Here in Ghana, the name Kwabena Yeboah is closely associated with exciting commentary on radio and television football. With his trademark exclamation of ‘oluwaa’ whenever a goal is scored, he[Kwabena Yeboah] has won great affection from the football fans.
Contrary to the popular notion that ‘oluwaa’ might be a Nigerian word, Kwabena says it is rather an archaic English word, Holoa, corrupted to sound like an uncomplimentary Ga word loosely translated meaning foolish, No matter its meaning the peculiar usage by Kwabena on air, added to his prolific writing in his bi-weekly sports paper AFRICAN SPORTS have combined to make him easily the most popular journalist of his generation.
His involvement with the electronic media came about by chance when Kwabena was among sports journalists covering the SCSA Zone III football tournament in Liberia in 1987. A colleague from Radio Ghana invited him to try his hands on summary and brief commentary and he proved to be a natural. He did it so well that back in Ghana he was occasionally invited to run commentaries until he became a permanent fixture on air from 1989. Since 1994, he has been hosting GBC TV’s prime programme Sports Highlights.
Born at Apam, central region of Ghana 53 years ago to Dr. Yaw Yeboah, a medical officer and Beatrice Yeboah, a business woman, kwabena took to football at an early age and was so fond of the game, particularly footballers, that at the age of nine in 1969, he had become a ‘ball boy’ of Okwawu Stores. He moved to the then new league debutants ‘troublesome’ Akotex when his uncle, Oheneba Siaw, that sleek midfielder, signed for the factory club. When Oheneba Siaw moved to Kotoko in 1974, Kwabena followed suit.
He has nostalgic memories of those hectic camping activities at the then University of Science and Technology with stars like Dan Oppong, Kwame Nti, Yaw Sam, Kuuko Dadzie, Botwe Buckman, Charles Osei, Osei Kofi, Gordon Prempeh and others.
“I had my degree in ‘ball boyism’ when I was promoted to the Black Stars in 1977 before the 1978 African Cup of Nations”, Kwabena tells his life story with his trademark infectious laugh.
Kwabena’s dreams was to become a big time lawyer, but he made a massive u-turn to journalism because of his passion for sports, and what he described as divine intervention. He received a lot of inspiration from journalists such as Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, Kabral Blay Amihere. Ken Bediako, Oheneba Charles, Martin Tyler and Archie McPhereson.
He also received a lot of inspiration from Mr. Harry Sawyerr, former Minister of Transport and Communication and later Education with whom he lived for 11 years. Harry Sawyerr always had one message for Kwabena: “There is no substitute for hardwork.” Kwabena obviously took the advice seriously and his hardwork earned him the chance to marry one of Harry Sawyerr’s beautiful daughters, Olive. They have two boys, Harry Kwabena Yeboah Junior and Michael Nana Kwaku Yeboah an ardent fan of English Premier League side, Arsenal.
Kwabena describes his early education as chequered starting from Apam Methodist Primary, Akosombo Experimental School, Nkawkaw Presbyterian School, Komenda Local Authority before spending seven years at the Winneba Secondary School.
He attended the Institute of Journalism from 1982-84 and later on in life did a few months of football coaching lessons in Aarau in Switzerland and Leeds in England in 1995.
He is the Editor of African Sports, Ghana’s oldest private newspaper on the market today. He was one of the few sports commentators from Africa to be invited by the African Union of Broadcasters and Canal France to run commentary worldwide during the 2010 FIFA world cup in South Africa. Kwabena whose role model is Nelson Mandela, hails from Atibie on the Okwawu mountains.
He won the nickname, The Writer, and has served as the president of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana, shortened as SWAG since July 4, 2015.
