Comrade Akrofi — Gone but not forgotten
One of my favourite languages is Ewe, although my attempts to learn it always fails at the first hurdle, but there is one phrase I learnt many years ago which has stayed with me. In my non-Ewe phonetic writing, it says “gbadegbe va yi.”
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This translates loosely as “some days have come and gone” or the “good old days.” For some reason, this was the kind of sentiment that came to my mind when I was informed about the death of my brother, friend and Comrade Hayford Patterson Akrofi on Monday Morning. I was shocked at his death but even more so by the manner in which it occurred.
According to media and other reports, the 66-year-old architect was shot dead by a gunman who attacked his home at Ofankor near Accra in the early hours of last Monday.
According to the reports, the gunman must have spent a considerable amount of time in the house molesting two young women before forcing them at gun point to rouse Comrade Akrofi from sleep.
Younger Ghanaians may know little or nothing about H.P. Akrofi although his position as the Vice Chairman of the UK Branch of the Convention Peoples Party may give a clue about his politics. However, to Ghanaians of a certain age, his was a household name in the 1970s when as President of the National Union of Ghana Students he played a significant role in the struggle against the Acheampong military dictatorship and the reckless dissipation of state funds during the era.
He is undoubtedly one of the most progressive leaders the students movement has had in this country. He organised perhaps the biggest students conference in the country. This was the International Students Conference against Imperialist Penetration in Higher Education in January 1976.
I was rather amused to read recently the comments of the US Embassy at the time as disclosed by Wikileaks and to note that this caused them some serious concern. The US Embassy was right to be concerned because the students union was a force to reckon with not only in local politics but also on the international scene.
Among the significant events that took place at the conference was the admission of two Europe-based Ghanaian students organisations – National Students Organisation in the UK and the Central Union of Ghana Students in Europe which was based in (West) Germany.
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These admissions paved the way for NUGS to join the International Union of Students based in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in which the Ghanaian organisation would play an important role in later years. The other decision had even more far-reaching implications.
The conference took place at a critical time in the Angolan civil war when a fierce struggle for power was taking place in that country. Eventually, it came down to a diplomatic challenge in which the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) vied for recognition by the OAU.
The third force at the time, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), was not very prominent in the diplomatic impasse.
The NUGS under Akrofi cast its vote for the MPLA and persuaded the Acheampong government to do the same at the OAU. This tipped the vote in favour of the MPLA.
It is almost inconceivable that students could wield that much power but the NUGS forced the Ghana government to cancel a planned visit by Mr Henry Kissinger, then US Secretary of State. The pretext used for the cancellation was that the Head of State was unwell.
Despite the maligning of Akrofi and the NUGS as some wild-eyed radicals, he was a mild and reasonable man who accommodated all views. I went with him once to see General Acheampong at the Castle at the time when the Head of State was the most hated man from the students’ point of view.
I have forgotten what the discussion was about but I remember vividly that Mr Akrofi was very courteous towards the Head of State but firmly disagreed with him on the matter at hand.
I have to add that Acheampong was also charming and gracious and not the brash and ignorant person he is often lampooned for being.
In the late 1980s, a group of mostly former student leaders formed an organisation known as the Movement for Peace and Democracy (MOPAD). Although not as well known as some of the progressive organisations of the time, MOPAD contributed to the debates and analyses of the national situation at the time. Mr Akrofi was the Vice President working under Mr Sarpong Boateng, a former minister and ambassador to Cuba.
Akro, as almost everyone called him, was a man of principles which were honed by his socialist ideology and Christian principles. At the time when many people were lobbying for position and influence in the early 1980s, he left Ghana to pursue his career in the UK where he was awarded the Membership of the Royal Institute of Architects and was an executive member of the Black Architects group.
He continued to participate in the civic life of Ghanaians in the UK and joined the Convention People’s Party from the moment the branch was formed in that country.
He was a live wire of the branch and was completely dedicated to the cause. Once he started his long delayed relocation to Ghana, he became involved at the headquarters and became the secretary of the Central Coordinating Committee.
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Akro was devoted to the CPP. Almost all my conversations with him, in person or over the phone, involved the CPP. He believed, as not perhaps many do, that the CPP could take power again in Ghana.
He was a trusted confidant of the CPP leader, Samia Nkrumah, and the two conferred and travelled often in the last few months.
Outside of politics Akro was a devoted family man. He doted on his three daughters and was the cynosure of his larger family. In some ways, those close to his family must now take comfort in the fact that his mother to whom he was also devoted predeceased him by a couple of years. She would have been heart broken.
He was a lay preacher of the Methodist Church and took his duties there very seriously.
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Akro was an architect, and a very innovative one at that. In Ghana he worked with the State Housing Corporation and was an early advocate for the use of high grade local material, including pozzolana cement which he argued could save the country substantial money.
Indeed, one of the reasons why he relocated to Ghana was to continue his struggle for a progressive form of architecture in which building for people and not profit would be a primary motive.
We will say a lot more about Akro and the inspiration he was for many people over the past 40 years but for now, as his body lies riddled with bullets from a gunshot by an unknown assassin, we hope his family, friends and comrades will take some comfort in the recognition of his undoubted contribution to many causes - all in the interest of Ghana, especially the poor and the underprivileged.