to write exams when he had arreas. God bless you all at Ashesi!!! Today i can proudly tell u that due to an education from Ashesi he gained Employment STRAIGHT from Ashesi campus to Goldman sachs (london). Do u know how that feels??? Infact do u know how it feels when i talk to him??? I know soo many of his mates in Bank of America recruited straight from Ghana and some ashesi students also going on numerous exchange programs. So how in the world did u really sit down to waste all our time reading such mediocrity. Visit Ashesi as others have said and you will praise Dr Awuah rather than misguided rhetorics. Ghanaians always bringing Ghanaians down. What a shame!!

  73. I am small business owner and i am going to Ashesi to employ 2 of their fresh graduates. These authentic african stuff you are talking does not build business. I need staff who can REASON and do critical thinking to support the vision of the organization. I DONT NEED EXAMINATION PASSING MACHINES.
    I have worked with students from Legon, UCC and UPS and can tell you most of them don’t THINK critically. However after 3 months of work with an intern from Ashesi, am going to employ two of their fresh graduates to help build my business.

    I THINK THIS YOUR WRITE UP IS BORN OUT OF JEALOUSY FOR SOMEONES SUCCESS. Please to prove me wrong, start an authentic african university and lets see.

  74. I am shocked and horrified at your article. make no mistake i am very educated, i am left leaning and i understand the theory, policy and politics of corporatism to high levels. That’s what i got my doctorate in and what i continue to work for. i have attended top universities in England, the US and yes…Legon. I have followed the Ashesi Experience from the start…It is juicy for anyone to (i mean well informed people) to buy into left-based stuff on capitalism and corporatism. That’s ok. I’m left. but frankly this article is really really sad. Why did you pick on Ashesi and Paul’s work. I hear some say you raise some good points. That would be laughable if it weren’t regrettable. Really? Classic Africans pulling down Africans. What do you really want?

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