Meet Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, the First Female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana

She tackles the job “with the eye of the scientist and the heart of a humanist”

By Syreeta McFadden December 9, 2022

Carnegie Reporter Winter 2022 African Academics

Nana Aba Appiah Amfo photographed during a visit to the New York headquarters of Carnegie Corporation of New York in June 2022 (Credit: Filip Wolak)

Philanthropic investment in higher education and research in Africa — by Carnegie Corporation of New York and other foundations — has nurtured thousands of the continent’s scholars and academic leaders over the past decades, including Ghanian linguist Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. Early in her career, Amfo received a research fellowship through the Corporation-supported African Humanities Program (AHP). In October 2021, in a landmark appointment, Amfo became vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, the university’s first female vice-chancellor in the history of the institution since its founding in 1948.

For Amfo, the story is both personal and institutional. Awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the AHP in 2008, she recently recalled her excitement as a young scholar then just setting out on her career: “At the time, especially on the African continent, it was rare to hear of postdocs for the humanities, and of organizations which would sponsor humanities research, pure and simple, no embellishment, no contriving to directly link research to policy implications, just research that expanded the frontiers of knowledge production.”

Philanthropy has figured prominently in facilitating Amfo’s success. From that early postdoctoral fellowship to subsequent training in academic leadership, support from foundations — in particular from Carnegie Corporation of New York under the visionary leadership of its late president, Vartan Gregorian — aided in forging a path not only for her scholarship in applied linguistics, but also for senior leadership roles in academia in Ghana. A little over a decade later as a pioneering fellow of the African Humanities Program, Amfo is now the first president of the newly minted African Humanities Association, which is supported by the Corporation, reflecting the evolution of the former program to formalized organization.

From 2000 to 2010, Carnegie Corporation of New York was part of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA), a consortium of foundations initiated by Gregorian that worked to support the institutional development of African universities in nine countries, including their physical infrastructure, technological capacity, management systems, and gender equity. The Corporation provided leadership in the areas of academic support, institutional development (including library and archival support), information and communications technology, and enhancement of opportunities for women. In the 10 years following the end of PHEA, the Corporation gradually shifted its investment focus toward the continent’s intellectual infrastructure, particularly its academic staff and research capacity. Gregorian was also a strong supporter of higher education for disadvantaged women through a ten-year undergraduate scholarship program targeting women from poor communities.

Over the years, support from the Corporation’s Higher Education and Research in Africa (HERA) program has directly and indirectly shaped and supported the careers of academics like Amfo, whose trajectory as a scholar and leader at the University of Ghana has been undergirded by more than a decade of support from the Corporation. Public higher education on the continent is at a critical inflection point, and investment in human infrastructure is vital for African universities if they are to achieve sustainable growth as they vie to prepare future scholars, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Africa has more people aged under 20 than anywhere else in the world — and the continent’s population is set to double to two billion by 2050. As governments race to reform and invest in education, the realities facing the modern university servicing this youthful population come into sharp relief. As student enrollment increases, it exacerbates the many challenges that higher education in Africa will confront, including aging faculty, insufficient numbers of PhD candidates prepared to instruct the next generation of scholars, and limited resources to support those scholars engaged in cutting-edge research and knowledge production.

HERA has supported the development and expansion of campus infrastructure and worked to strengthen postgraduate programs and opportunities while expanding additional opportunities for women scholars and researchers. The University of Ghana was one of the first of four universities that were awarded funds through HERA.

“HERA has contributed to developing the early-career researcher concept in Africa through listening to our African university partners,” said Claudia Frittelli, HERA program director. “When a PhD graduate returns to the university with a full teaching load and no time or budget for research, it defeats the purpose of obtaining an advanced degree for generating new knowledge. Carnegie’s support for postdoctoral and early career academics allows academics to develop their research skills while supervising the next cohort, a key function of strong universities.”

Born in 1971 in Kumasi, Ghana, Amfo is the eldest of four children and grew up in Sekondi-Takoradi, the western region of the country. Her parents were both teachers; her father later switched jobs to sports administration, but he continued to instill a passion for learning in his daughter.

“My dad just really believed that I could do anything that I wanted to do,” Amfo said, “and there was nothing stopping me.”

At an early age, Amfo demonstrated a facility with languages. Upon completion of secondary school and the requisite examinations, one of her instructors suggested she consider linguistics as a field of study. Ghana is a multilingual nation — boasting 80 languages spoken among its 31 million citizens — and recognizes 12 official languages.

“I don’t know what it was he saw, but he had mentioned that to me as something to think about,” Amfo said. “By the end of my first year at the university, I was certain that I wanted to pursue linguistics for a career — and that I wanted to remain in academia.”

At university, it was the linguist Florence Dolphyne who most influenced Amfo, later becoming a mentor whose distinguished career in academia presaged that of Amfo’s.

“She loved the discipline,” said Amfo. “She made the discipline enjoyable for me and for many others.”

Dolphyne became the university’s first female professor in 1965, and subsequently became the first woman appointed dean of arts. In 1996, she was named the first female pro-vice-chancellor.

“She’s been a long-standing mentor for me,” Amfo said, recognizing the ways in which her own career mirrors Dolphyne’s. “So essentially, I sort of walked that path to become the dean of languages. I became the second female pro-vice-chancellor for academic and student affairs after her, and then went on to become vice-chancellor to the university.”

Married soon after completing her bachelor’s degree, Amfo began graduate studies at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim four months after giving birth to her son, followed by a second child, a daughter. She is quick to note the unwavering support of her husband and family.

“My husband was also extremely supportive,” Amfo warmly recalled. “Imagine me being pregnant and looking for grad school, and it was just the two of us in a foreign land, and there wasn’t a moment where he said, ‘Hey, what are you doing here? What’s going to happen? You’re going to have a baby and you are thinking about …’ No, there was nothing like that. He was there to support me.”

Amfo graduated top of her class for her master’s degree, started lecturing at the University of Ghana in 2001, had her second daughter a year later, and went back to Trondheim to complete her doctoral studies. She received her PhD in 2007.

Amfo’s scholarship and research work is extensive, solidifying her role as a leader in the field of pragmatic linguistics. She has published nearly 30 journal articles and book chapters and has edited a number of books and conference proceedings. Her recent work has focused in the area of language and health, underscoring policy implications for the smooth operation and functioning of public services in multilingual Ghana. “We have realized that when working in a multilingual context, you have medical personnel and doctors who are trained without any consideration to language,” Amfo said. “They are posted to areas without any linguistic consideration, interpreters, so we find people going into the hospitals and clinics and sometimes they require interpretation or translation.” Amfo explained, “We need to pay attention to that, and we need to support training for these situations. Some people want to limit you as far as advocating for language requirements for health professionals and doctors. When we can combine all of these efforts, having some basic knowledge in another language and then also training interpreters to be part of the medical team, it’s really important.”

Amfo is the fourth female vice-chancellor in Ghana’s history. After her appointment appeared in the news, a bank employee told Amfo that he shared her photo with his daughter who mistakenly thought that she was an aunt. “You don’t get it,” he told his daughter. Remembering the exchange, Amfo laughed. For ordinary Ghanians, Amfo’s appointment is deeply meaningful, serving in many ways as a model for young girls and women.

“When I started lecturing, frankly, my ambition was not to become the vice-chancellor,” Amfo admitted in a recent interview. “I think as things went on and one thing led to the other, it became apparent at some point that, well, at least I was going to give this a try.”

Her time as a fellow with the African Humanities Program in 2009 proved to be transformational, and Amfo opened herself up to additional opportunities while balancing her scholarship and family life. For example, in 2012, the Corporation funded the International Women’s Forum Fellows Program, a three-part leadership program for emerging women leaders in business and academia. As part of this program, Amfo had the opportunity to shadow Carol Harter, former president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) learning the ins and outs of university management and administration. Later, as dean of the School of Languages at the University of Ghana (2016–2019), Amfo hosted visiting scholars of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program and the UG African Diaspora Fellowship Program — both programs were supported by the Corporation’s HERA program.

Amfo’s meteoric rise within university governance demonstrates how invaluable postdoctoral support programs can be for African academics — and especially for women academics.

Still, although moving in a positive direction, gender imbalances persist, and women faculty remain underrepresented in the continent’s leading universities. Moreover, too many young scholars leave their home nations to study and train abroad. This “brain drain” taxes a university’s resources at multiple levels: for example, instructor-to-student ratios balloon and vital scholarly research, which universities need to undertake to remain competitive, is stalled.

“The proportion of women academics,” Amfo observed, “is just about 30 percent. And as you can imagine, the higher you go up the ranks, the fewer women that you find.”

The need for continued foundation support for doctoral and postdoctoral training of the next generation of scholars at African universities is urgent. As faculty retire or age out, top-tier talent is lost to American and European institutions. HERA’s investment in African scholars and the institutions and programs they will create — outside of the old colonial system — is crucial to the future growth and expansion of Africa’s universities and to sustaining academic life on the continent.

Looking forward, Vice-Chancellor Amfo envisions the University of Ghana becoming competitive, essential, and innovative in the changing climate for higher education in a post-COVID world. “I have come to this job as vice-chancellor,” she has said, “with the eye of the scientist and the heart of a humanist.”

“We need to keep that at the center and not operate a faceless technological environment. The vision of my university is to become a research-intensive university,” she explained. “We are focused on that to ensure that we have created the enabling environment that will allow our researchers to thrive, to improve the quality of our graduate training, and to serve as a subregional hub.” Two words underline her administrative vision for the University of Ghana: technology and humanism.

“We exist as a university because of human beings, because of the society, because of our students, and because of our many stakeholders.”

Amfo’s many successes suggest a career strategy for future scholars seeking mutual support as they proceed with their postdoctoral training and research. She believes in continued mentorship for young scholars who wish to follow her path as a scholar and administrator. “Good mentorship will help you to achieve in five years what you would have otherwise achieved in 10 years because you have someone guiding you,” Amfo said. “Because I am the product of mentorship, I feel obligated to also support others.”

Syreeta McFadden is a writer and professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Her work has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, the Nation, BuzzFeed News, NPR, Brooklyn Magazine, Feministing, and the Guardian, where she had been a regular contributor. A former urban planner and housing development specialist, she is currently working on a collection of essays.