Frank Robertson Jr. was not strictly an African engineer. However, he was an African American engineer from Texas who had worked successfully in Ghana for over twenty years. Returning to Africa in the 1960s, at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah, he ran a small engineering firm in Accra until he fell out with his African-American business partner in the early 1980s. United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was appointed Technical Advisor to Ghana’s second Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU), which gradually came into existence in Tamale, in the Northern Region. A natural fit technologist, Frank Robertson excelled in this role, and much to his credit ITTU won the support of the local population and became a major driver of change in one of Ghana’s most deprived regions.
From 1975 to 1979, the Technology Consulting Center (TCC) of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, sought financial support for the ITTU concept. The intention of TCC engineers was to locate the first ITTU in the center of Ghana’s largest informal industrial area, Suame Magazine in Kumasi. By 1979, USAID and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) agreed in principle to support an ITTU, but both agencies wanted it to be located in northern Ghana, hundreds of kilometers from the TCC in Kumasi. After lengthy negotiations, CIDA was convinced to support ITTU in Suame and USAID opted for Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region. Both USAID and CIDA appointed technical advisors to work with the TCC and the man chosen to help establish the Tamale ITTU was Frank Robertson.
Frank Robertson had worked for many years as a manager for All-Afra Engineering Ltd in Accra. During this period, Frank saw a need for affordable electric welding equipment and taught two small shops to make these machines and offer them for sale. This was one of the first examples of engineering manufacturing in Ghana and copies of Frank’s welder were soon being made not only in Accra but also in Kumasi, Tema and other urban centers. This development had a massive effect in helping many young people to establish themselves as self-employed as welders. All-Afra’s work was mainly related to new construction, plant installation and repairs for formal sector industries and Frank had few opportunities to work with the informal sector until he joined the Tamale ITTU team in the early 1990s. 1980.
The university’s Department of Architecture had designed a new building for Tamale ITTU, and USAID brought in a precast structure from the US. However, all construction materials were in short supply, including cement and steel rebar, and it was estimated that there would be a two-year delay before the foundation and floor slab were ready.
Frank was not content to sit and wait, so he suggested setting up an Appropriate Technology Club (ATC) in the large garden of the Project Consultant’s bungalow. He invited young men and women to come and try out his ideas for new small businesses. Using a central lathe and electric welding equipment, Frank converted the garage into a machine shop. Using workbenches under the shade of the trees, the engineers and carpenters began making looms and beehives from patterns provided by the TCC and cotton spinning wheels of Frank’s own design, as well as prototypes made to test ideas submitted by ATC members. Soon, Frank was training cotton spinners on the bungalow terrace and coil-loom weavers in the main hall. A hive some distance away under another shade tree provided an early opportunity to train beekeepers. Frank was determined that by the time the ITTU building was ready, there would be a hub of activity on which to build. He had also secured the goodwill and full cooperation of the community, which took everything Frank was doing for their benefit very seriously.
Before Frank left Tamale in August 1986, the ITTU building had been completed and its entire facility had been installed, including a well-equipped machine shop, welding and steel fabrication shop, carpentry shop, a cast iron and a 60 KVA standby generator. Frank called it the best engineering shop north of the Volta River. The people of Tamale considered Frank a gift from God to his community and many expressed their grievance at his final departure. Frank would have liked to stay. He left because his Ghanaian wife saw no future for her expected son in the revolutionary Ghana of Flight Lieutenant Rawlings. She persuaded Frank to take his family back to Texas. Invited by one head of state, rebuffed by another, Frank did his best for the continent of his ancestors. It was the best that he will be remembered for a long time in Tamale.