Women Academics From Ghana

"It is an opportunity to talk to the rest of the world about Africa, and also to talk to Africa from here (Venice). The ability to be several things at once — traditional and modern, African and global, colonized and independent — is a strong thread running through the continent and the Diaspora. We’re used to having to think about resources, about switching on a light with no guarantee of electricity. We’re able to grapple with change. That capacity to overcome, to negotiate, to navigate ones’ surroundings is going to take center stage."

"I think all cultural output is a form of narrative. Somebody once said that culture is the sum total of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. So, there's a very deep need to say something, to impart something. In these questions of colony, identity, territory, and history, there is a sense amongst many black practitioners that we've never had the space to tell our own stories, and part of the act of recuperating what has been lost is the desire to speak. In some senses, the Biennale has been a healing experience, a kind of closing over of a wound, of a void."

"I don't expect this exhibition to teach anybody anything, I don't think it's a didactic exhibition. That's not to say that people won't learn something from it. But I don't want any of the participants to be the ones dictating what the lesson is. It should be read from it. What they have done is put out an authentic, genuine, sometimes vulnerable story. What happens to that story is somehow beyond their control. What I hope that the audience takes from it is a kind of openness where previously, there might have been a closeness, or an unwillingness to engage with the other, not on our terms, but on their terms."

"Architects have the power to change the culture of how we build and how we think about resources."

"I’ve always thought of ‘race’ as a powerfully creative category of exploration and expression. I was fed up trying to find a way to talk about identity, race and Africa in architecture that wasn’t only about poverty and ‘informality,’ a word I loathe."

"She (Lesley) is using the Biennale as a platform to extend the work she has been doing for decades. Lesley is able to set the stage for others and expose the network that for some of us has always been there."

"It wasn't sealed - she opened the flap. Inside was a cheque for a thousand dollars. Made out to her. From Daniel. It was a colossal slap in the face."

"Guilt, Ameline discovered, was a terrible, unruly think, like toothache - dull nagging, persistent, never far from attention. Just when you got used to its rumbling, ruminating presence, it would lash out, stike you down, stio you dead in your tracks. The worst thing was, it was entirely unpredictable."

"You have to find yourself. When you meet him again, you have to know who you are. He's finding out who he is."

"The glow of delicioous tension coudn't be faked, not at any price. So when you leave, that's when you realise you've been living in a lie."

"Change is the one thing that everybody hollers for and longs for, but when it actually arrives, most people don't want it. It's a complex thing."

"All futures are uncertain. We do our best to anticipate the future."

"How could you teach someone to survive? You pointed them in the right direction and hoped they'd swim, not sink. Waving, not drowning. There are more important things in life than individual happiness. It was an easy trap to fall into, mistaking a lack of self-direction for an expression of love."

"The dominant voice has historically been a singular, exclusive voice, whose reach and power ignores huge swathes of humanity — financially, creatively, conceptually — as though we have been listening and speaking in one tongue only."

"No job is worth one’s life."

"Succession is something you make, by constructing opportunities."

"Africa's unique context, which is both richly challenging and richly creative, means it's a powerful place from which to examine the issues that will dominate the next century – climate change, societal change, demographic change, new forms of governance, explosive urbanity."

"She would love it. Just as he loved her. He paused for a second, his fingers touching the door handle. He was in love. The realisation came to him quite suddenly."

"I urged Ghanaians to de­sist from telling lies and do what they would like to do if nobody was watching them."

"One of my sons had expressed concern that there were many students who had applied to the medical schools in Ghana with good grades but could not gain admission to the public medical schools because of the cut-off point, so he asked why couldn’t the family establish a school to cater for some of these students."

"My family decid­ed to manage the academic part of the university while other stakeholders provide the financial part. That was the vision to get stakehold­ers who would provide the needed funds for this laudable project, hence the coming into being of the Accra Col­lege of Medicine."

"The challenges in the department included the clinical condition the patient was identified with, you could diagnose the condition and prescribe medication for the patient, but the parents could not purchase the medicine, and having completed a nice job, the post-operative man­agement of the case could be problematic because the parents could not provide the needed items."

"In paediatric surgery, a child comes to the hospital with a problem and when you operate on the child or you correct the problem, the next day the child is ready to go and play football. In this situation, the anxious parents would like to find out wheth­er the child should be allowed to play or not."

"There was no regret working as a Paediatric Surgeon because I attached professionalism to my work and the relief given to par­ents and their sick children had provided me a lot of satisfaction. Additionally, working with my hands to see a little child get better was a wonderful activity which she took delight in."

"The Paediatric Surgery Depart­ment took care of newborn babies up to 13 years."

"By the grace of God, the school has graduated 28 medical doctors from three batches. The main thing is about their work ethics and high character."

"Sometimes tough, especially when I wants something done. Most of the people who I have worked with understand me."

"Do not procrastinate. I believe the youth of today have numerous opportunities which they must explore but is worried that many are not patient."

"I intend to transform Korle Bu into a centre of excellence where everybody will receive equal services from our medical staff. Patients will be received with open arms irrespective of the class or status, just as is done in the advanced countries."

"However, the icy hands of death took away her father, in her first year at the Medical School in 1971. This was a catastrophic and traumatic experience."

"His death affected my academic performance that semester. I pulled myself together after his burial, and told myself – I will not fail."

"I gained admission to the Wesley Girls High School (WeyGeyHey) Cape Coast, and pursued both my Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) Levels and the University of Ghana Medical School subsequently."

"I lamented how quickly they want to amass wealth for themselves, disregarding wealth of experiences of the elderly and appreciating the need for hard work to achieve laurels."

"I intimat­ed that there were occasions I had to use my money in support of needy children on admission in the hospital, and this situation had occasioned the establishment of a Special Fund in the department in support of needy children."

"Take every experience as a learning process and make a conscious effort to read widely because the world has become so globalised, it would be disastrous if we failed to recognize that. And in all these, we should pray to God for inspiration."

"I was an unusually reserved young lady, for which I was teased by friends, I shrugged off that trait later, to the surprise of many. She became the Assistant Girls Prefect at Wesley Girls, in her final year."

"To get my ideas working, I need to let them understand what I stand for, and intend doing for them: even when they are not pleased with the way I do things. I have to live by examples."

"Working as a Paedi­atric Surgeon was God’s plan for my life because l was told by my par­ents that at the age of four, l had indicated l would become a paediatric surgeon. It is so surprising that l knew nothing about it so l inferred that it was God who had directed my thoughts."

"It was an arduous task working continuously as a paediatric surgeon with no time to rest. Later, she had to recruit more doctors and nurses to assist her in the department and ensured that the staff were exposed to some of the best practices outside the country."

"I want to be a team player, and hopes to get everybody working with me, and to encourage them to do things right, and at the right time; no matter how difficult."

"I have never wavered going through all the disciplines in medicine."

"I would also like to tell this young girl that she is not alone; sometimes we feel like we are isolated, especially on this STEM journey but no, there is support out there. There are people who have been where you are, find a mentor; someone who has been where you want to reach and can speak positively into your life."

"The opportunity to go elsewhere to see how things are done elsewhere and to apply that knowledge in our context is very, very important. It gives you a global worldview when you go abroad to study but yes they must come back to help"

"I like reading, a lot! I read anything, and everything. I also like listening to classical music. I find joy in catching up with my friends and classmates from all over the world."

"I am also the host for a science quiz program called the National Science and Math Quiz, for secondary schools in Ghana. You will be amazed at what happens in this program, haha. So this is a month-long televised Science competition where all schools come together to find out who wins for that year. The whole country comes to a stand-still, everybody is watching because everyone is affiliated in one way or another to a school. My purpose here is to make people understand that you don’t have to be a science student to enjoy sciences. The applications of science are reachable and everywhere around us."

"Since 2017, I have been receiving all kinds of awards every year, haha. In 2017 itself I received the Impact Africa Summit award for education in Ghana; I am the Laureate for Ghana in education. It again has to do with my attitude towards promoting education in Ghana."

"In 2011, I was a fellow of the International Women’s Forum Leadership program – the leadership foundation. I guess my application for this was strong because some of the activities I have done in education. This allowed me to go back to school – Harvard Business School and INSEAD, executive education programs. This was another opportunity for me to build my leadership skills and strengthen my ability to do the things I have been able to do and are still doing."

"I also love travelling. Before the pandemic, I would get a chance, maybe once a year, to visit a place I have never been to. Even my conferences were opportunities to explore, haha."

"The good thing is that I had been trained to be independent – one of the things I thank my parents for – so leaving home for the UK wasn’t such a challenge for me. But now adjusting to a new environment – winter time for example – was the problem. I had also been used to a certain way of teaching, you know the African way, haha! We don’t ask questions because whatever the teacher tells us is the solid truth."

"Now here I was in a class full of interactions between teachers and students. In this school critical thinking was a requirement, we were supposed to have discussions on some of the most controversial topics. I had to find ways of forming an opinion and engage in the discussions because I took the idea serious that I was representing my country! My presence there had to matter."