I enjoyed working at the Ministry of Education after my O’ levels that summer of 1961. I was young and free, I got to meet a lot of people, escape from Ma Glover’s all-seeing eyes and practice my communications skills. There was a buzz among the young ladies that one Andrew Evans Quayson from London was working in the Information Section but I did not even act interested when he approached me the first time. Will you believe that the Ghanaian economy was so good at that time that people came from abroad to do vacation jobs in Ghana?
He was well spoken and a true gentleman but his Fante was terrible! Under the guise of teaching him Fante we became close and were inseparable. It was Anyako Fante versus British Fante!

Truthfully, when Abeku returned to Ghana that summer of 1961, he soon realized that he had strayed far from his roots. He could not communicate in Fante, his mother tongue and Ga his second local language. He had become a pure British Fante. He really was serious about getting involved and integrating into the Ghanaian society and that is why he had taken the vacation job at the Information Section of the Ministry of Education.

So all the time he was welcoming the very first batch of American Peace Corps volunteers in Ghana in August 1961, Abeku was “learning Fante” under my tutelage. And it did not hurt that he loved to dance like me, so we always found fun things to do.

I missed my dear friend Abeku when he returned to the UK in September 1961, although we made sure that we kept in touch through long letters. I guess you can say that is how I started writing convincing briefs as a lawyer; I was determined to keep him as a dear friend. And of course to make sure he came back to Ghana in 1963 after graduation to resume our relationship.

When Andrew proposed to me in 1968, I did not dither and we immediately got married in June 1969 at a society wedding that made the front page of the Sunday Mirror.

I knew I had snagged a gem; my own British Fante, Abee!