Kwadwo Asante Boakye
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Nana Boakye”
3 July 1940 — 23 September 2022 · aged 82
Cocoa farmer, Nkosuohene of Besease and a patient man who built a village's future
Kumasi, Ghana Born in Ejisu, Ashanti Region Resting at Boakye family cemetery, EjisuAbout Kwadwo
Cocoa does not forgive impatience, and Kwadwo Boakye was the most patient man in Ashanti. He planted every seedling himself, waited five years for the first pods, and spent the rest of his life teaching others to wait.
Born in Ejisu in 1940, the son of a cocoa farmer, Kwadwo finished middle school at Besease and went straight to the farm. In 1963 he inherited three acres of tired cocoa trees and a debt, and over the next fifty years he turned them into forty acres of the healthiest farm in the district. He kept a notebook of every season's rainfall, every tree's yield and every purchase he made from the Ghana Cocoa Board's licensed buying companies. When prices fell, he mentored younger farmers about shade trees and fermentation. When they rose, he told them not to spend it all at once.
In 1988 the elders of Besease made him their Nkosuohene, the chief of development, after he led a campaign to bring a borehole to the village. In that role he found scholarships for forty children, opened a small clinic with a visiting nurse, and shamed the local officials, politely, into grading the road. He chaired the Ejisu Cocoa Farmers' Cooperative for more than twenty-five years.
He married Akosua Pokua in 1966, and they raised four children and a small army of nephews. He loved fufu with light soup, the song of the early rains on a tin roof, and Asante Kotoko, who he said broke his heart on schedule every season. His son studied at KNUST and now teaches there.
Nana Boakye died peacefully in Kumasi in September 2022, at the start of the main cocoa season. He leaves his wife of fifty-six years, his children, and twenty-three grandchildren.
“Cocoa teaches you that the best things take five years and cannot be hurried.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Ejisu, Ashanti Region
- Resting place
- Boakye family cemetery, Ejisu
- Passed away
- 23 September 2022, Kumasi
Funeral Service
Thursday, 13 October 2022 at 12:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Besease children's school fees fund
Continue Nana Boakye's scholarships for children of Besease and help the family with funeral costs.
$2,322.75 raised of $3,500
66%20 recent contributions
- NO
Nana Yaw Owusu gave $47.50 · 3y ago
“With love, always.”
- SH
Salim Hamad gave $95 · 3y ago
- HS
Hala Sarkis gave $14.25 · 3y ago
“Pole sana to the family.”
- KP
Kamla Pillay gave $47.50 · 3y ago
“God comfort you all.”
- UK
Upendo Kyando gave $9.50 · 3y ago
Life journey
Middle School Leaving Certificate
Besease Presbyterian Middle School1948 – 1956 · Besease, Ejisu
Top of his class in arithmetic.
Cocoa Farmer
Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) licensed farmer1963 – 2018 · Ejisu
Grew a three-acre inheritance into forty acres.
Married Akosua Pokua
1966 · Ejisu
A marriage of fifty-six years.
Chairman, Ejisu Cocoa Farmers' Cooperative
Ejisu Cocoa Farmers' Cooperative1979 – 2005 · Ejisu
Negotiated fair prices and mentored younger farmers.
Nkosuohene of Besease
Besease Traditional Council1988 – 2022 · Besease
Brought a borehole, a clinic and scholarships to the village.
Best Cocoa Farmer, Ejisu-Juaben District
National Farmers' Day Awards1996 · Ejisu
Recognised for yield and fair dealing.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Kwadwo is survived by
- Akosua Boakye· Spouse
- Prof. Kofi Boakye· Son
- Abena Boakye-Mensah· Daughter
- Yaw Boakye· Son
- 23 grandchildren· Grandchildren
Tributes & memories
5 people have shared a memory of Kwadwo.
Knew Kwadwo? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- AF
Scholarship beneficiary, Besease
I was nine when Nana Boakye paid my first school fees. I am now a pharmacist in Kumasi. He wrote me one note on my graduation: 'Plant well, wait well.' I keep it above my desk. Please keep the scholarship going.
- AB
Daughter, Birmingham
Daddy phoned me in the UK every harvest to tell me the rainfall figure. I never understood why until I trained as a nurse and learned that numbers can be a way to say 'I love you'. This year the figure was 1,310 millimetres.
- DN
Colleague of his son at KNUST
I met him once, at the graduation of one of Kofi's students. He was seventy, in kente and a hat, quietly telling every parent in the row that education was the only crop you cannot lose to the weather. Besease is lucky to have had him.
- SA
Buying clerk, licensed buying company, Ejisu
In twenty-two years of weighing his beans I never found a damp or underfermented bag. He once returned a whole payment because the scale had been set slightly in his favour. We still tell new clerks his story.
- NO
Fellow farmer, Ejisu
When my farm was dying of swollen shoot in 2001, Nana Boakye drove out in his old pickup, walked the rows with me for a whole day and told me which trees to cut and which to save. He then lent me seedlings. My farm lives because of him.
