Award-winning Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson made a deeply emotional return to the University of Ghana (UG) campus in Legon on Saturday, February 22, delivering a keynote address at the final session of the university’s February 2026 Congregation Ceremonies for the College of Humanities that left graduates, faculty, and university leadership visibly moved.
The actress, who graduated from UG with a degree in English and Information Studies, had not returned to the campus for approximately 20 years. In a speech that quickly became the defining moment of the weekend’s ceremonies, she explained why.
“My last year here wasn’t pleasant. In many ways, it marked the beginning of one of the hardest periods of my life,” she told the packed Great Hall. “When I left this university, I left angry. I left hurt. And I left carrying a lot of resentment.”
Forson admitted that her academic journey at UG had been far from smooth. “To be honest, I barely made it out of here. It was by the skin of my teeth. And when I did, I walked off this campus and swore never to look back.”
Yet the speech she delivered on Saturday was anything but bitter. In a structured and carefully prepared address that she said forced her to confront years of unexamined pain, Forson dismantled her own narrative of victimhood, acknowledging that the same campus she had resented had also launched her career, shaped her character, and given her the audacity she has traded on ever since.
“This campus shaped me. It is here I learned independence, got my first job and where I tested my entrepreneurial instincts. It is here that I handed out my very first complimentary card as a marketing executive, with absolutely no experience, just passion and audacity,” she said.
She told graduates that her first television appearance came as a UG student, a stint that opened the door to the career she has built over two decades in Ghana’s film industry. She has since appeared in critically acclaimed projects including Phone Swap (2012) and Isoken (2017), won the African Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Actress for her performance in In The Cupboard (2010), and written and produced A Letter From Adam (2014).
“So yes, there was struggle. There was hurt. There were a lot of tears. There was disappointment. But there was also growth, pride and becoming,” she said.
Forson’s address also included a rare direct challenge to academic staff seated in the front rows, urging lecturers and faculty members to reflect on the role they play in shaping students beyond the academic syllabus.
“Will you be remembered as the person who made a student feel small? Or the one who made them feel seen? The voice that discouraged, or the voice that affirmed? Because sometimes it only takes one sentence to diminish someone. But it also only takes one sentence to change the trajectory of a life,” she said.
She quoted her father’s maxim that education is meant to make people “fit to live and to believe with, not just to earn with,” and reminded faculty that learning happens not only in lecture halls but through friendships, late-night conversations, heartbreaks, and the full breadth of campus life.
In an announcement that drew applause from the audience, Forson revealed that her return to campus has prompted her to finally enrol for a long-deferred master’s degree at the university.
“Standing here today feels like closing one chapter and opening another as I am finally coming back to study again,” she said.
The February 2026 congregation marked a significant milestone for UG, with 15,288 graduands receiving degrees across 17 sessions, including 153 PhD candidates, 4,197 master’s graduates, 10,543 undergraduates, and 395 diploma holders. The College of Humanities ceremony was presided over by Professor Felix Ankomah Asante, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Research and Innovation Directorate. Emmanuel Nana Yaw Appeagyei was named overall valedictorian for the college with a Final Cumulative Grade Point Average (FCGPA) of 3.99.
Forson closed her address with a message that encapsulated the spirit of the entire speech: “Do not discard parts of your journey just because they were difficult. Carry all of it. The good. The bad. Even the ugly. Because even the chapters you wanted to erase were shaping the person you needed to become.”
