Ghana 60th anniv of independence 2017

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LIFE & STYLE

Celebrating 60 years of independence

MADE IN GHANA

British born and raised by Africans

MARCH 2 - 8, 2017

THE VOICE | 21

Ghana Independence

GHANA MAKE MY MUM PROUD Why British-born track star made the switch to represent the Motherland

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

S

EAN SAFOANTWI has told Life and Style that he should have made the switch from representing Great Britain to Ghana ‘ages’ ago.

The north London-born sprinter realised a dream last year when he went to Brazil to take part in the Olympic Games.

While many who grew up with Safo-Antwi knew he was a talented and energetic youngster, few would have predicted that he would go on to represent his parents country of birth on sports grandest stage.

He enthused: “I should have made the switch years ago.

“I’m so glad I did it because I’ve now been to an Olympic Games, which is something I always wanted to do.”

Talking about his decision to compete for Ghana as opposed to Team GB, Safo-Antwi said:

“Going to an Olympic Games is the biggest thing athletes can experience, there is no better than that.

“I’ve been brought up by a Ghanaian family and it made sense to try and firstly become good enough to compete for the country and then secondly qualify.

“Once I believed I was good enough the decision was easy.

My whole house is Ghana.

“My mum talks to me all day, everyday in Twi. “I don’t speak the language fluently but I do understand it and can articulate myself when I need to.

“I’m British but the blood that runs through me is Ghanaian.

“There isn’t anything about the culture that I’m not aware of and if there is, I’ll learn it quickly.”

Safo-Antwi says it was a first Olympic Games for most of the athletes that he shared accommodation with in the athletes village during the Games in Rio. The 27-year-old admitted that while being a part of a Team GB

squad can be a great feeling, there was also the underlying sense of competitiveness which didn’t always bode well for a team environment.

“When I met my team mates for the first time it was all love, it was the first time I had met a lot of them and they showed me why it was the right decision to be a part of Team Ghana.

“It was a brotherhood. I can’t say it was like that with Team GB. “That’s something that will stay with me forever. Being accepted in that manner was humbling. Being a part of it all also made my mum proud.”

Talking about the impact of Ghana’s 60th anniversary on his household, Safo-Antwi said: “It’s a big thing, 60 years of independence. It will be marked as a special occasion in my house, no doubt my mum will be cooking up a storm.

“And yes, there will be Jollof rice, plenty of it.

“Everybody knows we (Ghanaians) make the best Jollof.”

Grime star is taking the world by Stormzy

PROUD OF HIS ROOTS: Track star Sean Safo-Antwi in action

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY

BY ANDREA PHOTIOU

the 2015 BET Awards, two MOBOs and a South Bank award in The Times-sponsored Breakthrough section, long before the release of Gang MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING grime star and Signs and Prayer. #GSAP if you’re a social media actor, Stormzy has released his debut fiend, is one of those releases that you can let run album, Gang Signs and Prayer, after more than without fear of getting bored of a samey sound or seven years of producing critically-acclaimed itching to press ‘skip’. grime, all while simultaneously reppin’ both On opener, First Things First, Stormzy Thornton Heath and his Ghanaian shout outs Adele, admits lineage. that he and his boys were In a touching inlay message, “...doing road and doing church”, entitled THANK YOU, Stormzy addressing the doubters and – or Michael Omari to his mum enemies before weighing in on – shows appreciation to many, important issues such as nightincluding MTV presenter-turnedclub DSTRKT’s alleged racist door DJ girlfriend, Maya Jama, his policies and the power of buying production and PR team black. 100 Bags begins with what and even Deliveroo appears to be a voicenote from before a soul-bearing thanks to Stormzy’s mum who dedicates a God. powerful prayer to him down the Appreciation for his Ghanaphone line. ian cultural heritage has always Speaking with men’s glossy been something that Stormzy GQ magazine, Omari revealed has been vocal about. Some of just how integral to a hitherto this appreciation is shown in the stellar career his mum is: “If they form of GhanaXchange, an ini[extras at his video shoots] don’t tiative set-up by Stormzy, 1Xtra’s take it seriously, then my video will Twin B and producer Jayvades in SUITS YOU: Stormzy be sh*t. They won’t buy my music order to open up the channels of collaboration between UK and Ghana-based re- and I won’t be able to build a house for my mum in Ghana. That’s how deep it is for me.” cording artists.

Whether recording at home or in Accra, the 23-year-old is set to soar even higher this year having secured a raft of awards and nominations To buy or stream Gang Signs and Prayer, go to under his belt such as Best International Act: UK at www.stormzy.com

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22 | THE VOICE MARCH 2 - 8, 2017

Ghana Independence

MADE BY GHANA

MAKING WAVES: Lethal Bizzle

They may be British-born, but they’re very proud of their African roots

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

W

EST AFRICA has produced some amazing people who have gone on to have equally amazing children. Life and Style highlight five from very different walks of life that are very British but a credit to Ghana.

Kanya King The youngest girl of nine children born to a Ghanaian father and Irish mother, Kanya King, right, grew up in a ‘crowded council flat’ in Kilburn.

Best known for founding the MOBO awards, King has ensured that she has left an indelible mark on

the British urban music scene. The MOBOs are no longer just an awards ceremony.

The impact of the organisation is felt all year round in the form of workshops, live tours and networking events tailored to giving the next generation of music star a clear, defined pathway to success.

Amma Asante This film director starred in Grange Hill many moons ago, but it is her work behind the lens on feature film, A Way of Life, and Belle, that has made peers and fans sit up to applaud her endeavours.

Ghanaian parents sent her to Barbara Speake Stage School in Acton as a child. Some of her school-

mates included Kwame Kwei-Armah, Michelle Gayle and Naomi Campbell.

A BAFTA awardwinning writer/director, Asante, inset left, made the move to screenwriting with development deals from Chrysalis, Channel 4 and the BBC. Two series of the urban drama Brothers and Sisters followed, which Asante wrote and produced.

Lethal Bizzle If you didn’t know that Ghana was the birth nation of Lethal Bizzle and his family, where have you been?

The Bizzle, hailing from east London, has never been shy about telling the world about his affinity to the West African country. You can bet your bottom dollar that the Pow artist has invested a pretty penny into various business interests over in the Gold Coast.

Crediting Ghana with having an influence on the music

he produces today, Bizzle reportedly said: “Just growing up, my parents played Ghanaian music a lot. It’s really bouncy, very energetic – party songs, just like the majority of my songs. That’s where I get it from.”

Reggie Yates Never afraid to highlight the roots from which he came, in 2014 Reggie Yates publicly combed through his history in the hit BBC show Who Do You Think You Are?.

The programme showed his family history where ‘Ghanaian culture and British colonialism

collide’. A revered actor, television presenter and celebrity radio DJ, Yates, left, represents a generation of conscientious black men with no sense of restrictions on what can be achieved in life.

A beacon of positivity for aspiring young men, Yates is the type of role model Ghana can be proud of as they celebrate 60 years of independence.

Ozwald Boateng The legendary fashion designer is one of Africa’s great success stories and while the whole continent would love to

claim him, Ghana is the home of his heritage. Boateng has had a transformational impact on menswear fashion for almost three decades, with a design aesthetic rooted in Savile Row traditions but defined by international style, detail, and artistry.

He has dressed celebrities including Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page and Spike Lee among plenty of others, and his name still causes a stir if he is involved with an event.

Few people have been welcomed by an Ashanti King of Ghana as Boating was when Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II gifted him an honorary award.

But then again, few people deserve one.

FIT FOR A KING: Fashion designer Ozwald Boateng

Sponsor for GUBA Awards

BY JOEL CAMPBELL

Payment Institution in the United Kingdom and licensed to operate in all 31 European Economic Area GHANA UK Based Achieve(EEA) countries. ment (GUBA) has announced PayAngel also has a Money Africa-focused remittance expert, Services Business License and a Payinc Group Limited, operators of the PayAngel brand, as a spon- Federal Money Services Business License in Canada and USA, resor of the GUBA Awards.

Positioned as Africa’s payment spectively. PayAngel will be sponexpert, PayAngel provides remit- soring the Ghana CEO’s dinner to tance and payment solutions to be held at the British High Commissioner’s Residence in Accra the African Diaspora.

The company is an Authorized on April 21 as part of the sixth an-

niversary of GUBA Awards which will be held on June 3 at the Intercontinental Hotel, O2 Greenwich London.

Commenting on the partnership, Jones Amegbor, PayAngel’s CEO said: “GUBA Awards and PayAngel both aim to enable the African Diaspora. We look forward to many more years of collaboration to encourage and recognise hard work and innovations within the African community.”

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MARCH 2 - 8, 2017 THE VOICE | 23

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MARCH 2 - 8, 2017

THE VOICE | 25

Ghana Independence

GHANA: THEN AND NOW Hunter-gatherers, British colonies to Kwame Nkrumah – the Gold Coast revisited

BY JEROME CONWAY

T

HE EARLIEST humans in the west Africa region were hunter-gatherers.

Groups then began settling in small communities with the development of agriculture and animalrearing. Around AD1000, larger population centres formed.

By the time the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century, they found large African kingdoms already established.

In the 1600s, the Portuguese traded with the powerful Akan people of the Denkyira kingdom.

The Akans controlled the gold mines (near what is now Tarkwa and Obusai).

But with gold in reach of the many natural harbours, other European nations were eager to muscle in on the trade.

The British eventually began to dominate ‘the Gold Coast’,

as well as the region’s even more lucrative slave trade. Captives were supplied by the native Asante/Ashanti.

The slave trade was abolished

by Europe in the early 1800s (1865 in the US). But the Ashanti had become powerful. They attacked the Fante peoples dealing with the British.

‘Akans controlled the gold’ Like most other British colonies, the Gold Coast was ruled indirectly; the British worked through local chiefs. Sometimes, the British appointed rulers who were totally unacceptable to the local people.

Resistance to colonial rule emerged as early as 1897, with the Aboriginal Rights Protection Society. But it wasn’t until after the Second World War and

the call for ‘self-government’ by the Convention People’s Party (CPP) that a new constitution and elections came.

The CPP’s founder and leader was Kwame Nkrumah, who became head of the country.

His government improved the country’s transport network and expanded the education system.

With the CPP winning a majority of seats, in 1957, Gold Coast became the first African colony to be granted independence in the post-war era. The country was renamed Ghana, but the nation fell massively into debt and political opposition was repressed. Nkrumah was deposed in 1966.

Over the following decades, there were a number of military takeovers and corrupt governments. Stable, democratic government returned in 1992 under Jerry Rawlings as the elected president.

With a multi-party system firmly in place, the current president is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was sworn in following elections in December 2016.

ALLIANCES: The Queen speaks to Jerry Rawlings during a state visit to Ghana in 1999