Meet the late Heinrich Kuenyodunu Aidam, founder of Mount Mary College of Education, Somanya
A short history of the founder of MOUNT MARY TRAINING COLLEGE, Somanya, in Krobo District of Gold Cost. (now the Eastern Region of the Republic of Ghana).
The late HEINRICH KUENYODUNU AIDAM was the nephew of Togbi Tenge Dzokoto II of Anyako, great-grandson of Amega Besa Sru Akpate (the founder of Srogboe) in the Anloga District of the Volta Region in the Republic of Ghana. Son of Amega Kwawu Aidam and a grandson of Kumordzie and a father of the late Joe Koku Aidam (former Keta district Commissioner under the erstwhile CPP administration).
The man, HEINRICH KUENYODUNU AIDAM was born at Atorkor in the year 1870 to Amega Kwawu Aidam and Afenor (madam) Afedomesi Dzokoto. Even in those days, KUENYODUNU at an early age had a strong passion for Christianity and in 1895, then 17 years old, he was handed over to the S. V. D. Missionaries by his maternal uncle, Togbi Tengey Dzokoto II of Anyako for the training that had meant a glorious lot for him and those with whom he became associated with.
The turning point in the life of ENYODUNU, as he was called for short, was his baptism at Lome by Rev. Father P. D. Hoffman on the 25th of March 1896. Soon afterwards, HEINRICH was taken to Germany and prepared for his first Holy Communion, which he took at Neumarken on the 16th of August in the same year as he received the Holy Baptism in Africa. Eager to get through the sacraments in time, young KUENYODUNU was ready for confirmation and was confirmed by the Very Rev. Prefect H. Bucking barely a year later on the 5th of August 1897.
While in Germany, H. K. Aidam was prepared for the Ministry and as well received training as a teacher. Back in Lome, after a long stay away from his native soil, he taught and preached with uncommon energy, zeal and enthusiasm – no surprise at all, therefore, that he earned for himself the title “Teacher” (Big/Great Teacher) by which he was popularly known throughout the length and breadth of Togoland during and after several years within which he taught at Lome until on the 25th August 1911 when he was called home to Anyako by the death of his uncle, Togbi Tengey Dzokoto II. But HEINRICH was not known only for his teaching; he was the first person who attempted to translate from German into the Ewe Language for use by the Roman Catholic Mission, the Catechism Prayer Books, Bible History, Gospels, etc. – works which are still in use.
Over twelve years away from active service did not in any way take the zeal for hard work away from the indefatigable teacher, the late AIDAM. In 1924 or thereabouts, he took the gospel to Agomenya in the Krobo District of the then Gold Coast (Eastern Region), where he established a school which was later taken over by the S. V. D. Mission. He was, however, retained as a teacher and a Catechist and in the discharge of his enormous duties he demonstrated his very special qualities. Under his personal guidance, the seed he had sown grew into a mighty tree – MOUNT MARY TRAINING COLLEGE (Now College of Education). Very appropriately, his work did not pass unrecognised, and so before he was pensioned in 1950, he received the honour of being awarded the proud and meritorious “BENE MERITE” by His Highness Pope Pius XII.
At the ripe age of 85, Heinrich Kuenyodunu Aidam had ceased to be the father and leader of thought that he must have naturally been born to be until he breathed his last on the 5th of August, 1955, at the Olympio Hospital, Lome, after a short illness. The many people that he had had occasion to meet took, each and all, a lesson from his life. Teacher Heinrich Kuenyodunu Aidam was survived by eight children then with no less than 60 grandchildren at the time. Some of his children were/are the late Dumega Joe Koku Aidam (former regent Dzokoto), the late Togbi Akpate Akrobortu II of Srogboe and the only surviving daughter, madam Kosiwor Aidam who lived in Keta and passed on a few years ago.
Credit:- Frieda Yayra Amable via Facebook
