Related Research Articles
Kofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet, author and diplomat. His work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people with contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival.
Bediako Asare is a Ghanaian journalist and author, initially from Ghana. He began his career working on local newspapers, then relocated to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1963, to help launch The Nationalist newspaper.
Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah was a Ghanaian politician, scholar, anglophile, lawyer and statesman. He was a politician in pre- and post-colonial Ghana, which was formerly the Gold Coast.
Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe was a Ghanaian scientist and political activist. He was nominated for the 1948 Nobel Peace Prize and was a campaigner for unification of British and French Togoland. He was called by the New York Post "the 'Irishman' from West Africa", and the BBC producer Henry Swanzy referred to him as the "African Paracelsus".
Ako Adjei, was a Ghanaian statesman, politician, lawyer and journalist. He was a member of the United Gold Coast Convention and one of six leaders who were detained during Ghana's struggle for political independence from Britain, a group famously called The Big Six. Adjei became a member of parliament as a Convention People's Party candidate in 1954 and held ministerial offices until 1962 when as Minister for Foreign Affairs he was wrongfully detained for the Kulungugu bomb attack.
Kofi Anyidoho is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. He is currently Professor of Literature at the University of Ghana.
George Alfred Grant, popularly known as Paa Grant, was a merchant and politician in the Gold Coast who has been called "the father of Gold Coast politics". As a political activist, he was th founder, financer and the first president of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in August 1947. He was also one of Ghana's Founding Fathers. He paid for Kwame Nkrumah to return to Ghana from the United States. A roundabout has been named after George Grant in Sekondi Takoradi in his memory. Many opinion leaders have said it will be right to mention his name in the struggle for Ghanas independence the same vain as the 'Big Six '.
Frank Kobina Parkes was a Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster and poet. He was the author of one book, Songs from the Wilderness, but is widely anthologised and is perhaps best known for his poem "African Heaven", which echoes the title of Carl Van Vechten's controversial 1926 novel Nigger Heaven, and was selected by Langston Hughes for inclusion in the groundbreaking anthology of African writing An African Treasury (1960). Parkes' poetic style, an intelligent, rhythmic free verse brimming with confidence and undercut with humour, is believed to owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop, one of the pioneers of the négritude movement. Reviewing Songs from the Wilderness, Mbella Sonne Dipoko said: "Mr Parkes is one of the fine poets writing today about Africa and the world." The book was hailed as "...a landmark not only in Ghanaian poetry but in African poetry as a whole".
Osborne Henry Kwesi Brew was a Ghanaian poet and diplomat.
Samuel Asare Konadu was a Ghanaian journalist, novelist, and publisher who also wrote under the pseudonym Kwabena Asare Bediako.
Joshua Kwabena Siaw, popularly known as J. K. Siaw, was a Ghanaian industrialist and philanthropist, who in 1969 established Tata Brewery Ltd. – now known as Guinness Ghana Breweries, also as Achimota Brewery Company (ABC). He is notable for opening the largest wholly African-owned brewery company in West Africa in 1973. In 1979 all his assets were confiscated by the AFRC regime of Ghana under false allegations of tax evasion. He died in London, in exile, in October 1986.
Atukwei John Okai was a Ghanaian poet, cultural activist and academic. He was Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association, and a president of the Ghana Association of Writers. His early work was published under the name John Okai. With his poems rooted in the oral tradition, he is generally acknowledged to have been the first real performance poet to emerge from Africa, and his work has been called "also politically radical and socially conscious, one of his great concerns being Pan-Africanism". His performances on radio and television worldwide include an acclaimed 1975 appearance at Poetry International at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he shared the stage with US poets Stanley Kunitz and Robert Lowell, and Nicolás Guillén of Cuba.
Mabel Dove Danquah was a Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist, and creative writer, one of the earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields. As Francis Elsbend Kofigah notes in relation to Ghana's literary pioneers, "before the emergence of such strong exponents of literary feminism as Efua Sutherland and Ama Ata Aidoo, there was Mabel Dove Danquah, the trail-blazing feminist." She used various pseudonyms in her writing for newspapers from the 1930s: "Marjorie Mensah" in The Times of West Africa; "Dama Dumas" in the African Morning Post; "Ebun Alakija" in the Nigerian Daily Times; and "Akosua Dzatsui" in the Accra Evening News. Entering politics in the 1950s before Ghana's independence, she became the first woman to be elected a member of any African legislative assembly. She created the awareness and the need for self-governance through her works.
Nana Awere Damoah is a Ghanaian author. He has six books to his credit. Damoah, who is a British Council Chevening alumnus with a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Nottingham, works as a Technical Manager in Lagos, Nigeria
Kofi Adumua Bossman was a Ghanaian barrister, a jurist and a politician. He was a prominent legal practitioner based in Accra in the 1940s and 1950s prior to being called to the bench. He was a Supreme Court Judge during the first republic. He was dismissed in 1964. In 1966 he was appointed as a member of the constitutional commission during the National Liberation Council (NLC) regime.
Timothy Ansah (1919-2008) was a Ghanaian educationist and politician. He was a member of parliament for the Tarkwa-Aboso constituency from 1965 to 1966. Prior to entering parliament, he taught in various educational institutions. He was the headmaster for Nsein Senior High School from 1960 to 1974.
Eric Kwame Heymann was a Ghanaian journalist and politician. He was the first Editor-in-chief of the Accra Evening News. He also served as the Chairman of the Association of Ghana Journalists and Writers. From 1965 to 1966, he was the member of parliament for the Buem constituency.
Michael Francis Dei-Anang was a Ghanaian civil servant, writer, poet, and novelist.
Hutton Ayikwei Addy, was a Ghanaian academic and physician (paediatrician). He was a founding member of the School of Medical Sciences of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and a founding member and first dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies.
John Ackah Blay-Miezah was a Ghanaian con artist. He was a pioneer of advance-fee fraud. He claimed to be worth $47 billion. From the 1960s to 1980s, he is said to have swindled over $200m from victims in North America, Europe, and Asia. He was named "the Ultimate Con Man" by 60 Minutes.
References
- ↑ Albert S. Gérard, European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, Volume 2, 1986, p. 833.
- ↑ Abotsi, Maureen, "J. Benibengor Blay" Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine , Ghana Nation, 13 September 2013. From Douglas Killam and Ruth Rowe (eds), The Companion to African Literature (James Currey 2000).
- 1 2 G. D. Killam, Alicia L. Kerfoot, Student Encyclopedia of African Literature, Greenwood press, 2008, p. 68.
- ↑ Angmor, Charles (1996). Contemporary Literature in Ghana 1911-1978: A Critical Evaluation. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services. pp. 24–5. ISBN 9964-978-20-0.
- ↑ The Sacramento Bee, 24 September 1959, pg. 42
- ↑ Africa Who's Who, London: Africa Journal for Africa Books Ltd, 1981, p. 230.
- ↑ The Story of Tata, "a very comprehensive account of the life of Mr. Joshua Kwabena Siaw ... one of Ghana's most prominent business men".
