Long before he wore the judicial robes of Ghana’s Court of Appeal or sat in Parliament, Francis Gyafiiry Korbieh was a boy trekking 10 miles on foot through the rugged terrain of Jirapa to reach school. The village where he grew up in the Upper West Region had no educational facilities, forcing him into a punishing routine that stretched across six years of primary education.
“I come from a village that is 10 miles due east of Jirapa,” Korbieh told Joy FM’s Personality Profile. “There was no school there. So I had to walk those 10 miles, let me say 10 kilometres.”
The journey was not a daily affair but a weekly cycle of sacrifice. Korbieh would walk to Jirapa, stay at the school for a week, then walk back home for two days, before returning for another week at school. This gruelling schedule repeated through his primary years.
He said, “I used to walk to the school, attend school for one week, walk back to my village for two days and then walk back to school for another week.”
This routine yielded an uncommon reward. After Primary Six, Korbieh was selected among the pioneer students of the newly established St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary. Direct progression from Primary Six to secondary school was unusual for children from his region at that time.
Korbieh recalled, “It was a novelty at the time because in our part of the country, nobody ever went to secondary school from Primary Six.”
The seminary trained boys for the Catholic priesthood, but Korbieh’s path diverged. “I didn’t want to become a priest,” he said. “I didn’t get the calling. So that’s why I didn’t become a priest. But here I am. I serve my country very well. I also serve the church very well.”
Born on 20 December 1950 at Jirapa/Kuncheni, Korbieh pursued further education at St. Peter’s Secondary School, the University of Ghana, and the Ghana School of Law. He was called to the Ghana Bar on 30 September 1976, marking a legal career that spans 50 years.
Korbieh served as Member of Parliament for Jirapa from 1993 to 2001. He later became a Justice of the Court of Appeal, a position he held until retiring in 2020.
Every judgment he wrote and every law he participated in crafting are rooted in those early 10-mile walks in search of education.
According to Joy Online.
