Akwasi Afrifa

Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa (24 April 1936 – 26 June 1979) was a Ghanaian soldier, farmer, traditional ruler and politician.

After his secondary education at Adisadel College, he joined the Ghana Army in 1957 and was sent to the Regular Officer's Special Training School.

From there, he attended the Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, England in 1958.

He then completed officer training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, England.

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 Kwame 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, 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.

Nkrumah had asked the military at the time to prepare for a possible campaign in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) due to that country's recent unilateral declaration of independence under a white minority regime.

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 the Soviet Union, China and other communist states, 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.

The coup plotters struck while Nkrumah was on a trip to Hanoi, then the capital of North 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.

There have been allegations by members of Nkrumah's Presidential Detail Department (PDD) responsible for the personal protection of Nkrumah that they were physically tortured, some apparently in the presence of Kotoka, J. W. K. Harlley and Afrifa.

Martin Okai, a member of the PDD, claimed at the National Reconciliation Commission hearings that his torture was supervised by Afrifa.

Following the coup, Kotoka became one of the eight members of the National Liberation Council (NLC).

Afrifa also went through a series of rapid promotions rising from major to lieutenant general in the three years his government was in power.

He was also appointed the commissioner (minister) for Finance and Trade.

In 1960, Afrifa was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Ghana Armed Forces.

In 1961, he was at the School of Infantry, Hythe, United Kingdom.

Afrifa also attended the Defence College, at Teshie in Accra.

From 1962 up to 1964, he was a general staff officer in the army.

He next attended the Defence College, at Teshie in Accra.

Afrifa was one of the officers who served in the Ghana contingent of the United Nations Operation in the 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 Central Command) of the Ghana Army.

While at Kumasi, Afrifa became friends with Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, then a colonel and the commander of the Second Infantry Brigade.

He was the head of state of Ghana and leader of the military government in 1969 and then chairman of the Presidential Commission between 1969 and 1970.

He continued as a farmer and political activist.

The head of state of Ghana and chairman of the NLC, Joseph Arthur Ankrah was forced to resign in April 1969 following a bribery scandal involving Francis Nzeribe, a Nigerian businessman.

He was replaced by Afrifa as head of state.

Ankrah was accused of effecting payments to influence the results of a poll which showed him ahead of Afrifa and Kofi Abrefa Busia for the national elections due in August 1969.

Afrifa was a supporter of Busia, the leader of the Progress Party who was a candidate in the forthcoming National Assembly elections.

Afrifa handed over to Busia who became the prime minister of Ghana on inauguration of the Second Republic.

He was elected a member of Parliament in 1979, but he was executed before he could take his seat.

He was executed together with two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo, and five other generals (Utuka, Felli, Boakye, Robert Kotei and Amedume), in June 1979.

He was also popularly referred to by his title Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was in addition the abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.