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"A cousin of mine, my mother’s sister’s son and I were in the same school, and we went to visit this teacher at Achimota." That single visit changed everything. For a young boy from Accra, stepping onto the Achimota campus was like entering another world.
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If things had gone slightly differently in 1948, a young Mr. Bernhardt Kuma would have spent his teenage years on a grueling daily commute.
He had just passed his common entrance exams, and Accra Academy had offered him a coveted spot. The plan on paper was simple, if exhausting: he would travel every single day from his home in La all the way to Jamestown.
But young Mr. Kuma had other ideas. His heart had already been stolen by a different school on a hill.
It all started during his days at Osu, thanks to a simple weekend visit. "One of our teachers had gone to Achimota as a student teacher," Mr. Kuma remembers.
"A cousin of mine, my mother’s sister’s son and I were in the same school, and we went to visit this teacher at Achimota."
That single visit changed everything. For a young boy from Accra, stepping onto the Achimota campus was like entering another world. "I fell in love with the place," he says simply. "The buildings, the compound, the facilities..."
It wasn't just a school; it was an oasis of green lawns, majestic buildings, and an atmosphere of quiet, inspiring excellence. From that afternoon on, Accra Academy and Mfantsipim, prestigious as they were never stood a chance.
When the official admission offer from Accra Academy arrived in the mail, his father was ready to accept it. But Mr. Kuma stood his ground. "Accra Academy offered me a place, and I said to my father, 'No, no, no, no!'" He wanted Achimota, and nothing else would do.
His stubborn faith paid off. Achimota accepted him, and in 1948, his father made a very different journey, not to Jamestown but up the hill to Motown to drop his son off for his very first day of school.
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