April 24, 1936, according to him on “Sunday in the late sowing season of 1936” at Mampong, 30 miles north of Kumasi, descendant of a long line of Ashanti chiefs, son of a stonemason attached to the Garrison engineers in Tamale. First working as a mason’s apprentice, his grandmother took him away and sent him to the Presbyterian school at Mampong.
Akwasi had early education at Presbyterian Boys Boarding School, Mampong. Between 1952 and 1957, Akwasi was at Adisadel College, Cape Coast, where he obtained his secondary education. He was enlisted into the Ghana Armed Forces in 1958 and had his officers’ cadet training in Ghana and later at Mons Officers Cadet School, Sandhurst (1958-1960), in UK.
As a young officer, Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Ghana Armed Forces in 1960 and served as General Staff Officer (GSO) in the army from 1962 to 1964. Thereafter, he attended the Defence College, at Teshie in Accra. He is said to be one of the outstanding soldiers sent to serve with the United Nations peace operation in the Lumumbas Congo. Afrifa rose through the ranks to become a Major. He was also staff officer in charge of army training and operations by 1965. He was based at Kumasi, at the headquarters of the Second Infantry Brigade (now the Northern Command) of the Ghana Army.
Afrifa eventually came to military and political limelight on 24 February 1966 where together with Lieutenant-Colonel Kotoka, led a joint southern-northern military coup codenamed: “Operation Cold Chop”- a military exercise that out staged Nkrumah-led Convention Convention People’s Party while the Osagyefo was on peace mission in far away Vietnam. Afrifa's brief was to take the Broadcasting House, the base from which the national radio station broadcast its news and programmes. This succeeded after heavy fighting, allowing Kotoka to go on air to announce the coup d'état to the whole nation.
On April 2, 1969, the Executive Council of the NLC confronted Ankrah with a commissioners' enquiry concerning the receipt of political funds, and he voluntarily resigned from the NLC chairmanship. Afrifa was elected chairman in his place. Immediately he brought a brisker, more businesslike style to government. Afrifa reshuffled his Executive Council, appointed a Minister for Rural Development and lifted the ban on political parties on May 1. Next he set the date and held the ringside for the elections of August 29, 1969, which returned Kofi Busia’s Progress Party to power.
In an unexpected move he and two NLC colleagues maintained a supervisory role through a three-man Presidential Commission, but in practice, the group allowed the Busia government to operate without interference and voluntarily dissolved itself in August 1970. In Afrifa’s words, this was a “lesson for those in power not to perpetuate their positions. . . . Now our fifles arc down and we believe they are down for ever. ...”
In December, he joined the Council of State, the advisory body to the new civilian President Akufo-Addo. In the 27 months of civilian rule which followed, he became increasingly disillusioned with the government saying that the constitution was backward looking and certainly not for “quick progress and development”. But when a new group of young soldiers under Colonel Ignatius Acheampong struck on January 13, 1972, Afrifa instinctively tallied to the democratic ideal which he had nursed to power. He tried to lead a on Accra to restore Dr Busia, but failed and was detained. He was released on July 3, 1973.
Little is known about Afrifa's religious beliefs, but his religious background was Christianity.
His political views are vividly seen from the coup he plotted that ousted president Nkrumah. Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa became friends with Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, then a Colonel and the Commander of the Second Infantry Brigade. At the time, Ghana had become a one-party state, political opposition was effectively removed with the Preventive Detention Act of 1958 and in 1964 Nkrumah declared himself President for Life. Simultaneously, the export price of Ghana's main foreign exchange earner, cocoa, plummeted. This, combined with ambitious domestic expenditure on much needed social infrastructure and on well documented white elephants[citation, led to the bankruptcy of Ghana. There was a lot of discontent among the general population as prices rocketed for basic consumer goods which were widely unavailable, and among the Ghana Armed Forces. Kwame Nkrumah had asked the military at the time to prepare for a possible campaign in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) against the racist régime that had been established there. Under the pretext of a training exercise, Kotoka, moved his troops from Kumasi to Accra for the coup. Afrifa was his right-hand man in the coup exercise. It turned out later that, unhappy with Nkrumah's strengthening ties with Russia, China and other communist states[citatio, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States had been kept updated about preparations for this coup and may have helped create difficulties for the Nkrumah government to facilitate this.
Quotations:
"Fellow Ghanaian, stay by your radios for an important announcement."
"I feel greatly disturbed about the future after the government....
In order to discourage the military from staging coups in the future, how about if they line all of us up and shot us one by one? I do not certainly want to be arrested, given some sort of trial and shot. But I would be a stupid General if I sit in the comfort of my farm and await the VENGEANCE that is about to be unleashed on us.... I will pray to take away the fear and confusion weighing on my mind now."
Physical Characteristics: He is of the Black race.
Quotes from others about the person
Lieutenant General Joshua Hamidu: "That is ridiculous. It is a lie. I had nothing to do with the executions. For three weeks after the 4 June event, questions were constantly raised about executing people. I always stood against it. Surprisingly, the only person who also stood against it was Rawlings. The young boys wanted blood and I used to tell 'you cannot resurrect the man once you've killed him. If you have any case against people, try them. Let everybody hear what they have done wrong against the country.' And that even, they could not do."
Afrifa was the son of Opanin Kwaku Amankwa and Ama Serwaa Amaniampong, both from Krobo, near Mampong, in the Ashanti Region. At the time of his execution, he was married to Christine Afrifa, with whom he had nine children. His first Ama Serwa Afrifa, Seven with Christine Afrifa; Baffour Afrifa, Baffour Anokye Afrifa, Maame Drowaa Afrifa, Serwaa Amaniampong Afrifa, Ayowa Afrifa, Sophia Afrifa and Akos Afrifa. His last son Henry Afrifa was born after his death.
