Meet the first Northern heroine who helped in the struggle for independence

Susanna Al-Hassan born on November 27, 1927 and died on January 17, 1997 was a Ghanaian author and politician, who in 1961 became Ghana’s first female to be appointed minister.

She was the first African woman to hold a cabinet portfolio and became the member of parliament for the then Northern Region parliamentary constituency between 1960 and 1966.

Sussana Al-Hassan was born in Tamale and educated at Achimota School. From 1955 to 1960 she was headmistress of Bolgatanga Girls’ Middle School. She is the mother of former GTV News anchor Selma Ramatu Alhassan who later became Selma Valcourt and Mr Victor Alhassan of Sky Petroleum.

On the fight against prostitution in northern Ghana in the 1960s, the CPP government engaged in mass education campaigns that emphasized the association of prostitution with “social evil”, “enemy” and “crusade”, among the aged and illiterate population.

Al-Hassan asserted that the problem rather lay with “the soaring rate of depravity and lewdness among our younger generation especially school girls and young working girls” who traveled to Tamale for work or school.