Yaa Asantewaa I was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire, now part of modern-day Ghana. She was appointed by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okese, the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu. In 1900, she led the Ashanti war also known as the War of the Golden Stool, or the Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence, against the British Empire.
The War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, the Third Ashanti Expedition, the Ashanti Uprising, or variations thereof, was a campaign in 1900 during the series of conflicts between the United Kingdom and the Ashanti Empire, an autonomous state in West Africa that fractiously co-existed with the British and its vassal coastal tribes.
Juliet Ibrahim is a Ghanaian actress, film producer, and singer of Lebanese, Ghanaian and Liberian descent. She won the Best Actress in a Leading Role award at the 2010 Ghana Movie Awards for her role in 4 Play. She has been referred to as the "Most Beautiful West African Woman" according to A-listers Magazine.
Felicity Ama Agyemang, also known as Nana Ama McBrown, is a Ghanaian actress, TV show hostess, and music composer. She rose to prominence for her role in a television series titled Tentacles. Later, she found mainstream success following her role in the Twi-language movies " Asoreba" and "Kumasi Yonko". She was the host, of the television cooking show McBrown Kitchen and an entertainment talk show United Showbiz on UTV until March 2023 when she moved to Media General. She is a TV show hostess on Onua TV for the Onua Showtime program. Royal drinks has chosen Nana Ama as the face of their brand
The GUBA Awards, or Grow, Unite, Build, Africa (GUBA) Awards, formerly known as the Ghana UK-Based Achievement Awards, are organized by GUBA Enterprise, a social enterprise dedicated to the support and advancement of Africans in the diaspora and on the continent through various socio-economic programmes and initiatives.
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is a South African writer and performance artist who performs her work nationally and internationally. She is noted for her poetry, which has been published in collections and in many magazines and anthologies, as well as for her autobiographical one-woman show, Original Skin, which centres on her confusion about her identity at a young age, as the biracial daughter of an Australian mother and a Ghanaian father who was adopted and raised by a white family in apartheid South Africa. She has written: "I became Phillippa Yaa when I found my biological father, who told me that if he had been there when I was born, the first name I'd have been given would be a day name like all Ghanaian babies, and all Thursday girls are Yaa, Yawo, or Yaya. So by changing my name I intended to inscribe a feeling of belonging and also one of pride on my African side. After growing up black in white South Africa, internalising so many negative 'truths' of what black people are like, I needed to reclaim my humanity and myself from the toxic dance of objectification." She has also said: "Because I wasn't told that I was adopted until I was twenty, I lacked a vocabulary to describe who I am and where I come from, so performing and writing became ways to make myself up." As Tishani Doshi observes in the New Indian Express: "Much of her work is concerned with race, sexuality, class and gender within the South African context."
Juliet Yaa Asantewa Asante is a Ghanaian film actress, producer and director, and philanthropist. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Film Authority (NFA). Her latest film, Silver Rain, was nominated for "Best Film in West Africa" and "Best costume" for 2015 in the Africa Magic viewer's choice awards (AMVCA) and also 2015 "Best Overall Film In Africa". In 1999, Asante started the production house Eagle House Productions. That same year she also started "Save Our Women International", a non-profit entity focusing on female sexual education and launched an innovation that makes short movies for the mobile phone in Africa in 2014 called Mobile Flicks. She is also the Founder and executive director of Black Star International Film Festival. Eagle Productions has helped train some actors and actresses in Ghana through its training arm, the Eagle Drama Workshop.
Yaa Asantewaa Girls' Senior High School (YAGSHS) is a public high school for girls in Tanoso in the Atwima Mponua District in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
Grace Omaboe, popularly known as Maame Dokono, is a Ghanaian actress, singer and television personality. She ran the former Peace and Love Orphanage which is now Graceful Grace school in Accra. Omaboe and others were honoured by the organisers of 3Music Awards for her achievement in the entertainment industry in Ghana.
Bertha Bridget Kankam, better known by her stage name Yaa Yaa, is a Ghanaian singer-songwriter and recording artist. Prior to her current stage name, she performed under her first name, Bertha.
Eunice Nana Akosua Konadu, also known as Nana Akosua Konadu, is a Ghanaian broadcaster and the CEO and founder of Enak Consult. She is the host of the talk show The Hard Truth.
Christie Quincyna Quarcoopome, known professionally as Cina Soul, is a Ghanaian singer, songwriter and performer. She was a finalist at the 2014 Vodafone Ghana Music Icons competition held in Accra, Ghana.
Akofa Edjeani is a Ghanaian veteran film actress, producer and entrepreneur. Her short film, Not My Daughter, won Best Short Film award at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in 2008, and I Sing of a Well, the movie she starred in and co-produced, won three awards and the Best Jury Award from Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2010.
Nikoletta Samonas is a Ghanaian and Greek actress and a freelance model. She is known as Nikki Samonas in the entertainment industry and has had roles in a number of feature films. She is an alumna of both Holy Child High School and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
Emelia Brobbey is a Ghanaian actress, a television presenter and a musician. She has starred in numerous Ghanaian movies. She won the Best Indigenous Actress of the Year and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress of the Year at the City People Entertainment Awards in 2016. She won Best Gallywood Actress and Best Philanthropist at the 3G Awards in New York in 2018. She won the 2019 Best Actor Female indigenous at the ZAFAA Global Award which was presented by the African Film Academy Awards.
Belinda Naa Ode Oku is a Ghanaian actress popularly known in showbiz as "Adwoa Smart". She was born at Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra in Ghana. Adwoa has acted in numerous movies and drama episodes over several decades. She was very popular and highly sought after during the heyday of Akan drama from 1980 to the year 2000 and beyond. She has also featured in several music videos. Adwoa came into prominence as a cast member of the long-running Akan drama series "Obra" (Life) which aired on GTV during the 80s and 90s.
Clara Amoateng Benson popularly known as Maame Serwaa is a young Ghanaian actress and brand ambassador. In April 2018, she was featured in BBC Africa’s documentary on the ThrivingGhanaian Movie Industry. She has also won several awards including Kumawood Best Actress of the Year 2015 and Ghana Tertiary Awards Best Actress of the Year 2018.
Ellen Boakye is a Ghanaian cardiologist for children. She is known for winning 18 awards for distinguishing herself in her course of study.
Ivor Agyeman-Duah is a Ghanaian academic, economist, writer, editor and film director. He has worked in Ghana's diplomatic service and has served as an advisor on development policy.
The Yaa Asantewaa Festival is an annual festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Ejisu Traditional Area in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is usually celebrated in the month of August.
