It's a rare person who can be both funny and wise at the same time. Yet that is exactly the way to describe Nana Awere Damoah's writings in this small but compelling short story collection about contemporary life in Ghana. In it the reader will find Ghanaman in traffic, or Ghanawoman paying the corrupt policeman. Either way, one knows these are the words of a master story teller who handily blurs the lines between laughing so hard it makes one cry, or crying so hard it makes one laugh.
I Speak of Ghana is an honest journey of deft oration replete with the sounds (from the harmonious to the cacophonic), smells (including the pleasant and unpleasant), sights (from the eye-catching to the embarrassing), frustrations, triumphs and the mundane - everything that makes the Ghanaian experience finds its way into this book. Unlike the typical ranting about Ghanaian situations, Nana performs an insightful examination of the heart of the matter. Dissimilar to empty praise, Nana thoroughly embraces the issues that give us hope as people connected to Ghana. Narrated with humor, the book is Nana's eloquence at its best.
About the Author: Nana Awere Damoah was born in Accra, Ghana. He holds a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham, UK, a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. Nana spent all his secondary or high school years at Ghana National College, Cape Coast, Ghana and speaks fondly of growing up in the suburb of Kotobabi, in the Ghanaian capital, where he started his education at the local Providence Preparatory School.
A British Council Chevening alumnus, Nana works in West Africa. He is an associate of Joyful Way Incorporated, a Christian Music Ministry in Ghana, where he was the group's National President from 2002 to 2004.
Nana started writing seriously in 1993 when he was in the sixth form and has had a number of his short stories published in the Mirror and the Spectator. In 1997, he won the first prize in the Step Magazine National Story Writing Competition. His writing has appeared in StoryTime ezine, Legon Business Journal, Sentinel Nigeria Magazine and the anthology African Roar (StoryTime Publishing, 2010).
He is the author of six books: Nsempiisms, Sebitically Speaking, I Speak of Ghana, Tales from Different Tails, Through the Gates of Thought and Excursions in my Mind. He maintains two personal blogs at www.nanadamoah.com and www.nanaaweredamoah.wordpress.com.
He is married to Vivian. The couple and their children are based in Tema, Ghana.
