Kwasi Boakye, the Ghanaian prince and world’s first black mining engineer

Born on April 24, 1827, in Kwasi Boakye, son of a king, was the eldest son of Kwaku Dua, King of the Ashanti Kingdom and future African prince of the Ashanti empire, who was sent to the Netherlands to train as an engineer.

Kwasi Boakye was a mining engineer born of a prince of the Ashanti empire, King of the Ashanti Kingdom, Kwaku Dua. He was then sent to the Netherlands to train as an engineer.

Together with his cousin Kwame Poku, he was sent in 1837 by his king to the Netherlands to receive an education there, as part of wider negotiations between Ashanti concerning the recruitment of Ashanti soldiers for the Dutch East Indies Army.

Although Kwame Poku returned to the Gold Coast as planned, Kwasi Boakye remained in the Netherlands. He was trained as a mining engineer at Delft University, where he graduated in 1847. In July 1847 he gave lectures at the Bergakademie in Freiberg, Germany.

During his service, he stayed with Caroline Geudtner in Petersstrasse. In 1850 he was sent to the Dutch East Indies, where he was discriminated against by his superior, Cornelius de Groot van Embden, for whom he received financial compensation in 1857. As part of the compensation, he obtained an estate in Bantar Peteh.m, south of Buitenzorg.

Prince Kwasi Boakye died in his estate in 1904