Kingsley Ofosu

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Kingsley Ofosu (born 1970) is a Ghanaian man who became famous worldwide in 1992 after surviving a brutal murder of African stowaways aboard a cargo ship. Eight men were killed, including Ofosu’s brother, and Ofosu was the only one to live. The story of his survival was later turned into the 1996 film Deadly Voyage, with Omar Epps playing Ofosu.

Background
Ofosu was the eldest of four children in Ghana. He left school early to help his mother sell produce. He wanted to study automotive engineering but could not afford the schooling. He did some work on the docks in Takoradi, hoping to save money for his future.

The voyage
On October 24, 1992, Ofosu and seven other Ghanaians, including his half-brother Albert Codjoe, secretly boarded the MC Ruby, a Bahamian-flagged cargo ship, in Takoradi. The ship was loading cocoa and heading to Europe, where they hoped to find a better life. They hoped to study in the future and then return to Ghana.

During the voyage, they discovered another stowaway who had joined the group in Douala, Cameroon. Six days in, the ship’s water container broke, and the stowaways had to search the ship for more water. Crew members found them, took their money, and confined them in a small space near the anchor chain for three days, with little food or water.

The crew began moving the men two to three at a time. They told the men they were taking them to better quarters, but they planned to kill them to avoid large fines for bringing illegal immigrants into a Western port. When Ofosu and Codjoe were last to be taken out, they saw blood on the crew’s clothing. Codjoe was shot and thrown overboard, and Ofosu escaped back into the ship’s bowels. He hid for three days until the ship reached Le Havre, France, where he finally got to a police station and reported what had happened. He had left his Ghanaian ID papers in a cocoa sack on the ship, which helped prove his story; human waste found in the hold also supported the claim that other stowaways had been on board.

Trials
Four crew members confessed, and six were put on trial in Rouen. Although some details were disputed, the core of Ofosu’s account was supported. The captain, Vladimir Ilnitskiy, testified that he did not order the murders but did nothing to stop them. Two crew members admitted their roles and identified the first mate, Valery Artemenko, as the one who gave the orders to kill. Five crew members were convicted. Ilnitskiy and Artemenko received life sentences; three others got 20-year terms. A sixth crew member, Dzhamal Arakhamiya, was acquitted after claiming he refused to take part. French officials later noted that Ofosu’s survival was unusual but not unique.

Life after the voyage
Ofosu settled in France for a time, hoping his wife could join him, but he struggled to find work and could not bring his family legally. He did strike a deal with Union Pictures for the rights to his story, which helped him survive financially for a while. He studied civil engineering and learned French, but he did not complete his studies and could not secure steady employment.

He later invested in a business that bought second-hand electrical goods in France to sell in Ghana. The venture had early success but eventually failed. By 2007, Ofosu was back in Ghana with his wife and four children, living in poverty similar to what he had hoped to escape. He said he received 1.5% of the film’s operating budget and 10% of its net profits, with an initial payment of about $67,500. He had not received a final accounting of the film’s finances, and HBO and the BBC, which funded the film, reportedly did not respond to inquiries. Union Pictures later went bankrupt, and its founder said he too could not obtain the final figures.

Compensation
In 1995, French courts ordered about €100,000 in compensation to Ofosu. By 2007, he had not received that money, and attempts to obtain it from the French authorities were unsuccessful.

Ofosu has described his survival as an act of Divine Providence. He remains a symbol of the dangers faced by stowaways and the search for a better life.