Allotei Kobina Konuah (1915 - 1979) was a Ghanaian

educationist Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

, sportsman and city administrator. He was executive chairman of Accra City Council from Februabry 1979 until his death in October 1979. Before this, he was headmaster of

Accra Academy Accra Academy is a Single-sex education, boys' high school located at Bubuashie near Kaneshie in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana. It admits both boarding and day students. Founded as a private school in 1931, it gained the status of a Government ...

from 1953 to 1967. He was team manager for Ghana at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics (, ), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad (, ) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952, were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1952 in Helsinki, Finland. After Japan declared in ...

and the

1954 Commonwealth Games The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 30 July to 7 August 1954. This was the fifth edition of the event that would eventually become known as the Commonwealth Games, the second post-war G ...

, which marked the first appearances at both competitions for Ghana and the only appearances as a British colony.

Early life

Allotei Kobina Konuah was born in Accra in 1915 to Alexander Konuah and Yaba Aye, both were natives of the Gold Coast. He was a younger half brother to the statesman Kofi Konuah. In January 1929, Konuah was enrolled in

Achimota School Achimota School (Help:IPA/English, /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra Reg ...

as a pioneer student of the secondary school department. In June 1931, he was enrolled in the

as one of nineteen foundation students of the school. He became the first head prefect of the school the following year. He passed the Senior Cambridge School Certificate in 1933 and went on to teach in the school. He studied at

Achimota College Achimota School ( /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school ...

from May 1936 to July 1938 for his Inter B.A. degree. Through correspondence with

Wolsey Hall, Oxford Founded in 1894, Wolsey Hall Oxford is one of the longest established homeschooling colleges in the world offering courses in primary, secondary, IGCSE and A level subjects to homeschoolers in more than 120 countries. Based in Oxford, England, W ...

, he received a B. A. degree from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1943. Konuah had further education at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

in the United States in 1957.

Career

In 1934, he became a member of the teaching staff of the Accra Academy. Two year after this, he underwent a study-leave and returned to the teaching staff in 1938. In addition to his teaching duties, he served as sports master and, in 1947, he was instrumental in the admission of the Accra Academy to the fold of Aggrey Shield competing schools. He trained the school's athletes who won the Aggrey Shield in 1950 and 1951. On 31 December 1952, K. G. Konuah retired from heading the Accra Academy and handed over to A. K. Konuah as his successor. In 1959, Konuah became a founding member of the

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930 by cellist Hans Kindler, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The NSO regularly ...

. He also received Gold Coast Governor-General Lord Listowell on his visit to the Accra Academy as headmaster. Konuah also served on the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board. He was a member of the board of the Central Organization of Sports which replaced the Ghana Amateur Sports Council in 1961, as the governing sports body. Konuah was chairman of the Schools and Colleges Sports Federation. The federation organized the first ever national collegiate and schools sports competition in 1962. In July 1961, Allotei Konuah oversaw the relocation of Accra Academy from Ankrah lane in Jamestown to its present location off the Winneba road in Bubiashie. Konuah served as vice chairman of Conference of Heads of Day and Encouraged Secondary Schools (now CHASS), and as a council member of the University of Science and Technology in

Kumasi Kumasi is a city and the capital of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is the second largest city in the country, with a population of 443,981 as of the 2021 census. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region ...

. In 1966, he supervised works for the opening of two new boarding houses at the new site in Bubiashie. In September 1967, Konuah resigned as headmaster of the Accra Academy. In October 1967, he took up an appointment as

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of the

West African Examination Council The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is an examination board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certi ...

. In 1966, Konuah was a member of a four-man goodwill mission to

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sent by the National Liberation Council, after it took power in a coup d'etat, which was led by

Christian Baëta Christian Gonçalves Kwami Baëta (23 May 1908 – 1994) was a Ghanaian people, Ghanaian Academy, academic and a Presbyterian minister who served as the Synod Clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana, Evangelical Presbyterian Church ...

. The two other members were E. P. K. Seddoh, then Supervising Principal Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs and P. K. K. Quaidoo a former government minister. In 1967, Konuah was appointed a member of the NLC's Tibo Committee that studied the Central Organization of Sports. Konuah chaired the Central Advisory Committee on Youth of the

National Liberation Council The National Liberation Council (NLC) led the Ghanaian government from 24 February 1966 to 1 October 1969. The body emerged from a ''coup d'état'' against the Nkrumah government carried out jointly by the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Arme ...

. In 1970, Konuah was appointed chairman of an education review committee set up by Prime Minister

Kofi Busia Kofi Abrefa Busia (11 July 1913 – 28 August 1978) was a Ghanaian political leader and academic who was Prime Minister of Ghana from 1969 to 1972. As a leader and prime minister, he helped to restore civilian government to the country followi ...

. The committee proposed in its 1971 report that the O-level and

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

educational system modelled after the British educational system be replaced by a Junior Secondary School and Senior Secondary School educational system respectively. He was a director of the Ghana Commercial Bank under the chairmanship of T. E. Anin. In February 1979, Konuah was appointed to head the Accra City Council as executive chairman. He replaced the military officer in charge of the council.

Sports

In 1944, Konuah was chosen as assistant secretary of the Gold Coast Amateur Athletic Association at its founding. In 1955, as secretary, Konuah's name was gazetted as representative of the Amateur Athletics Association to the Gold Coast Amateur Sports Council. In April 1957, he was re-elected Secretary of the Gold Coast Amateur Athletics Association, staying as representative of the Athletics Association on the Gold Coast Amateur Sports Council. In 1950, he was the founding vice-president of the

Gold Coast Hockey Association Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal, a group 11 ...

. In June 1951, he became its second president occasioned by the transfer of the founding president

Emmanuel Evans-Anfom Emmanuel Evans-Anfom (7 October 1919 – 7 April 2021) was a Ghanaian physician, scholar, university administrator, and public servant who served as the second Vice Chancellor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from 1967 t ...

away from Accra, one of the urban centers of the game, for medical practice in rural

Dunkwa Dunkwa-On-Offin or simply Dunkwa, is a town and the capital of the Upper Denkyira East Municipal District, a district in the Central Region of south Ghana. Dunkwa-On-Offin has a 2013 settlement population of 33,379 people. Geography Topography ...

. He was president of the Gold Coast Hockey Association until 1957 when he handed back to Evans-Anfom. Konuah was manager for the 1952 Gold Coast Olympic team of athletes which made a maiden participation for the Gold Coast at the 15th edition of the event in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

. Konuah said in interviews that the people of the host nation Denmark were friendly to the Ghana team. In August 1952, at a dinner party in Helsinki, Konuah was introduced to the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

. In September 1952, the team of eight athletes and two managers, returned to the Gold Coast. In 1954, Konuah was team manager for Ghana at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada. This was the first participation of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, in the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

Personal life

Konuah was married twice. His first marriage was to Adawa Crabbe with whom he had a son William Wallace Bruce-Konuah. Adawa died a year after giving birth to William. He married Rosina Konuah (née Vanderpuye) who was a pharmacist, a social worker and a registered nurse, for his second marriage in 1950. He was a freemason and a founding member of both Achimota Lodge and Lodge Accra Academy. He was the first ''Primus'' of Lodge Accra Academy.

Death

Konuah died on 9 October 1979. He was 64 years and was serving as executive chairman of the Accra City Council. He was buried in November 1979.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konuah, A.K. Heads of schools in Ghana Ghanaian city councillors Alumni of the Accra Academy Alumni of Achimota School People from Accra Bruce family (Ghana) 1915 births 1979 deaths