TA Osae in the center in 1974

During his term when the student population was 790 in 1966, he complained that the population was too much. He brought us the Katanga classroom block and two new science labs and "homoing" - the practice of bullying junior students - completely died out of the school by 1966.

It was also during his term that the JSP (Joint School Project) curriculum was introduced in 1963 form 1 Class. It made transfer admissions into forms 2 to 5 almost impossible at Prempeh. Only 4 schools in the nation were selected to experiment with the JSP program. As a result, Prempeh could only accept transfer students from these other schools, namely, Achimota, Ada Sec. Sch., and Mfantsipim. In 1969, there was a separate A-Level Exams in Mathematics for Prempeh and these other JSP Schools. This was a year after Prempeh achieved a record perfect A-Levels score: in 1967 June A-Levels, all 25 candidates presented for the A-Levels in Science qualified for admission to the University of Ghana. All the 100% candidates recieved 2 or more passes which qualified them for the University entry. 10 obtained 4 principal passes, 10 three passes and 5 two passes. There were in all 10 distinctions in a total of 10 distinctions on both Science and Arts. In 1970 A-Level also, 19 students were presented for the Arts course of which 10 passed in all subjects, 4 passed in 2, 5 passed in 1 and no student failed. 30 students were presented for the Science course: 19 passed in all 3, 6 passed in 2, 4 passed in 1 and 1 had subsidiary pass. Of the 100 candidates presented for the 1973 O-Level exams, a record 49 obtained Division 1 passes with 14 distinctions and 30 division 2.

Mr. Osae sat high in the hearts of all people - from his Deputies to the faculty and students. He was so admired and respected that his Deputy, Mr. Obeng, would go around pleading to the students not to cause the Headmaster any disappointments. Every time Mr. S.A. Obeng yelled at the students, he would always say, "please, boys, the headmaster will not be happy to see you disturbing."

The Assembly Hall bears the name of Mr. Osae.

A student tuition bill in the 1982, the fees was C558

Table tennis is the most popular game on the campus and thanks must be given to the authorities for taking the initiative of providing nine tables which are allocated to the eight gallant houses with the ninth one being used by the masters to refresh themselves after the usual "amo, amas, amat" and the others. The game is therefore played everyday by the boys who do not care about the money they use in buying the balls. Every house has a ping pong board in its common room, and Ramseyer, Butler, Freeman, and Pearson Houses are the most popular places to engage in a tennis battle. Table tennis is a part of the Prempeh culture and it has become an au fait for Prempeh College to win the Regional Table Tennis Championship every year!

A second place finish in a ping pong tourney is as unacceptable to Mother Prempeh as a World Cup runners-up is to Brazil in soccer. The boys play the game so well that one have to go deep into the archives of Ashanti Regional Sports Federation to find out the last time Prempeh failed to win the title. The culture of the game has been ingrained so deeply in the animus of an average Prempeh boy that this is the only game on campus which is basically student-run: House Prefects selects their best two players for each of the houses for a very engaging Inter-House contest, with the aim of "OPERATION SCHOOL TEAM." Six boys are then selected and start an intensive training in either Freeman or Pearson Common Room with the aim of "OPERATION SCHOOL TEAM." They will play weekly tournaments (in addition to daily practice) before the final selection of three with one reserve is made a week before the Ashanti Regional Championships. The selected players will then hold a series tournaments against highly experienced clubs in the Garden City - two of the toughest clubs which need mention are the Lebanon Club in Bantama and the Post Office Club in Adum.

After winning the 1964 Regional Championships (by beating AMASS 5-1) and the Northern Sector title (by beating Dormaa Sec Sch - who had beaten Upper and Northern Regions Champs - 6-1), they went on to Accra on March 18th to fight for the National title for the upteenth time. Kwaku Duah, the two Ahwois, Nuro, Sarrah-Mensah with Lartey as the reserve in case the unexpected happened did their best to defend the green and yellow flag of Mother Prempeh as they were cheered on by Agogo Girls and St. Andrews boys who had bet all their money on Prempeh's Nuro. However the cowboys from O'Reilly Secondary, with their national stars Okine Quaye and Sammuel Hammond gave Prempeh a 5-1 spanking.

Never have we seen a whole campus so forlorn. It was like a funeral on campus! Kwame Nkrumah's Director of Sports, Mr. Ohene Djan was so disappointed and surprised at the Prempeh defeat that he offered to give an additional medal to our reserve player Lartey. Thus, he gave Prempeh four instead of the usual three.

Unsatisfied, the whole Prempeh campus decided to prepare for the 1965 National Tournament (The Presidential Shield) one year ahead. So two weeks after our defeat in Accra, they brought Okine and his friends from O'Reilley Secondary to come and play us at Prempeh. At our own Osae Assembly Hall, they beat us again 2-1. After bowing to them in shame, we embarked on another journey to find someone to beat. This time, at Accra, we pounced on Achimota 2-1.

Freeman House won the Inter-House 6 consecutive years (1959-66). However, in the last 20 years, Ramseyer boys have monopolized the Inter-House Table Tennis Championship.

Could it be that the best way to injure a Prempeh man is to beat him in table tennis? But that rarely ever happens.

Our athletic team that won the Presidential Shield in 1963 with Headmaster T.A. Osae

Also in athletics, there was no challenger. Indeed, the years 1963-68 saw Prempeh reaching the apogee of her fame in athletics. This was the period that Prempeh won the National Inter-Collegiate Athletics in Accra for the upteenth time. As for the Regional contest in Kumasi our "TEAM C" had no challenger. Those were the days when the school's dynamic "die-hard" supporters union used to sing our famous and inspiring song "OBI BEWU KWA" which literally means: "Somebody's son will die a useless death." The period saw the reign of S. Owusu-Mensah (Torino), Joshua Owusu and Stan Allotey. Those athletes were of international repute and before any race, the inferiority complex effect (I.C.E) alone defeated opponents. They represented Ghana in the Commonwealth Games and in the Olympics. In appreciation of the sterling qualities as a great athlete, Ghana's President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah despatched Mr. Ohene Djan, the then director of Sports to the school in 1965 to present Owusu-Mensah with the accolade "Osagyefo's Golden Boy." Some may still remember the day Owusu-Mensah defeated Achimota’s S.S Abugri on the tracks.

Mr. Dagher Mensah trains our famous athletics team

Prempeh also produced great athletes like Andrew "Archiman" Manu (1964-71), who was one of Ghana's greatest hockey players, if not the Greatest. He later played for the Ghana national Team while at Legon. Others include the tripple jumper "Dziffa;" Obeng "Santo" Ntiforo (1961-69), who won so many laurels before Santo Jr. came in the 1970s to duplicate some of his records. Obeng "Santo Jr" Ntiforo even competed for Ghana in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada. And there were the legendary Joshua Owusu and Stan Allotey who made Ghana proud in the 1960s’ and 70s’ Olympics and Commonwealth Games. In a recent publication by Ghana Review International Magazine entitled "40 years of Ghana Sports," the editors described Stan Allotey as "Ghana’s best athlete of all time."

Student life at Prempeh campus was very engaging. Until 1962 when "homoing" in schools was banned, "homos" in Prempeh used to have placards with inscriptions hung around their necks for easy indentification. One in the batch of the green horns of September 1961 had a very dehumanising inscription on his placard which read: "WOAHYIA ABOA," which literary means "A BEAST IS COMING." The moment this "human-turned beast" entered any place in the school - dining hall, assembly hall and etc, there was a commotion as students started to run away from him.

"Kekee and beans" (fried ripe plantain and beans) was students' favourite food at Prempeh. If they knew they were going to have plantains and beans, they would even try to express their anticipation in Latin as they walked to the dining hall by telling their friends "Hodie, kekee et bansam habemus!" In 1965, there was a "kekee aaand beans" eating competition. A Form 4 student from RAMSEYER house, who won the competition, consumed about 30 big slices of fried plantain and enough beans. The winner, nicknamed "BONKRO", later collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where he was admitted for a day.

Members of VOLU in a clean-up exercise at Jamase

Also, Prempeh College Voluntary Work Camps Assoc. (VOLU) did so well in its usual services to neighboring villages that they were invited by Lt. Gen. Afrifa to help clean his hometown of Krobo. Prempeh Volu also went to help in the construction of Mancell's Vocational Institute. Little wonder that they received a personal letter of appreciation from Ghana's Prime Minister, K.A. Busia just before their trip on 13th June. Busia commended them on their activities and asked the Sofoline boys to continue promoting self-help which is quite essential in nation building. This message injected a new enthusiasm into the boys and they embarked upon the the Krobo workcamp with greater vigor. They cleared weeds from from a new laid-out grass lawn which was very "brutal" to those with waist troubles. Their small records player was tickling them with delightful music and it was delightful to watch how members like Akosah F., Adade (Bavade), Adjei James (Sabontey), Asafo Adjei (Hundi), Joe Boaten, and T.O. Boakye, worked while contorting their bodies.

Prempeh - the College of Milk & Honey - is, a fortiori, a College of great hilarity! During one Entertainment time in the 70s, there was a boxing match (the first of its kind) between a guy named Opwae Gege and Poncho. Opwae was in Guggisberg and Poncho from Pearson. There was no good entertainment program that weekend and these two gentlemen decided to entertain the school with a "friendly" fight in the ring at the famous Osae Assembly Hall. They agreed to a friendly show with no animosity but when the fight began it all changed. With the Pearson boys cheering him on, Poncho wanted to get more fancy. He started sticking up to Opwae, and within seconds it turned into a serious boxing encounter. You see, Opwae grew up in Accra so he had a lot of boxing skills, while Poncho was from Kumasi. Guess what happened: Poncho was demolished. He could not come out during the day. He was the laughing stock on campus. Amazing!

In the early days, a senior from Ramseyer invented an instrument called Abyssiniometer. Abyssiniometer is a device used in MINING in the dormitory. Abyssiniometer comes from the word ABYSSINIA, which is a popular school term that has an equivalent meaning as MINING, and later got derivatives such as SHABBA, and KATANGA, and even CHINA. In those days the school lights used to go out very early, about 10pm in the dorms, so "Boy-Sylla", striving to complete the syllabus by the fourth week of the term, would cut a hole in a box in which he would place a candle and his book, in order to cover as many chapters as possible till the lights go on the next morning. The most unique feature was that the candle was in a box and the Abyssiniometer had a small hole in the top portion of the instrument to allow smoke to escape. The disadvantage of studying in a candle light is obvious, but "Boy-Sylla" doesn't mind; the real danger of using the instrument is that studying after lights-out is forbidden, so an Abyssiniometer never survived in the midst of its competitors, SHABBA and KATANGA.

One evening in the 1970s when one seniors' classroom was too tensed two boys picked up a quarrel and since the whole class was mentally fatigued it was a good entertaining break.

They pushed the tables and chairs to give them space to throw their punches. One chap particularly was not interested in what was going on and perhaps saw a chance of catching up with his syllabus whilst the others were taking sides in the conflict.

Unfortunately for the class. The assistant Headmaster, Rev. Nyarko, happened to be around and heard the noise. He came and stood by the window without any of the students noticing him. He apparently was viewing in on the situation before making his presence felt. Suddenly there the door opened and was the Reverend Father standing tall infront of the class. They knew that we were in serious trouble now. They were all guilty by default. But surprisingly the Reverend went straight to the chap who was busy studying.

He held him accountable, pronounced him guilty and made him suffer a Calvary for the whole class. Instead of punishing the class, he punished the "boy sylla" for not showing concern about what was going on around him.

That man, Rev. Nyarko, always preached a different version of the biblical Parable of the sower: "Some of you will fall by the way side and others will grow to yield over hundred fold of what ever Prempeh College is offering you today!"

When this miscreant was put in charge of the school in 1977, no ominous signs pointed to the disaster that was to follow his occupation. With the boldest effronetry and daunting misdeeds of all sorts, he singlehandedly tried to disrobe, dishonour and nearly dismembered Mother Prempeh. Engaging in chicanery of the first order, he daily executed orders which were in themselves structurally self-destructive, yet he vowed at every order issued in the name of God that the progress of the school was his supreme goal. He thereby reduced governance of the Golden School to the most despicable circus show where buffoonery and clownishness dominated the stage.

The name of this man is wholly odious to all Amanfoo. No name makes people's gorge rise more! It is only after much shilly-shally and gravidity that I can bring myself to utter the name: M.K. Atiemo!

MK Atiemo inspecting the Cadet Parade at the 30th Anniversary of the School in 1979

For nearly 8 years, The Kings College of Ghana was made to slide back into nothingness. All those gains painstakingly acquired by Mr. Osae during the Golden Age was wiped off.

Modesty, decency and all those virtues, which even the thieves in the Ali Baba story observed within their clan were sloughed by this man. He made many choices at Prempeh which would have shamed an Artful Dodger!

Atiemo came in at a time when the College's prestige has reached its apex and the competition for admission was very keen. He increased enrollment by almost 20% his first year alone and even admitted students mid-stream. No sooner had he entered office than he started feeding the students with food that would have been rejected by dogs. Certainly, the days when the students lived like fighting cocks were over! The famous "middle-east" and "somebody" bread at once disappeared from the menu. The very appetizing Fante kenkey was replaced with some malodorous kenkey we call "adwete," presumably because of its rigidity. Hitting one's worst enemy with a ball of adwete will be draconian enough to send the most barbarous of men wallowing and reeling in pathos. The kenkey is that hard!

Sartorial elegance was no longer a praxis at Prempeh because the ordering of green shirts from the bookshop and the laundering of students' shirts at the famous Asanteman Laundry ceased. The classroom facilities deteriorated and students and parents could only watch as Atiemo replace window glass louvers with wooden equivalents. Over 80% of the windows were bare which made it necessary for students to shift seats and seek other options whenever it rained during lectures. There was simply no room for students in the "rainy classrooms" in the ever-increasing population under Atiemocracy. Students who came in late had to settle for the bare floor.

It turned out Atiemo was using all the Funds of the school for personal pleasure. He therefore laid the basis for the destruction of his very existence and that of his children and perhaps of his children's children.

Somebody had to cleanse the Augean stables.

When the food was very disgusting one supper, the then-Dining Hall Prefect, Senior Vadis, went to bring Mr. Atiemo from his house to come and taste the food himself. In the full glare of the student body, Vadis cast a fling in the Headmaster's teeth. He asked his boss if he would feed the food to his dogs. Atiemo came down like a ton of bricks and incited his lackeys in the Prefects Council to ostracise Vadis. So, many of the so-called Prefects excluded Vadis from many meetings and prefectorial proceedings just to ingratiate themselves with the prima donna Headmaster. Atiemo also hired spies from the Prefects Council and the Form One Classes to keep an eye on Vadis. Vadis went on to graduate from 6th Form without accomplishing his ultimate goal of removing Atiemo from office.

But he came back to visit one day, and urged some members of the Cadet Corps at training to "finish the unfinished business." Frederick Asare of Osei Tutu House and Michael Donkor of OT HOuse were the headmen of the "demo" team. The others were G'berg House's Jones Osei Ababio, Emmanuel Manful of OT, Opoku Agyemang Anane of OT aand George Aguei of OT.

So began a systematic wooing and flirting with the Headmaster's secretary, Yaw Yeboah (Y.Y), a rough diamond who provided the group access to the Headmaster's office for evidence they needed to support their claim. Another sop to Cerberus was to strike serious friendship with the Headmaster's nephew - Michael Atiemo of G'berg House. It was he who revealed to the group that the Headmaster was using the school's funds to run for a parliamentary seat in the general elections.

To find a peaceful solution, the group wrote an article to the Pioneer Newspaper. They thought that the Editor - Baffour Attakora Gyimah - being an old boy of the school, will gladly publish it. But by jove! He even turned in the article, "Education in Premconian Community, is it a right or privilege?" to the Headmaster.

It was the Headmaster's messenger, Yaw Yeboah, again who told the ring that he saw the returned letter along with the four students' files on the Headmaster's desk. This fluttered their dovecotes and made them decide on making a second trip to the Headmaster's office to remove the unfavourable remarks from their files.

The school truck, in which Mr. Atiemo used to travel to funerals in his hometown

Amazingly, nobody in the school knew this operation was going on in the school. The secrecy was really astounding. The group thought Atiemo will use the attempted publication as a fodder to change his ways. But just like Sisyphus, destined by the gods to spend eternity pushing a huge rock to the summit of a massive hill in Hades, only to let it slip his grasp and have it roll down again at the top, so could Atiemo never quite conquer his inner demons.

The students seized another opportunity in 1983 when the food was very bad. The Dining Hall Prefect, Michael Kusi Darkwa and Serwah House Prefect, Albert Owusu Ansah joined in. So was the Chief Executive of the Student Body - Senior Prefect Hayford Gyampoh. They even sought advise from Kwabena Nyarko at the Regional Office. Senior Nyarko is an Old Boy who was a legendary hockey player in his Prempeh days.

By the the worsd, "with unity, we can do this, and all that we need is your cooperation," Senior Gyampoh announced the impending student demonstration to his Cabinet.

They wrote their grievances, served Atiemo with a copy and forwarded a copy to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II. They sent copies to the Regional Education Office, The Regional Police Commissioner at the Central Police Station, Dr. Luthriott at UST and Owusu Achiaw of the Cultural Center, who represented the Old Boys Association.

The whole school marched to the Cultural Center and then to the Regional Office where Senior Kwabena Nyarko came out and congratulated them. There the Regional Commissioner agreed to the students' request of having a public trial of Atiemo on campus. Later, at the Manhyia Palace, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II sent his secretary to talk to the students of the Royal School. But when Atiemo came to the Palace to tell his side, The King refused to see him. Atiemo shamefully and forlornly walked out of the Palace as students happily booed him at the exit.

At the trial held at the Osae Assembly Hall by a Methodist Reverend, The Asantehene's Secretary and Amanfoo Representative - Mr. Owusu Achiaw, Senior Housemaster P.E. Adomah was the first to break the silence by testifying against Atiemo. All the other teachers courageously stepped in and testified against Atiemo as students watched. Atiemo denied all allegations. In fact, he branded all his staff as liars so much so that the presiding Adjudicator threatened, "Mr. headmaster, if you don't tell the panel the truth, I'll have no choice than to switch the "green lights" on you. By "green lights," the Methodist Reverend/retired Army Major was alluding to a specific military disciplinary procedure.

Mr. M.K. Atiemo, 1956 Prempeh College Senior Prefect was found guilty and and sacked from Prempeh. And for the first time in living memory, students had publicly tried their Headmaster in a student court of law.

When he was merely a teacher in 1960, the then-headmaster, Rev. A.D. Lewis prophesized that either Sackey or one Senior Ollenu could become Headmaster of Prempeh College one day.

Headmaster R.T. Sackey in 1991

A strict disciplinarian known for talking very fast, Mr. Sackey introduced "PREMPEH AHOBREASEE" (HUMILITY). He came increasingly to the conclusion that the proper role of schools and their headmasters was to be more involved in the students' lives. In the early days, most schools gave up any responsibility for the student activities outside the classroom. Administrators were faced with enormous challenges, and one of the ways they dealt with those challenges was simply to say that the responsibilty ends at the door of the office or at the door of the classroom. Sackey became the biggest advocate of in loco parentis in Ghana education. He believed that schools do have a responsibility for their students. He taught students about civility and responsibility and helped students deal with issues such as off-campus safety. All of these were embodied in his Prempeh "ahobreasee", which were part of the Kings College's lexicon and formed part of the College's relationship with its students.

He was also the man who brought back the old traditions of Prempeh: the Speech & Prize Giving Days, The Stool (School Magazine), etc.

When he arrived at Sofoline, Remedial and Vacation Classes had been introduced into the school by the previous administration. Remedial O- & A-level Exam Candidates from all neighbouring schools were allowed to participate in the special after exam prep courses at Prempeh Remedial School. These classes brought a whole spectrum of irresponsible students to the school, thus making the environment not conducive to studying. Sackey abolished these extra classes immediately upon his arrival.

This was at a time when the ship of the College was so politically rudderless that the teachers refused to punish students or enforce school rules because they were at loggerheads with the Headmaster (Atiemo). The striving to become a great mentor in the eyes of Prempeh boys and the prurience to teach and teach and paint the lily, which had contributed in part to the Sofoline academic mysteries of yore, had all been thrown into the dustbin upon the arrival of Sackey. Such was the legacy of Atiemocracy.

He was the Headmaster who encountered the most adversity. It was during his term that the Transkei and Nigeria bonanza was taking place. The Nigeria economy was "booming" and consequently many of our teachers had left to seek greener pastures in Lagos. The onus was on Mr. Sackey to find replacement teachers to fill the positions and help prepare our candidates for Oridnary and Advanced level Exams. He recruited professors from the University of Science & Technology to strengthen the Sixth Form. So successful was he that in the first year, Prempeh won the West African Exams Council A-Level international Award. Prempeh won the O-Level award three more times under Sackey.

In fact, the only two Inter-Schools Science & Maths Quizes held in the 1980s, organized by the Mathematical Association of Ghana, were both won by Prempeh College. When the National Science & Maths Quizes became a yearly affair in the 90s, Reuben Sackey made sure that Prempeh College was the only school to win it twice in three years!

He was the one who strengthened the ties between the PTA and the school. He was noted for driving the school truck to Accra almost every week, to beg the Headquarters for funds to complete the abandoned and uncompleted Prempeh library. Sackey also worked hard to get Prempeh College a bus.

This brilliant orator, like Bill Clinton, could explain his way out of everything - and I mean everything! The man had an answer for everything. Here was a Cicero who could summon the PTA to the Osae Assembly Hall and articulate his vision in just 15 minutes, and have all the old folks signing their cheque books in unison. More of a doer than a talker, Tetteh Sackey was in the Chaucerian tradition of a scholar:

He articulated his stance clearly that it was impossible for an Arts student to become a Senior Prefect of the Great School. All SPs chosen during the years of Sackey were Science students. Arts students could only play second fiddle to their "superiors" - their Science counterparts. This crushed the Arts' students confidence and self-esteem to an all-time low in the history of the school. He clearly put in place a system that was in itself curriculum-destructive and socially-divisive, yet he vowed at every order issued in the name of God that the advancement of the College's academic program was his supreme goal. His concupiscence for a scientific utopia led him to strengthen the A-level Science curriculum with UST Science lecturers - leaving the Arts program to reek. The result....it became de rigueur to expect good A-level exam results from the Science students, since they wee getting all the support. However, the less-cherished Arts students were able to do well owing to the Prempeh culture which promotes great scholastic competition and independent thinking.

Despite all these biases, he preached to His Majesty The Asantehene at the Annual Speech Day that all was well with The Kings College.

It was a clamor without logic, especially since he (Sackey) was a product of the Prempeh College Arts Division.

Even when an Arts student was nominated unanimously by the outgoing Prefects Council and endorsed by the Staff, including the Headmaster's two deputies, Headmaster Sackey still over ruled; he often put in place a less qualified Science student over the Arts one. He always stood in perfect readiness to prove the superiority of Science students over their Arts counterparts.

It became evident that Sackey had more weaknesses than the student body expected. Not only did he call for de-boardinization of schools, he always looked for sychophants and rewarded them. He relegated all brilliant and visionary Sixth Formers to lower positions such as Furniture Prefects while he rewarded most of his obsequious minions with the Senior Prefectship.

The statistics is alarming. Even among his faculty, those who ingratiated themselves with him by flattery were rewarded generously, while those who seemed "recalcitrant" in his eyes were scorned. A classic example is the appointment of a Senior Housemaster in 1987. After the transfer of Senior Housemaster Paul Edward Adomah, the Deputy Senior Housemaster, Mr. F.A. Owusu was bypassed by Sackey because the Headmaster did not find him "submissive" enough. He opted for the protean Mr. G.E.F. Laing, the then fledgling Butler Housemaster. This made it ineffable for any of his staff to criticize His Excellency, lest they get transferred or relegated to the dampness of their families' garages.

Soon after the promotion and transfer of his two deputies - Nana Adom Frempong and James Akurang Boamah - to other schools, Mr. Sackey's administration began to crumble. It became very clear that these two men were the two vital pillars which were holding Prempeh together under Sackey. Suddenly chinks began to appear in support of Sackey, and students will hold three - a record three - massive demonstrations seeking his head.

Sackey could possibly be the only Headmaster in the history of Ghana to have the misfortune of seeing students demonstrate against his administration THREE times.

Yet, again, like Bill Clinton, he survived them all!! His elocutionary skills was an art da Vinci would have loved to capture!!! He could grab the microphone and in just minutes, The Patron of the Royal College, the Asantehene will be nodding approvingly, "Halleluyah, Halleluyah, Halleluyah," the cadence of which will have the musical genius, Mozart, pushing "rewind" on his tape recorder! This may attributed to the strong Prempeh A-Level Arts system from which he mastered the Classics under the tutelage of Headmaster A.D. Lewis. And that is why it was so shocking - very shocking to even a form 1 boy - that whenever it came to cutting down his non-science students, Mr. Sackey wielded a sawn-off shotgun faster than Margaret Thatcher ever swung her handbag.

When the students of Prempeh rebelled in the late 80s, they were pointing to all that was wrong with The Kings College.

Whatever else the young men intended by that rebellion, they were actually indicating the legacy of the wasted years of Atiemocracy.

While the College's bursar was embezzling school funds, our incompetent Senior Housemaster was billing boarding students as day students. This writer was actually a beneficiary of Mr. Adomah's ineptitude, having received a bed in a corner of Pearson Dorm 7 and two terms' worth of luch, supper and breakfast free of charge! Indeed hundreds of students were considered day students by the Senior Housemaster while they enjoyed free meals at the College's expense.

It begs the questions: had the bursar been stealing money together with his former boss, Mr. M.K. Atiemo and how long had this practice been going on?

The PTA was innundated with requests for extra donations and by the time Headmaster Sackey sacked both his bursar and Senior Housemaster, the students anger could not be quelled.

To compound those failings, there were many impromptu mid-term vacations (owing to food shortages) which always affected the academic calendar adversely.

If Tusker Muller, as they ludicrously insisted on calling Headmaster Sackey, was the man to get us out of this Armageddon, then there was little sign so far. He even used his Speech Day addresses to call for de-boardinization of schools.

At one time the Headmaster had to return money collected from students for the purchase of a school bus when he heard rumours of an impending student demonstration.

Come the crunch, it was back to the old tuition increases.

The harrowing existence which the Headmaster's predecessor had ushered the average Prempeh boy into was enough to make lesser men wither, and Mr. Sackey was the one left holding the baby; his task....to appease a group of teenagers and their demanding parents. The more he did it, the greater the shadow which loomed over the students' prospect of staging a revolt.

It finally happened. One midnight a group of uncompromising students, incensed by the tuition increment raised the alarm throughout the school and woke up all students. They took the Headmaster's housegate and office by storm and destroyed property. Sackey did not risk an appearance and called for the Police.

Classes were suspended for a few days, ring leaders were suspended and the PTA addressed the students' concerns.

During this period, some of the "old timers" were still there. Mr. S.O. Koranteng (SOK), the Art master, was actually approaching his thrid decade of service to Mother Prempeh. It may be recalled "SOK" once asked his students to "draw a woman and his wife" and then retracted it moments later, asking the class to "rather draw it without the wo." He used to tell Form 1 boys, "mo ndro nkwaseasem." The "koko" (porridge) seller on our campus was his wife.

Mr. Raymond Poku was also still there. Opanin Kwadwo Kyere was there. The funniest story to ever leak out of The Staff Common Room involved Mr. Kyere. When Alec Wobil of Pearson was being considered to be SP in '90, it became evident that he did not have a strong O-Level Exam results. This could be attributed to the death of his father during the O-Level Exams season. When the day came for the appointment of the Prefects, Alec was undergoing an interview by the Headmaster and his Staff at the Staff Common Room. The Headmaster was leaning toward the choice of Alec as Senior Prefect when all of a sudden our famous and influential Mathematics teacher, Opanin Kwadwo Kyere, got up and shouted at the top of his voice, "Oh, nese awu, nadwene enyeh correct, mompeh nkonwahene bi mano." (He has lost his father, and he's not on top of his faculties, just make him the King of Chairs!). As a result, Alec Wobil was made the Furniture Prefect. This was one of the funniest stories on campus.

Mr. Samuel "Cochroach" Sraha, a very fine Sports master who was very adept at training students in field events, was also available. Sraha was so good in training lads in field events that he could turn an average person on the street into a mega tripple-jumper. When Aaron Berkoh, son of the Opoku Ware School Headmaster came to Prempeh Sixth Form, he was just an average "Joe" on campus. Even at his former school, he had no athletic skills and did not represent his alma mater at any level in sports. But Sraha, brilliant a tactitian as he was, turned Aaron into an athletics icon at Prempeh that Owareans were aghast to see him perform wonders in Prempeh jersey at the Annual Super-Zonal Athletics Competition at the Kumasi Sports Stadium. Sraha could just take any kid, and with the words, "You COCHROACH, keep jogging," turn the emaciated boy into a superb javelin thrower.

While we are on this topic of athletics, Mr. Sackey always held sportsmen and non-sportsmen to the same standards. He never allowed admission into Sixth Form or transfer of students from other schools whose academic performance were "below par." While schools like AMASS always recruited athletes from villages for the cross country, track and field and football, Sackey never shopped for athletes from outside Prempeh.

And he never did allow his Sports masters to go all out recruiting sports men. He never sacrificed the indispensable heritage of academic excellence on some altar of sporting fame or success! His only philosophy was to use the power of God and hardwork to win all games.

Before any major sport event, he brought the school team on stage at the Osae Assembly Hall, introduced them to the school and had the Chaplain pray for them. All such prayers ended with "In the name of God, we shall win." Reuben Sackey will say, "In the name of God...." then the whole school will respond, "....we shall win!"

In the beginning of the Sackey administration, the famous Lawson brothers - Pasha and Mafia - both of Osei Tutu House were probably the fastest sprinters in our entire nation! They helped set the school's 4 X 100 meter relay record for Osei Tutu House. And these two brothers were so fast that at the Annual Inter-Collegeiate Athletics Festival at the 88,000 - seater Kumasi Sports stadium, they had their own fan club and band. All sorts of damsels from all walks of life - from Bankyease to Atebubu - came to see Pasha and Mafia run for Prempeh. Even the unborn, it is believed, cheered for them.

Headmaster Sackey was enamored of the way the tow form five brothers brought glory to Prempeh. Yet Mr. Sackey rejected them during the Sixth Form admission process, on grounds of "low" GCE passes.

Forlorn though they were, the brothers chose not to attend any other school besides Prempeh. They stayed home one year and re-wrote their GCE O-Level Exams, even though they could've entered any school in the country. These were two fine young men who could've went anywhere, but opted to stay home one year just to get an opportunity to raise the green and yellow flag of Mother Prempeh for two more years.

Though they presented with a very remarkable Aggregate 28 at their second sitting of the O-Level Exams, Mr. Sackey refused to take them into Prempeh Sixth Form the following year. Citing a graffiti on the walls of the Form Five dormitory of OT House, which he believed the Lawson brothers wrote in a very dark-staining Indian ink, he turned down the superstar athletes again. Come on, Reuben, this was hardly a crime of hanging. Besides, there was no evidence linking them to the vandalism. The boys had arrived in blue shirts at OT House and selected their beds in the Six Form dormitory, but Mr. Sackey sent them back home. Looking crestfallen, the Lawson brothers gave up on their Sixth Form education and athletics and migrated to Great Britain, where nothing has been heard of them since.

This writer has reason to believe that it was the green-eyed monster that summed the Headmaster's mettle. The Headmaster, I believe, was just jealous of the fact that the fast sprinters were more popular than the Science and Maths luminaries at Prempeh College. Here was a Headmaster who believed that Science students were more important than Arts and Business students and that only Science students were capable of leading the student body. Such a Headmaster wouldn't find it difficult believing that sportsmen are inferior on the academic ladder, where scientists are the most supreme, followed by Arts, Business and then athletes, in that order. Speculative you'll argue, but I know I speak for many when I write such.

And there was no reason Mr. Sackey was going to allow into the school two "inferior" students (athletes) whose popularity in the Ashanti Region was only superceded by His Majesty The Asantehene. These guys were so popular that one could address their letter simply as "Pasha & Mafia, Kumasi" and the postmaster would know where to deliver the letters.

Out of a certain discomfort for scarificing our academic heritage on an altar of sporting excellence, Sackey turned away so many great athletes that by 1990, The Kings College was bereft of any sporting prominence. The school sunk so low in sports that we placed NINTH in the Ashanti Regional Super Zonal Athletics Championship. Prempeh placing 9th in Athletics? Once upon a time, such poor showing would have prompted an inquiry in Kings Palaces. But since we had a Cicero in charge of the School - a man whose penchant for the Queen's language always intimidated all his foes - Amanfoo accepted the lacklustre performance with glee. The soothing balm that year, however, was the Hockey Trophy that was brought to Sofoline for keeping.

Go on to History - Part III