Abena Busia

Last updated

Abena Busia
Born
Abena Pokua Adompim Busia

1953 (age 70–71)
Accra, Ghana
Education
Occupation(s)Lecturer, writer, poet, feminist, diplomat
Parents
Relatives Akosua Busia (sister)

Abena Pokua Adompim Busia (born 1953) is a Ghanaian writer, poet, feminist, lecturer and diplomat. She is a daughter of the former prime minister of Ghana, Kofi Abrefa Busia, and is the sister of actress Akosua Busia. Busia is an associate professor of Literature in English, and of women's and gender studies at Rutgers University. [1] [2] [3] [4] She is Ghana's ambassador to Brazil, appointed in 2017, [5] [6] with accreditation to the other 12 republics of South America. [7]

Contents

Early life and education

Busia was born in Accra, Ghana, into the Yenfri royal family in Wenchi in the Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana, to Kofi Abrefa Busia, one-time Ghanaian Head of State, and his wife, Naa (Morkor) Busia. She spent her childhood in Ghana as well as in the Netherlands and Mexico before relocating to Oxford, where her family finally settled. [8]

Busia earned a B.A. degree in English language and literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, in 1976, and a D.Phil. in social anthropology at St. Antony's College in 1984. She has been an external tutor at Ruskin College, the labour relations college affiliated to the University of Oxford, and a visiting lecturer in the Program of African and Afro-American Studies at Yale University. She has also won a number of post-doctoral fellowships including an Andrew Mellon Fellowship in the English department of Bryn Mawr College, and an Institute for American Cultures Fellowship at the Center for Afro-American Studies, UCLA. [9]

Career

Busia was co-director of the Women Writing Africa Project (which between 2002 and 2008 published the four-volume Women Writing Africa Series), as well as Professor of English at Rutgers University and the Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies. [7]

She has also taught at other institutions, among them Yale and the University of Ghana. [10]

She has served as president of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora and of the African Literature Association, and currently chairs the board of AWDF-USA, sister organization of the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF), the first pan-African foundation to support the work of women's rights organisations in Africa. [7] [11]

Writing

Busia has published widely on black women's literature, colonial discourse, and post-colonial studies. Scholarly books she has co-edited include Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women (1993) and Beyond Survival: African Literature and the Search for New Life (1999). In addition, she is the author of two volumes of poetry: Testimonies of Exile (1990) and Traces of Life (2008). Her work is included in such anthologies as Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992). [8]

Ghanaian diplomat

In July 2017, President Nana Akuffo-Addo named Abena Busia as Ghana's ambassador to Brazil. She was among 22 other distinguished Ghanaians who were named to head various diplomatic Ghanaian missions in the world. [5]

Selected bibliography

Poetry

As editor

Awards and recognition

In March 2011, marking the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, the AWDF recognised Abena Busia as one of 50 inspirational African feminists, with a public celebration in her honour taking place in June at the National Theatre in Accra. [3] [12]

She is co-founder and Chair of the Busia Foundation International, a non-government organisation set up in honour of Ghana's former Prime Minister, Kofi Abrefa Busia, [13] the 40th anniversary of whose death was marked by a public memorial lecture on 28 August 2018 at the Accra International Conference Centre. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ama Ata Aidoo</span> Ghanaian writer, politician, and academic (1942–2023)

Ama Ata Aidoo was a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright, politician, and academic. She was Secretary for Education in Ghana from 1982 to 1983 under Jerry Rawlings's PNDC administration. Her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, was published in 1965, making Aidoo the first published female African dramatist. As a novelist, she won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1992 with the novel Changes. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation in Accra to promote and support the work of African women writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akosua Busia</span> Ghanaian actress and writer (born 1966)

Akosua Gyamama Busia is a Ghanaian actress, writer and songwriter. She is known to film audiences for playing Nettie Harris in the 1985 film The Color Purple. She is the daughter of Ghanaian Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Akufo-Addo</span> 2nd president of Ghana (1970-72)

Edward Akufo-Addo was a Ghanaian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the "Big Six" leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and one of the founding fathers of Ghana who engaged in the fight for Ghana's independence. He became the Chief Justice (1966–70), and later ceremonial President (1970–72), of the Republic of Ghana. He is the father of the current (executive) President of Ghana, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nii Amaa Ollennu</span> Jurist, judge, former Speaker of the Parliament and former Acting President of Ghana

Raphael Nii Amaa Ollennu was a jurist and judge who became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana from 1962 to 1966, the acting President of Ghana during the Second Republic from 7 August 1970 to 31 August 1970 and the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana from 1969 to 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Mike Oquaye</span> Ghanaian politician, lawyer and academic (born 1944)

Aaron Mike Oquaye is a Ghanaian barrister and politician who served as the sixth Speaker of Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana from 2017 to 2021. An academic, diplomat and Baptist minister, he previously held the cabinet ministerial portfolios for energy and communication and was also the High Commissioner of Ghana to India (2002–04) in the Kufuor administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nana Akufo-Addo</span> President of Ghana since 2017

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 2017. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from the year 2003 to the year 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obed Asamoah</span> Ghanaian lawyer and politician

Obed Yao Asamoah is a Ghanaian lawyer, academic and politician. Asamoah was the longest serving foreign minister and Attorney General of Ghana under Jerry Rawlings from 1981 to 1997. Asamoah was educated at King's College London and at Columbia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 Ghanaian parliamentary election</span>

Parliamentary elections were held in Ghana on 29 August 1969, the first since the 1966 coup by the National Liberation Council which toppled the Nkrumah government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of Ghanaian history</span>

Ghana gained independence from the British on 6 March 1957. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The country became a republic on July 1, 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Akufo-Addo</span> First Lady of Ghana

Rebecca Naa Okaikor Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian public figure and the First Lady of Ghana. She is the wife of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freda Akosua Prempeh</span> Ghanaian politician

Freda Akosua Oheneafrewo Prempeh is a Ghanaian politician, and Member of Parliament in the Seventh Parliament and Eighth Parliament of the fourth republic of Ghana representing Tano North Constituency in the Ahafo Region, Ghana. She was the Minister of State, for the Ministry of works and housing, Ghana and previously served as the Deputy Gender Minister and also Assembly member – "Assembly Woman" from 2002 to 2010 for the Lakoo Electoral Area of the La-Dadekotopo Constituency in the Greater Accra Region.

Akosua Frema Osei-Opare is a development practitioner, an academic, and a Ghanaian politician. Having spent 40 years in these domains, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, is an expert in labour and hiring as well as development consulting. She represented Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency in the Parliament of Ghana. She is the current and first female Chief of Staff of Ghana.

Amerley Awua-Asamoa is a Ghanaian diplomat, corporate and non-profit executive. A member of the New Patriotic Party of Ghana, she served as Ghana's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark from 2017 to 2021. As ambassador, she had concurrent diplomatic accreditation to Finland, Iceland and Sweden.

Akua Asabea Ayisi was a feminist, former High Court Judge and the first female Ghanaian journalist. During the rise of the Ghanaian independence movement, Akua Asabea Ayisi trained as a journalist with Mabel Dove-Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, who would later become the country's first prime minister and president.

Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu, is a Supreme Court Judge of the Republic of Ghana. She was nominated by president Nana Akufo-Addo. She is the 5th female member of the Court. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, she was a Ghanaian law professor who served as a member of the United Nations Independent Panel On Peace Operations.

Adeline Sylvia Eugenia Ama Yeboakua Akufo-Addo was a First Lady of the second republic of Ghana as the wife of president Edward Akufo-Addo. She was the mother of president Nana Akufo-Addo.

Akwasi Andrews Jones Amoako Atta Ofori Atta was a Ghanaian economist and politician. He was a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Ghana and served as ministerial secretary for Finance and Economic Planning in the Busia government.

Virginia Hesse is a Ghanaian civil servant and diplomat who served as Ghana's ambassador to the Czech Republic from 2017 to 2021. She spent a majority of her professional career in the Ghanaian public service.

References

  1. ↑ "Abena P. A. Busia". The Feminist Press. Archived from the original on 6 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  2. ↑ "Busia, Abena P. A. 1953–". www.encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Celebrating Professor Abena Busia: Works and Achievements | The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF)". awdf.org. 28 June 2011. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Serwaa, Abena (22 September 2009). "Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra: When Samia met Abena: Two Daughters, Two Legacies and One Meeting". Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Here's a full list of Akufo-Addo's 22 newly appointed Ambassadors". 11 July 2017. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "Prez Akufo-Addo swears in five new envoys". Graphic Online. Graphic Communications Group Ltd. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 "Abena Busia" Archived 9 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine at Women's Learning Partnership.
  8. 1 2 Margaret Busby, Daughters of Africa, London: Jonathan Cape, 1992, p. 868.
  9. ↑ Motovidlak, Dave. "Busia, Abena". womens-studies.rutgers.edu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  10. ↑ Curtis M (4 June 2012). "Abena Busia". GhanaVisions. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "About Us" Archived 2021-08-24 at the Wayback Machine , AWDF.
  12. ↑ "International Women's Day: Celebrating 50 Inspirational African Feminists" Archived 9 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine , AWDF.
  13. ↑ "Busia Foundation to establish school and scholarship scheme". www.ghanaweb.com. 30 November 2001. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  14. ↑ "Wife Of Dr Busia, Nana Addo, Abena Busia On August 28th Memorial Lecture" Archived 9 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine , Modern Ghana, 24 August 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.