Background
Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen was born on the 24th of May, 1932 in Oseim, Gold Coast (presently known as Ghana) to Presbyterian parents, and had his ancestral roots in Juaben-Asante.
Albert Kwadwo Adu Boahen was born on the 24th of May, 1932 in Oseim, Gold Coast (presently known as Ghana) to Presbyterian parents, and had his ancestral roots in Juaben-Asante.
Boahen began his primary education in religious schools between 1938 and 1947. He later moved to Mfantsipim School where he spent three years before enrolling in history studies at the University College in Legon. He graduated in 1956. Thereafter, he received a Ph.D in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, as the first Ghanaian in 1959.
Albert began his career at the University of Ghana in 1959, and later rose to the position of professor from 1971 to his retirement in 1990. He was the chairman of the Department of History at the university between1967 and 1975, as the first African to do so, and also served as a dean from 1973 to 1975. Albert also worked in the editorial board of The Journal of African History published by Cambridge University Press, and was a visiting scholar at such institutions as the Australian National University in 1969, Columbia University in 1970 and the State University of New York in 1990 and 1991. Between 1993 and 1999, he also worked in the UNESCO committee that published the eight-volume work General History of Africa.
Albert Boahen's academic work touched most areas of life, including politics. In February 1988 he publicly lectured on the history of Ghana from 1972 to 1987. Because of this, he is credited with breaking the so-called "culture of silence" which marked the regime of President Jerry Rawlings, who had served continuously since 1981. The lectures, originally held in the British Council Hall in Accra, were published in 1998 as The Ghanaian Sphinx: The Contemporary History of Ghana 1972-1987.
He is described as a man who never compromised his religious ethics for anything.
His political views are seen in his works. He also taught his fellow Ghanaians by example that it was not enough to know that one's history was full of heroic deeds, but that people must let their knowledge of their glorious past spur them on to accomplish great deeds in their own lives. He bestrode academic and political life. In 1988, he felt called upon to deliver a series of fearless public lectures on "The Culture of Silence" that had descended upon Ghana under the dictatorial rule of Flt Lt Jerry Rawlings. Then - in a move considered by some to be even more foolhardy - he stood against Rawlings in a presidential election in 1992.
Before that, he had, through the Movement for Freedom and Justice, also opposed the military rule of General I.K. Acheampong. This earned him a period of detention in prison - an ironic fate, since he had, a decade earlier, presided over a commission that inquired into the death in Nsawam prison under the Kwame Nkrumah regime of the "doyen of Ghanaian politics", Dr J.B. Danquah.
Boahen spoke out against Marxist history early in his career. Politically, he described himself as "a liberal democrat, a believer in the freedom of the individual, the welfare of the governed, and in private enterprise and the market economy".
He was a political activist and Historian who brought reforms to Ghana and contributed immensely to the educational sector.
Physical Characteristics: He is Black
Quotes from others about the person
Ivor Agyeman-Duah: "On the soap-box Boahen adopted Asante war songs and aroused tens of thousands at his rallies. He, like Albert Luthuli in South Africa, instilled in people the need to be martyrs of the nation, and for democracy. He was, as he told me fifteen years ago, a liberal democrat, a believer in the freedom of the individual, the welfare of the governed, and in private enterprise and the market economy. And it was his guidance from 1987 which helped establish Ghana's democratic credentials."
Ivor Wilks: "Boahen has done well to extol the virtues of this extraordinary woman, showing beyond doubt that she came to exercise a quite decisive influence on the course of the war even if the extent to which she herself actually engaged in combat remains moot."
He was married, and had five Children