Background
Sawyerr was born on March 24, 1939 in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana; the son of Akilagpa and Charlotte Amy (Mettle) Sawyerr.
Ayi Kwei Armah & Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr.
From left to right - Prof. Akilagpa Sawyer, Prof. Horace Campbell, Prof. Samuel Agyei-Mensah, Prof. Daniel Ofori.
Sawyerr was born on March 24, 1939 in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana; the son of Akilagpa and Charlotte Amy (Mettle) Sawyerr.
Sawyerr received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Durham in 1962. Three years later he was given a Master of Laws degree from the University of London. Akilagpa earned his Master of Laws degree from the University of California in 1967 and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from the University of California in 1972.
Sawyerr worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Dar Es Salaam in 1964-1970. In 1969, he took a position of a director of research center at the same university and held it for a year.
In 1970, Akilagpa became a senior lecturer and then a professor of law at the University of Ghana, where he worked until 1988. Also in 1985, he was appointed a vice-chancellor at that university and held the position for seven years. He worked as a professor at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1979 to 1984.
Since 1993 Sawyerr has been a director of research for the Association of African Universities. He has published extensively on globalization, higher education, human development and international negotiations.
Sawyerr is a member of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Council on Tertiary Education in Ghana, United National Committee for Development Policy and is an editorial consultant for the Australian Journal of Law and Society.
He chairs the advisory panel for the Ghana Human Development report and the executive council of the Third World Network, Africa Region.
Akilagpa was a president of the Council for the Development of Social Science in Africa and chairman of the Steering Committee of the Secretariat for Institutional Support for Economic Research in Africa.
Akilagpa Sawyerr is married to Judith Sara Quitkin. They have 2 children.