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Of player quality, national interest in Black Stars
In little over a fortnight, Ghana’s senior national team, Black Stars, will plunge into action in Cameroon, in search of a Golden Fleece that has been elusive for four decades.
Indeed, the last time the Stars clinched the African Cup of Nations coronet was in Tripoli, Libya, 1982. There, Ghana upstaged the host nation Libya at a nerve-jangling shoot-out, swaggering away a fourth unprecedented title (1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982).
Ever since, the Stars have glittered to the party at three Nations Cup finale (Senegal 1992, Angola 2010 and Equatorial Guinea 2015), but left with plenty anguish and pain – especially to Cote d’Ivoire (1992 and 2015) who won via penalties on both occasions.
Though they have not fared badly, concern of Ghanaians seem to be rooted in the final list of players to do battle in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6, 2022.
Head trainer of the Black Stars, Milovan Rajevac, on Tuesday presented his provisional list of 30 players to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) with many caught in a state of solicitude over who is going to make the final cut.
Ahead of that final slit of 23, the team is expected to start pitching tent in Doha, Qatar, where they would be engaged in a series of friendlies aimed at fine-tuning their rough edges and sharpening their arsenal for the nearly one-month absorbing tournament.
According to the Communications Director of the GFA, Henry Asante Twum, the Stars will face the Desert Foxes on January 5 in what will be their final game before heading off to Cameroon.
The exact identities of the first two opponents were not immediately revealed but Henry Twum noted that the Stars would play a yet-to-be-named club side on Tuesday, December 28, before taking on one of the Africa Cup of Nations qualified teams on Friday, January 1, 2022 in another friendly.”
It was further stated that “the Black Stars will depart Doha for Yaounde on Friday, January 7, 2022 to take on the rest of Africa at the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Rajevac, it is said, has until Friday, December 30, 2021 to submit his final squad for the tournament. With Covid-19 ravaging, many have also asked whether the provisional list of 30 is enough for the Doha camp.
Well, in Cameroon, the Stars – drawn against Morocco, Gabon and Comoros in Group C, will be seeking to end what will be a disconcerting 40-year wait for a continental title.
As said earlier, Ghanaians would be waiting with bated breath to see the identity of players who will make up the final 23. It is so important to them. It is important to all who have the team at heart. They need players who are ready to fight wholeheartedly for the mission in Cameroon. They need to see players who are prepared to die on the pitch for the result rather than giving up out of exhaustion.
Indeed, the Cameroon mission is to bring back the Cup. Nothing else! And, that is the task given to Rajevac who has promised to put the smiles on the faces of Ghanaians.
US-based Ghanaian coach Robert Sackey, may also have hammered it right on the head when he called for the Ghana technical team to dash for players who would put the nation above all interest.
“We need players who have passion and willing to play for Ghana; they are the ones that must earn to right to the AFCON. Ghana needs a trophy, and this AFCON must be the right time to do so with the right players,” he asserted.
Having said that it is important, too, to acknowledge that admonition of a former President of the GFA, Lepowura Alhaji Jawula, who believes that breaking the embarrassing trophy hoodoo and Stygian silence, may probably go beyond player quality and team performance.
“No matter what, the fans are simply indispensable. That’s why we need to have everybody on board and roll on like one big family.
“Indeed, the Stars mission in Cameroon will be feckless without the unflinching backing of Ghanaians.”
Many Ghanaians want the AFCON trophy more than anything else – and as the tournament roars off from January 9 to February 6, 2022, knees will go down earnestly praying for the end to the years of anguish and torment in search of the nation’s fifth continental Holy Grail.
By John Vigah
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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