Yaba Badoe

Yaba Badoe (born 1955) is a Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker, journalist and author.[1]

Yaba Badoe
Badoe at the 2015 Zanzibar International Film Festival
Born1955 (age 67–68)
Tamale, northern Ghana
NationalityGhanaian-British
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)Documentary filmmaker, journalist and author

Career

Yaba Badoe was born in Tamale, northern Ghana.[2] She left Ghana to be educated in Britain at a very young age.[3] A graduate of King's College, Cambridge, Badoe worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ghana,[3] before beginning her career in journalism as a trainee at the BBC.[4] She also was a researcher at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. She has taught in Spain and Jamaica and has worked as a producer and director making documentaries for the main television channels in Britain.[5] Among her credits are: Black and White (1987), an investigation into race and racism in Bristol, using hidden video cameras for BBC1; I Want Your Sex (1991), an arts documentary exploring images and myths surrounding black sexuality in Western art, literature, film and photography, for Channel 4; and the six-part series Voluntary Service Overseas for ITV in 2002.[5]

In addition to making films, Badoe is a creative writer, her first novel, True Murder, being published in London by Jonathan Cape in 2009.[6] Reviewing True Murder in The Africa Report, Zagba Oyortey described it as "a rich complex of wonder, loss, friendship and prescience from the viewpoint of Ajuba, an African girl transposed from her idyllic home in Ghana to a boarding school in rural England after the collapse of her parents’ marriage."[7] Her short story "The Rivals" was included in the anthology African Love Stories (Ayebia, 2006), edited by Ama Ata Aidoo.[8] She has also written three children's books.[9]

Badoe directed and co-produced (with Amina Mama) the documentary film The Witches of Gambaga, which won Best Documentary at the Black International Film Festival in 2010, and was awarded Second Prize in the Documentary section of FESPACO 2011.[10] Badoe's most recent film, launched in 2014, is entitled The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo.[11][12]

In 2016, Badoe participated in the conference-festival "Telling Our Stories of Home: Exploring and Celebrating Changing African and Africa-Diaspora Communities" in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.[13]

She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[14]

Filmography
  • A Time of Hope (1983)
  • Crowning Glory (1986)
  • Black and White (1987)
  • I Want Your Sex (1991)
  • Supercrips and Rejects (1996)
  • Race in the Frame (1996)
  • A Commitment to Care – The Capable State (1997)
  • Am I My Brother’s Keeper? (2002)
  • Voluntary Service Overseas (2002)
  • One to One (2003)
  • Secret World of Voodoo: Africa – Coming Home (2006)
  • Honorable Women (2010)
  • The Witches of Gambaga (2010)
  • The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo (2014)

Bibliography

References
  1. "An Interview with Ghanaian – British Writer, Yaba Badoe". Geosi Reads. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  2. "Film: The Witches Of Gambaga | Transcript", Journeyman TV.
  3. Beti Ellerson, "A Conversation with Yaba Badoe", African Women in Cinema, 1 September 2011.
  4. Nana Fredua-Agyeman, "46. True Murder by Yaba Badoe - About the author", ImageNations Promoting African Literature, 18 November 2013.
  5. "About the Director - Yaba Badoe", African Film Festival.
  6. Joanna Hines, True Murder review, The Guardian, 8 August 2009.
  7. "Book reviews: Becoming Zimbabwe, Black Diamond and True Murder". The Africa Report. 1 February 2010. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  8. "Yaba Badoe’s African Love Story, 'The Rival'", Buried in Print, 16 November 2011.
  9. Nicolette Jones, "Children’s book of the week: A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars by Yaba Badoe", The Sunday Times, 11 March 2018.
  10. "The Witches of Gambaga - A film by Yaba Badoe", official website.
  11. Shakira Chambas and Sionne Neely, "The Art of AMA ATA AIDOO: Documentary Film Launch", African Women's Development Fund, 26 September 2014.
  12. "The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo - a film by Yaba Badoe", official website.
  13. "Schedule of Events | Telling Our Stories of Home". tellingourstories.web.unc.edu. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  14. Olatoun Gabi-Williams, "After seminal anthology, Busby celebrates New Daughters of Africa", Guardian Arts, The Guardian (Nigeria), 21 April 2019.
  15. "Introducing Yaba Badoe and her debut novel A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars" (YouTube video), 19 April 2017.
  16. Elly Roberts, "Q&A: Writer and Filmmaker Yaba Badoe", Africa In Words, 6 October 2017.
  17. "Wolf Light" at Head of Zeus website.
  18. "Lionhheart Girl" at head of Zeus website.
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