Today, June 13 is exactly 99 years ago Theodosia Salome Okoh, designer of the Ghana Flag was born.
The Ghanaian stateswoman, sportswoman, teacher and artist was born on June 13, 1922. According to Wikipedia, she offered to design the flag of Ghana after Ghanaians were asked by the country’s first president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to submit a design of a flag that will represent the country forever shortly after Ghana gained independence from the British on March 6, 1957.
On how Nkrumah adopted hers out of the many entries that the authorities received, and what inspired her unique design, Madam Salome had said in a previous interview thus: ‘I decided on the three colors of red, gold and green because of the geography of Ghana. Ghana lies in the tropics and blessed with rich vegetation.
The color Gold was influenced by the mineral rich nature of our lands and Red commemorates those who died or worked for the country’s independence.
Then the five-pointed lone star which is the symbol of African emancipation and unity in the struggle against colonialism.’
Beyond that, Theodosia Okoh was the first female chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association and later President of the Ghana Hockey Federation for more than 20 years, and it was during her tenure that Ghana first qualified for both the Hockey World Cup and the Olympic Games.
She was named ‘the Joan of Arc of Ghana hockey’ by Ohene Djan ‘because she rose to the occasion to save Ghana hockey when men were faltering and vacillating about the development of the game. This is also the reason why the National Hockey Stadium was named after her in 2004.’
She was a long-time patron of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana.
She died on 19 April 2015 at the Narh-Bita Hospital in Tema after a short illness, aged 92.
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