A focus on Mrs Adjoa Brewu, the first Ghanaian migrant to be elected in Finland

I continue with my narra­tion of personalities and their accomplishments as members of the Ghanaian Diaspora in Finland, with a focus on Mrs Adjoa Brewu.

Mrs Brewu won in the Municipal elections in Fin­land four years ago. She is the daughter of the late Sir Wilberforce Essandor, the versatile elder in the Gha­naian community in Finland, who died in Finland in 2021.

Accomplishments and honours

It is important to recount accomplishments as part of the success stories of the personalities of Ghanaian descent in Finland to high­light their exploits both within the Ghanaian migrant community and in the wider Finnish society.

Mrs Brewu was the first Ghanaian migrant to be elected as a Deputy Council­lor in the Finnish elections in 2021. Recently, another Ghanaian migrant, Lukuma­nu Iddrissu, has become the first Ghanaian to be elect­ed as a Councillor in this month’s (April 2025) elec­tions. This feat thus goes a step further. I hope to do a write-up on his story in due course.

Even so, in terms of the achievement of being elected in elections in Fin­land, Mrs Brewu is arguably a trailblaser within the Ghanaian migrant com­munity. She however did not stand in this April 2025 elections.

Education and employ­ment exploits

In Ghana, Mrs Brewu went to Fijai Senior High (then Secondary School) in Takoradi, and graduated from the Central University with a Bachelor of Sciences in Business Management and Administration, Human Resources Management (from 2000 to 2004). She then did national service in one of the banks in Ghana.

After that, Mrs Brewu came to Finland in 2007 and did a Master’s degree in Economics, obtaining an MSc Econs with Interna­tional Management as her major.

She learned the Finnish language and undertook an internship position at the HR Department of the Espoo City Central Administration.

Mrs Brewu later worked at the Education sector of Espoo City and also at the Finnish Elementary Educa­tion Unit as an Assistant in the Language and Culture department, which is in charge of the placement of foreign students arriving in Finland as well as native lan­guage training for those who speak Finnish as a second language.

From there, she became the Coordinator of multi­cultural affairs in the Youth and Sports unit at Espoo City as part of integrating immi­grants and helping them to actively participate in the Finnish society. In what can be seen as a two-way affair, she helped to introduce the Finnish culture to immi­grants (foreigners) while introducing immigrants’ orig­inal cultures to the Finnish audience.

Political interests and achievements

Mrs Brewu was long har­bouring the desire to enter into politics in Finland but did not give it any strong thoughts until around 2017. As she told me, in 2017 someone contacted her to stand in the Finnish Munic­ipal elections. She obliged and stood, but she lost in that elections.

She stood again in 2021, encouraged by her father, Mr Essandor. She won this time around and became a Dep­uty Councillor. The victory was unique and hard won on the ticket of the relative­ly small and conservative Christian Democrats Party (Suomen Kris­tillidemokraattinen Puolue, KD).

The victory was also a huge consolation not just to herself and family, but also to the entire Ghana­ian migrant commu­nity as her father, Mr Essandor, a Patron of the Ghana Union Finland as an asso­ciation representing Ghanaian immigrants in Finland, had died a few weeks earlier in May that year.

Religious life

Mrs Brewu is a prominent member of the Methodist Church in Finland. She plays an active role in the church as the Nation­al Head of the Youth Ministry.

Mrs Brewu also coordinates inter­national work in her local congregation and serves as an interpreter in church events as well as sings in the choir.

Her role in the Ghanaian community

As mentioned earlier, Mrs Brewu is very active in the Ghanaian community. She is almost always seen in events organised by the Ghana Union Finland, the non-gov­ernmental organisation for the Ghanaian migrant com­munity in Finland.

She is no doubt a role model for many within the Ghanaian migrant communi­ty in Finland, especially the young ones. She has pas­sion for empowering young people of immigrant descent and promoting the integra­tion of adult immigrants through work.

Mrs Brewu lives in Espoo, a part of the larger Helsinki Metropolitan area, with her husband and children.

In conclusion, I would say Mrs Brewu has succeeded in embossing her name among the firsts in Finnish politics and within the Ghanaian community.

Email: perpetual.crentsil@yahoo. com

By Perpetual Crentsil