Ofosu-Appiah accepted the position of Director of the Encyclopedia Africana Project in Accra in August 1966. This was a project inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois. He met with the then Director of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Sir William Hailley, who advised that the biographies would make sense only if they had a historical introduction and to have several volumes of country to country biographies.
