NATIONALITY

By Ama Kodua

My name is Ama.

I know my height, my age, my birthday, my two-syllable name.

But one thing that is harder to describe is where I come from:

My parents are Ghanaian, but I was born here.

So my Thanksgivings have turkey, and jollof rice.

And my closet holds jeans and kente cloth. I have a family here, and a family in Ghana.

Two languages. Two recipes.

Two flags in my life.

Two words I’ve learned to love. Ghanaian American.

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AAma Kodua has grown up in two worlds. The Brunswick High School rising senior is the daughter of African immigrants who moved to the United States seeking greater professional opportunities.

“My parents are from Ghana, Africa, but me and all my siblings were born in Georgia. They came over to have better careers. They’re both in the nursing field,” she says.

The family lived in Atlanta, Savannah, and now resides in Brunswick. But one constant for Ama has been her passion for writing.

“I’ve always loved reading and writing. I think that might come from being Ghanaian. My dad would always tell us stories that he heard from there, and I think that sparked my love of storytelling,” she says.

“I like to journal and write down everything that happens to me. It’s a form of expression that has expanded as I’ve grown.”

It’s something that she’s found has helped her connect to and celebrate her heritage. One of the ways she’s cultivated that skill is through a dramatic writing class at school.

“It’s with Mrs. Bryson. We have all these different prompts we can choose from ... and for one, it was a logo, so I drew the Georgia peach and Ghanaian flag,” she says.

Ama also penned a poem to accompany it.

“My purpose behind sharing the poem is to help readers recognize that their culture is a gift, and not to hide it, and that I decided to share it after my friends in the dramatic writing class expressed interest in my culture when we all peer reviewed each other’s poems.”

Her African heritage plays a leading role in her daily life. Her parents have always spoken their native Asante Twi at home. And while she doesn’t speak it herself, she does understand it.

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“There’s really not that many people for me to speak it to, even if I did speak it,” she says with a giggle.

Another connection is the food. One of her favorite traditional dishes is peanut butter soup.

“My mom cooks almost every day. She always wants us to be in the kitchen learning,” she says. “I love her peanut butter soup and she also makes fried rice that’s really good.”

But perhaps one of the most accessible ways that Ama has been able to introduce her culture to others is simply by introducing herself.

“I think it’s my name ... a lot of people mispronounce it. I’ve heard many variations,” she says with a grin.

“But my name always leads to the question, ‘where’s your name from’ or ‘where are your parents from?’ ... something like that. It’s a way for me to get into that conversation.”

The name Ama in the Ghanaian tradition of the Ashanti/ Akan people means, “born on a Saturday.” That, she adds, is a common characteristic.

“My name, Ama, comes from the Ashanti/Akan people naming their children based off of the day of the week they were born, and mine is from Saturday,” she says.

“In the Akan region, Saturday is blessed because it is attributed to God, and ‘Quame,’ the male Saturday name is another name for ‘God Almighty,’ so Saturday is a special day.”

Helping to educate others and sharing her background has become a driving force in Ama’s young life. And she feels it will be something she carries with her going forward. As an adult, she hopes to work with children as a doctor and — fingers crossed — as an author.

“I’d like to be a pediatrician ... and maybe write children’s books,” she says.

Wherever her future leads, Ama will make sure to take her African heritage with her and to encourage others to learn more about people from different backgrounds.

“It can be hard when you don’t have somebody who is from that same culture, but I think I’ve come to understand it as a good type of difference,” she says.

“When people express genuine interest in it makes me excited to share, because that means they’re also interested in me and what I have to say. I think it’s all about having a good heart behind it.”

WORDS BY LAUREN MCDONALD | PHOTOS BY TAMMY KAVANAUGH

The Island Player’s Young People’s Summer Workshop will bring “Willy Wonka, Jr.,” to the stage in July, carrying on a decades-long legacy of cultivating interest and passion for theatre in the Golden Isles.

Youth ages 8 and up are invited every summer to audition for and put on a theatrical production, and during the summer-long workshop they learn more than how to memorize lines, build sets, or sing on stage. The program aims to help them appreciate theatre in a new way and to find confidence on stage and off it.

The Island Players was formed almost 70 years ago to promote theatre in the Golden Isles. A major part of the nonprofit’s mission is education. Two programs — the Teen Actors Guild and the Young People’s Summer Workshop — emphasize this purpose.

The Young People’s Summer Workshop began in 1975. Tammy Kavanaugh, who serves on the committee overseeing the workshop, has been involved in the program for many years. Her own children spent their summers years ago at the workshop, and she’s seen how the program positively impacts its young participants.

“I’ve been doing this for 18 years with the Young People’s Summer Workshop, producing a lot of it and then just being behind the scenes helping out,” she says.

There are a variety of ways the youth are able to get involved,