It was only in this school that I got to know that football in Ghana is played in Ga – k3l3 aya! Hahaaa! Right from Cadbury House through to McCarthy House were a group of radical and good boys, and maybe girls in Clarke House.
Was Slessor House a major Seminary or could just pass for a nano seminary-smaller in size than micro – just minimum of a micro! Hahaaa! No insinuation here though.
They were the best of friends back in the Grey City, a school most loved by those who know great things and most hated by those who may want to end the reading from here but they can’t stop – it is Achimota School! One boy was an expert born with the tongue of the Queen in English Grammar.
He was also a ‘shark’ in Latin, a subject which was a crucial part of the school’s curriculum moulded by the British themselves – not the Greeks!
Prof. Atta Mills of blessed memory was the man who while being ‘water to a thirsty land’, said good-bye to us as the President of the Republic of Ghana. Of course, respectfully, Achimotans are trail blazers in many things including serving into eternity – may his peaceful soul rest in peace.
His close friend was Medicus. And who is Medicus?
He was the guy who was so brilliant and was a force to reckon with in both Mathematics and Biology – he was feared for his brilliance in everything. If it had to do with Physics, bring it on. Or is it Chemistry?
My brother, formulate your own composition and he had what it took to unravel the components using amoeba and density as proof–Yaw Osafo Maafo Ing.!
This is a story shared by one of Ghana’s revered Presidents – the hockey star of Achimota School in the 1960s.
Was I born then? No, my Mum was still wearing local guaranty shoes, not Achimota sandals.
This weekend, Achimota School would be marking its 99th birthday as Alumni and current students and Staff mark this year’s Founders’ Day – yes!
In that speech most of which was presented extempore typical of the boys and girls trained in the Achimota forest, he started off with why it was important not to talk too much. In his delivery [sic] mine.
He did mention that one day after prep or so in the 1960’s, something happened and a whiteman tutor caught all those found in the enclave or, what for want of a better word, I’d call ‘the crime scene’.
Sequel to his narration, the British tutor was writing down the names of students who were at the ‘crime scene’. Yes, ‘I am Kofi’. Obroni tutor wrote down the student’s name.
Next. ‘I am Boadu’ Next came himself Prof, the small boy at the time. ‘I am Innocent’.
To date, the descendants of the whiteman tutor are still looking for the student by name ‘Innocent’.
All the students who mentioned their names were punished except ‘Innocent’ and unfortunately the school’s register had no name such as ‘Innocent’.
The beauty of ambiguity of words – was this ‘Innocent’ referring to someone or describing a state of crime – guilty or innocent.
The most important thing was that ‘don’t talk too much’ – a monumental life’s lesson I learnt from the late President and Senior Akora during the Founders’ Day celebration in early March 2010 or 2011 – not too sure about the exact year though.
The Veteran Cadets are marching tomorrow and yours truly wouldn’t miss. I would be there – to march too!
Uniform sizes, name on T-shirts because uniforms will not fit. Charles Ayiku. Teddy Totimeh, Ransford Mensh Sewordzi, Pearl Kumordzie, Irene Gyamfi (Shabba) and the likes would be marching at the cadet square.
The grounds that imbibed in us that time consciousness called punctuality – the Achimota School Cadet Square and of course, Mawuli Sachey, the Grammarian and the man with the voice would be there.
This is where the problem started – those of us veteran cadets who left the school many years ago are supposed to be wearing uniforms but from a waist line of 12 between 1992 and 1994, I am now having a waistline of 42! My stomach size then was 14. Today it is 110.
Charles Ayiku used to have a very fit ‘Gyamfi House’ body but now struggling with how to tie shoe laces before attending to our electricity problems at ECG.
Some of us have developed osteoporosis-like movements in our knees.
At this age, if you don’t have BP, then I wonder what kind of Achimotan you may be.
After age 50 and you don’t have BP? How? Remember I didn’t say high BP though arthritis-like symptoms are beginning to show the ugly heads amongst some of us – that stage in life!
We have all changed physically hence the need to just design a common-coloured polo shirt with an inscription – some call it lacoste just as the brand name ‘pepsolent’ remains the name of all toothpaste brands in Ghana!
There was the need to come out with an inscription to put on the shirts.
Come and see old age, midlife crisis, mixed with subtle forgetfulness and frustration related hormonal changes and confusion come to play.
Don’t worry; I would share some suggested names from the platform soon.
It only reminded me of an organization in which I had worked and no two Achimotans are/were allowed to serve on the same committee to work on a document – the work would never get done!
Why? Everybody has an opinion and accepting the other’s opinion is probably akin to a defeat of the Grammar that we were taught in that amazing forest.
Just look at some of the names: ‘ACHIMOTA SCHOOL CADET CORPS VETERANS, ACHIMOTA/AKORA CADET VETERAN (this person I am told is an expert in teaching the subject Balanced Diet so I am not surprised), ACHIMOTA SCHOOL VETERAN CADET, ACHIMOTA SCHOOL OLUMAN CADET, ACHIMOTA CADET AWONYE CADET, AKORA VETERAN CADET’, ‘CADET SCHOOL ACHIMOTA (don’t mind Sewor; I know he was intentional about this).
‘ACHIMOTA ONCE A SOLDIER, IS NOW WEAK’ (my own bi that).
Trust me, for two weeks now, I am not too sure if we had agreed on any name but I can vividly recall the polo shirts have been printed for the march past on Saturday March 7, 2026 at the Cadet Square of Motown as part of the 99th Founders day celebrations.
I have no idea the inscription on it but I know my size is XXXL! Weytin concern me with flat tummy! Abeg, no be me invent potbelly.
So he was to become a Catholic Priest and joined the school choir just because of Daavi Lorlortor (may their souls rest in peace). But the motive was beyond Daavi Lorlortor.
The late Efo’s real name from the school’s records, I am told as I stand to be corrected, was Rawlings Jerry John.
First name was Rawlings! Typical of Achimota, many students were called by their surnames! No one really called him ‘Rawlings’.
As to how the name Rawlings became his surname other than John, I think we can ask all the respected living Johns who ever ruled this country; there is another John who may never get the opportunity to rule Ghana, sorry – he attended Achimota for his O’Level and proceeded to Adisadel for his 6th form for sheggey reasons. ‘Matimihu’ is not a new thing to him.
From black and white to a zebra – nothing changed. As to who he is, your guess is as good as mine. It all started inside Achimota.
Dr Boom was a calm guy (or so it appeared) and as to how he became a military leader and eventually a civilian politician still remains a surprise or rather a mystery to his contemporaries.
Little wonder on the platform of the nearly 100 veteran cadets, none of us joined the military after Motown. Strange? No but there are many Achimotans who are today top guys in the military locally and internationally.
They were those who never showed interest in school cadet corps but are now in the ‘klick-klack-bang’ profession!
Is it a matter of paradoxical irony that most of those who were cadets at the second cycle and at the university never showed interest in joining the military or it was a matter of the competition to get in there being too keen?
A question for Kuzunik, the great! But this cuts across all institutions of learning in the land of Umuofia, not only Achimota.
“All form one boys should line up in front of the cadet square and scavenge anything in sight including the gravels on tarred roads leading to the Administration Block from the swimming pool through to G’burg House.”
It was a period akin to the rapture in the military – you are first broken down and then rebuilt! If you survive the first 2 weeks, then you can sail through successfully.
I can hear the sounds of the school bell ringing in the towers of the Grey City, calling on the Samuel Appiahs (Alimi), the Teddy Totimehs, the Sewordzis, the Owusu-Sekyeres, the the Kwaku Kpekpes, the Ethel Dandzos, the Elizabeth Olympios and many others across the world to come as we salute Motown 32 years after leaving the ‘graffiti-infested’ walls of Motown.
Shhhh! Please don’t tell anyone o, ‘Bob Say’ and his lieutenant, Mr Amartey Amarh both of blessed memory may be watching from afar whether we are indeed ‘Living waters to a thirsty land!’
All veteran cadets or cadet veterans…fall innnnn…before you faint and maybe re-faint!
Undoubtedly, my Class of 1994 is noted for some of the best, weirdest and most memorable moments in the history of the School.
If for nothing at all, we were the first to have members who kept snakes and scorpions as pets in chop-boxes and trunks!
Whether from Gambaga to Accra, from Wiawso to Keta, whether or not we are brothers and our mother is the school, it would always be…Achiiiiimotaaaaaaaaaa!
