Asare Konadu Explained

Samuel Asare Konadu (18 January 1932  - 1994) was a Ghanaian journalist, novelist, and publisher who also wrote under the pseudonym Kwabena Asare Bediako.[1]

Biography

Born in Asamang, Ashanti Region, Gold Coast, Asare Konadu attended local primary and middle schools before studying at Abuakwa State College. He entered the Ghana Information Service in 1951, and also worked as a reporter for the Gold Coast Broadcasting Service.[2]

In 1956 he was sent abroad by the government to study in London and at Strasbourg University, joining the Ghana News Agency on his return to Ghana in 1957.[3]

Works

Konadu's narrative strategy is considered unique among his Ghanaian contemporaries at the time that three stylistic features were notable in Ghanaian prose fiction. According to Charles Angmor, one being the "simple plot with simple character" and the other being the "intricate plot and character". The third was identified as "a very simple plot and a very simple characterization, with a didactic moral twist". Konadu's works contained two or more of these strategies.[4] Konadu started his own publishing company after the overthrow of Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah in 1966. He had already written and published two books before that time, one of which called Come Back Dora (1966) sold fifty thousand copies and brought him into the limelight.[5] Konadu's works draw on Ghanaian rural life and traditional practices of mostly Akan culture. He wrote a few popular fiction works under his Kwabena Asare Bediako pseudonym.[6]

Konadu's novel A Woman in Her Prime, published in Heinemann's African Writers Series, was reviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1969. As a guest of the United States State Department in 1972, he was interviewed by the Voice of America (VOA).

He published textbooks for schools in Ghana on behalf of the government.[7] He also published popular literature from his own imprint, Anowuo Educational Publications, under the name Kwabena Asare Bediako.[8]

Publications

Currently, his titles are being published by Adaex Educational Publications.

Notes and References

  1. Sharon Malinowski, Black Writers: a selection of sketches from contemporary authors, 1994, p. 362.
  2. Book: Student Encyclopedia of African Literature. Killam. Douglas. Kerfoot. Alicia L.. Greenwood. 2008. 978-0-313-33580-8. Westport. 162.
  3. "Konadu, Samuel Asare (1932-94)" in Oyekan Owomoyela, The Columbia Guide to West African literature in English since 1945, Columbia University Press, 2008, p. 124.
  4. Book: Literary History: Towards a Global Perspective: Volume 1: Notions of Literature Across Cultures. Volume 2: Literary Genres: An Intercultural Approach. Volume 3+4: Literary Interactions in the Modern World 1+2 . Walter de Gruyter . 2006 . 9783110894110 . 2 of Literary history: towards a global perspective .
  5. Book: Gérard, Albert S. . European-language Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa, Part 2 . John Benjamins Publishing . 1986 . 9789630538343.
  6. Web site: Asare Konadu . Abotsi . Maureen . www.ghanagrio.com.
  7. Book: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience . Appiah . Anthony . Louis Gates, Jr. . Henry . Oxford University Press . 16 Mar 2005 . 478 .
  8. Book: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Appiah. Anthony. Louis. Henry. Oxford University Press. 2005. 978-0-19-517055-9. New York. 478.

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