Nana Oforiatta Ayim | |
|---|---|
 August 2015, Chale Wote Street Art Festival | |
| Born | Nana Ofosuaa Oforiatta Ayim Ghana |
| Nationality | Ghanaian/German |
| Other names | Nana Oforiatta-Ayim |
| Citizenship | Ghanaian |
| Education | University of Bristol; SOAS University of London |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, art historian, filmmaker |
| Notable work | The God Child |
| Website | www |
Nana Oforiatta Ayim is a Ghanaian writer, art historian and filmmaker.
Nana Ofosuaa Oforiatta Ayim was raised in Germany, England, and her ancestral homeland in Ghana. She studied Russian and Politics at the University of Bristol and went on to work in the Department of Political Affairs at the United Nations in New York. [1] She completed her master's degree in African Art History at SOAS University of London. [2]
Oforiatta Ayim comes from a political family in Ghana, the Ofori-Attas, whose power spans both the traditional and the modern. Her maternal grandfather was Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, the renowned king of Akyem Abuakwa who was hailed as the Louis XIV of Africa, [3] and her great-uncle was J. B. Danquah, the scholar and politician who gave Ghana its name and started the political party that brought about Independence. [4]
Her first novel The God Child was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in the UK in 2019, the US in 2020 and by Penguin Random House in Germany in 2021. [5] [6] Writer Ayesha Harruna Attah describes the book as an "expansive and contemplative debut, themes of art, history, literature, film, and legacy intermingle with Maya's coming-of-age. [7] In the New York Times , Tope Folarin writes: "This is a story that is obsessed with stories; indeed, 'The God Child' could be described as a series of sharply drawn short fictions, each consequential on its own, each only glancingly connected to the others… As I read this book, with all its leaps in time and space, I sometimes had the sense that there was another narrative running just beneath the surface of the text, some alternate story that the characters I was reading about simultaneously inhabited… Kojo and Maya's migrations eventually lead them back to Ghana, where they hope to find material they need to complete their story, years in the making. A story that, like this one, will illuminate Ghana's history; a story that will coax something whole from the broken parts of their lives." [8] In The Guardian , Sarah Ladipo Manyika writes: "To date, there are only a few works of fiction that explore the African experience within continental Europe and just a handful address the Afro-German experience, so Ayim's book is important in helping to fill this gap. As we hear Maya pondering Goethe's idea of Weltliteratur and reflecting on just how lacking world literature actually is, books such as The God Child have the potential to enrich it and, in Berger's words, bring new ways of seeing." [9]
While researching for her master's degree in African Art History, she realised all the terms and concepts used to describe Ghanaian artistic expression were Western ones. Her research for indigenous concepts led her to the Ayan, a form of telling history in Ghana; and the Afahye, a historical exhibition or Gesamtkunstwerk model. [10] She began incorporating them in her writing on cultural narratives, histories, and institutions in Africa. [11] She speaks regularly on new models of knowledge and of museums, and devised a course on this for the Architectural Association School of Architecture. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
In an interview with the Financial Times , [19] Ayim said: "It sometimes feels like everything happens in the diaspora. That's important and it's part of who we are. But now we need to focus on evolving work within our continent." She is the founder of the ANO Institute of Arts & Knowledge in Accra, [20] and has said that "like a lot of people involved in creative work in Ghana and other parts of Africa, it feels like it's not just enough for us to produce, but that we have to provide the context and the paradigms for that production." [21]
To this end, she created a pan-African Cultural Encyclopaedia. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] The New York Times reviewer writes: "The encyclopaedia will consist of an open-source internet platform for documenting past, present and future African arts and culture (starting with Ghana) and eventually will be published in 54 volumes, one for each country. An ambitious undertaking, the Cultural Encyclopaedia aims to change perceptions of the continent and help alleviate the frustration of African cultural producers concerned that their rich histories have been lost or forgotten over the decades because they lack good archives." [27]
Ayim has also created a new type of mobile museum. [1] [28] [29] [30] In The Guardian , Charlotte Jansen writes: "Ayim said she started to reflect on the museum model in Africa while working at the British Museum. Struck by how differently African objects were encountered in display cabinets in the UK with how they were actively used in festivals back home, she began to think about how material culture could be preserved and presented in a way that was more in keeping with local traditions." [31] Ayim is using the research gathered through the mobile museum to help create a new kind of museum model for the Government of Ghana that, she writes in The Art Newspaper , "honours and takes into account the many spirits of our communities, our environment, and our objects, both at home and those to be returned. A structure that will allow for narratives and exchange with, and across, other parts of the world, on equal terms". [32]
After developing the narratives for, and curating the first institutional shows of, several Ghanaian artists, including James Barnor, [33] [34] Felicia Ansah Abban [35] [36] and Ibrahim Mahama, [21] [37] she curated the much acclaimed Ghana Freedom exhibition as Ghana's first ever Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. [38] The pavilion was among the Biennale's most anticipated, [39] and multiple journalists named the pavilion as a "triumph" and highlight of the Biennale, particularly in tribute to its cultural underpinnings both in the country and the diaspora. [40] [41] [42] The Art Newspaper wrote that "a palpable sense of pride" permeated the pavilion. [43] Charlotte Higgins of The Guardian wrote that the pavilion marked a subtle shift in balance as African national pavilions begin to contest the historic dominance of European pavilions at the Biennale, a history intertwined with colonialism. [44]
Nana Oforiatta Ayim became a filmmaker after working with economist Thi Minh Ngo and filmmaker Chris Marker on a new translation of his 1954 film Statues Also Die . [45] Her films are a cross of fiction, travel essay, and documentary and have been shown at museums globally. These include Nowhere Else But Here at The New Museum, [46] Tied and True at the Tate Modern, [47] [48] [49] Jubilee at the Kunsthall Stavanger, [50] [51] and Agbako at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). [52] [53]
Oforiatta Ayim is the recipient of the 2015 Art & Technology Award from LACMA [54] and of the 2016 AIR Award, which "seeks to honour and celebrate extraordinary African artists who are committed to producing provocative, innovative and socially-engaging work". [55] She was named one of the Apollo "40 under 40", as "one of the most talented and inspirational young people who are driving forward the art world today", [56] a Quartz Africa Innovator, for "finding new approaches and principles to tackle many of the intractable challenges faced on the continent", [57] one of 50 African Trailblazers by The Africa Report , [58] one of 12 African women making history in 2016 and one of 100 women "building infrastructure, both literally and metaphorically, for future generations in Africa and in the Diaspora" in 2020 by OkayAfrica. [59] [60] She was a Global South Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, [61] and is a member of the university's Advisory Council. [62] She received the Ghana Innovation Award in 2020 [63] and the Woman of The Year Award in Ghana in 2021. [64] In 2022, she was awarded the Dan David Prize. [65]
Sir David Frank Adjaye is a Ghanaian-British architect who has designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.. Adjaye was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to architecture. He received the 2021 Royal Gold Medal, making him the first African recipient and one of the youngest recipients. He was appointed to the Order of Merit in 2022.
William Ofori Atta, popularly called "Paa Willie", was a Ghanaian founding member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and one of the founding fathers of Ghana as one of "The Big Six" detained by the British colonial government in the then Gold Coast. He later became a Minister for Foreign Affairs in Ghana's second republic between 1971 and 1972.
Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, KBE was the Okyenhene or King of the Akyem people and of Akyem Abuakwa, a traditional kingdom that stretches back to the thirteenth century and was one of the most influential kingdoms of the then Gold Coast Colony. He ruled from his election in 1912 until his death in 1943.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is a Ghanaian politician and the widow of former President Jerry Rawlings. She was First Lady of Ghana from 4 June 1979 to 24 September 1979 and from 31 December 1981 to 7 January 2001. In 2016, she became the first woman to run for President of Ghana. In 2018, she launched her book titled It Takes a Woman.
A mobile museum is a museum educational outreach program that bring the museum to the people rather than vice versa. Typically they can be in Recreational Vehicles (RVs) or trucks/trailers that drive to schools, libraries and rural events. Their business model is to use grant or donor support, as they goal is to make the museum exhibit accessible to underserved populations. Below are some examples of mobile museums.
Ataa Oko Addo was a Ghanaian builder of figurative palanquins and figurative coffins, and at over 80 years of age he became a painter of Art Brut.
Fantasycoffins or figurative coffins, also called “FAVs” and custom, fantastic, or proverbial coffins, are functional coffins made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. These colorful objects, which developed out of figurative palanquins, are not only coffins but considered works of art. They were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition Les Magiciens de la terre at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris in 1989. The seven coffins shown in Paris were made by Kane Kwei (1922–1992) and his former assistant Paa Joe. Since then, coffins by Kane Kwei, his grandson Eric Adjetey Anang, Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah, Kudjoe Affutu, Theophilus Nii Anum Sowah, Benezate, and other artists have been displayed in international art museums and galleries around the world.
Kenneth Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, is a Ghanaian investment banker who served as the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning in the cabinet of Nana Akufo-Addo from 2017 to 2024. He was a co-founder of Databank Group, a Ghanaian financial services company, and served as executive chairman until 2012 when he resigned. He was nominated by President Nana Akufo-Addo on 10 January 2017 and assumed office on 27 January 2017 as finance minister. On February 14, 2024, he was relieved of his position as the finance minister of Ghana by Nana Akufo-Addo.
Susan Barbara Gyankorama Ofori-Atta, also de Graft-Johnson was a Ghanaian medical doctor who was the first female doctor on the Gold Coast. She was the first Ghanaian woman and fourth West African woman to earn a university degree. Ofori-Atta was also the third West African woman to become a physician after the Nigerians Agnes Yewande Savage (1929) and Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi (1938). In 1933, Sierra Leonean political activist and higher education pioneer, Edna Elliot-Horton became the second West African woman university graduate and the first to earn a bachelor's degree in the liberal arts. Eventually Ofori-Atta became a medical officer-in-charge at the Kumasi Hospital, and later, she assumed in charge of the Princess Louise Hospital for Women. Her contemporary was Matilda J. Clerk, the second Ghanaian woman and fourth West African woman to become a physician, who was also educated at Achimota and Edinburgh. Ofori-Atta was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Ghana for her work on malnutrition in children, and received the Royal Cross from Pope John Paul II when he visited Ghana in 1980, in recognition of her offering of free medical services at her clinic. She helped to establish the Women's Society for Public Affairs and was a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her achievements were a symbol of inspiration to aspiring women physicians in Ghana.
The Angolan pavilion, representing the nation of Angola, has participated in the Venice Biennale since 2013. As one of the biennial international art exhibition's national pavilions, Angola mounts a show in a Venetian palazzo outside Venice's Giardini. The first Angolan pavilion, which featured the photography of Edson Chagas, became the first African national pavilion to receive the biennial's top prize, the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. Chagas displayed poster-sized photographs of resituated, abandoned objects and weathered architecture in the Angolan capital of Luanda. Reviewers praised the interplay between the photographed subject matter and the Italian Renaissance artwork that adorned the hosting palazzo's walls. The 2015 Biennale hosted a group show of five Angolan artists on themes of intergenerational dialogue. After participating in the 2017 Biennale, Angola did not present in the subsequent three art biennales.
The Ofori-Atta family is composed of the bearers of an Akan language patronymic surname and their relatives. The family is of royal Akyem origins and has been active in business, politics, law and government in Ghana.
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.
Felicia Ewuraesi Abban was Ghana's first female professional photographer. She worked as a photographer for the country's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, for a number of years during the 1960s.
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.
Ghana Freedom was a Ghanaian art exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale, an international contemporary art biennial in which countries represent themselves through self-organizing national pavilions. The country's debut pavilion, also known as the Ghana pavilion, was highly anticipated and named a highlight of the overall Biennale by multiple journalists. The six participating artists—Felicia Abban, John Akomfrah, El Anatsui, Selasi Awusi Sosu, Ibrahim Mahama, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye—represented a range of artist age, gender, locations, and prestige, selected by curator Nana Oforiatta Ayim. The show paired young and old artists across sculpture, filmmaking, and portraiture, and emphasized common threads across postcolonial Ghanaian culture in both its current inhabitants and the diaspora. Almost all of the art was commissioned specifically for the pavilion. Architect David Adjaye designed the pavilion with rusty red walls of imported soil to reflect the cylindrical, earthen dwellings of the Gurunsi within the Biennale's Arsenale exhibition space. The project was supported by the Ghana Ministry of Tourism and advised by former Biennale curator Okwui Enwezor. After the show's run, May–November 2019, works from the exhibition were set to display in Accra, Ghana's capital.
Robert Yaw Addo Fening is a Ghanaian historian who has made major contributions in documenting the history of Akyem Abuakwa and of Ghana. He has been accorded the award of Okyeman Kanea in recognition of his historical works. For several years he taught at the University of Ghana.
Gallery 1957 is a contemporary art gallery located in Accra, Ghana. The gallery intends to present artists of West Africa and the diaspora. It was established in March 2016 by British construction company owner Marwan Zakhem. As of 2018, the gallery has shown artists including Serge Attukwei Clottey, Gideon Appah, Modupeola Fadugba, Godfried Donkor, Yaw Owusu, and Zohra Opoku.
Gilbert Asante is a Ghanaian creative director, photographer, and a multidisciplinary artist. He is best known for his viral images of Ghanaian celebrities including Joselyn Dumas, Boxing legend Azumah Nelson, Lydia Forson, and Big Brother Nigeria Housemate, Nengi.
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