KNUST defeats Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, University of Toronto to the finals of WUDC at Madrid 🌟😱

KNUST's Historic Journey to Second Place at WUDC, ESL (by Desmond Dorvlo). Since the first Worlds University debate championship in 1981, no African University has made it to the grand finals of the tournament. This is a story of great happiness and inspiration. No grand narrative can begin without revealing the early challenges. The KNUST Debate Society was founded in 2012, and we have worked hard to be the standard of excellence in African Debate ever since. Now, as Africa's most successful debate society, we have won the Ghana Universities Debate Trophy a record 5 times out of 8 editions and for the past half-decade we have either won or finished second place in the Pan-African Universities debate championship. We have had a team or 2 in each final since 2018 and have won the dub three years in a row (2018,2019,2020 ). And can even have up to 4 teams out of 8 semifinal teams. The one thing that evaded us was a WUDC achievement. It is interesting to note how at a point the WUDC situation became a pipe dream for most debaters in the circuit, waiting to be shortly swept away. The first KNUST team (made up of Duke Aaron Sasu and Loretta Bortey) arrived at the WUDC in Malaysia in 2015, however, due to late registration and other issues, the contingent was only permitted to observe. It took the society 5 years for the second batch of KNUST debaters to arrive at Thailand WUDC with funding from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) . We were the first West African Debating Society to break in the WUDC. The pair of Boakye Nyamekye Isaac and Erasmus Mawuli Segbefia advanced to the WUDC ESL Quarterfinals In 2021. After failing to break at Korea WUDC 2021, we worked even harder to break the second time at Belgrade WUDC 2022. We were the only African team to do so that year. This was made possible by the efforts of Prosper, Vincent, Andrews Terku, and Erasmus Mawuli Segbefia. "Ad Astra per Aspera" is the finest phrase to define our campaign at the Madrid WUDC 2023. There were challenges in preparing the squad to compete in three big championships( Nationals, GUDC, Regionals, PAUDC Mashujaa 2022, and Madrid) in less than two months. It was also challenging to train and write exams at the same time. The most difficult times occurred when we had to pay for registrations, since the GUDC, PAUDC Mashujaa 2022, and Madrid WUDC 2023 were all happening within the same quarter of the year, making the total costs of all three tournaments nearly impossible. It took all the efforts of our Director of Debate Kofi Ohene Owusu Darko, our poised Sports Directorate, and our supportive Vice Chancellor Rita Akosua Dickson to create this opportunity we couldn't waste. After several delays and missed registration dates, the fees were finally paid. As if that wasn't enough hassle, the payment couldn't be validated by the hosting institution for a very long time and we were on the verge of being cut off. To us, God had a significant role in this. We would also like to thank the Madrid WUDC's scholarship committee(Brent Shmidt, Daniel, Diego, Klaudia, Nemo, Sharmila, and Tasneem). We eventually couldn't use the scholarship because of the cost of flight and Visas and so had to pass on the scholarship opportunity. We can't express how relieved we were when granted a registration waiver. Our tale demonstrates that once given the opportunity, we will prove our value! We hope that the WUDC Council obtains more sustainable WUDC funding sources that may be utilized to assist debating groups like ourselves, in making it to the tournament. One would think that with payment and registration, our problems would be done. We ended up cutting a team to make it to the event and the visa application was approved on the afternoon before our date of travel, quite the close shave. All of this had bruised us but did not obstruct our vision. Finally, two teams (KNUST A- Prosper Michael Ametu and Vincent Johnson Attakpah and KNUST B- Kojo Acheampong and Kelvin Kwabena-Asamoah Damptey ) and adjudicator Mansa Francisca Fuah and Esther Baker Aidoo, after failed attempts to meet the gender quota attended the tournament with our Director of Debate Professor Kofi Ohene Owusu-Daaku, who always managed to come through with the funds. In the end, KNUST B advanced through the nine preliminary rounds of debating to reach the ESL Semi-Finals of the Worlds University Debate Championship, while KNUST A advanced to the ESL Grand-Finals of the Worlds University Debate Championship, where we finished as first runners-up. Africa was represented in the World Universities Debate Championship finals for the first time. We are honored to be among the writers of history. We are proud to make sure that new African debaters can also see one of their own in a WUDC final and we smile at the thought that it would be easy for newer generations of African debaters to dream of breaking open at WUDC and winning it!