It was in September of 1987 that I became a freshman at my dream school Accra Academy. They called us the 'green horns' but that did not bother me at all. We were so naïve and everything looked so different. Well, the layout of the school was so fascinating and looked just like the University of Ghana, Legon campus. I was very cute and saw those seniors as giants.

Form one was quite hectic with nicknames being given to some of us, learning of ‘Jama’ (or cheer songs), being sent here and there and preparing for the famous ‘homos’ night when a lot of weird things were done to you to initiate you into the great Accra Aca clan. It was very interesting though the fear of being caught about doing something wrong hung in the air.

The boarding house was fun and hectic. My hall was the great Alema Hall previously known as Michigan. It was quite calm but being a boys school and a boys Hall there was always time to make some noise. We had other great Halls like Ellen, Awuletey aka Anglionby and Halm Addo aka International.

It seems like only yesterday when I remember how we prepared sockings in a bucket (Gari and Sugar). One of my duties was to preserve the great food names passed down from generation upon generation of Accra Aca Alumni. Few of the names as I recall were CARBO (gari and sugar), SOLDIER CARBO (gari, sugar and milo) and of course who will forget FERME (mashed fermented kenkey).

Form 1 through 3 was kind of tough as you receive 99 percent of you punishments there. Some punishments I could remember were IRON (monkey), SQUATTING, TAARBOO, KNEELING DOWN (kuashie) and lying under the bed among others. Juniors were always afraid to get to the form five (5) corner and all that.

Guynames /nicknames were invented or passed down from past generations. A few I could remember are names like asogomi, shalamota, opreege, kulamelon, natty bongo, abotawa, laputa among others. Teachers/Housemasters unfortunately were not exempt from contracting these sometimes good sometimes not so good nicknames. I remember names like kwadaso, topey, allboth, asempa, akpohey, sango, sharpiro etc.

The headmaster of my time was Mr. V B Freeman. He was a real tough headmaster. He always kept the Assembly Hall calm when he was on the stage.

Athletics was to me the greatest fun in my school days because we were the best. The school produced a lot of athletes, footballers and intellectuals.The games that happened in school were cross country which was mostly between halls. This was always very competitive. The triangular games comprised of Accra Aca, St. Augustine’s and Ti Ahmadiya secondary. It was done on a rotational basis with respect to location.

The mighty Interco was the greatest. I remember the support base for the school was the greatest at the stadium. Jama was always rehearsed the whole night before the games commenced by all students after dinning at the ‘no mans’ land. This was done till day break. It was very interesting and fun. Form five was fun but tough. I am happy to have been part of the school team under Coach Sarpong (Shapiro as we used to call him). He really made us proud and brought out good athletes and footballers from Accra Aca. He was a very good coach.

Lo and behold you are in form five and you start dreaming of putting on the green shirt. Your final paper in form five or the ’O’ level is like you have won the lottery. A lot of pressure or load is finally lifted off your broad shoulders and one begins to recollect all those wonderful years and friends one is about to part ways with.

Well, Accra Aca made us learn about life, people and places. I am very proud to be an alumnus of one of the greatest schools in Ghana and Africa. I will always hold my alma mater in a very high esteem everywhere I go.

Accra Aca … Esse quam videri - Bleooo!!!!!