OGOV Roundtable Discussion #3 - About the Participants
Emma Akuffo:
The daughter of a Ghanaian diplomat, Emma Akuffo was born in Russia in 1965. Her childhood years were spent in a number of countries including India, Italy and Ghana, finally settling in Britain with her parents, two brothers and two sisters, at the ripe old age of 11.
Emma holds a PhD in biochemistry and works as a Research Scientist. She lives in England with her husband and two children. When she is not pushing back the frontiers of medical science or engaged in a mad rush after her children, she enjoys cycling into the sunset, swimming in moonlit waters and creative writing, particularly from an inspirational perspective.
A number of Emma’s poems have been included in anthologies from Dogma Publications and Forward Press. Her work is also featured at, amongst other places, brightlightmultimedia.com.
Emma’s poem ‘Love spoke’ was awarded a diploma in the UK section of the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition, 2004.
Emma is currently leading a project to anthologise poems previously published here on One Ghana, One Voice.
Vida Ayitah:
Vida was born on July 19th, 1978 in a small farming community in the Volta Region. She has three sisters and one brother. She is currently living and working in Accra. She enjoys music and dancing as much as she does writing.
Vida is OGOV's head of Ghanaian Promotions.
Edith Faalong:
Edith was born on January 12th, 1986 to Mr. Joseph Y Faalong and Madame Hellen Tanye in the Upper West Region of Ghana. She currently lives in Accra, reading economics and geography as a third-year student at the University of Ghana.
Mariska Taylor-Darko:
Born in Manchester, England in 1956, Mariska attended Holy Child Secondary School in Cape Coast and St. Mary's Secondary School, Mamprobi. She then returned to the UK and attended Beresford College of English and Commerce, Margate, Kent and later Harrow College of Further Education, Harrow, Middlesex.
Mariska currently resides in Accra. She has two sons, one married and living in London, the other attending Golden Sunbeam Montessori School, Adenta, Accra in JSS1. She is a motivational speaker, poet, writer, beautician, fire walker and lover of jazz, blues, reggae and old time highlife.
4 comments:
Ghanaian women are great social beings. Thy have the inner strength to survive but have such faint voices when it comes to taking over the narrative of their experiences. We need to know the psyche of the Ghanaian woman so we can treat her more with understanding and respect.
Thought provoking! Regardless of sex, a work of art is only valid as portrayed. Poetry (literary works) is not just by art but by inspiration. Women having a richer coverage of emotion, being generally intuitive, more sensitive and more inquisitive is a matter of debate. Women aim at equallity instead of equity, thus, a work of art is not judged good or bad from the point of view of it's "creator" but the art itself. Holding the bull by the horns, i believe women are rather given a chance to break in. Their number is only less due to the "girl child education" phenomenon in Ghana and the African countries at large. I will not side with the idea that women "seem" to make good impressions than men, but that it all depends on what is being written and the inspiration which is made manifest in the art itself. With the issue of Mariama Ba, one ought to take a critical examination of Joseph Walters' GUANYA PAU, the story of an african princess. Ladies! do your part,inspire others to come in. The world is watching.
We live in a phallic world. Everything is built around testosterone. This sad frame of affairs has been responsible for wars, rape and greed. We need women to stand up and balance the world with their perspectives. The equilibrim of sense and sensibility has to be reached, in order to enable endangered art forms, such as African literature, to survive the stomp of time. Kudos to you, ladies. It's about time for the queens and princesses of Nubia to show the world their mettle.
God, I'm sure, did not intend that men and women would be unequal. Inequality, whatever its look, is man-made. If we want to achieve level playing field, let's go back and take a look at our culture. But perhaps, shouldn't our women folk who are educated and so much talented be more proactive? You may never know how many people you are influencing. You may never know the number of people who are looking up to you for inspiration. Let's take a step at time. We will soon get there, believe me.
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