HISTORICAL
FIGURE- THE LATE MRS. THEODOSIA OKOH.
Theodosia
Salome Okoh born on the thirteenth of June, 1922 in Ghana, Effiduase was a
statewoman, teacher, horticulturist, housewife and popular known as an artist
for designing the National Flag. She designed the flag in the year 1957 when
Ghana had her independence.
She was named by her father, Very Reverened Emmanuel
Victor Asihene who was a moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and her
mother, Dora Asihene as Theodosia Salome Abena Kumea Asihene. She had seven
siblings of which she was the fourth amongst them. Both her parents hail from
Anum in the Asuogyam District of the Eastern part of Ghana. Theodosia was from
a large family with successful siblings.
She began her formal education at Ashanti Effiduse
Primary school then continued to the Basel Girls Mission Middle, Senior and
Teacher Training Schools in Agogo and
then to Achimota School. In Achimota, she underwent three years of training in
Fine Art from there, she took up her teaching career at Kukurantumi. Like any
other person will do, she practised to make her self perfect and from the
encouragement she received from the
Department of Social welfare, through the production of teaching aids and
motives for nursery She had the privilege of travelling with her father and her
husband, the late Enoch Okoh whom until the 1966 coup was the secretary to the
Cabinet and Head of Civic Services in Ghana and across the world.
Theodosia rose among many best artist and designers
when in 1955, she was given the challenge to design a flag for the nation,
Ghana. She was able to do this because, Philip Gbeho, the composer of the
national anthem helped her in choosing the colors that would depict Africans.
The colors they decided on was picked by so many African nations but with
different variations. She submitted her design to the British when they needed
a new flag to advertise Ghana’s independence which was adopted as the national
flag. She explained in an interview that, she choose the three colors; red,
gold and green because of the geographical location of Ghana. Ghana lies in the
tropics and She is rich in vegetation. The richness of our lands influenced the
gold color and the red signified the bloodshed by those who worked to attain
the independence of the country. The five-pointed star in the middle of the
flag connotes the African symbolism of emancipation and unity in their struggle
against colonization The then and first president of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah was the one who accepted and adopted it as the nation’s flag from the
sixth of March, 1957.
The Ghana
flag was designed and adopted in 1957 and was flown until 1962, and then
reinstated in 1966. It consists of the Pan-African colors that are red, yellow,
and green, in horizontal stripes, with a black five-pointed star in the centre
of the gold stripe. The Ghanaian flag was the second African flag to have these
features in terms of color after the flag of Ethiopia.
The black star was adopted from the flag of a shipping line incorporated by
Marcus Garvey, Black Star Line that operated from 1919 to 1922. It gave the
Ghana national football team their nickname, the Black Stars, which is held
high esteem in the world today. The flag was designed by Theodosia Okoh. The
red represents the blood of those who died in the country's struggle for
independence from the United Kingdom, the gold represents the mineral wealth of
the country, the green symbolizes the country's rich forests and natural
wealth, and the black star is the symbol of African emancipation.The flag's
design influenced that of the flag of Guinea-Bissau in 1973.
Under terms of section 183 of Ghana's Merchant Shipping Act of 1963, the
civil ensign is a red flag with the national flag in a black-fimbriated canton.
In 2003, a new merchant shipping act was enacted, however, and this simply
provides that "the National Flag of Ghana" is the proper national
colours for Ghanaian ships. No mention is made of other flags or other possible
flags.The naval ensign is a red St. George cross on white flag, with the
national flag in canton.
The Ghana Air Force has its own ensign which
incorporates the flag of Ghana. Civil aviation in Ghana is represented by the
national civil air ensign. It is a standard light blue field with the Ghanaian
flag in the canton. It is charged in the fly with either a red, yellow and
green roundel (in the case of the military ensign) or black five-pointed star
(in the case of the civil ensign). they have both been used since independence,
and the subsequent founding of the Ghana Air Force in 1959.
The Ghanaian government flag,
adopted in 1957, was flown until 1962. Similarly, when the country formed the
Union of the States,the flag of the Union was modelled on Bolivia's flag, but
with two black stars, representing the nations. In May 1959, a third star was
added. Nowhere specified how the stars were arranged, and it was possible that
they were arranged in a triangle, although the three-in-a-line formation (as shown
here) is more likely.
In 1962, prior to the dissolution of
the Union the following year, Ghana adopted a variant of the 1957 tricolour
with white in the place of yellow, after the colours
of the then president, Kwame Nkrumahs’s
ruling Convention Peoples Party [C.P.P}, and similar to the flag of
Hungary. The original 1957 flag was reinstated in 1966 following Nkrumah's
overthrow by a coup d’état.
In
the 1960s, Head of Civil Services in Kwame Nkrumah’s regime, Enoch Kwabena Okoh
got married to Theodosia and they had three children of which were two boys and
a girl: E. Kwasi Okoh, Stanley Kwame Okoh and Theodosia Amma Jones-Quartey.
Theodosia loved and played hockey wo much that she
had a very important and leading role in developing Hockey in Ghana such that
she was nominated the first female chairperson of the Ghana Hockey Association
and later became the president of Ghana Hockey Federation for over twenty
years. During her regime that Ghana qualified for the first time to both the
Hockey World Cup and the Olympic Games. She was also the junior first aid
officer in the team. This was where she was given the name, ‘’ the Joan of Arc
of Ghana Hockey’’. It was given to her by Ohene Gyan because she rose to the
occasion to save Ghana Hockey when even men were faltering and vacillating
about development of the game. This is the key reason why in 2004, the National
Hockey Stadium was named after her. Mrs. Okoh fought so hard for the only
hockey field at Electricity Corporation maintained and not to be replaced by
any new building.
From thence, she became SWAG; Ghana Sports Writers
Association’s patron for a long period of time.
In addition to honours bestowed on her, Mrs Okoh
received a citation from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the
National Sports Awards in 2004. Others are the Sports Writers’ Association of
Ghana (SWAG) Awards and an award from “Obaa Mbo’’, a TV Africa series. She will
be greatly remembered for designing the national flag to replace the Union Jack
after Ghana gained independence from Britain. Additionally, the Asuogyaman
District Assembly in the Eastern Region has erected a bust in her honour at
Anum, her hometown. Whenever Ghana’s flag goes high, Mrs Okoh’s name is
mentioned.
Due to her hard work and dedication to national
development, Mrs Okoh was awarded the Grand Medal (GM) by the nation. She also
received a number of awards from some institutions in the country.
Later on, a decision was made to rename the hockey
pitch to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of former President
John Evans Atta Mills which attracted criticisms from many quarters. In her
reaction to the name change, Mrs Okoh described the decision as very painful
because it was done without any consultation with her. Intervened by President
John Dramani Mahama, he then stepped in to stop there naming of the pitch since
he felt she had done a great deal to the nation just as former President John
Evans Atta Mills did.
She now lived quietly in Accra where she loves for
people to come around to chat and possibly learn from her art, telling them
about the awards she has received all adorning in her living room. On her
eightieth birthday in 2002, she published her memories and later revised and
updated it ten years after, thus on her ninetieth birthday, on the thirteenth
of June, 2012. Mrs. Okoh, a renowned artist exhibited her work widely across
the world. As an artist, she worked in so many mediums including watercolor,
oil paint all in sketches and paintings. Moreover, she made collages from corn
stalk and feathers some of which have been hanged in various homes and
galleries around the world.
As part of her legacy, her grandson, Ian
Jones-Quartey based on her to create a character Nanefua in the Cartoon Network
animated show, Steven Universe.
She died on the nineteenth of April, 2015 at the
Narh Bita Hospital in Tema after a short illness when she was in the ninety
second year of her life on earth. According to a family source, she passed away
at six in the morning. She was said to have been admitted to the Ridge Hospital
about a month ago before she was transferred to the Narh Bita Hospital for
further attention.Growing up in a typical religious and royal family, she
decided to leave an indelible mark in the hearts and minds of people right from
her childhood.
With all she did in developing the country, a
direction came from President John Dramani Mahama that all flags should fall at
half mast for three days which took its grounds on the twenty-first of April
all in honor of her great works which benefitted the nation at large. The
Minister of Communication, Edward Omane Boamah signed a statement specifying
that it was in ‘’honor of this extraordinary Ghanaian’’ stating in his own
words and further exclaimed that ‘’government acknowledges Mrs. Theodosia Okoh
for her invaluable contributions to our nations building effort.
She was laid rest in Osu cemetery after a befitting
state burial cermony. The great achievement she attained made her a prominent
personality in Ghana and hence was laid in state at the forecourt of the
statehouse at eight thirty o'clock in the morning where dignitaries from all
walks of life came and paid their last respect to this honorable stateswoman
from the current president to other officials working under him to other
important personalities in and out of Ghana.
In all we all say ayekoo to the late Mrs. Theodosia
Salome Abena Kumea Okoh for being a great stateswoman, horticulturist,
housewife, mother, grandmother and most importantly what we recognize her for;
the great artist she was blessing her country Ghana with one of her cherished
work, the National Flag. Surely, she became the creator of our symbolic
people.She shall be forever remembered for her great work in sports and
artistry which she is already the role model of the upcoming ones. Her watch
words were to do things in perfection in order to reap something good in
future.
