Gliders once circled over the plains at Afienya, launched from an airfield set up in the early years of independence. Kwame Nkrumah wanted Ghanaians trained to fly, and a national gliding school was established there in the 1960s. Today Afienya is better known to most people as a busy stop on the road from Tema to Akosombo, surrounded by new houses and the farms that remain between them.
The gliding school and Nkrumah's vision
Afienya lies north of Tema on the Tema-Akosombo road, close to Dawhenya and the border between the Greater Accra and Eastern regions. The gliding school at Afienya was set up in the early 1960s with help from the German aviator Hanna Reitsch, who was invited by Nkrumah. It trained young Ghanaians in gliding. Nkrumah saw aviation as part of building a modern nation, alongside projects such as Ghana Airways and the Akosombo dam.
After Nkrumah’s overthrow in 1966, the gliding school declined, though the airfield remained in use for various purposes.
Revival, growth and weekend trips
In later years, groups worked to revive gliding at Afienya and to train young people, including girls, in aviation skills. Housing estates and private homes have spread around Afienya as families look for land outside Tema and Accra. The surrounding plains are used for farming and livestock, though building is replacing farmland. The Tema-Akosombo road carries heavy traffic, including trucks to and from the port.
Nearby Dawhenya has an irrigation project used for rice farming. Residents in new areas often wait for roads, water and electricity to arrive. Afienya is on the route to Akosombo and the Volta, making it a stop for weekend travellers.
Hanna Reitsch and her book
The town is likely to keep growing as Greater Accra expands north and east. Hanna Reitsch was a famous German test pilot. Her work in Ghana in the early 1960s is a little-known chapter of the country’s aviation history, and she later wrote about her years at the gliding school. Reitsch published a memoir of her time in Ghana, describing her work with Nkrumah and the young Ghanaians she trained to fly gliders at the school.
Afienya once trained young Ghanaians to fly. Most people now know it as a junction on the Akosombo road, while the airfield waits for gliders to come back.
