1923-2014

Born on the 3rd of March 1923 to Samuel and Elizabeth Brookman Amissah, Josephine was an active little girl who played football and always found a myriad of ways to entertain herself.  She grew up in Accra at the Railway Quarters where her father was a Railway Inspector.  As a result, Josephine spoke and wrote Ga fluently.  She went to Ola Training where she became a teacher.

After praying with a priest about marriage, she was a little surprised when a young man she and her fellow teachers had giggled about sent a delegation to ask for her hand in marriage in 1946.  He was Francis Isaac Andoh Jr, probationary manager with the then United Africa Company (now Unilever).  Francis was a quiet, shy young man and the extremely beautiful and stylish Josephine must have seemed a bit overwhelming to him.  As we all know, the Elmina people being strategic, he asked his father to put together a group of elders that Josephine’s father would find hard to refuse.  Mr Amissah asked the delegation to come back and Josephine with her faith in prayer accepted the hand of Francis although her colleagues teased her about his bicycle and the fact that he had not yet been confirmed.  They got married on the 11th of January 1948 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Sekondi with a lovely reception at the Railway Club.   Fifty years down the line they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the Holy Spirit Cathedral.   Francis said to her that morning as they met in the common area upstairs. “Here’s to another fifty years” he joked.  “That’s if we can walk.” She responded.

Marriage and Teamwork….

Josephine tells her story in that when she got married to Francis, his English manager asked them out to dinner.  The ever-fashionable young woman wore a pair of earrings, so long that they brushed her shoulders.  She always teased Francis about the fact that, the English man felt that if Francis was going to be able to maintain a wife who was so classy, he certainly had to be confirmed in the job.

A Born Entrepreneur….

She resigned from her teaching job after getting pregnant with her first born.  This was a very difficult birth and she and her baby almost lost their lives due to the carelessness of the midwife. and here the road to entrepreneurship began.  She began to bake little pies, tarts etc.  from home.  Her capital was the chop money that Francis gave her monthly.  She reinvested this money and made sure that there was always a good meal on the table.  They moved with the job, and ended up in Cape Coast, where Francis was District Manager.  Josephine continued to bake, building her business gradually and becoming one of the first to bring homemade ice cream to Cape Coast.

By the time Francis became the first Ghanaian General Manager of UAC, Josephine had also peaked as an entrepreneur.  She travelled often to England to look at other bakeries and to get ideas for expanding her food product line.  She also went to Germany to purchase equipment and her bakery in the late seventies was one of the few fully mechanized bakeries in the country.  The house hummed with machines and a long line of vendors coming to purchase bread.  In the evenings, she would host UAC officials to cocktails and garden parties, using her Good Housekeeping recipe books and creativity to concoct delicious hor d’oeuvres and colourful tasty desserts.     She sent tailors to Francis’ hotel in England to measure him up for custom made suits.  She had classic taste in clothes and shopped out of boutique stores in England where dresses were only one offs.  She loved hats!

Her biggest investment was purchasing the Old Kingsway building on the High Street into which she moved her bakery and ran her café near the post office called Cool Corner Café.  She was extremely innovative and always full of ideas.  A serial entrepreneur, even in her old age, she came up with business concepts.  One of her ideas when she went to have her daughter Franka at Korle bu and couldn’t get any food was to have a food trolley that went through the Maternity Unit to sell snacks and drinks to the new mothers who had missed their lunch or supper.  This was the mark of a true entrepreneur who always saw opportunities to do business where there were problems, and she has been an excellent role model for her daughter Franka.  Her other children Dominic, Paul and Robert have also married entrepreneurship with consultancy and teaching.

Challenges and Success….

Josephine went through personal challenges in life, but she always turned these challenges into opportunities to succeed.  She always took her crosses and bore them with great responsibility, dignity and strength.  She still found the time out of her busy life and schedule to take good care of herself and to make sure that she looked picture perfect.  She liked to associate with a few selected people, mostly other entrepreneurs who shared ideas with her and mentored her.

Reference: Funeral brochure (2014)