Julian Adomako-Gyimah is an alum of Presby Boys Secondary School, Legon. He holds a B.A. in Business Studies at the Kensington College of Business, London, a Diploma in Journalism at the Writers Bureau College of Journalism, Manchester, UK, Executive Diplomas in Strategic Management and Management, a Diploma in Management Studies and an Executive MBA at the Huddersfield University, UK. He has worked as a Financial Controller at Brook & Whittle, after working as an Accounts Manager at Ryder Plc, both in the UK. Additionally, he is a Chartered Manager and a member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), also in the UK.
Julian is also the proud author of two bestsellers, namely Smile Africa and Recall, which are both available on amazon.com, bn.com, borders.com, and in all major retail outlets around the globe.
Julian is a co-founder of One Ghana, One Voice.
Five Questions with Julian Adomako-Gyimah:
1. What do you think is the state of poetry in Accra, outside of the University of Legon? How do you think we can improve the poetry community that exists outside of the University setting?
The state of poetry in Accra at the moment is not very good and the only way we can improve the poetry community outside the boundaries of the University of Ghana is to organise periodic workshops to address the importance of poetry and writing in general. People need to be awakened and made to see the power of the pen.
A poetry event on TV or radio can also go a long way to help.
2. "The Beautiful Child" seems to have contradictory themes to those in your last profiled poem, "This Is The Time." What allows you to take such different perspectives?
Yes, you are right and my poetry usually addresses societal issues and nothing more so I choose to write about politics when necessary, general issues and anything that puts me in the position to speak for those who have been used and abused. Ghana is a wonderful country except that we have bad leadership. I thought it was time to talk about the magnificent nature of this great nation and attract tourists whilst we put together a movement to kick out all the bad politicians.
3. Do you feel "The Beautiful Child" speaks more to Ghana's current greatness, or to the country's future, untapped greatness?
"The Beautiful Child" talks about both as it makes it clear as to what we stand for and what the greatest son of Africa, Nkrumah, wanted it to be like. This poem is to tell all and sundry that Ghana deserves better leadership, human capital improvement, etc.
4. "The Beautiful Child" was read at the Orlando, Florida "Ghana @ 50" event. Was it written specifically for that event? What was your reaction to finding out it had been read?
It was specifically written for this event as the organisers approached OGOV to get a special poem for the event. I have gotten to the stage where the poetry just flows as soon as I put pen to paper so I decided to put up this piece just to make the event a successful and memorable one.
I was very ecstatic when I realised that it had been read at the event. Poetry is universal and should have no boundaries so this achievement makes me feel proud as a published poet and an Afrocentrist.
5. Some people say that Ghana's 50th Anniversary celebrations have had a positive effect on peoples understanding of Ghana's history. Others argue that the celebrations have covered up many of the historical problems you refer to in "This Is The Time". What is your opinion?
The current celebrations are just not necessary at all. At 50, we should have been planning how to move the nation to where it really belongs. There should have been a revamp of the educational setup to address the current market needs and we should have been organising fora to identify the problems of Ghana and how to address them.
Our selfish leaders are just amassing wealth in the name of the 5Oth anniversary celebrations. These thieves called politicians will have to pay for this blunder now or in the near future. Our current leader has by this proven how incompetent he is as a leader. He is one of the worst leaders in our nation's history and not different for President Rawlings. They are all bandits in disguise.
We should be crying at 50 rather than jubilating because we have achieved nothing but failure.
Contact Julian:
Email: jlnadom(at)gmail.com
Website: Buy Smile Africa
Buy Recall
Julian's Past Profiles:
May 5th-11th, 2007
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