Ghana.
Ghana
2018
Ghanaian comics history starts with newspaper cartooning.
Yaw Boakye Ghanatta, born in 1927, drew daily comic strips and weekly cartoons for Ghanaian newspapers and opened his own art college in 1966. Frank Odoi, who studied at the Ghanatta school, took Ghanaian cartooning to Kenya and created the superhero strip Akokhan. In the digital era, Karmzah (2018) and MoonGirls (winner of the 2021 Nommo Award for best graphic novel) carry the tradition forward.
6
5
2018
2010s
Artists from Ghana in the archive.
Comics from Ghana in the archive.
Karmzah, the earliest comic from Ghana in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Ghana began.
comics
Ghana in 3 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Ghana.
3 chapters
Chapter 1
1960
to 1969
Ghanatta and the newspaper strip
1960
to 1969
Chapter 01
Ghanatta and the newspaper strip
Yaw Boakye Ghanatta became a full-time artist in 1960 and set up his own studios and an art college in 1966. His newspaper work included the daily comic strips Kofi Brokeman and Kofi Blowman for the Accra Evening News and weekly cartoons for the Ghanaian Times, the Weekly Spectator and African Sketch.
1977
to 2012
Chapter 02
Ghanaian cartooning in Kenya
In the late 1970s Frank Odoi, who had studied at the Ghanatta School of Fine Arts and Design, moved to Kenya and joined Terry Hirst's magazine Joe. He became editorial cartoonist at the Daily Nation and made the Akokhan and Golgoti series. He was named cartoonist of the year in Ghana in 2005 and died in 2012.
2018
to today
Chapter 03
Digital comics and Nommo Award winners
Farida Bedwei and Leti Arts launched Karmzah, a superheroine with cerebral palsy, on 6 October 2018, and it is read on the Afrocomix app. It was a Nommo Award nominee in 2019, and in 2021 MoonGirls by Nana Akosua Hanson and AnimaxFYB won the Nommo Award for best graphic novel. Press cartooning continues, for example Akosua's cartoons in the Daily Guide.
The comics to know
- Kofi Brokemancomic stripYaw Boakye Ghanatta. Daily comic strip for the Accra Evening News.
- Golgoticomic stripFrank Odoi. Series about a white explorer in Africa told from the African point of view; ran in newspapers in Ghana and East Africa.
- Karmzah2018 · comic book seriesFarida Bedwei and Leti Arts. Superheroine with cerebral palsy, launched on the Afrocomix app.
- MoonGirls2021 · graphic novelNana Akosua Hanson and AnimaxFYB. Nommo Award winner for best graphic novel.
The people to know
- Yaw Boakye Ghanatta1927 to 2001Cartoonist and art teacher; drew the Kofi Brokeman strip and founded an art college in 1966.
- Frank Odoi1948 to 2012Born in Tarkwa in 1948; creator of Akokhan and Golgoti, worked mainly in Kenya.
- Farida BedweiBorn 1979Software engineer and author of the Karmzah comic.
- Nana Akosua HansonBorn 1990Author of MoonGirls.
- AkosuaPen name of a Daily Guide political cartoonist.