The child from Anlo-Afiadenyigba in the Volta Region, whose dream was to become a carpenter at all cost, but later took to fishing and weaving was last Friday invested at the Dela Cathedral at Ho-Kpodzi as the Third President of the Evangelical Presbyterian University College (EPUC).  

This manifested years after he had a change of passion and followed a path of conviction in the transfer of knowledge from one area to another.  

Born on Sunday, June 13, 1976, at Weme-Abor near Keta, Professor EdemKwasiBakah is the second child of Mr Gilbert DoviBakah, an Educationist and Mrs Victoria YetsaGoverna-Bakah, a petty trader.  

He was baptised into the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church at Anlo-Afiadenyigba where his father served as a catechist.  

Young Edem was raised in a typical Presbyterian environment.  

At the age of nine, he started fishing to support the family financially, and learnt kente-weaving, a trade he engaged in alongside fishing as he grew.  

Edem started his formal education at the age of five at the E.P. Primary School in 1981 and when the educational reforms were rolled out in 1987, he was among the first batch of students admitted into the Local Authority Junior Secondary School at Afia’gbaKpota, two kilometres away from the main town.  

Together with some of his classmates including MrDzudzorliGakpey, Member of Parliament for the Keta, he covered that distance twice every school-going day, for three years.  

After successfully passing the Basic Education Certificate Examination in 1990, Edem gained admission to Abor Senior Secondary in 1991.  

The young man’s hopes to study carpentry in the school were dashed and he had difficulty choosing another programme when he was told that Abor Senior Secondary School did not offer carpentry.  

It was at that juncture that the Assistant Headmaster then, Mr Michael Tettey proposed languages as Elective Subjects to the teenager.  

That meant Edem would study English, Ewe and French.  

“I am offering you French; although you didn’t do it at Junior Secondary Level so that you can take your father to France,” the Assistant Head told Edem and that message sank deep into his heart and he accepted the challenge.  

By dint of hard work, Edem became one of the five out of the 80 who sat and passed the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination to enter tertiary institutions.  

When the 1993 “disastrous results” of the first batch of the Senior Secondary School system were released, young Edem went to the school for his results and one of his former English Language teachers; Mr Richard Ziork saw him and referred to him as Professor, and that title became a prophecy which was to come true 24 years later.  

Edem entered the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in 1995 for the Bachelor of Education (Arts) Degree with French, English and Ewe as his teaching subjects.  

However, he had to defer the programme for one academic year due to ill-health.  

Upon full recovery, he returned to the university in 1996 and graduated in 2000 with a Second-Class Upper Division.  

He was subsequently retained by the Department of French as the only National Service person to serve the department.  

Shortly after his national service, Edem enrolled in the Master of Philosophy in Linguistics and Didactics programmes at UCC in 2001. Against all odds, he completed the programme at a record time in 2004.

Later, through the French Government Scholarship, Edem pursued further studies in Linguistics and Didactics at the Université de Strasbourg, France, and was awarded Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in 2007 and 2010 respectively.  

The Academic, Researcher and Administrator, has worked in the university environment as a Principal Research Assistant from 2004 to 2005; Lecturer from 2005 to 2011; Senior Lecturer from 2011 to 2018 Associate Professor from 2018 to date at the Department of French at the UCC.  

Professor Bakah is married to DrMrs Marie AfuaBaahBakah, Senior Lecturer at the UNESCO Category II Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, UCC.  

They are blessed with five children, including quadruplets.  

To highlight some of Professor Bakah’s achievements, he is the first of six children in his family to attend university and to reach the height of a professor, and also the first to have fathered quadruplets in his family and hometown.  

The handsome professor is the first SSS student to have served as a student librarian in his alma mater and also first and only SSS product to have attained the Professorial rank in French in Ghana and the youngest to have attained the rank in the history of the Department of French, UCC.  

Professor Bakah is the first to have completed Master of Philosophy Thesis in record time at the Department of French, UCC, and first National Coordinator of the Inter-University Conference on Doctoral Studies in French as well as the first professorial rank and youngest to be appointed President of EPUC.  

From Alberto Mario Noretti, Ho