It’s an end to a fight well fought, a judgement that will change secondary education in Ghana as we know it. In decades to come, the sacrifice of Tyrone Mahguy and Oheneba Nkrabea, teenage first-year students of the Achimota School in Accra who became the center of a national debate just because they sought to be educated while being dreadlocked Rastafarians will not be forgotten.
The bravery of Tyrone and Oheneba reminds me of American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks. She was best known as the young black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott lasted more than a year—during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job—and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation.
Just like Park’s contemporaries in 1955, I was instantly peeved on that Friday, March 19, 2021 morning when I chanced on a Facebook post by a frustrated Rastafarian father whose son’s grades placed him at the prestigious Achimota School by the Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) suddenly meant nothing.
Only 24 hours earlier, on the 18th of March, 2021, the boy, Oheneba Nkrabea had been asked to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his place at the School. A man, said to be the assistant headmaster of the school, delivered the news hot to father and son, directing them to go to court if they couldn’t understand the school’s rules.
He had unapologetically relayed the same information to Tyrone Marhguy’s father, Tereo, a few minutes before.
When Tyrone had come to the school on reopening day, he was asked to stand aside for hours, wanting nothing to do with him because he wore dreadlocks. “How could this be happening in 2021?” I asked myself as I listened intently to his narration of the story when we first met.
“When I got there with my stuff, one of the mistresses who was packing the presented items into the cars told me she wants nothing to do with me because of my dreadlocks so I should pack my stuff and everything and sit away from her stuff” – Tyrone recounted.
To go to court or not
The social media post generated discussions that dominated media platforms across Ghana for weeks! The silence of the government, however, was loud.
A day after the unfortunate incident at the Achimota School, a State-owned newspaper, The Daily Graphic, reported that the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Opoku Amankwah had directed the school to enroll the boys with their dreadlocks. As a public school and one funded by the taxpayer, they were expected to comply. Yet, the school insisted that allowing the boys to enroll with the dreadlocks was going to fly in the face of school rules.
For me, the fact that the GES did very little at this point to compel a school that is under its authority by law to admit the students was a clear indication that it had lost its power and control over its own institutions. Or perhaps, the school’s history, prestige, and the collective force of its alumni which includes former presidents, ministers, justices of the Supreme Court, and people from the high echelons of society proved overwhelming for the GES.
There were no sanctions against the school, no provision of an alternative school for the boys. Absolutely nothing. It seemed that it was because Achimota was an old high-status school with many alumni in high places and perhaps, the government didn’t want to step on toes or make enemies.
The coming in of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Child Rights International, changed the course of the story for Tyrone and Oheneba.
In a time where the school, its Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), alumni, and National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) were all in agreement that the boys should cut off their dreadlocks coupled with the GES inertia, Child Rights International was the only group that threw its support behind the Rastafarians. They legitimized the hard-headedness of the boys’ fathers not to cut their dreadlocks by committing to apply to join a suit if they were to seek legal redress.
Indeed, there was a need to go to court. This was the only way to bring finality to this mess and stop schools from discriminating against Rastafarians in the future. Settling it out of court may have worked for Tyrone and Oheneba, although very unlikely, but that would have been like putting a bandage on a stab wound. Therefore, bracing themselves for court, not just for themselves but for future Rastafarians is tantamount to what Rosa Parks did on that bus when she refused to get up and make the oppressors win.
Looks or character?
Tyrone and Oheneba were placed at the Achimota School by the Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS). This merit-based e-system allows Junior High School leavers to choose a number of Senior High Schools of their choice and places students there in accordance with their grades from the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
The two dreadlocked boys were placed at the Achimota School purely based on their good grades, not for their religion or looks. In the wisdom of the Ghana Education Service, it used the academic qualification as a basis for school placement for all public senior high schools under its remit and nothing else. Perhaps, this is because it is aware that other factors like appearance or religion would have no bearing on academics or good behaviour in Ghana’s schools.
The two boys initiated separate actions in the same court. It is still not clear why they did not merge their interests since they were seeking the same reliefs on similar facts. They sued the School, the Ghana Education Service and the Attorney General.
All through the trial, the defendant maintained that the appearance of the boys (That is, their dreadlocks) was going to lead to the breakdown of law and order in the school, as well as place them above other students.
The defendants could not doubt the competence of the students yet they just wanted their hair cut so they may be ‘uniformed’. But does the ‘no rasta’ position of the Achimota School equal ‘No black’ sentiments expressed by parents of the boys? Yes. As Africans our hair is our pride, its curly and nappy look is a testament to who we are. Dreadlocks are the truest form of our natural hair. If it is left untouched without combing or cutting, a black person’s hair will grow to bind into long cords of hair – dreadlocks. Per some schools of thought, as a colonial tool to rip off the African’s identity, they were asked to shave off their hair or urged to use relaxers to make hair straight like that of a Caucasian.
The Achimota School’s crest is a depiction of the keys of a keyboard, white and black. The idea is that as the ‘white and black’ keys combine to make beautiful harmony, so must white and black, male and female students come together to work and achieve results. Could not matter! Therefore, saying no to two black boys because of the African expression of their hair was in itself an irony per the school’s founding principles.
Social and Legal Arguments
One cannot deny the fact that Ghana has always been a conservative nation with its people just wanting to go by the book. Historically, parents have made their boys wear their hair low as a sign of neatness. Boys keeping long hair, particularly dreadlocks have thus been seen as a sign of defiance and a predictor of bad influences. Perhaps that is what informed the framers of the rules of Achimota School.
Specifically, item 14 of the School’s rules state that students who keep bushy hair, chemicalized hair, facial hair, wear makeup will attract a punishment of internal or external suspension. What the framers of this law however failed to anticipate is the student’s religion. Like in this case where the two students are Rastafarian and their dreadlocks are an expression of their religion, such rules cannot trample their right to religion and by extension their right to education.
Furthermore, in Ghana, it is often said that “obey before complain”, just like in the military. Asking Questions is frowned upon because it is perceived as challenging authority. But in this case, while parents of Oheneba Nkrabea ‘obeyed’ by signing the school’s admission forms which have a provision that enjoined parents to comply with all school rules including the one on hairstyles, they still went ahead to protest it later. The High Court will later agree with them saying that one cannot sign off their entitlement to their fundamental human rights which discriminates against them. What this means is that human rights always take precedence over school rules, especially those with archaic reasoning.
Court Decision
The president of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonu was unhappy when the GES made an exception for the boys.
“I am surprised and very disappointed that the Ghana Education Service bent the rules for these Rastafarians. When the Ghana Education Service begins to make these exceptions, they create chaotic situations in the school for us the teachers to manage,” Mr, carbonu said.
While his concerns cannot be completely dismissed, it does not hold and the court agrees. The thinking that this judgment will open the flood gates for traditionalists to dress the way they want to school or students becoming unkempt on campus while school authorities have no say is an oversimplification of the ruling.
Indeed, there may be excesses as teachers already struggling to ensure discipline among students, but even the judge when confronted with a similar position from the school’s lawyer rejected it saying that she was limiting herself to the facts of the case before her.
Dreadlocks may be kept for various reasons. It could be by preference or as a manifestation of one’s religion. The facts of the case made it clear that the boys were waging freedom of religion argument and the court found the circumstances of the case to have deflated the argument that it might open the floodgates. It cannot also be said that it will set a precedent for a student who for example just wants to wear dreadlocks for fashion. The issue must not be overgeneralized. Even after the decision, Mr. Carbonu remains resolute. He maintains that the court’s order only means that students in various schools are at liberty to dress anyhow.
“What the judgment means is that the Rasta students and all other students can dress anyway and go to school, and we teachers do not have to waste our time and energy talking about character formation. We thank the court for making our work easy”, he opined.
I bet he will particularly be pleased to hear that the Achimota school has backed down on its initial decision to get a stay of execution of the judgment, while they appeal the High Court’s judgment.
The legal battle took off on April 12 with lawyers for Oheneba Nkrabea praying the court for a mandatory injunction to allow the 16-year old join his colleagues at the Achimota School while the matter was in court. The judge, her ladyship Gifty Adjei Addo however dismissed this application together with a similar one by Tyrone Marhguy’s lawyer, rather promising an expedited trial. With this out of the way, the ball was set rolling but at multiple hearings, the case had to be adjourned because the Achimota School had not filed its response to the suit. At a sitting on the 30th of April, the lawyer for Oheneba Nkrabea, Wayoe Ghanamannti demanded 10,000 cedis cost for his client to support his home-schooling but again, the court refused.
On May 14, the court heard the merits of the Marhguy case where the Attorney General, Godfred Dame argued that the boy was not yet a student of the Achimota School because he was yet to return his completed admission form. The school maintained that the school rules on hairstyle were just as they ensured discipline and hygiene on campus. For Oheneba, his lawyers argued that denying him his spot at the school due to his hairstyle, was against the Achimota school’s own rules and regulations which proposed an international external suspension as the right sanction for such an offense, not withholding a student’s admission. It is the effects of these arguments and more that have culminated in the final judgment on May 31, 2021, declaring that the treatment meted out to the boys violated their fundamental human right thus school was ordered to admit the boys.
After the ruling, the Achimota School, as stubborn or it can be, declared its plans to appeal the ruling and apply for a stay of execution of the order. The education minister. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum was not enthused, however, calling to meet the school authorities. The Attorney General also did same until the school finally agreed to comply with the judgment.
On June 3 and June 4, 2021, Oheneba Nkrabea and Tyrone Marhguy were admitted to the school respectively. They were welcomed by warm teachers and students, some of whom cheered as they walked on the streets of the school for the first time. But because of the actions of the school, these boys had spent the entire school term in court, now reporting only a day to the end-of-term exam for Oheneba and on the day of the first paper for Tyrone. While the latter agreed to write the exam, the former did not as his parents said they were working on getting him on the green track to get the full term of studies.
Any Lessons?
Throughout the world, there’s a wind of change blowing. In fact, it has been blowing since the beginning of time from when the stone-aged man discovered fire and made hunting tools to the renaissance from the 14th to 17th century and the industrial revolution from 1760 to the mid 1800s.
Nothing has really stayed the same since human beings are innately programmed to advance and develop. In Ghana, it is high time we accepted that culture is dynamic and that we cannot be stuck in our ways of doing things especially when it pleases a faction of the population to the detriment of others. The opinion of the school and the Attorney General that having students with dreadlocks will break the traditions of the school is in itself contrary to the basic principles of growth and development.
The High Court just could not hide its amazement when a chief state attorney, Stella Badu told the court that it will fly in the face of uniformity, discipline, and hygiene if the students were allowed and that their hair could breed lice and cause an outbreak among their colleagues. Clearly the judge, her ladyship Gifty Adjei Addo is a realist and forward-thinking, just as we should all be, not ready to condone old customs which do not make sense in the 21st century in the name of “maintaining traditions”.
All around the world, people are asserting their rights, ever so loudly and impactful in recent years with the advent of social media. Martin Luther King Jnr. did it, Kwame Nkrumah and most recently, the killing of a black man George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA sparked worldwide protests to protect minorities against police brutality. Even people in Ghana joined the movement. Funny how people could support the rights of others miles away from home while they oppress their own.
The kind of support these two Rastafarian boys had was because what they went through was not exclusive to them only, rather millions more including the now-famous Rosa Parks, have gone through some form of discrimination in the past thus could relate with their situation. This should keep Ghanaian leaders up at night, thinking about the culture of injustice we have allowed to silently brew all these years and the unwillingness to change it.