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No condition is permanent: How a seamstress apprentice became physically challenged
Stella Kpormegbe
54-year-old Trader at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, Ms Stella Kpormegbe has cautioned disabled persons not to allow themselves to be married out because people have sympathy for them.
She said they (disabled persons) also had value and skills which they could bring on board in any relationship so under no circumstances should they be undermined.
She said these in an interview with The Spectator last Friday when she shared her experience as a disabled person and also to encourage others who have the same fate.
Ms Kpormegbe recalled that 30 years ago when she woke up from bed, she never imagined that something would happen to change her life forever.
She said she was going about her routine assignment for the day as a seamstress apprentice, and was boiling some water on a coal pot to bath when her left leg hit the coal pot and some of the boiling water splashed on her feet.
She said in an attempt to clean it, her right knee cap “twisted” and that was her journey to disability.
The trader said all attempts to get her back on her feet with traditional and orthodox medicines had been unsuccessful.
She said almost four years later, her right foot was amputated from what she learnt was a cancer of a sort and now she wears a prosthetic leg and supports it with crutches.
The native of Keta in the Volta Region said she had to accept the fact that things had changed and she had to start new life as a disabled person.
She said though it was a difficult decision to make, it reduced the mental agony on her and made her start learning to do things in a new way.
She said, at the time of the incident, she was married with a baby who was about a year-old and her husband was very helpful in seeking support to restore her health.
She said along the line she suspected that peer pressure and wrong counsel gave her husband a change in attitude and mind so he finally abandoned her for another woman.
She said that with the support of some of her family members and friends and the motivation she needed to be of sound mind to take care of her little child, she managed to put all the challenges behind her to move on.
Miss Kpormegbe admitted that life had not been easy but she had always encouraged herself and become a better version of herself despite her disability.
She said she was currently a proud grandmother with three grandchildren and also supporting her daughter to raise them with her son-in-law.
In a reaction to why she didn’t remarry, she said “many people seem to have a challenge getting involved with disabled persons because they feel they (disabled people) would be a burden on them”.
She said since she did not want to be married out of pity or be disrespected, she decided to take a break from relationship and concentrate on her drinking bar business.
She was optimistic that one day the right person would appreciate her situation and come around so that she could remarry.
She advised families of persons with disabled spouses to be supportive not resort to casting aspersions since that made life more difficult for them (disabled spouses) and with persons who were emotionally unstable, they could be forced to abandon their spouses just as in her case.
She said the society had more room for improvement as far as the relationship with the disabled community was concerned.
She disclosed that single persons especially females with disabilities struggled to get spouses because they were seriously discriminated against.
She said she had taken the task of counselling younger disabled women to be optimistic about life and give of their best as there was always a light at the end of the tunnel.
She said disabled persons if given the needed support could also contribute effectively to the development of society so they should be accepted, respected and welcomed like any abled persons in society.
From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Ashaiman
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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