Akosua Dazzles Viewers

DAILY GUIDE’S cartoonist, Akosua, thrilled the viewing public last Sunday with her vast cartooning acumen and professional expertise when she made a debut appearance on Kwaku-One-On-One, a personality profile show on TV3. On the programme, Akosua, showing her dexterity, quickly drew cartoons of President Kufuor, former President J.J. Rawlings, Nigerian Nobel Literature laureate Wole Soyinka and the host Kwaku Sakyi Addo himself. Kwaku, who was shocked and enthralled with the display, asked if she had studied cartoon drawing. The alumnus of Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who holds a Bachelor of Arts (Arts), Post Graduate Diploma (A.ED) and Master of Arts (A.ED) degrees, replied that even though she did Art in school, drawing cartoons at the level she has attained goes beyond that. According to Akosua, she learned her kind of cartooning from one Akurugu who hails from the Northern Region. She used to observe Akurugu when he sketched, and through his encouragement she improved to her current state. What constitutes a good cartoon, Akosua noted, includes putting salient parts of the human anatomy in her drawings as well as writing interesting comments that depict the exact ideas she wants to communicate. She continued that most of her cartoons reflect on news ideas that have been in the public domain and have nothing to do with a mischievous agenda against people. “For instance, I recently cartooned Mrs. Gina Blay’s husband, Hon. Freddy Blay, when he was in the news,” she added. On why cartoonists write under anonymity, Akosua told Kwaku Sakyi Addo that anonymity helps them in investigations, adding that due to the often negative impact of cartoons, anonymity also helps to prevent attacks from the public. She alleged that such a situation occurred when one cartoonist called Joe Mini of The Chronicle was murdered in the PNDC era. Akosua expressed her gratitude to the staff of , especially Mrs. Gina Blay, the paper’s Managing Editor, adding that they contributed a lot to her success. “I thank Mrs. Gina Blay for her encouragement. She always tells me to express myself in line with paper’s editorial policies and I made sure I do exactly that. At we work as a team,” she concluded.