Renowned Ghanaian journalist, Ben Asante, has passed away at the age of 76.
The renowned war correspondent and publisher died on August 12 in Accra after a prolonged illness.
Asante was one of the frontline journalists during the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars.
He was one of the first reporters to break the news of the Liberian civil war in 1990. He commented extensively on politics and social development across Africa for over fifty years.
The deceased and his colleague, renowned journalist Lindsay Barrett, were recognised for their gallantry, risking their lives to report from the frontlines of the war, where their materials became highly sought-after sources of information on the war for the global press.
Born in Keta in 1949, Asante’s early years were shaped by his membership of the Nkrumahist youth movement known as the Ghana Young Pioneer Movement (GYP), set up in the same spirit of the Boys Scout movement at a time when the socialist/nationalist and Pan-African views of Kwameh Nkrumah was sweeping through Ghana and the African continent.
According to Asante, Nkrumah’s fiery personality, accompanied by his excellent oratory skills, attracted young men like him to the movement.
Asante reflected the voice of African youth on such matters as the Environment and population by organising seminars and workshops within countries and on a regional basis. He attended crucial Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summits and served on the Bureau for Refugees based in Addis Ababa.
