By Murtala Issah
There were very few households in the Northern region that had access to radio when Queen Elizabeth II landed in Tamale on the 20th of November, 1961, together with Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Alhaji Abdulai Zakariah was a young man living with his parents at Moshie Zongo, a suburb of Tamale.
“The payment of five shillings prevented most households from owning a radio,” Alhaji Zakariah revealed, adding that, “Our house was one of the privileged houses to own a radio. From it, we heard that the Queen was coming to Tamale.”
The young man and his friends ran from Moshie Zongo through the Tamale forest to the Tamale Old Airport, a distance of about 8 km, where they saw three aircraft and a large gathering of curious onlookers.
“A beautiful red carpet was rolled out for the Queen, and when she came down, she looked so beautiful,” Alhaji Zakariah stressed.
Retired broadcaster, Alhaji Adam Kokrah who was in Tamale Senior High School ((TAMASCO), described the Queen’s visit as historic.
“We lined up on the street with miniature Ghanaian flags and waved at the convoy, the crowd was so large some of us could not see the Queen,” he explained.
There are very few young persons in Northern Ghana today who have met the Queen in person. Among these few is Alima Bawah, who received an award.
In an interview with GBC News, she observed that the late Queen inspired her to aim high in life and leave a legacy.
During the late Queen’s visit to Tamale, a durbar was held in her hounour at the Tamale Police Park, now referred to as the Tamale Jubilee Park, where more than seventy chiefs from Northern Ghana converged.
There were various traditional performances to entertain the Queen and her entourage.
The Tamale Old Airport, where the Queen landed on November 20th, 1961, has now been taken over by developers. A school and a street in Tamale are named after the Queen to mark the historic visit.