Akwasi Afrifa

Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa ( born April 24, 1936 in Mampong in Kumasi, † June 16, 1979 ibid ) was from 1969 to 1970 head of state of Ghana.

Soldier

Afrifa came from a family of Ashanti chief and was baptized as a Methodist. He received his confirmation in the Presbyterians and eventually became Anglican.

He 1957 he entered the Army of Ghana and attended for two years from the Military Academy Sandhurst. In 1960 he was a lieutenant to the quota of Ghana during the United Nations Operation in the Congo. Later he was promoted to Major and appointed Army Chief of Staff. On February 24, 1966, he was one of the military leaders that took a successful military coup against the ruling authoritarian president Kwame Nkrumah. Afrifa was a member of the eight-member junta National Liberation Council (NLC ) and 1968 Minister of Finance.

Head of state

After the deposition of Joseph Arthur Ankrah Afrifa was posted on April 2, 1969, his successor as Chairman of the NLC and thus Head of State of Ghana. During his tenure, a new constitution was adopted and repealed the ban on political parties.

Since 3 September 1969 he was chairman of the three-member Presidential Commission, which replaced the NLC. His term ended on 7 August 1970, when the country returned to civilian rule.

More career

After the fall of Ignatius Kutu Acheampong civilian government by Afrifa was arrested on January 15, 1972 and imprisoned until December 1972. In 1978 he was one of the leading members of the opposition against the military government.

After the successful coup by Rawlings on June 4, 1979 Afrifa, the other two ex- heads of state Acheampong and Akuffo and five other senior officers shot summarily. Rawlings was actually a trailer Afrifas, but Afrifa were accused of a series of human rights violations and political killings in the period 1966-1970, which sealed his fate.

President John Agyekum Kufuor ordered in April 2001, to exhume the bodies of the shot, to allow families a decent burial.

Swell

Wolf -Rüdiger Baumann, Gustav Fochler - Hauke ​​: biographies of contemporary history since 1945 Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24553-2 ( anniversary edition to the 25th edition of the " Fischer World Almanac ").