Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah (L), planned to name the airport after Yaa Asantewaa (R)
The government has announced plans to rename Ghana’s main gateway, Kotoka International Airport (KIA), to Accra International Airport.
While the debate over the proposed renaming continues, an untold story has emerged about how the airport was nearly named after Yaa Asantewaa.
According to renowned Ghanaian historian Anokye Yaw Frimpong, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah intended to name Ghana’s first and most important airport after the legendary Ashanti warrior queen.
However, political disputes, internal rifts, and a coup d’état prevented the idea from coming to fruition.
This is the story of how Kotoka International Airport almost had a different name.
Read the full story first published on GhanaWeb on March 1, 2025
Amid ongoing discussions about naming Ghana’s main airport after Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, the architect of the 1966 coup that overthrew the Nkrumah government, it has emerged that Ghana’s first president planned to name the airport after Yaa Asantewaa, the Ashanti queen renowned for her bravery.
According to historian Yaw Anokye, Dr Nkrumah had already reached out to the king of Asanteman seeking approval to name the airport after Yaa Asantewaa.
However, the well-documented rift between Nkrumah and the Ashanti chiefdom at the time prevented the idea from materialising.
In a 2023 interview with GTV, Anokye Yaw Frimpong explained that the chiefs rejected Nkrumah’s request because the leadership of Asanteman at the time belonged to the United Party (UP), and they argued that if Yaa Asantewaa were alive, she would have been a UP member.
Since the UP was a rival to Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP), the chiefs believed she would not have supported a CPP government naming a monument after her.
“After independence, Kwame Nkrumah called the Asante chiefs and was prepared to name the international airport after her. The chiefs returned to tell Nkrumah that Ghana had split between the UP and the CPP. Nkrumah is a CPP man, so he should go around when he finds a CPP woman; he can name the airport or anything after her, because if Yaa Asantewaa had been alive, she would have been a UP member,” he narrated.
Publications by other historians indicate that Nkrumah was adamant that naming the airport after Yaa Asantewaa was the right thing to do and pursued the blessing of Asanteman until his government was overthrown on February 24, 1966.
Who is Yaa Asantewaa?
Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the then Asante Empire. She was appointed by her brother, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okese, the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu.
In 1900, she led the Ashanti war, also known as the War of the Golden Stool or the Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence, against the British Empire.
BAI/MA
#TrendingGH: Watch some Ghanaians react to proposed renaming of Kotoka International Airport:
Understanding Ghana’s stock market and how to invest | BizTech
