Akosua Busia

Akosua Gyamama Busia (born December 30, 1966^[1][2]) is a Ghanaian actress who now lives in the U.S..

Family and early life

The daughter of Kofi Abrefa Busia, the ex-prime minister of the Republic of Ghana,^[3] Akosua is the daughter of a prince of the royal family of Wenchi,^[4] a subgroup of the Ashanti. She herself is not a princess, since the Akans of Ghana trace their ancestry through the female line. To be a princess, therefore, one's mother must be a royal. When the father is a royal, one is referred to as "Odehyeba", to wit child of a royal. Children and Grandchildren of either gender of royals who become kings/chiefs or queens are referred to as "Oheneba/Ohemaaba" and "Ohenenana/Ohemaanana", to wit son/daughter of a king/queen and grandson/granddaughter of a king/queen. Those descended in a pure female line besides this names, are "Adehye" (plural) "Odehye" (singular), to wit royal themselves. There is no direct translation for the words "prince/princess". One is either a royal or not, or a child of a royal or not. Since it is her father who is a royal and not her mother, she can never ascend to the female throne of Wenchi. Her father's sister's son or full-blooded brother/sister and maternal half-brother/half-sister can. Even if her father had become the Chief of Wenchi, she would have been referred to as "Oheneba" to wit daughter of a King/Chief. There is always a male stool and a female stool. In few rare instances, females have ascended male stools, with another female on the female stool. Females also serve as regents when there are no eligible males to ascend, and also from the death of the Chief to the installment of a new one. She actually has the mandate to nominate a candidate for the consideration of the King-makers. She has three chances to do this, failure of which the King-makers take on the responsibility.^[3]

Busia was educated at the University of Oxford.^[2] Her sister Abena is a poet and academic, an associate professor in English at Rutgers University.^[2]

Career

Her film roles include a notable performance as Bessie in a 1986 film adaptation of Richard Wright's Native Son, Nettie in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985),^[5] as Jewel in John Singleton's Rosewood (1997),^[6] and as Patience in Antoine Fuqua's Tears of the Sun (2003).^[7] She has also appeared on television in the series ER.^[4] In 1994 she married the American film-maker John Singleton, with whom she has a daughter Hadar; the couple are now divorced.^[4][8]

Busia has written The Seasons of Beento Blackbird: A Novel (Washington Square Press, 1997).^[9]

She was one of three co-writers for the screenplay adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved for the 1998 film version of the same name directed by Jonathan Demme.^[8]

Busia also co-wrote the song "Moon Blue" with Stevie Wonder for his album A Time 2 Love.^[10]

References

External links

• Akosua Busia at the Internet Movie Database