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Whether as social entity or in terms of demographics and geography, defining Accra, Ghana’s capital city, remains elusive, due to nuanced complexities implied by Accra’s cultural, political, economic histories. And despite extensive interest in creative people, scholarship on their peculiar characteristics and what consists of an ideal ‘place’ for them is oftentimes definition-defying as Accra her-self—where ‘place’ here includes a socio-cultural space, a psycho-mental state, and a physical and environmental setting, or simply a sense of feeling at home. These grey areas in scholarship, however, do not preclude an examination of Accra’s person-ality, and thereby, an examination of her treatment of creatives, particularly reclusive and supposedly radical creatives. This is even more so if one thinks of ‘home’ beyond it being a mere ‘place’, and with all its immediate and familiar perceptions and nuances. Thus, ‘home’ may as well be the one ‘place’ that makes for the possibility of creatives expressing and realizing their individual and unique existential and creative personae and truths; ‘home’ can also mean the opportunity and ability to afford, assert and actualize said personae and truths. This paper makes a case study of film-writer Baako Onipa in early post-colonial Accra, in Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel, Fragments. In relevant comparison with song-writer Senchi, and ‘fool’ Sam, in Efua Sutherland’s Edufa, this paper argues that Baako’s is a telling case of Accra being eclectic and full of life and living it and all, but same Accra not necessarily being as personable and human(e) a place and home for creatives to thrive.
Nota biográfica | Short Bio
Sheilla A. Nelson dreams, thinks, writes (as Aisha Nelson), and currently studies, teaches and lives in Normal, Illinois. Her creative and academic interests often explore the silences and intersections between literary and other art forms, song and symbol, oral traditions and other cultural artifacts—and the questions that these raise about meaning, identity, gender, reality. When she is not writing or minding the lives she signed up for, Sheilla reflects on her ancestry or slips into daydreams.
| Palavras-chave | Keywords | Accra, Creatives, Home, Place, Personification |
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