A. K. Konuah

Allotei Kobina Konuah was born in Accra in 1915 to Alexander Konuah and Yaba Aye; both were natives of the Gold Coast. He was a half brother to the statesman and educationist, Kofi George Konuah. In January 1929, Konuah was enrolled in Achimota School as a pioneer student of the secondary school department. In June 1931, he was enrolled in the Accra Academy as one of nineteen foundation students of the school. He became the first head prefect of the school the following year. He passed the Senior Cambridge School Certificate in 1933 and went on to teach in the school. He studied at Achimota College from May 1936 to July 1938 for his Inter B.A. degree.[1] He continued at Wolsey Hall, Oxford and received his B.A. degree in 1943 via correspondence. Konuah had further education at Rutgers University in the USA in 1957.[2]

In 1934, he became a member of the teaching staff of the Accra Academy. Two year after this, he underwent a study-leave and returned to the teaching staff in 1938. In addition to his teaching duties, he served as sports master and, in 1947, he was instrumental in the admission of the Accra Academy to the fold of Aggrey Shield competing schools. He trained the school's athletes who won the Aggrey Shield in 1950 and 1951. On 31 December 1952, K.G. Konuah retired from heading the Accra Academy and handed over to A.K. Konuah as his successor. In 1959, he received Gold Coast Governor-General Lord Listowell on his visit to the Accra Academy. He oversaw the relocation of the school from Ankrah lane in Jamestown to its present location off the Winneba road in Bubiashie. In 1966, he supervised the construction and opening of two new boarding houses at the new site in Bubiashie. In September 1967, Konuah resigned as headmaster of the Accra Academy.[3]

He took up an appointment as Public Relations Officer of the West African Examination Council in October 1967.[3] In 1970, he became chairman of an education review committee set up by prime minister Kofi Abrefa Busia. The committee proposed in its 1971 report that the O-level and A-level educational system modelled after the British educational system be replaced by a Junior Secondary School and Senior Secondary School educational system respectively.[4] Konuah was a director of the Ghana Commercial Bank.[5] In February 1979, Konuah was appointed to head the Accra City Council as executive chairman. He replaced the military officer in charge of the council.[6]

In 1944, Konuah was picked to be assistant secretary of the Gold Coast Amateur Athletic Association at its founding.[7] As secretary, Konuah was appointed to the Gold Coast Amateur Sports Council as representative of the Amateur Athletics Association.[8]

Konuah was manager for the 1952 Gold Coast Olympic team of athletes which made a maiden participation for the Gold Coast at the 15th edition of the event in Helsinki.[9][10] Konuah said in interviews that the people of the host nation Denmark were friendly to the Ghana team.[11] In August 1952, at a dinner party in Helsinki, Konuah was introduced to the Duke of Edinburgh.[12] In September 1952, the team of eight athletes and two managers, returned to the Gold Coast.[13] Also In 1954, Konuah was team manager for Ghana at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. This was the first participation of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) in the Commonwealth Games.[14]

In April 1957, he was re-elected secretary of the Gold Coast Amateur Athletics Association, staying as representative of the Athletics Association on the Gold Coast Amateur Sports Council.[15] In 1961, he became a member of the newly formed Schools and Colleges Sports Federation which organized the first ever national collegiate and schools sports competiiton the following year.[16] He also served as a member of the board of the Central Organization of Sports and chairman of the Schools and Colleges Sports Federation.[17] In 1967, he was a member of the Tibo Committee that studied the Central Organization of Sports to make recommendations to the National Liberation Council.[18]

Konuah played for the British Council Hockey Club.[14] In June 1951, a year after the founding of the Ghana Hockey Association he became its second chairman/president occasioned by the transfer of the founding president Emmanuel Evans-Anfom away from Accra, one of the urban centers of the game, for medical practice in rural Dunkwa.[19] It is unclear as to when exactly he ceased being chairman but there is evidence in the national newspaper, Daily Graphic in September 1956 of Konuah remaining and carrying out duties as chairman of the association up on till that year.[20]

Konuah was married twice. His first marriage was to Adawa Crabbe. He married Rosina Konuah (née Vanderpuye) who was a pharmacist, a social worker and a registered nurse, for his second marriage.[21] He was a freemason and a founding member of Achimota Lodge and Lodge Accra Academy. He was the first Primus of Lodge Accra Academy.[3]

Konuah died on 9 October 1979. He was 64 years and was serving as executive chairman of the Accra City Council. He was buried in November 1979.[22]