Mrs Theodosia Salome Abena Kumea Okoh néé Asihene was born in Wenchi on Tuesday 13th June 1922.

She is a renowned artist having exhibited her art pieces in various parts of the world.

She has worked in many mediums. She has produced sketches and paintings in water colour, paintings in oil colour, and created many collages of feathers, and corn stalk, some of which have been hung in several homes and galleries all over the world.

She is best known in the art world for her design of the Ghana National Flag at Independence in 1957, a design which spawned off the flags of several African countries as they also became independent of colonial rule thereafter.

In the Sports world she is best known for her role as Chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association in its hectic formation years, during which time the national hockey pitch, now a modern Field Hockey Stadium, was acquired and built up. She has been a patron of the Ghana Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG).

She comes from a Presbyterian household background. Her Father the Very Reverend E. V Asihene was the first Black Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. She comes from a large family of largely successful and famous siblings. She has also been a teacher, a horticulturist, and a housewife with three children and several grandchildren.

She has had the privilege of travelling around a lot of Ghana and abroad with her Father and with her husband, the late Mr. Enoch K Okoh, who until the coup of 1966 was Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service in Ghana.

She now lives quietly in Accra and is pleased to welcome visitors wishing to sit with her to chat or to study her works of art (all her own) and the various awards that adorn all of her living room area.

She first published her memoirs in the form of an autobiography in time for her 80th birthday in 2002, and has revised and updated it in time for her 90th birthday on 13th June 2012.

For this revision a supplement has been introduced. This has simply been to enable some of her family members who have so wished, to be part of the autobiography revision project.

Contribution pieces have been included as an addendum to the main autobiography, and it is richer for that reason.

She has written the autobiography as an informative historical essay to give any reader a glimpse into what life was like early on in this century, especially for those families that lived in the hinterland and in the rural areas of Ghana.

It shows resilience and a determination to make the most of one’s circumstances no matter how bleak, and is a testimony that the youth of today need to study and take note of.

GhanaWeb.com