E. A. Boateng

Ernest Amano Boateng (30 November 1920 – 15 July 1997) was a Ghanaian academic and public servant. He was an emeritus professor of geography who taught at the University of Ghana. He was the first vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast and the first chairman of the then Environmental Protection Council of Ghana, now Ghana Environmental Protection Agency. He served in various capacities in many institutions, including as president of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and as chairman of the West African Examinations Council.

Early life and education Ernest was born on 30 November 1920. His father was the Reverend Christian Robert Boateng, a reverend minister of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, and his mother, Adelaide Akonobea Boateng, both of Aburi, Ghana.

He was educated at Achimota College and St Peter's Hall, now St Peter's College, University of Oxford, England, where he read history and geography, majoring in social and political geography, and graduated in 1949. He earned his master's degree in 1953 and was awarded a Bachelor of Letters (B.Litt.) degree in 1954 for his thesis on human settlements.

Career Academic His teaching began at the Presbyterian College of Education, Akropong. and head of the geography department of the university in 1961. In 1962, he was made dean of the faculty of social studies of the university. While at the university, he was master of the Mensah Sarbah Hall, a hall of residence in the University of Ghana.

In 1969, he was appointed principal of the University College of Cape Coast, and was the first vice chancellor of the institution when it was elevated to university status in 1972 as the University of Cape Coast.

He held many visiting appointments with universities in Britain and America. He was a Smuts visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge in 1965 and 1966. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was an honorary fellow of the Ghana Institute of Planners in 1984, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1973. He was appointed its president from 1973 to 1976. From 1978 to 1979, he was a member of the Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting the constitution for the third Republic of Ghana. In 1980, he was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Investments of Ghana and the National Council for Higher Education from 1975 to 1983. He was appointed chairman of the West African Examinations Council in 1977 and served in that capacity until 1985. He served as president of the Ghana Wildlife Society from 1974 to 1987. Some of his works include:

Tomorrow's Map of West Africa, 1952 A geographical study of human settlement in the eastern province of the gold coast colony west of the volta delta, 1954 A Geography of Ghana, 1959 (contribution) Developing Countries of the World, 1968 (contribution) Population Growth and Economic Development in Africa, 1972 Independence and Nation Building in Africa, 1973 A political geography of Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1978) African Unity: the dream and the reality (J. B. Danquah Memorial Lectures 1978), 1979 Physical and Social Geography (in Africa South of the Sahara 1994) Crisis, Change and Revolution in Ghanaian Education (Armstrong-Amissah Memorial Lecture), 1996 Government and the People: outlook for democracy in Ghana, 1996

He was the brother of Josiah Ofori Boateng, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana.

Death Boateng died on 15 July 1997, after a short illness. He was buried in his hometown, Aburi.