The 63rd Ghana Independence Day anniversary was marked in Toronto with ‘What do you know about Ghana’ quiz contest on Saturday, March 7, 2020.

It was the first of its kind in the Toronto Ghanaian community and new among Ghanaians in Diaspora. The patronage was huge and the contest very educative as well as fun.

The program which was organized by the Ghanaian Canadian Association of Ontario (GCAO) was initiated and effectively coordinated by Samuel Baidoo of Toronto. It was held in the spacious hall of the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church with a cross-section of Ghanaians living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) including Professors, Pastors, Chiefs, Presidents of Cultural Associations, local church members, other professionals and a good number of the youth in attendance.

Participants of the contest included three Cultural Associations (the Mid-Volta Association of Canada, the Ga-Adangbe Association and the Mfantseman Cultural Association of Toronto) and seven Churches (Ghana Anglican Church, Disciples Revival Church, St. Andrews Catholic Church, the Ghanaian Presbyterian Church, Ghana Calvary Methodist Church, the Church of Pentecost Canada, and the Ghanaian Toronto and Heritage Church) in the community.

Questions used during the contest encompassed politics, geography, history, and the culture of Ghana. There were three rounds of questions for all the contestants and a tie-breaker round for the top four groups.

At the end of it all the Church of Pentecost, Canada was the overall winner and lifted the maiden trophy for the competition. They were also presented with a golden plaque and a certificate of participation. The Ghanaian Presbyterian Church came second and received a silver plaque with the Mfantseman Cultural Association of Toronto in the third place (bronze plaque).

All the participating groups were presented with certificates of participation.

The awards were presented by the Chairman of the Board of Advisors of GCAO, Dr. Victor Awafo; the Consul General of Ghana in Toronto, Hon. Thomas Seshie and the vice Chancellor of the University of Toronto (Scarborough Campus), Professor Wisdom Tetteh.

Prof. Tetteh used the occasion to praise the contestants for their efforts to study about our motherland Ghana and encouraged them to keep up with their efforts. He was particularly appreciative of the involvement of girls in the competition and said that ‘gender must not be a barrier to whatever we do as a community’.

Mr. Emmanuel Duodu of the GCAO promised to make the competition an annual affair to help our youth and all Ghanaians in Toronto keep abreast with our motherland, Ghana.

Side attraction at the event was a spectacular march drill by the Pathfinders Club of the Toronto Ghanaian Seventh-day Adventist Church.