“Wow!” That was Deken Taylor’s reaction when I showed him 20 Cedis from Ghana. Taylor, a University of North Texas public relations student from Pittsburg, Texas, had never seen money featuring six Black men.
Just as the images of U.S. presidents on U.S. currency, the six men on the 20 Cedis are history makers and famous in Ghana for being leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC).
The six men – Ebenezer Ako Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Emmanuel Odarwei Obsetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori Atta – are founding fathers of the nation that gained its independence from British rule in 1957. The bank note was just one of the souvenirs I used as a teaching tool with some UNT students after giving three guest lectures about mobile/social media trends, digital disruption in media and gender disparities in media at the University of Ghana in March.
I realized there is much opportunity to educate our students and others about study abroad options on the African continent after a colleague asked what language was spoken at the University of Ghana, the largest university in West Africa with nearly 45,000 students. My reply: English.
He also asked if the men were separated from the women in classes. My response: No. And based on research and various advertising billboards, religion is big in Ghana.
Djuana Young, an associate vice president for enrollment at Texas Wesleyan University, first visited Ghana in 1990 as a student and returned this spring with her daughter, Avery, for a mother-daughter vacation.
Young said the Ghanaian “people live, work, and have the same goals and desires” that Americans do. “Parents want their child to be successful,” she said.
