By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Dynamic poet / spoken word artist Oswald Okaitei on Wednesday surprised poetry lovers in Accra with a dramatic presentation of strung poems, which flowed into each other with relative ease.

Performing at the Goethe-Institut in Accra as part of a monthly acoustic session, the poet gave a rendition of his own poems alongside works by Ghanaian literary giants including the late Prof. Attukwei Okai, Prof. Lade Wosornu, Prof. Kofi Anyidohu and Dr. Mawuli Adzei.

Amidst applause from the audience, Okaitei performed a conceptualized version of these emotionally charged poems, which he adapted into the era of pre-colonialism while reminding the crowd of the apparent loss of Ghana’s cultural values owing to foreign interventions.   

Together with school kids and a group of ladies known as Achievers Ghana who performed while seated in the midst of the audience, Okaitei showcased the prowess of diction, use of metaphors, alliteration, imagery, witticism, symbolism and other devices employed by these great poets.

“It is refreshing to note that several venues have opened their doors for poets to perform and earn a living in the process. We have indeed moved from the scarcity of opportunities for performance poets. Thanks to the Goethe-Institut for providing a platform for poets”, said Yaw Adu, a poet in Accra.

Undeniably, a cool balance between rawness and style allowed Okaitei’s words to shine and soar through the cool night air as choral music, acoustic guitars and traditional drums provided inspirational rhythms. With an unruffled calmness, he proved that poetry performance could be delivered in diverse ways with varied outcomes.

Through a rather practical, blunt, direct tone and humorous language, his poems moved with controlled energy as stanza after stanza blended into each other with panache. Employing expressive physical gestures that engaged the audience, the poet eventually slowed down and read from a number of his recent works.

Dubbed “Goethe Abansoro”, the monthly acoustic sessions offer artists and their audiences a cozy atmosphere on a decorated terrace to interact while enjoying recent artistic creations.  

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

South African singer / songwriter Pilani Bubu together with GH Jazz Collective on Saturday opened the 2019 edition of Live in Accra Jazz Festival with a magnetic concert at the Alliance Française in Accra.

Momentarily disrupted by a raging fire in a nearby construction site, Bubu dug deep into her rich repertoire and unleashed a cocktail of jazz that have been dramatically interspersed with poetic devices.

With Bernard Ayisa (saxophone), Victor Dey (keyboard), Frank Kissi (drums) and Bright Osei (bass), Bubu delighted the crowd with lucid tunes, catchy rhythms and a distinctive sound that was complemented by a felicitous style from the versatile saxophonist.

“I am greatly impressed with the performance – jazz seems to be having its best and most creative times in Ghana. It is really sad not see any news on jazz in the Ghanaian media”, said an obviously impressed Joan Phillips, a teacher from Bristol, United Kingdom.

With a voice that seemed to soar like a bird in flight, Bubu who enriched her repertoire with influences from Toulouse (France), New York / New Orleans (USA), Dublin (Ireland), London (UK) and Lagos (Nigeria), joyously filled the air with compositions that are equally rich in soul, folk, blues and funk.

Undeniably, they played together with simple clarity and ease that managed to sustain the interest of the audience to the last note. Indeed, it was near impossible to tell where composition ends and improvisation begins.

“It should never fail to amaze any jazz lover who had the pleasure of experiencing this memorable performance by an extra ordinary talented lady with support from equally endowed instrumentalists”, added Kofi Manu, a musician in Accra. 

Bubu’s first EP “Journey of a Heart”, which was produced by RJ Benjamin, was released in 2012. The first single, “Miss Understood” play-listed on 25 radio stations across South Africa while regularly touring and performing internationally. 

Her live repertoire includes a forthcoming album ‘Warrior of Light’ with new big band renditions from her first EP. Bubu has graced the stages of the Drum Beat Festival, National Arts Festival and Fete de la Musique – all in South Africa.

Alliance Française in Accra organized the festival in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Ghana, Best Western Premier Hotel, +233 Jazz Bar & Grill, Republic Bar & Grill and New Morning Arts Centre.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

The Foundation for the Development of African Contemporary Culture in Africa will on Tuesday June 18 open an exhibition of works by thirty African and diasporan artists at the Maison de l’Union in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Titled “Prête-moi ton Rêve”, the works will equally be displayed in other African cities including to Dakar (Senegal), Abidjan (La Côte d’Ivoire), Lagos (Nigeria), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Cape Town (South Africa). It is expected to end in Marrakesh (Morocco) in 2020.

This ambitious project is expected to bring together more than 100 previously unseen creations produced by the artists during residencies alongside some of their most iconic pieces. Indeed, it is a reflection of the abundance and vitality of the African art scene.

“Prête-moi ton Rêve” aims to increase the international visibility of local contemporary artists, give rise to a pan-African circuit of cultural distribution and to foster dialogue and exchange between established and emerging artists. 

The artists include Ei Anatsui / Kofi Setordji (Ghana), Fouad Bellamine, Fatiha Zemmouri, Fathiya Tahiri, Mohamed Melehi, Mahi Bine Bine (Morocco), Abdoulaye Konaté (Mali), Siriki Ky, Jems Koko Bi, Ouattara Watts,  (Cote d’Ivoire), Chéri Samba, Bill Kouelany, Freddy Tsimba (Congo) and Soly Cissé / Viyé Diba (Senegal).

Others are Jane Alexander / William Kentridge (South Africa), Meriem Bouderbala (Tunisia), Yazid Oulab (Algeria), Adel El Siwi (Egypt), Nenna Okoré (Australia), Zoulikha Bouabdelah (Russia), Olu Omoda (Nigeria), Barthélémy Toguo / Joseph Sumégné (Cameroon) and Omar Khalil (Sudan).   

Chaired by HRH Prince Moulay Ismaïl, the Foundation aims at promoting and ensuring the discernibility of African contemporary art in Africa and the world at large.  It was initiated in 2018 by some members of the art world and entrepreneurs, who are deeply convinced of the wealth of the African art scene.  

The exhibition is being curated by the Ivorian academic / art critic Prof. Yacouba Konate and the Moroccan historian / exhibition curator Brahim Alaoui. Both curators bring on board a wide range of experience that traverse various continents.

Currently the Director of MASA Festival in La Côte d’Ivoire, Konate is a member of the scientific council of the Académie des Sciences de la Culture et des Arts d’Afrique et des Diasporas (Academy of Sciences, Culture and Arts of Africa and the Diasporas) and was in charge of Fondation Jean-Paul Blachère’s African office.

Alaoui has written numerous books and catalogues, notably on contemporary Arabic artists and is one of the rare thinkers to establish connections – both in his texts and the exhibitions he has organized – between the art of the Arab world, European and international art scene.

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By Alfred Tamakloe

(In Copenhagen – Denmark)

When Gyedu-Blay Ambolley recorded his maiden album “Simigwa Do” with Uhuru Dance Band in 1973 and released on Norman Bentsil Enchill’s Capeside Records label in Cape Coast, Ghana, he brought another dimension to Ghana’s highlife music. A blend of highlife, funk, disco and rap, Simigwa Do, launched a new sound, a new lyrical communication and a new dance on the Ghanaian music scene never heard before. It is Ambolley’s claim to be the first person to have commercially released a rap record, contrary to the claims of the Guinness Book of Records.

Today Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is one of Ghana’s leading exponents of highlife and experimenters in the genre with a strong charismatic stage personality. He is a singer, tenor sax player, not only famous in Ghana but has become currently well-known internationally with World Music fans around the world even among the black youth of the coastal Cartagena Region of Colombia whose “champea” music has been influenced by the music of Ambolley and other African musicians introduced by visiting African seamen since the 1970s. Even though Ghana’s popular music genre, Highlife, is said to have emerged around the 20th century, it actually goes back to the 1880s through to the 1900s.

According to Musicologist, Professor John Collins, a Ghanaian of British musicologist, the first form, the “adaha” brass band music on the Fanti coast to the west of Ghana, was triggered by the regimental bands of six thousand West Indians soldiers stationed at Cape Coast and El Mina slave castles by the British colonialists. Adaha music spread very quickly throughout southern Ghana. According to John Collins, those small towns and villages that could not afford expensive brass instruments, created a poor-man’s ‘drum-and -voice’ version called konkoma or konkomba which developed and spread quickly as far as to Nigeria. The “adaha” and konkoma were followed by another form of highlife – the Fanti “Osibisaaba” – a traditional Fanti recreational music and dance for fishermen.

One important influence came from the kru or kroo seamen of Liberia, who in the 20th century, pioneered Africanised two-finger guitar plucking techniques on the high seas. Highlife gained the most mainstream popularity in Ghana after World War Two, splitting into two major styles and scenes: guitar band and dance band. Guitar band highlife music was most widespread in rural parts of the country. Because traditional music in these regions had a longer-standing history of incorporating stringed instruments, musicians readily accepted and incorporated the guitar into their composition. When it first emerged, it was associated with Ghana’s aristocracy as it was performed primarily at exclusive clubs along Ghana’s coast. Most Ghanaians did not have the wealth or social status to enter these venues, so the music earned it the name “highlife”.

Music for the rich and affluent

John Collins notes that, “the diversity of Ghana’s traditional performing arts is therefore enormous- and so it is no wonder that, their dance rhythms and melodies have been and still are being incorporated into many of Ghana’s popular dance music forms stretching from brass-band and dance band highlife, odonso highlife, sikyi highlife, and osoode highlife to Afro-rock and Burger highlife”. Others are Ga kpanlogo highlife, Palmwine highlife, Asiko highlife, Dagomba highlife and Kwao highlife forms.

Growing up as a boy, I heard Ambolley’s music very much at home as my father was a collector of vinyls from all over the African continent. But Ambolley’s record became controversial and was banned from being played on radio in Ghana.

Ambolley is from Nzema or Nzima in the western Ghana, the birthplace of Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, an area with a rich highlife tradition that spreads into Cote d’Ivoire. He was however, not born there but in the twin harbour city of Sekondi-Takoradi. Ambolley’s first musical influences were two-fold: the military music of his father who played the flute and was a soldier during the Second World War, as well as highlife music of local dance bands like Broadway.

He learnt to play drums and guitar, then in 1963 at fifteen, joined his first band- Tricky Johnson’s Sextet based in Sekondi as a vocalist, the leader of which was one-time guitarist of E.T. Mensah’s Tempos dance band. From there Ambolley move to another band in the locality, the Railway Band led by Sammy Lartey, who together with another member Ebo Taylor, were to become his mentors. Ebo Taylor taught Ambolley to play the bass guitar.

I asked him in a recent interview in Ghana’s capital Accra, before his 2019 European tour with his full-fledged Ghanaian outfit -The Sekondi Band – what the name of his album ‘Simigwa Do’ means. “Some believe ‘Simigwa Do’ is profane, but in Fanti – my language – it is a proverbial phrase which means the sort of composed dance done by a chief or a well-established person. He is sitting on a chair with so much pride as if he has achieved something and is in a happy mood. Then an inner feeling makes him get up for a moment and dance. People thought it meant, “let’s go and have sex”, but it wasn’t like that. One thing that pains me was that this record was assessed at Ghana Broadcasting House and I wasn’t called upon to analyze the phrase. But they just decided to ban the record. I tried to explain on television and so on but with no result”.

The album cover has a photo of Ambolley dressed up a small boy with a cloth around his body tied up at the back of his neck and has twisted his mouth at right angle to the normal position. Lyrics of Ambolley’s Simigwa brand of highlife cut across love to serious issues of corruption and injustice in African politics. Other times Ambolley is just murmuring very funny things to make you laugh and happy.

This side of him shows, when I ask him about his own musical language, he tells me how the Ghanaian king of highlife E. T. Mensah, James Brown and himself integrate food in their music: “If you look at James Brown singing about mashed potatoes and popcorn, you can come to Ghana and E. T. Mensah will be singing about “Abele”. That’s why I put food into my music. Because nobody can live without food.”

Since his debut over four decades ago, this unstoppable musician, songwriter, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and producer has collaborated with such icons as Sammy Lartey and Ebo Taylor, churning out over 30 albums such as “The Message”, “ Akoko Ba”, “Simigwa Soca” and “Burkina Faso”, which have been re-issued on 12” vinyl on Analog Africa label.

Note:- Ambolley played his first ever concert on Danish soil at the winter Jazz Festival in February at Alice in Copenhagen as part of his 2019 European tour. This article is also published in Danish in the maiden edition of the Danish Music Magazine “The Looking-Glass”- March 2019.

Pictures:- Crawfurd Media – Film and Photography

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By Wilfred Clarke

(In London – United Kingdom)

As the world keeps evolving and revolving with its advantages and disadvantages, there are some people who have taken it upon themselves to help solve the world’s global warming.

And one of such people is a leading personality from the north of Africa, Morocco to be precise. In her first solo gallery exhibition in London (UK) at Sulger Buel Gallery, the acclaimed Moroccan artist, Ghizlane Sahli has done her work by utilising some remarkable understanding of space and form to present series of three dimensional bas-reliefs.

Combining both drawings and sculpture in the exhibition, she challenges art patrons on an inner and organic minefield fused with a universal theme. And she believes this imagination allows the viewer to transcend what would normally exempt humans from seeing “Universality” and its complex and sophisticated mechanism.

Looking upon her work of art, one can detect a certain sense of inclusion that behoves on everything she encounters on her journey to either drawing or sculpturing. Ghizlane Sahli’s philosophy seems not to claim or condemn anything. To her, ‘belonging’ is a fragmented prison, and identity, a notion far too complex to confine or freeze without risking alienation.

In this light, she consciously sees and takes substitution and the exploration of what is most fundamental and common to humanity, in its primitive origin. The cleaning of all the stigmas that make a distinction or belonging, with regards to factors such as culture, society, religion, geographical, race or gender is her focus.

Being trained formally as an architect in Paris, Ghizlane Sahli uses a technique to shape, arrange and physically present in space by creating abstract assemblages of individual concave elements that together harmonise into groupings that evoke the organic, while bearing no direct comparison or model in nature itself.

The components that make up her work at the exhibition stand proud from their flat base on the tops of recycled plastic bottles, meticulously enrobed in silk thread. And this gives each texture, lustre and an optical quality that varies depending on the viewer’s position and the light conditions in which they are seen.

The shimmering, jewel-like constructions, speak of the transformative power, which is a concern for the environment. This idea is coupled with a technical mastery of material and deep understanding of the workings of shape and form in space, which can evoke both the artist and the viewer alike.

In a dialogue Ghizlane said: “This work is the exploration of the human body. Each artwork is zoomed into different parts of the body. “I have seen thousands of parts of the body, and having those images in my mind, I have tried to express them through my work.”

As a daring artist who is embarking on her very first solo exhibition, she is leaving no stone or fabric unturned, saying: “I needed to explore a universal subject: to which we are all connected regardless of the notions of education, religion, gender or society.

Choosing one out of all the metaphors there are, she said: “The human body was the best metaphor I could find, and through it, I wanted to work on emotion.” Alluding to some omnipotent or a certain supremacy above human understanding she emphasized that: “I always have that idea in mind, of a big hand taking the human body and shaking it ‘clean’ from all the ‘pollutions’ brought by education, religion or society and keeping just the core of it.

“The pure part is the part that I want to show as a tribute to our body.” She concludes. One amazing piece of her work is the addition of a characteristic ‘heart’ free-standing sculpture and a series of drawings in a symbolic unification of the mind, body and soul.

This exhibition is imminent in offering some London-based patrons of African art, an opportunity and scope to see a fresh and exciting new voice in the continent’s constellation of up-and-coming contemporary artists.

Simply or arguably the world and its environment is ecologically and drastically changed these days due to the gradual or rampant increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere by some human activities.

This situation is generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by the world’s increase levels of carbon dioxide and some other pollutants. Asked as to whether she is intentionally changing the world through the usage of reliable materials, the ever-smiling Ghizlane Sahli replied: “If my effort is truly saving the world then fine.”

Aptly titled Histoires de Tripes Charpter II, Ghizlane Sahli’s  art at the exhibition ranges from four hundred and fifty to fourteen thousand nine hundred pounds, showing at Sulger Buel Gallery in London.

Photos: Aaron Akrong

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By Alfred Tamakloe

(In Accra – Ghana)

A local community group including direct descendants of former slave traders are excavating the seventeenth century Danish trading post, Christiansborg at Osu in Ghana’s capital Accra, to learn more about their history. Ghana’s first female archaeologist Prof. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, is leading the community archaeology project at Christiansborg or “Osu Castle” as is known by the local people.

She is the great great great great great granddaughter of Carl Gustav Engmann, a Governor of Christiansborg Castle (1752-1757) who survived the Fredensberg slave shipwreck off the coast of Norway (1768), and later, a Board Member of the Danish Slave Trading organization (1766-1769), and daughter of Chief Tette Ahinaekwa of Osu.

Under the auspices of Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project (CAHP), they have excavated an extensive pre-colonial settlement including the foundations of houses and retrieved a large collection of local and foreign manufactured objects obtained through the transatlantic trade.

“This is the first archaeological excavation of the site”, says Engmann, the first researcher granted access to the castle. She trained at Columbia and Stanford Universities and is currently a Professor in Archaeology at Hampshire College – all in the United States.

As a child, Engmann grew up with the belief that her family descended from a Danish Christian missionary stationed in Ghana. However, about 13 years ago, her aunt advised her to visit the castle. Sure enough, when Engmann visited, she discovered a water cistern in the castle courtyard, inscribed with the name, Carl Gustav Engmann. Archaeological work at the castle since 2014 to date, comprises excavation, photography, documentary filmmaking and ethnography.

“The team is composed of members from the local community, including direct descendants. Lecturers and graduate students from the University of Ghana trained the team. The number of team members has grown over the years. Currently, there are thirty participants, which includes men and women ranging in ages from sixteen to late sixties. Team members are recruited by word of mouth”, she says.

“To date, we have excavated an extensive pre-colonial settlement. This includes the foundations of houses and what we tentatively think is a kitchen since it contains three stones (for balancing a cooking pot) and charcoal, in keeping with local cooking area design. We have also retrieved a large collection of local and foreign manufactured objects obtained through the transatlantic trade.

We have identified what are commonly known as ‘African trade beads’ that were produced in other parts of Africa, as well as Europe, including Italy and Holland. Ceramics include Chinese and European ceramics, as well as local pottery. An African smoking pipe and numerous Dutch, English, German, and Danish clay smoking pipes were recovered from the site. European glassware ranges from every day usage to refined, luxury ware”.

“There are a number of other small finds including a slate fragment, typically used for writing, as well as faunal remains, seeds, metals, stone, daub, cowrie, and other shells. With the assistance of local fishermen, we even excavated a canon immersed in sand that had fallen from the castle above down on to the beach below.

Under the castle, we also discovered the entrance to an underground tunnel that led to the nearby Richter House, formerly owned by two successful ‘mulatto’ Danish-Ga brothers who were important slave traders. This tunnel meant captive Africans could be transported from the house directly onto slave ships at sea”.

Christiansborg Castle is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, former seventeenth century trading post, Danish and British seat of colonial government administration and until recently, office of the President of the Republic of Ghana. Today, it is known in local parlance simply as ‘Osu Castle’ or ‘The Castle’. Queen Margrethe of Denmark visited Christiansborg in 2017 when she went on an official trip to Ghana.

History of the Castle

The Swedes built Christiansborg Castle in 1652 as a trading post. In 1661, Denmark purchased the site from the Osu Paramount Chief for 100oz of gold in order to conduct trade. The Danes constructed Fort Christiansborg (‘Christian’s Fortress’), named after the King of Denmark, Christian IV. Over time, the Danes enlarged and converted the fort into a castle.

Denmark occupied the castle until 1849, with the exception of a few brief periods: between 1679 and 1683, it was sold to and occupied by the Portuguese, and renamed Fort Sao Francis Xavier; between 1685 and 1689, it was mortgaged to the British; and in 1693, Asameni, a trader and chief of Akwamu, in Ghana’s Eastern Region, gained possession of the castle through subterfuge and acted a ‘governor’, but sold it back to the Danes in 1694. 

Christiansborg Castle contained a courtyard, chapel, ‘mulatto school’, warehouse storerooms, residential quarters, dungeons, bell tower, cannons and saluting guns. The castle walls depicted the ciphers of Christian VI and Christian VII. In the castle courtyard, a cistern was inscribed with Governor Carl Gustav Engmann’s name. 

Enslaved Africans were sent from the castle to the Danish Virgin Islands, namely St. Johns, St. Croix and St, Thomas (today the US Virgin Islands). In 1685, Christiansborg Castle became the Danish administrative headquarters in West Africa, and along with nine other forts and lodges, enabled Denmark to acquire a near monopoly of trade on the coast. Christiansborg Castle was so vital to the Danish economy that between 1688 and 1747 Danish coinage depicted an image of the castle and the inscription, ‘Christiansborg’.

The Danish Edict of 16th March 1792 officially marked the abolition of the Danish transatlantic slave trade, but it was not enforced until 1803. In 1849, Denmark sold Christiansborg Castle, along with its other forts, together with the plantations in the Akuapem Mountains to the British for 10,000 pounds.

 Life in and Around the Castle

Danish men married Ga women creating the emergence of a Danish-Ga community, in an area that became known as ‘Danish-Osu’. Today, the Lutterodt, Quist, Wulff, Hansen, Richter, Aarestrup, Jacobsen, Lokko, Malm, Palm, Pedersen, Quist, Sonne, Svanekjær, Truelsen and Engmann families still carry the names of their seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth century predecessors. Many Danish-Ga direct descendants continue to live close to Christiansborg Castle.

Pictures: Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Works by Tunisian artist Thameur Mejri that comprise a melody of colors, human limbs, birds, aircrafts, geometric shapes, television sets and animals among others never fail to grab the immediate attention of viewers as it explores the image of Tunisian society.

Noted for the distinction of his paint strokes accompanied by intermittent intensity, the artist, whose works are currently on show at Gallery 1957 in Accra, reveal a powerful visual language that has been embedded in different historical references.

Evidently obsessed with colours, the intricacy of his compositions are the direct result of the firmness of his reflection, his creative process and undeniably the intellectual endeavor, which end up in paintings that are formidable with definitions reflecting the image of Tunisian society.

Titled “Eroded Grounds”, the exhibition is rife with motifs, which Mejri effectively combines with a vigorous application of paint thereby creating a sensation of tense vibration. Undeniably, this enables his messages to be transmitted in a manner that results in varying degrees of comprehension.

Also a professor at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts (Tunisia), Mejri’s work equally deals with violence, cruelty and narrow-mindedness, which he represents with guns, skulls, hands, mutilated bodies, knives, animals, masks, telephones, calligraphy, chairs and many others that embrace pictograms emerging from his concepts. 

Indeed, the human body is central to Mejri and he employs it in diverse ways to address issues in his native Tunisia and beyond while expressing some level of sensitivity.  Indeed, within his gyratory colors, symphonies of images appear and they tend to live side by side in in restrained chaos.

Mejri sees the human body a mechanism that can build, produce and love but can at the same time be an instrument of domination, destruction and death as he makes allusions to the politico-cultural situation in Tunisia vis-à-vis the conflict between tradition and modernity.

Chaos reigns across the majority of the paintings – and it is disorder under crushing burden as he depicts different types of pressure his generation and indeed the larger society is currently facing in his native country and elsewhere.  

The exhibition ends on Tuesday May 7, 2019.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Three books comprising novels and a collection of poems by Ghanaian academic Dr. Mawuli Adzei were over the weekend launched with a remarkable ceremony at the National Theatre in Accra.

“Bakudi’s Ghost”, “Guilty as Charged” and “Filaments”, vividly portray Dr. Adzei as a prolific writer whose narrative power, plots, scenes and tales are virtual page- turners. Indeed, they are stunningly confident books with a fresh take on diverse issues that regularly confront us.

“Filaments”, which is a compilation of his reflections through poetry, reveal his mastery of interlacing diverse topics into poetry for intellectuals while easily serving as material for spoken, theatre, music and dance.

Undeniably, the ability of his poems taking on drama, music and dance was demonstrated by short performances directed by Oswald Okaitei, who effectively conceptualized stringed poems by Adzei into creative and brilliant acts drawing cheers from the audience.

Reviews by Dr. Osei Bonsu (Guilty as Charged), Dr. Kwame Osei Poku (Bakudi’s Ghost) and Dr. Kwabena Opoku Agyemang (Filaments) – all from the Department of English, University of Ghana (Legon), provided fresh insights into the quality of Dr. Adzei’s writing while reminding us of his reputation as a skillful writer.

Dr. Adzei has taught creative writing, oral literature, popular genres, postcolonial literature and other courses at the Department of English, University of Ghana. He is also the author of “Taboo” (fiction 2012), “Testament of Seasons” (poetry 2013) and “The Jewel of Kabibi” (fiction 2014). 

He has been a resource person in creating writing for the Ghana Writers Association, Mbaasem Foundation and the Ghana Institute of Journalism. Selections of his poetry have been performed at the Babishai Literary Festival (Uganda), Story Moja Festival (Kenya), Programme de la RICEP (Togo), Walk The Talk (Ghana) and World Poetry Day (Norway).

Present at the ceremony include Prof. Kofi Anyidoho (University of Ghana), Nana Kwasi Gyan-Appenteng (Ghana Association of Writers), Dr. Martin Egblewobe (Writers Project of Ghana), Amy Frimpong (National Theatre of Ghana) and Ernestina Lartey Asinura (Ghana Book Development Council), who launched the book.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

An exhibition of artworks by Owusu Dartey, Prof. Edmund Tetteh and Albert Osabu Bartimeus – undisputed fathers of Ghanaian modern art – will on Wednesday April 3 open at the Dei Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art in Accra.

Works by the artists – who are all deceased, explore their ability to describe and convey a sense of beginning, people and places – while highlighting their contribution to the development of Ghanaian contemporary art.

Whether referencing an identifiable subject matter / content or one that is conceptual / abstract in some sense, each painting encourages the viewer to contemplate and decipher the physical context in which the work was executed.

The works present a travelogue of locales, festivals, portraits and other thematic compositions. Indeed, they embody networks introduced by a new spirit of contemporaneity, material and political sensitivity while reflecting public engagements.

Visitors to the Dei Centre, which is located in Tesano (a suburb of Accra), are also expected to witness images that provide oblique references to places thereby facilitating an ability to imagine and reconstruct specific coordinates of the paintings.

Undeniably, Dartey’s (1927 – 2018) vast expanses of paintings present unobstructed views from seaside life and market scenes embodied by colourful rural life. Furthermore, many of the settings in which the figures are illustrated remain stubbornly elusive and transparent at the same time.

Subject matter by Bartimeus (1927 – 1988) is somewhat not so different from his contemporary but his technique and mastery over oil paint is enormously contemplative. Some of his subjects recede into the shadows of the enigmatic Ghanaian market life. Indeed, the prominence he gives to his paintings on fish underline the importance of fisher folk to development.

Master colourist Prof. Tetteh (1924 – 2007) projects the sacredness of Ghanaian portraits. The boldness in rendition of characters and strong brush strokes makes commonplace settings become extraordinary. His choice of colours – which enshrine a hallucinatory and technicolour realm – equally reveal nature’s beautiful embodiments.

Titled, “Owusu Dartey & His Circle of Friends: Albert O. Bartimeaus, Prof. E.K. Tetteh”, the exhibition equally presents a shared platform not only to celebrate but to also question their roles, how society perceives their contribution and its influences on their professional and personal choices.   

The exhibition, which is being curated by Leroy Coubagy and Michael Martey, ends on Friday June 28.

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By John Owoo

(In Accra – Ghana)

Veteran palm wine music exponent Agya Koo Nimo, recently delighted an enthusiastic audience at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra with steady rhythms, light percussion and songs that continuously flowed at an upbeat pace.

Performing at the launch of  “To Wo Ho Fo”, a seven track album by Kwan Pa Band, the 86 year old living legend and his Adadam Agofomma Band charmed the audience with relaxed and calming music that revealed the richness of traditional Ghanaian melodies.

Full of energy, Koo Nimo was in Accra from his Kumasi base to offer support to Kwan Pa, a group that has taken on the challenge to preserve, develop and promote traditional Ghanaian and African music, which has taken the world music scene by storm in the past several years.

Employing traditional instruments such as seperewa (harp lute), frikyiwa (castanet), dawuta (twin bell), shekere (rattle), gome (square bass drum), kpanlogo drums and an acoustic guitar, the group entertained the audience with tracks from the album that recall the skills of their elders, who propagated this type of music in the early 20^th century.

Led by Andrew Nkansah Asa, Kwan Pa Band, which shot to fame in December 2018 with a localized version of  “Five Gold Rings” by Murgatroyd/Burrell, descended into their own world and thrilled the crowd with their version of traditional Ghanaian music, which is partially geared in the direction of palm wine highlife. 

With Frederick Minamor (kpanlogo drums, vocals), Isaac Kojo Baah (Shekere, Dawuta, vocals), Bismark Kwabena Safo (gome, vocals), Andrew Nkansah Asa (guitar, vocals), the album is full of compositions that send us back into the past and forward into the future through an effective use of melodic and rhythmic structures of Akan traditional music.

Earlier, seperewa virtuoso Osei Korankye together with singer Ewura Ama Agyepong and guitarist Dr. Corlter Harter, a visiting academic from the University of Pittsburg (USA) entertained the crowd with a number of compositions by Korankye, which equally revealed the effectiveness of cross cultural collaboration.   

Comprising students of the Music Department, University of Ghana, the Legon Palm Wine Band delighted the audience with diverse compositions that spanned several decades while reminding the crowd of the beauty, diversity and power of traditional rhythms.

“To Wo Ho Fo” was recorded at Sawnd Factory Studios in Accra with Ernest O-Poku and Samuel Nana as engineers.

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