Kokroko Kwasi Kokuro Oppong-Agyare
On Thursday, September 11, 2025, Ghana and Africa lost not just a man, but a movement.
Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo Kantanka, inventor, prophet, visionary, and father of African innovation, took his final bow at 77.
His departure is more than the silence of a great voice; it is a trumpet blast to awaken a continent still sleeping on its own potential. Kantanka was not an ordinary man.
He was a boy from Bekwai who refused to be limited by Bekwai.
He was a pastor who refused to confine the Gospel to words alone.
He was an engineer without a formal Western lab who built machines that made the world stop and wonder.
He was Africa refusing to apologise for being African.
To remember him simply as an inventor is to miss his prophecy.
To remember him only as a preacher is to miss his invention.
He was both and that was his secret.
He fused faith with science, prayer with production, vision with action.
In his hands, spirituality and technology were not enemies, but allies.
In his mind, Ghana was not a consumer, but a creator.
In his heart, Africa was not a beggar, but a builder.
Challenge to African mind
When Kantanka unveiled his first vehicles, the critics scoffed.
Some called it impossible.
Others dismissed it as a gimmick.
But they did not realise that he was not simply building cars; he was building courage.
Every bolt he tightened, every engine he fitted, was a declaration to the African mind: You can do it here.
You can make it here. You can dream it here.
And yet, how many of us believed him?
How many Ghanaians bought his cars?
How many Africans supported his vision?
For years, Kantanka was celebrated more abroad than at home.
While other nations parade their inventors as national treasures, we treated ours as entertainment at annual exhibitions.
We clapped for him, but we did not follow him.
We admired his faith, but we did not share it.
Today, as we stand at his grave, this must change.
Let his death awaken us. Let his memory sting our conscience.
For if we do not rise, we will bury not only a man, but also the future he fought for.
Prophet of self-reliance
Kantanka was a prophet in the truest sense of foretelling and forth-telling.
He told us with his life that Africa’s destiny will not be imported.
He reminded us that dependence is not development and aid is not progress.
His automobiles, his aircraft prototypes, his robots, his agricultural machines; all of them were sermons louder than words.
And yet, sermons require hearers.
Will Africa hear him now that he is gone?
Will Ghana finally honour the man who tried to place the steering wheel of destiny in our own hands?
Or will we go back to applauding while depending, clapping while importing, praising while doing nothing?
The awakening we need
This tribute is not for Kantanka alone.
It is for every Ghanaian.
Every African.
Every leader, every student, every dreamer.
Apostle Safo’s death reminds us that time is not on our side.
The man who dared to show us the way has passed the baton.
If we drop it, we betray him.
If we carry it, we honour him.
Think of it: a Ghana that builds its own cars, grows its own food with local machines, defends itself with local technology and inspires the world with African genius.
This was not fantasy for Kantanka; it was his daily labour.
Why should it remain a fantasy for us?
Africa, awake! Ghana, rise! Do not wait for another Kantanka.
There may never be one like him again.
But there can be millions of smaller stars, if only we believe. If only we support our own.
If only we would stop laughing at our visionaries and start investing in them.
The legacy lives
His passing does not end his vision.
The Kristo Asafo Mission remains. Kantanka Automobile stands. His apprentices continue to invent.
His children carry the torch. But they cannot do it alone.
The legacy of a man becomes the strength of a people only when the people claim it.
Apostle Dr Ing. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka has given us enough evidence.
The question is, can Africa no longer create?
The question is, will Africans believe?
He believed. He dared. He built. Now it is our turn.
Rest well, Apostle.
Rest well, Innovator.
Rest well, Father of Invention.
You have run your race.
You have lit the flame.
You have proven that a man with faith and vision can move mountains, build machines and inspire nations.
Your body may rest in Ghanaian soil, but your spirit will continue to whisper to every African child who dreams, every apprentice who learns, every nation that dares to rise.
And to us, the living: let us not betray your dream.
Let us rise from the shadows of dependency.
Let us buy our own cars.
Support our own inventors. Invest in our own future.
Let us awaken, for the Star of Africa has set, but the dawn of Africa must now begin.
Farewell, Star of Africa.
Source: newsthemegh.com