imagining Early Accra Competition:
The Panel of Judges
Ama Asantewa Diaka
Ama Asantewa Diaka is a poet, writer and visual artist. Her work, both on the page and on the stage, engages issues of feminism, inequality, ecosystems and mental health in her community. She earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is the author of chapbook You too will know me and Woman eat me whole, forthcoming from Eccobooks. She is the founder of Tampered Press and Yobbings and co-founder of Black Girls Glow
Emmanuel Kusi Ofori-Sarpong
Emmanuel Kusi Ofori-Sarpong is an architect and a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where he undertook both his bachelors and graduate studies in architecture. Since finishing school, he has worked in a number of award-winning architecture offices, including Low Design Office and S.Tetteh and Associates. He is currently a lecturer at the School of Architecture and Design (SADe) in Central University, where he teaches courses in the history of architecture and design-research, coordinates the architecture design thesis programme and research activities. His research focuses on the histories, theories and politics of urbanism in Africa. His most recent work is a book chapter (under review) entitled: ‘Building heaven on earth: rhetoric and ritual in the politics of Ghana’s national cathedral'. He is currently working on a series of studies that explore endogenous ideas of ideal urbanism and how local agency shapes urban spatial outcomes.
Ngminvielu Josephine Kuuire
Ngminvielu Kuuire is a Ghanaian photographer and a digital artist living and practicing in Accra, Ghana. She is inspired by her everyday life and uses her personal experiences of existing as a woman who is ‘different’ to interrogate and explore established social systems within the Ghanaian context. She was awarded the Portraits Ghana Photography Prize in 2017, organised by The Embassy of Netherlands in Ghana and Nuku Studio. In 2018, her work was shortlisted as one of the top 10 finalist in Ghana for the Kuenyehia Art Prize for contemporary artists. In 2020, she co-created and digitally designed artworks that have been painted on major roads and highways in Accra-Ghana
Augustine Owusu-Ansah
Augustine Owusu-Ansah is an architect with Accra-based firm S. Tetteh + Associates (STA) whom he joined in 2012. He has since worked primarily on design and construction supervision of STAs projects. He was heavily involved in the Advantage Place office complex for the Enterprise Group Ltd, Records Centre for Ghana Revenue Authority and the competition-winning entries for the Judicial Training Institute, New Campus for the Ghana School of Law and the South Legon Apartment Complex. He manages visualisation and graphic identity at STA and has a keen interest in the study and design of public space and exploring Ghanaian architectural identity. Augustine was appointed as partner at S. Tetteh + Associates in 2019.
Roberta Edem Abbeyquaye
Roberta Edem Abbeyquaye is a multimedia journalist and the curator of Through My Lens, a Facebook page cataloguing her film and photography work. She has freelanced for the BBC and Aljazeera and currently works at a documentary production house. She worked as a Programme Assistant at the Media Foundation for West Africa - where she was responsible for curating multimedia content. Prior to the MFWA, she worked at Citi FM and Citi TV where she produced content for the station’s YouTube and Facebook pages. Edem has written articles for citinewsroom.com and produced radio features &; documentaries including “Motherhood in Childhood,’ a documentary on teenage pregnancy. In 2020, Edem was one of a few women artists, selected by the African Women’s Development Fund, to exhibit her photography work bothering on body positivity and LGBT+ pride, in celebration of International Women’s day. Edem graduated from the African University College of Communications in 2017 with a First-Class degree in Communications, BA Journalism. She has over five years of experience in journalism, videography, photography, video editing and writing.
Jude Nyoagbe
Jude Nyoagbe is a designer with interests in various design disciplines. He believes that because we interact with design everyday on different scales, designers
have an important responsibility to try to affect the human condition positively. This means no design is done at the expense of nature as any adverse effects from such an exercise would have negative effects on the human. He co-founded a multi-disciplinary design studio RDVS Design with two of his architecture school (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) mates (Jude Abbey and Kofi
Tetteh) back in 2009 and they are currently trying to realize this dream of contributing to a better designed world.
Kirstie Kwarteng
Kirstie Kwarteng is a storyteller and curator of stories. She is the founder of The Nana Project and was named as Ghana's Top 30 under 30 for her work in preserving Ghana's history. Kirstie is also a doctoral candidate at SOAS, University of London in the Department of Development Studies and is a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society Dudley Stamp Memorial Award.
Keni Ribeiro
Keni Ribeiro has been documenting Ghanaian experiences in fictional short stories on www.kenikodjo.com for the last 6 and half years. She advocates for the creative arts to be included in the Ghanaian basic educational system.