The Attorney General of Ghana, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, has shared a deeply personal account of his childhood, revealing that he grew up in extreme poverty and only entered formal education at a much later age than his peers.
Speaking on Starr Chat with Bola Ray, he shared that his early life in Zuarungu in the Upper East Region was marked by severe hardship.
“I was born into abject poverty, and so I grew up in very trying circumstances,” he stated.
He recounted that his mother was a petty trader at the Zuarungu market, a woman well known in the community for her forthright and outspoken nature, as well as her willingness to defend those who worked with her. Despite her popularity, she had no formal education.
His father, also illiterate, worked as a long-distance driver. “I didn’t grow up in an educated family. I went to school really very late at age 11,” the Attorney-General said.
Before entering school, he spent his childhood as a shepherd boy, herding sheep and cattle with his cousins on the hills of Zuarungu
A life-changing moment came when a catechist from the nearby Catholic Church noticed that he was not attending school like other children his age. When questioned, he explained that he did not have a school uniform. At the time, he was nearly 11 years old and had never been inside a classroom.
Days later, a man arrived at his family home with a school uniform, paving the way for his enrollment in primary school. “That is how I started school,” he recalled.
He was initially placed in Primary Two, but his age made him a target of mockery among his classmates, who referred to him as the “classroom grandfather.” The ridicule affected his confidence and willingness to attend school.
Sensing his discomfort, his mother requested a transfer to Tongobion Primary School in Zuarungu South, where he was less known. The change marked a turning point in his academic journey.
At Tongobion Primary, he was admitted into Primary Three and applied himself diligently to his studies. By Primary Four, he had emerged as the best student in his class.
“I took learning very, very seriously,” he said.
His journey, he noted, is proof that “the rest, as they say, is history.”
The Stanford and Michigan-educated lawyer, appointed AG in January 2025, credits this improbable entry for igniting his academic ascent from Notre Dame Seminary to global legal expertise.
