Tribute to Zan Akologo, a towering son of Ghana

Sir Samuel “Zan” Akologo. You left us too soon, with so much unfinished work. It is painful to turn you into a memory. You were such a force in the world, an animator and encourager of people, a builder, and visionary

When we traveled across Ghana, everyone knew you. You were a man of and for the people, a man who treated each person as made in God’s image, who had time and attention for everyone regardless of social status or religion. You respected people enough to hold them accountable. Do what you say, that is what is asked of us.

You imagined a world in which people of many faiths worked together for the good of all. You believed fiercely that women and men should stand tall and demand their voices be heard. You took pleasure in the hard, daily work needed to turn belief into action, ideals into better lives, to build lasting institutions, and strong communities.

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Uncle Zan touched so many people so deeply it’s not easy to tell the story of his life and impact. His father worked building roads in northern Ghana and believed in education for his children and empowerment for his wife. Zan benefited from free compulsory education under President Kwame Nkrumah. And when Nkrumah was overthrown and school attendance made more difficult, Zan’s father insisted that he and his brother stay in school.

Zan told me that growing up he faced insults and discrimination because of his ethnicity, religion, and economic status, but chose to channel his anger into social change.

Participating in Catholic organizing in the 1980s to restore democracy in Ghana shaped Zan’s outlook and mission. He saw multi-faith organizing through FAITH in Ghana Alliance and Faith in Action International as a long-overdue return to Catholic social teaching and action. Zan was a natural organizer, able to listen deeply, value each person’s wisdom, and challenge people to act on their interests.

Zan bridged worlds and people. He led Caritas Ghana for a decade, advised the African Catholic Bishops on public policy, was a leader in the global movement for debt relief and the elimination of poverty, imagined and built the FAITH in Ghana Alliance in 2016 to defend Ghana’s democracy and achieve social harmony, and began rebuilding FAITH in Ghana in 2022 as a grassroots multi-faith organizing movement.

His work made Ghana a worldwide-model for multi-faith cooperation and provided a foundation for the country’s multi-party democracy, which will celebrate another peaceful transfer of power on January 7, 2025.

Zan was a believer who took theology seriously. I remember how happy he was when I brought him a copy of Cardinal Czerny’s just published Siblings All, Sign of the Times. It was an honor of his lifetime when Pope Francis conferred on him the Papal Knighthood in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great for his service to the church and humanity. Sir Zan said, “I dedicate the honor to all the poor and vulnerable whose causes and voices I have stood up for in many respects, as my deepest faith response! May I never disappoint all the stakeholders who look up to me in admiration and hope for a just society! AMEN.”

Zan worked as Country Director of SEND-Ghana, a National Public Policy Advocacy NGO and served on Amnesty International’s International Executive Committee. He understood the value of international cooperation, while recognizing that lasting change comes from the bottom up, through people organizing and building power in their communities.

When Zan finished his term at Caritas in 2022, he was thrilled to come back to grassroots work. He told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life building a multi-faith people’s movement in Ghana and across Africa. He was already having conversations about multi-faith organizing with colleagues in Liberia and other African countries.

Zan’s vision made it possible for people to find purpose and power. With his guidance, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics and Pentecostals joined together to build the FAITH in Ghana Alliance. So far, they’ve built ten Regional Alliances, and thirty Community Alliances.

Zan wanted to bring multi-faith organizing to every corner of Ghana, to empower neglected communities and focus the country on development. This is work of many hands. In the months and years ahead, people from every faith tradition will carry forward Zan’s legacy. They will build new regional and community alliances and grow FAITH in Ghana Alliance into a national grassroots multi-faith movement able to transform Ghana.

Loyal, courageous, diligent, persistent, visionary, strategic, thoughtful and of such good sense. It is hard to lose an uncle, father, brother and friend, whose character and experience shaped him to be such a valuable force for change in the world.

Ghana is immeasurably better because of Zan’s labors. He and his wife Patricia, and children Hubert, Bernard, Benjamin and Mary-Claire, and his extended family are in our prayers.

Zan left us too soon, stunned and heartbroken, but not confused about the work before us.

– Gordon Whitman, Faith in Action International