Two interviews in the oil city of Takoradi!

My Tenth Week in Ghana:

On Sunday I travelled 5 hours to the oil city of Takoradi for an interview with Bob Gee on Melody 91.1fm for his show ‘The Hall of Fame’; I was surprised at how much research he had done regarding my books, art and poetry – he even read stuff I’d posted on Facebook! I was able to show why I won ‘International Artist of the Year’ in the Spokenword Billboard Awards by performing two of my poems live in the studio; ‘A Dedicated Writer’ and ‘I Need a MAN!‘ (the shorter, cleaner version!). Bob asked some pertinent questions relating to my family life, education, and what inspires me.

my fellow poet and Facebook friend Ike Boat (who organised the interview) captured some of the interview on my phone:

The following morning I was also invited for an interview on Paragon radio 99.9fm with Yao Mawutor Fiano who is himself a member of the Takoradi Poetry Club. We had fun discussing the art of poetry, and they were surprised to learn that I hadn’t studied how to write poetry! For me, poetry is something that comes through me, as I channel a lot of my writing. Ike Boat and another member of staff at Paragon also belong to the Takoradi Poetry Club, and I hope to attend one of their events before I leave!

I performed my poem ‘My Artist Child’ live on air, which explains how I was able to unblock as a writer and artist after 20 years! (19:48 on the YouTube video below). Ike Boat (who accompanied me again) had the opportunity to perform one of his poems live as well!

Yao asked me some hard questions about what I thought of Ghana, and whilst I try to stick to the topic of love and relationships in my poetry, I think I got a bit political about the gap between the rich and poor in Ghana. I’m still processing all the information I’m taking in, so wasn’t able to give him a full anwer!

I went down to the beach and saw the oil rig which Takoradi is famous for; you can just spot it in the background:

I’d previously watched a video at my friend’s house in Pokuase about how the wealth from the oil collected goes mostly to foreigners; only 10% goes to Ghana! I’m trying not to get political about the big gap between the rich and poor in Ghana, but I made a little video about my thoughts:

Since making that video I’ve come to the conclusion that everybody creates their own reality; I’m in the process of creating my own version of ‘heaven on earth’, all I can do is inspire others to do the same. If I focus on what others don’t have, it could affect my own reality, so from now on, I intend to stay focused on my goal!

I was grateful to be put up in a nice hotel overnight, courtesy of Bob Gee and Valley Beach Hotel, and thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Takoradi!