President Mahama paying his last respect to the late Madam Theodosia Okoh at the forecourt of the State House in Accra

Theodosia Okoh goes home

Kwame Asare Boadu May - 29 - 2015 , 08:19

In a massive defiance of a morning downpour in Accra, hundreds of people including President John Dramani Mahama and his Vice, Kwesi Bekoe Ammissah-Arthur converged on the forecourt of the State House in Accra Thursday to pay their last respects to the late Madam Theodosia Okoh, the designer of the Ghana flag.

A quintessential stateswoman, Madam Okoh passed away peacefully last month at the ripe age of 92, and was given a state burial.

President files past

President Mahama arrived at the funeral grounds at 9.10 am and solemnly filed past the body which lay in a casket in the centre of the forecourt.

Also present was the former President Jerry John Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

Also spotted among the mourners were Mr Paul Afoko and Mr Kwabena Agyepong, the embattled Chairman and General Secretary respectively of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

National colours

The casket containing the mortal remains of the great woman, and the funeral grounds were bedecked in the colours of the national flag, which she designed in 1957.

Shortly before Ghana's independence, the Ghana government advertised a competition for a design for the national flag and Theodosia sent four designs from which one was chosen as the winner.

Loaded biography

An impressive biography was read at the funeral.

Born Theodosia Salome Abena Kumea Asihene to the late Rev. Emmanuel Victor Asihene, a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and Mrs. Dora Poobea Akyea Asihene.

Mrs Okoh trained as a teacher and was posted to teach at Kukurantumi, on completion of her course.

While teaching, Madam Okoh won a scholarship to study at the Achimota College Art School in 1942.

In 1949, she got married to Mr Enoch Kwabena Okoh who worked at the Colonial Secretary's office and the couple had three children.

She had the unique experience of being invited to prepare a dinner at the Flagstaff House for Queen Elizabeth II in 1961.

She was a recipient of the national award of the Grand Medal.

Mrs Okoh was a keen hockey enthusiast and one-time chaired the Ghana Hockey Association, and no wonder the national hockey pitch is named after her.

In her youthful years, she played hockey and cricket.

Tributes

Various tributes acknowledged her wonderful roles as a mother and stateswoman.

In a tribute by President Mahama read on his behalf by the Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane-Boamah, he said the nation was celebrating a woman whose contribution to national life was phenomenal.

“Her development in sports and her incredible fame as an artist went to drive the national cause”, the President said.

Amongst all nationalist, he said, she stood out as one individual whose life helped to define Ghanaians as a people with the creation of the national flag.

"Through this flag, we gained instant recognition throughout the world," the President said.

Sermon

Preaching the sermon, the Rev. Dr. J.A. Mensah, the Presbyterian Minister of the Accra Ridge Church, said the exemplary life she led was not surprising because of her Presbyterian upbringing.

Wreaths laid included those by the Vice President, the family children, and the Ghana Hockey Association, among others.

Just after the last post was sounded at 11.45am, military pall bearers carried the casket containing the mortal remains to the waiting hearse an then to the Osu cemetery for internment.