Esther Afua Ocloo

Esther Afua Ocloo (born April 18, 1919 in Peki Dzake , British Togoland , † February 8, 2002 in Accra , Ghana ) was a Ghanaian entrepreneur, nutritionist and pioneer of microcredit . In 1990 she was the first woman to be awarded the “ Great Africa Prize ” and in 1993 the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute .

Life

Afua Nkulenu was born in the Volta region as the daughter of the blacksmith George Nkulenu and his wife Georgina, a potter and farmer. Both parents were illiterate and belonged to the Ewe people . Her grandmother made it possible for her to attend a Presbyterian elementary school. After that, the girl was able to attend boarding school. Every week she brought home groceries that she prepared because she could not afford school meals. Then Nkulenu received a scholarship for the well-known Achimota School . After five years she received the Cambridge School Certificate there in 1941 , but was then unemployed.

In 1942, Nkulenu was the first person on the Gold Coast to open a small company that made orange jam. It was a scandal for the press that the graduate of an elite school sold jam in the street trade. However, through this publication she also received orders from the school and the military, the Royal West African Frontier Force . With the support of the school and with her own resources, she was able to study in England from 1949 to 1951. As the first person of African descent, Nkulenu received a diploma from the Good Housekeeping Institute in London. She then attended a postgraduate course at Bristol University and received her PhD. After returning to Ghana, she married and started a family with four children.

Ocloo expanded its factory Nkulenu Industries Ltd. for other local products and, for example, bottled palm nut cream and fruit juices. In 1958 she founded a manufacturers' association and was involved in organizing the first exhibition of products "Made in Ghana". From 1959 to 1961 she was the first female president of the later Federation of Ghana Industries . Ocloo was the first woman to be named Executive Chairman of the National Food and Nutrition Board of Ghana in 1964 . In the mid-1960s she also got into the batik fabric business .

Since the 1970s, Ocloo has tried to pass on her knowledge on a national and international level in order to strengthen women economically and to encourage people to help themselves. In workshops, women were trained how to process their products to protect them against heat and vermin. In Africa, around 30 percent of food spoiled due to a lack of preservation or a lack of transport. From 1976 to 1986 she was an advisor to the government of Ghana in various positions. In 1975 she advised the United Nations' First World Conference on Women in Mexico.

Another task was to support women and through microcredits to encourage them to start small businesses that would sustainably support families. So she became the founder of the Women's World Bank and the first chairman of the board from 1979 to 1985. In 1990, together with Olusegun Obasanjo, the later President of Nigeria, she received the “Great Africa Prize ”, which is considered the Nobel Prize of Africa. With the prize money of 50,000 dollars, she founded the Sustainable End of Hunger Foundation (Sehuf), which trains food specialists in Ghana. They then drive from village to village on training buses and teach women how to preserve food. In 1990 she founded a model farm for organic growing of grain and vegetables.

For her tireless fight against hunger and for the advancement of women, Ocloo received the Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize from the institute of the same name in November 1993. The laudation was given by entrepreneur and philanthropist Stephan Schmidheiny . The prize money went into their projects, the Sehuf and into training and further education projects.

Ocloo was a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Ghana for twelve years . At this church she founded the Accra-Madina congregation and women's groups, the so-called Bible Class , which, however, also dealt with household issues.

Esther Afua Ocloo died in February 2002 of pneumonia . She received a state funeral and was buried in her hometown. For her 98th birthday, Google dedicated a doodle to her .

literature

• Dominique Graf: It started with orange jam . In: Bridge Builders. No. 45, November 10, 1993, p. 8.
• Dominique Graf: From vision to practice . In: Bridge Builders. No. 47, November 24, 1993, p. 6.
• DEK Amenumey: Dr (Mrs) Esther Afua Ocloo (née Nkulenu) . In: Outstanding Ewes of the 20th Century. Profiles of Fifteen Firsts. Accra 2002. pp. 135-142. ISBN 9964-978-83-9 .
• Douglas Martin: Esther Ocloo, 83, African Leader and Microlending Pioneer, Dies. Obituary in: The New York Times. March 10, 2002.

Web links

• Dr. (Mrs.) Ester Afua Ocloo - profiles . (Biography with photo, engl.)

References and comments

1. ↑ Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger; Obasanjo was President of Nigeria from 1976-1979 and 1999-2007.
2. ↑ Dr. (Mrs.) Ester Afua Ocloo - profiles. (see above)