Renowned Hiplife musician, Reggie Rockstone and his wife Zilla Limann have disowned Achimota School for its discriminatory policy to bar two dreadlocked students from enrolling in the school.
Reggie and his wife are both alumni of the prestigious Senior High School (SHS), but vowed that the recent saga has forced them to have a second thought in associating with the school.
“Everything to do with Motown is on pause with me. Don’t call me for anything, don’t call me for no year group. I like to go where I am welcome,” the respected musician slammed the adamant school.
Last week, Achimota sparked a nationwide uproar when it refused to enrol two teenagers who had been admitted to the school after passing their basic level examinations with distinction.
The headmistress of the school, Ms. Joyce Rhodaline Addo had faced off with the parents of two students who are also Rastafarians, saying she will not allow them to be enrolled unless they cut off their dreadlocks.
In the ensuing clash between the parents of the students and Ms. Rhodaline Addo, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has stepped in, with its Director-General ordered Achimota to enrol the embattled students.
“We have asked her [headmistress] to admit the students. The student is a Rastafarian and if there is evidence to show that he is Rastafarian, all that he needs to do is to tie the hair neatly,” the GES boss, Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, told the Daily Graphic.
“…You cannot say that you will not admit someone on the basis of the person’s religious beliefs and so, we have asked the head to allow the children to be in the school,” the Director-General stated.
However, the headmistress will not budge in a show of inexplicable hold over the GES in what forced the GES to scurry to rescind its decision ordering the headmistress to accept the students.
Meanwhile, while Achimota was vehemently rejecting the enrolment of the Ghanaians teenagers, the school had allowed students of European, Asian and Indian extract to keep their long hairs.
A quick scan through the Instagram page of Achimota School reveals several long-haired and a couple of dreadlocked Caucasoid students who have had no issues whatsoever gaining admission into the institution.
This revelation is contrary to the impression created by the school recently when it stopped the enrolment of two Ghanaian teenagers from enrolling in the school because they had dreadlocks, coming from the Rastafarian faith.
The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), the Ghana National Association of Teachers and the National Graduate Teachers Association (NAGRAT) have all backed Achimota in rejecting the students.
The NAGRAT President, Angel Carbonu has been extremely vocal about the situation, insisting that the students can go attend a Rastafarian school if they insist on not cutting off their dreadlocks.
In 2015, Angel Carbonu in a brazen show of mental colonisation, had told Accra-based CITI FM that the rules for students to cut their hairs short in SHS’ do not apply to Caucasian-type students because “ they’ll look ugly” if they are made to trim their hair.
“What I gathered was that when Caucasian students cut their hair to the level of the blacks or natives, it makes them look very ugly and it can even affect their looks so Caucasian students are not allowed to cut their hair. There is no rule in the Ghana Education Service concerning Caucasians in Ghana because we are not Caucasians in Ghana, we are negroid.”
The Ghanaian public space has been abuzz with criticisms of the discriminatory stance of the elitist Achimota School. It is perhaps the widespread negative image that Achimota had attracted to itself and its prejudiced stance that had forced Reggie Rocksone to sever ties with the school.