University of Ghana Valedictorian Instructed by Department not to wear African Print for his Speech

• Frank Obeng Addae, a valedictorian at the University of Ghana was instructed not to wear African print for his speech at the graduation ceremony
• He also submitted a photo of himself in African print for his profile picture and it was rejected because of what he was wearing in the picture
• It took the kindness of Addae's step father to buy a suit for him because he could not afford to purchase one himself

A brilliant Ghanaian man by the name of Frank Obeng Addae has recently taken to social media to open up about how he was asked to wear a particular attire for his valedictorian speech.

The post sighted by YEN.com.gh on LinkedIn had the young man sharing that after emerging as the overall best graduating student of the School of Biological Science at the University of Ghana, he intended to sew a nice African print attire for his speech at the graduation ceremony because that was what he could afford.

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According to him, the administrator of the department asked him to get a suit instead.

"The administrator for the School of Biological Sciences asked me to get a suit as a Valedictorian, it became a headache. Where was I going to get the money to buy a suit? Or I should go and borrow?"

Frank added that he was asked to submit a picture for his profile but the one he sent was rejected because he was in an African print.

"I remember when they needed my profile pic and I submitted a very nice pic of me in an African print, they rejected and asked me to put on a tie and a suit, eeeiii, Charley, la Wu ooo"

Unable to buy a new suit, he borrowed a suit from a friend but it was unfortunately big.

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It took the intervention of his step father who purchased a very nice suit for him.

In an interview with YEN.com.gh Frank shared his opinion about suits being recognized as the 'official' or 'right' outfits for most special or important events;

"Well, per our culture as Ghanaians, it is obvious that suits are not our official attire. We are Africans and must patronize and wear our own attire for our various ceremonies. It's not bad to wear suits for such ceremonies though, but when it becomes compulsory to wear them, that becomes a problem to me.

So, suits shouldn't be accepted as official attire for important ceremonies we own. If it's a ceremony own by the whites, and it is preferred that the official attire be suits, that is fine. But even with that, it shouldn't be made compulsory that everyone should wear suits. The participants must be allowed to display their beautiful culture", he shared.

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KNUST Graduate Narrates Getting a low Grade for Wearing African Print for his Final year Project Presentation

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that a young man recently resorted to social media to address an issue he encountered after deciding to patronize Ghana-made goods.

@_kayohefaye shared on his Twitter timeline that he wore a traditional attire for his final year presentation at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) but he was given a low score for wearing the 'wrong' outfit.

"Nowadays you can't even do this in Ghana. I wore traditional wear (the official kind) for one of my final year presentations in tech and my lecturer actually marked me down for "improper dressing". Black man erh"

Source: YEN.com.gh