21st Century Ghanaian Writers

"To solve the problem, all you have to do is blow up the continent of Africa."

"Started to guide me into what I had to do."

"I had to make it so that other 12-year-old African girls sitting in Westchester would not be trapped in conversations where that sentiment is brought out."

"I always felt Ghana was home."

"From when I was a child, I knew I wanted to come back."

"it was the kind of food my mom was making or my grandmother telling us stories, I just knew that there was somewhere called home."

"Ghana was always a paradise."

"Ghana was home."

"Whenever I turned on the TV, or opened a newspaper, or turned on the radio, if Africa was mentioned, it was very negative."

"It was always a story of war, poverty or famine."

"“I said to myself, ‘That’s my answer. I’ll fight the single story of Africa by producing a show like “Sex and the City,” set in Accra.’”"

"You’re African,Why are you majoring in AAAS?"

"I have some really great memories, but I also remember really wrestling with my identity and my blackness."

"You can’t study at Brandeis and not get inspired by the fight for justice."

"I had been in development communications for about five years when I decided to look into programs that could help me hone that skill."

"I googled “development communication programs” or something with similar keywords and Georgetown’s Masters of Professional Studies in Public Relations/Corporate Communications was on the first page of results."

"I applied, was accepted and began classes a few months later."

"It was at Georgetown that I met Professor Mike Long and discovered we both had a passion for the creative world, for theatre and for television."

"When I told him that I wanted to create a show where Africa meets ‘Sex and the City’ but I had no idea how to go about it, he said to me: “step one: just write."

"When it comes to the TV industry, I teach myself by googling everything I don’t know. Maybe one day I’ll take a more formal course in TV production, but Google’s search engine has given me all the tools I have needed so far."

"Reordering knowledge, narratives and representations from and about the African continent."

"How suitable is this model for the context we inhabit?"

"Especially as we are coming out of the post-colonial moment, a moment in which we were defining ourselves largely based on a western model."

"I’m interested in the way that art can transform societies."

"When I studied Russian history, I was mostly interested in the Russian Revolution, the revolutionary nature of Russian literatures and arts."

"I think we’re going through something similar here in Accra right now."

"In Accra, there are new manifestations of art and new communities in the process of formation."

"That dynamism and conversation is rapidly coming together to create a crucible, a catalyst for change, that mirrors our economic and political changes."

"It makes life harder in that you never get to rest."

"When you finish with one work, you immediately go to another."

"It’s hard to juggle three or four different things, and in a way, I wish I was a one activity type of person, because my mind and body are never at rest."

"At the same time, each realm somehow enriches the other and gives each more dimension."