Meet Fran Osseo-Asare

Fran Osseo-Asare’s faith journey unfolds like an adventure story. It starts at UC Berkeley, takes her across the continent and across the Atlantic to a small fishing village in Ghana, and ultimately, it lands her in State College, Pennsylvania.  It includes a tale of forbidden love, lots of prayer, a number of dirty diapers, and countless experiments in the kitchen.

Fran was born in Portland, Oregon, but spent most of her childhood in the small town of Brisbane, California. In the sixth grade, she moved to San Carlos, where she got the idea that she wanted to go to college. That dream came true when the state of California offered her a four-year scholarship to UC Berkeley.

“I just loved being in an intellectual atmosphere where books were liked, and I could question things, and I could stay up late and talk about philosophy,” Fran says.

Her search for “something more” brought her to a Campus Crusade for Christ Bible study during her sophomore year of college.

“When I became a Christian, it felt like I was coming home, that Jesus was calling me home,” she said.

Through her involvement with InterVarsity campus ministry, she met a Ghanaian student named Kwadwo Osseo-Asare, who became her mentor. Much to their surprise, their friendship turned into love.

Fran’s family vehemently opposed the interracial romance and threatened to disown her if she married Osseo. They finally agreed to let her marry him if she spent a year, alone, in his homeland. With only faith and a tourist visa, Fran flew to Ghana, where she secured a job as a school teacher in the village of Nungua.

There, she struggled with what has been a theme in her Christian faith: “How do I distinguish God’s voice from all the voices around me? When I see the green light, and everyone around me is saying it’s red?”

The year-long decision process, which she recounted in her first book, A New Land to Live In, concluded with her wedding to Osseo on her last day in Ghana.

In the following years, Fran earned a masters degree in social welfare, had three children (Abena, Masi, and DK), and completed a Ph.D. in rural sociology. Osseo, meanwhile, secured a professorship in materials science and engineering at Penn State.

In 1980, the Osseo-Asares began attending University Mennonite Church. “What drew us to University Mennonite was the humility, the simplicity, the peace stance,” Fran said. “And we just felt the Spirit of God was there.”  The congregation was especially supportive as she tried to manage three children and her doctoral research, Fran adds.

In 1993, Fran stumbled into what would become her “ministry and mission” when her son, DK, insisted they do something about the famine in Ethiopia. She responded by writing an African cookbook for children and putting the proceeds into a Mennonite Foundation endowment fund.

A Good Soup Attracts Chairs was the first of a number of books on African cuisine that Fran published. Several years ago, she started a newsletter called “BETUMI: The African Culinary Network,” which quickly became an online forum for exchange and information on African food. The blog, www.betumiblog.blogspot.com, has been named one of the top 50 sites for learning about Africa.

“I wanted there to be a voice for African food that treated it with respect and as a cuisine,” she says.

Fran also does presentations about African food for schools and community groups, teaches cooking classes from her home, works as a consultant, and is in the midst of transcribing and assembling recipes from the Ghanaian oral tradition for a cookbook.

The Osseo-Asares frequently travel back to Ghana, where they are involved in a number of educational projects. In 2002, Fran and Osseo completed the three-year-long adoption process of their Ghanaian nephews Sam and Ernest, who lost their mother (Osseo’s sister) in 1992.  

Fran continues to live by the words of the Apostle Paul that have encouraged her on her journey: “I, too, have the Spirit.”

 by Lucy Green