How my dream to become the female version of Sam Jonah was quashed – Asantehene’s daughter

Do you know that the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has a daughter who is not only a medical doctor by profession but also an entrepreneur?

Dr. Caryn Agyeman Prempeh, widely known as Ohemaa, despite being a princess of the Ashanti Kingdom, did not let the pride and pageantry that come with royalty stand in the way of her education and aspirations.

The mother of two and the Chief Executive Officer of Ohemaa Detergents, in an interview with Lexis Bill on JoyFM's Personality Profile show, disclosed that her childhood dream was not to become a medical doctor but a mining engineer.

Dr. Agyeman Prempeh said she dreamt of becoming the ‘female version’ of Sir Dr. Sam Jonah, one of the most prominent and wealthiest Ghanaian businessmen and former CEO of Ashanti Goldfields, whom she described as “a great man”.

However, this dream of hers ended when she visited a mining site with her icon, Sir Sam Jonah.

“At a very young age, I wanted to be a mining engineer. I was looking up to being a female version of Sir Sam Jonah,

“However, I spent a weekend in Obuasi with him (Sam Jonah) and my dad at my early age. He took me down the mines and I realised that it was very dark down there. I asked the controller of the vehicle to take me back and he said, ‘We can’t go back, we have to keep going till we come out of it,’” Ohemaa narrated.

She added, “I think at that point I got discouraged and I was like, no, I don’t want to be down there. However, recently I realised that the mining sector has changed tremendously so you can even eat down there, have a good time down there. Maybe I should have just stayed there.”

The princess said that after her dream to become a female mining engineer extraordinaire ended, she wanted to go into medicine right from Senior High School.

She said that her father, the King of Asanteman, was very supportive of her decision to become a medical doctor and pushed her to achieve it.

“After JHS, I went to St Roses Senior High… from there I had to do my A levels at Edmonton Girls' School in Oxford. Then I came back to KNUST for medical school. From St Roses, I was convinced I was going into medicine.

“He (the Otumfuo) wanted me to be a doctor. He has always loved education and he felt like if you are doing so well, why not be pushed to the highest level? You know our parents wanted you to be either a doctor or a lawyer but today things have changed.”

Dr. Agyeman Prempeh added that aside from practising medicine, she wanted to do more, which led to her establishing the CERVIVA Foundation in her 5th year at medical school to create awareness about cervical cancer, which many women were reporting at a very late stage, making it difficult for them to get the necessary medical care.

She also said her desire to help with the shortage of detergents and sanitisers during the COVID-19 pandemic led to her establishing her company, Ohemaa Detergents.

BAI/NOQ

In the meantime, catch up on the latest edition of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV, as we bring you the story of the over 100-year-old Ghanaian 'domedo' business below:





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