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Nana S. Achampong: African Artiste- Impresario-Aficionado
CHILDHOOD

Nana S. Achampong was born in Cape Coast November 26, 1964, the third of seven siblings. His mother was the Principal of a midwifery school. His father, who soon became absent from their lives, was a lawyer. He died in 1995. His education was scattered all over the place due to his mother moving from region to region as a fast track to promotion from nurse educator to school principal. By the time Achampong entered St. Hubert’s Seminary School in Santasi, Kumasi, the eleven-year old Achampong had already attended eight different schools and lived in as many far flung regions. A few more schools later [he was expelled] he had to sit his ordinary level examinations as a private candidate.

GROWING UP

His step father, a publishing distributor, stacked thousands of literary classics in their middle-class professional Korle-Bu residence which opened the mid-teenager’s imagination to Huysman, Chaucer, Dostoyevsky, Mann, Nietzsche, Homer, Soyinka, Aryi kwei Armah etc. He agrees that this is the period where his love for writing actually gained life. At seventeen, he had finished his first book ‘Seekers Find’ (unpublished) part of which appears in ‘Dream A Song’. And this is the era where his musical inspiration focuses on the guitar which his uncle had left in their home. [Achampong took the guitar more seriously in Glasgow, Scotland, where he mixed its passion with a love for art and poetry.]

JOURNALISM SCHOOL

Through the insistence of his mother, young Achampong who did not qualify to enter the University of Ghana due to poor Advanced Level grades entered the then radical Ghana Institute of Journalism where he blossomed under the directorship of renowned journalists Kabral Blay Amihere and Kojo Yankah. Here photography and appreciation met political economy and J. J. Rawlings and the result was liberation journalism.

Achampong’s sojourn at this institute is significant because this is where, for the first time in his erratic life he actually settled down long enough to see through and finish an entire academic program. Secondly, this is where he made friends who would in the ensuing years become his muses, sounding board and fan base. But more importantly, the Institute would bring him in contact with literati, politicians, thinkers, luminaries the likes of the maverick president J. J. Rawlings, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, legendary African Art Musician Ephraim Amu, the renaissance sculptor and impresario Saka Acquaye, and ground-breaking radio broadcaster Carl Agyeman-Bannerman [who introduced him to Fela Anikulapo Kuti]. In England, Achamong started an MBA program with the Open University but returned to Ghana halfway through to start ‘The Wind’ magazine.

JOURNALISM

After journalism school, he interned at the ‘Weekly Spectator’, where under the wings of the award-winning editor Yaw Boakye Ofori-Atta he started focusing on the arts and entertainment. He was coached to run the Arts Page which qualified him to become a member of the Entertainment Critics and Reviewers Association of Ghana. Under the tutelage of Carl Bannerman and film maker Ernest Abbeyquaye, he became the youngest Secretary of the king-making body in 1988 still in his very early twenties. The late 1980s was hectic for the restless Achampong. Between the two years before the decade was over, he teamed up with media entrepreneur RexImage’s Rex Danquah to create the ‘Weekend Leisure’ newspaper. Then with Kojo Yankah, he started the ‘Uhuru’ monthly magazine.

FASHION

He organized and produced a series of fashion and mixed events including ‘Lerax’ (with spoken word), ‘D zine of d times’ (fashion) and ‘Multifest ’90’ (with art, music, comedy) which showcased the then upcoming Nakorex [Nat Brew, Akosua Agyapong and Rex Omar], Puncho, and Water Proof.

ART

Achampong studied art formally only to Ordinary Level until he was expelled from Akim Swedru Secondary School. He continued to do pencil and charcoal work. His patrons were mainly his peers and friends. Art as a teenager was more pop renderings of his musical and other influences such as Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane etc. A few [unpublished] erotic graphic novels were also completed at this moment, but they were more for the pleasure of his guests and peers than for the publishers’ desks. Later on in Glasgow, fine art became the main focus of his expression. His apartment became a gallery which opened its doors and works to invited guests every last Friday of the month.

Art Exhibitions: ‘Open’ – 1991, Glasgow; ‘Portfolio One’ – 1995, Accra; ‘Life’ -2002, Baltimore; the Baltimore Arts Exposure has curated  six exhibitions in the Baltimore City area from 2003 to 2005.

MAGAZINES

Achampong has corresponded with numerous publications but he has been associated with the creation of three: the quarterly ‘World Health Organization News Bulletin Ghana’ which he produced for the W.H.O. for two years following journalism school, ‘UHURU’ monthly cultural magazine which he started and edited, and his own ‘The WIND’ cultural and arts monthly which was transformed into ‘SMASH-TV’ later on.

TELEVISION

Achampong has always been visual, but his entrance into television was fortuitous. He said in an interview: “the ‘Wind’ [monthly magazine] wasn’t doing well, and Jerry [Van Dyke] put me together with  Talal [Fattal] and we turned it into ‘Smash-TV’. By the time the second episode of ‘Smash’ hit GTV in 1993, a new phenomenon was born. For the first time in the life of Ghanaians, a home grown entertainment magazine program would surpass all ratings, draw masses before the television sets, expose a new category of celebrities and change the nature of television arts for good.

Achampong produced two series of ‘Smash’ in Ghana and did a third from England. The interview list includes Joseph Hill (Culture), Steel Pulse, Chaka Khan, Mica Paris, Mac Tontoh, Jazzy B, Tony Yeboah, Public Enemy, Jermaine Jackson, Danny Glover, etc etc

Achampong’s life in video started with Fattal’s Media No. 1 (Metro-TV). After Smash-TV, he went on to partner in NuVision which was supported by C. Kofi Bucknor (Focal Point). The main clients of the NuVision stint were Kojo Antwi, Princess Cynthia and a host of pilots and documentaries that did not see broadcast day.

In 1996, his companies Songhai (Gh) and (UK) Ltd joined forces to become Songhai Films which shot about 70 hours of rare interviews and documentaries including an exclusive in 1999 of the Nottinghill Carnival. The interview list, much footage missing due to travel, include Salif Keita, Youssou Ndour, Lee Perry, Femi Kuti, Osibisa etc etc. Documentaries in Europe include exclusives on Swiss Flair in Zurich [tattoos, head shops, cheese, time], African in England in London [Carnival, African in the UK, The African and Caribbean Music Circuit, Machine Culture], French Connection in Paris [Le Pigalle, Fete de l’humanite, Kapoeira, Grafitti Art, Hip Hop Paris, Radio Nova] etc etc

VIDEOS

And thus was he ushered into the world of pop videos. He started with ‘Apaso’ for Kojo Essah and Kwesi Quayson, and by 1996, he had established himself as the most important videographer in that region. The list of his clients was the Top Ten Who-Is-Who of Ghana showbiz – Kojo Antwi, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Carlos Sakyi, Princess Cynthia, Jewel Ackah, Felix Owusu, etc etc

RADIO

Achampong produced a series of programs for radio including ‘The Ambolley Hour’ with Gyedu-Blay Ambolley on Radio Gold which was taken off (despite its massive interactive phone-in following ) with the explanation that the topics dealt with were undermining the station’s character as a “Christian” institution.

MUSIC

Achampong and his new business partner Seth Adams, from 1997 to 2000, focused the attention of his company SonghaiMUZIK on recording rare music in Ghana. With sound engineers Francis Kwakye, Jedi Larkai and Panji Anoff, he brought into the Ghana Films Studios in Accra the legendary Kofi Ghanaba for an exclusive session. Other musicians include Nii Noi Nortey, Afrikan Sound Project, Kwesi Quayson & Kojo Essah, and Atongo Simba. Other recordings of a more contemporary nature featuring the engineering prowess of Zapp Mallet featured Root-I, Fas Connection, MC Kwasi etc. In 2001 the sampler 'dis is songhaiMUZIK!’ was issued as a limited release.

BOOKS

Achampong’s first book, ‘The Equilibrists’, was published in 1995 by Leroy Coubagey. The bulk of verse in ‘Equilibrists’ was actually written in Glasgow, Scotland, between 1990 and 1993. ‘Floating’, another book of verse which he started in 1994 [including some verses from ‘Equilibrists’] was finished in 2000. It was first published on Lulu in March 2006. Sandi Mallory of Baltimore’s WEAA 88.9 FM and Lite FM describes the book thus: “From the daily death of the sun to the cry of a sister for the life of a brother, from [John] Coltrane’s melodic place in history to the griot’s spoken path creating history, we view places seen and unseen. Paths traveled with timeworn shoes and an international vision. Pain and joy from a heart full from the sights of many missions.”

‘Dream A Song’ was based on a satirical series that Achampong wrote for ‘The Wind’ magazine under the column ‘Made In Ghana”. It was finally finished in 1997 and first published on Lulu in May 2006. In the book, the protagonist Ansong says it like it is. In his world, nothing is sacred. Except facts. His uninhibited disposition drags one through a wretched yet hopeful Africa that is lived everyday yet remains unseen by outsiders. Through his warped sense of logic, one is ushered into an analysis, nay dissection, of the fundamental tenets of West African urban life: the middleclass which he describes as “a bunch of privileged, pampered plonkers [undergoing] an awesome abortion; the press as “a conduit of nonsense”; tribalism as a virtue; and, Nigeria as the cause of everyone’s problems. Achampong tackles these and other sensitive pressing issues through discussions among a motley assortment of opinionated nincompoops and Ansong’s own twisted observations, fantasies and nightmares. "Dream A Song" is described as a strange feast of foreign food – delicious, spicy, sometimes utterly repulsive in an empathetic way, but always leaving one with a funny lingering aftertaste.

‘Sun of God’, a play about Central Africa that was inspired by dancer/actress/model Mulowa Kajoba followed in 2007. This is a play in five acts about a story of greed for power through the mad pursuit of copper. The story has everything - a pinch of avarice here, another of envy there, a little taste of love and hate, and of great deeds and fate. This landscape is filled with tales of ambition with lofty mountains of deception and passionate valleys of corruption, all set in pre-colonial Central Africa

‘Empowernomics: understanding the system of God’s purpose for mankind - an Outline of the Core Teachings of Rev. GENE C. BRADFORD’ came out later the same year after an epiphanic meeting with the Christian Scholar/teacher. This is an effort to invite Christians to a journey of understanding the system of God’s purpose for mankind. According to Achampong, like the governor Nehemiah says of the skilled scribe Ezra, Bradford “read[s] distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and … [gives] the sense, and help[s] [us]… to understand the reading”. He speaks about pain and problems. For instance, he explains that these are experiences that Christians have to go through. Or there would be no Calvary, and therefore no salvation. “Why then do you pray your problems away? You are supposed to endure and learn from them so that God may be glorified. Remember that it rains on both the sinner and the righteous alike,” he says.

‘Adinkra (ī'kŏn')-cepts: [concept ikons of the Asante Akan of West Africa]’ is Achampong's seventh book. This book, his second non-fiction, traces the origin of the Adinkra symbols, the concepts and aphorisms they represent, and the origin of the Akan of West Africa; it discusses the phenomenon’s nuances, evolution and current applications. Achampong enhances the definitive work with a sumptuous buffet of pictures and illustrations.

My Kikuyu Princess is Achampong's third book of verse after The Equilibrists and Floating. It is made up of a collection of poems from his nonfiction book Adinkra Ikoncepts of the Ashanti Akans, his novel venusplazadotcom and previously unpublished material.

The current Achampong novel, venusplazadotcom had been described severally as “disturbing”, “sick”, “bold”, “ground-breaking”, and “original”. No matter whom you listen to, that it is a sizzling piece of literature is beyond dispute. Baba Abdulai of news editor of New Vision newspaper summed it up as “a ghost story in cyber space” while Gold-FM’s B. B. Menson says that “it is online dating gone terribly wrong”. The author though insists it is a story about strangers who fall in love – online, and in higher realms. “It is just a story of the times we live in mixed with a hint of vodou and lots and lots of verse,” explains Achampong. What he chose to not say is that it also deals rather graphically with more than a few pages of racy lesbian sex chat. But not to digress...According to a blurp on the publishers site on www.lulu.com, venusplazadotcom, “Achampong's second novel, a sequel of sorts to the critically acclaimed Dream A Song, is an eerie, disturbing and misty introspective of the immigrant underground in Maryland, as seen through the lives of an intergalactic cast whose incursions into CyberSpace, the supernatural, and the back streets of Baltimore leave behind a trail of darkness and mysteriously bloodless chills.

Online, off-line and astral interactions blur and interconnect as the seemingly clueless lead character brings the reader into the streets of Baltimore through the eyes of an undocumented immigrant, and then connects him/her into a virtual world of avatars who end up brutally dead, peculiarly, to the bafflement of the Baltimore City and County Police Departments. This eighth addition to his catalog establishes Achampong firmly as a fixture in the Maryland literary system. New Vision's Abdulai concludes that this is the "clearly the most refreshing read on the market continent-wide".