“I loved the way some of my teachers taught me, and I realized also that I had the skill to be able to impact knowledge.”
Thousands of miles away from the place he calls home in Ghana, Africa, Dr. Kofi Akwabi-Ameyaw is doing just that. Since 1990, he has been providing the knowledge of anthropology to the students here at California State University, Stanislaus.
One could say that Akwabi-Ameyaw’s road to CSU Stanislaus was simply a luck of the draw or an act of fate. Upon getting his bachelor’s degree in Ghana, Akwabi-Ameyaw was presented with many opportunities.
“I could have gone anywhere,” Akwabi-Ameyaw said. “I wanted to continue my education. I applied to various universities in Great Britain, Canada and the United States.”
He ultimately decided to travel here to America because it was in the United States where he felt there were the most opportunities for success.
Even teaching anthropology was something Akwabi-Ameyaw just so happened to stumble upon. Originally a student and teacher of geography in Ghana, he soon found he had a love for anthropology.
“My work involved dealing with issues that related to what I came to know as anthropology,” Akwabi-Ameyaw said.
Being a professor emeritus, Akwabi-Ameyaw only teaches at CSU Stanislaus during the spring semester, leaving him the rest of the year to spend back home in Africa. Unlike most retirees, he doesn’t spend his downtime relaxing, but he actually takes part in teaching opportunities and on various projects throughout West Africa that give back to the community he came from, such as training faculty and helping build curriculum at various universities.
Besides participating in university life in Ghana, Akwabi-Ameyaw is also building a farm that consists of citrus, growing cacao, goats, pigs and turkeys, an unpopular practice in that part of the world. He hopes by doing this he will get “the local population, especially the youth, to be involved” in these programs.
Students at CSU Stanislaus can also even contribute to Akwabi-Ameyaw’s efforts to give back. Although he has already collected 44 containers, starting next year Akwabi-Ameyaw, along with a colleague, will be putting more work into collecting books to ship to Ghana.
“I’m going to devote to soliciting books and reading materials from California and shipping them to Ghana to open village libraries and reading places for people, especially the young ones because reading is extremely important,” Akwabi-Ameyaw said.
Since 1970, Akwabi-Ameyaw has impacted students with his teaching and love for the study of anthropology throughout Africa and the United States. Never forgetting his home, he is dedicated to giving back to Ghana and helping build its resources, remaining hopeful that one day his country will be just as prosperous as America.