Prince Asamoah from the University of Ghana and Faithfulness Okom from the University of Calabar, Nigeria paired up to win the 2019 edition of the Hogwarts Round Robin Invitational Debate Championship.
The pair were named champions of the Debate held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) from 30th August to 1st September 2019. This was the third year of the tournament.
The Hogwarts Debate Invitational Championship structure takes the British Parliamentary (BP) style which is made up of 4 teams of 2, with 2 teams supporting a motion, and 2 teams opposing. Debating teams are independent and compete with each other.
The 2019 edition featured sixteen teams made of winners of major debate tournaments organized in Ghana and Africa the year 2018/2019 under review. This makes the competition very intense and difficult.
The first day of the competition included five preliminary rounds, and at the end of the day, the teams with the greatest number of votes from the judges moved on to the next round. The team with the highest number of votes at the end of the tournament won the championship.
The Parliamentary debate is a limited-preparation event, meaning teams do not know the topic of the debate prior to the event. Teams receive a resolution, or topic, only 15 minutes before the round. They then have 15 minutes to prepare and discuss their side of the debate before entering the round. The debaters must have a thorough knowledge of politics, current events, modern philosophy and other topics vital to a well-rounded education in liberal arts. Teams have 7 minutes each to convince the judges they are experts on the topic they received.
Prince Asamoah and Faithfulness Okom won all their debates at the tournament. Prince was adjudged the 4th Best Speaker whiles Faithfulness was adjudged the 2nd Best Speaker.
Faithfulness Okom came into the competition with record win of nine trophies, the highest in West Africa, he has won trophies across Ghana and Nigeria. Notable among this is his impressive showing at TTC when he won two trophies, he’s been the best speaker at TTC, CDO, ANUDC as well as other tourneys.
Prince Asamoah popularly known as Abu Rasta is one of the best speakers in Ghana who has four trophies to his name. He was the best speaker in Ghana in 2017 and won GUDC’14. His strengths include his impeccable analysis and his impressive generation of matter. He is one of the only two Ghanaians to win a tournament in Nigeria (NDC’16), his skills pivoted him to break 4th at PAUDC’15 and hold the West African record for highest points amassed at WUDC. He also had the highest break for West Africa at PAUDC before PAUDC TANZANIA, 2018.
DEBATE FINALS
There were a total of 4 Debate Teams who qualified for the final round. The 4 Debate teams were:
- Jacob Johnson Atakpah and Karim Ibrahim (Team Ravenclaw) / Opening Government
- Erasmus Segbefia and Andrews Terkpertey (Team Gryffindor) / Opening Opposition
- Boakye Nyamekye Isaac and Ejim / Closing Government
- Prince Asamoah and Faithfulness Okom (Team Gryfindor) / Closing Opposition
The motion for the final was “THBT women who express traits of internalized misogyny and show support for patriarchal structures should be regarded as victims rather than perpetrators of patriarchy”. The Debate contest shortly began with the opening government asserting fully, their stance of the debate. This was followed by rebuttals and well-constructed redress by the opposite sides of the house.
See Full List of Winners of Best Speakers Below;
Overall Best Speaker – David Inung Ejim
2nd Best Speaker – Faithfulness Okom and Boakye Nyamekye Isaac tied
4th Best Speaker – Prince Asamoah
5th Best Speaker – Karim Ibrahim
6th Best Speaker – Joseph Mireku
7th Best Speaker – Erasmus Segbefia
8th Best Speaker – Andrews Terkpertey
9th Best Speaker – Jacob Johnson Atakpa
Best Speaker – 10th Best Speaker – Michael Ampa Yeboah
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