Actor Kojo Dadson Talks About Acting, Family and More...

When I called up actor Kojo Dadson of ‘Home Sweet Home’ fame for this interview, the image of him in Kwaw Ansah’s 1980 movie ‘Love Brewed in African Port’ hanged leisurely on my mind. He had an afro hair, flat tummy and quick steps.

All that has disappeared with age and time. Youthful looks have deserted him: He now spots a low haircut. His tummy has bulged. However, his sense of humour is still with him. He laughed when I drew his attention to the changes that had taken place around him over the years.

Born in the 1950s in the Western Region of Ghana to the late E.K. Dadson, a businessman and politician and Beatrice Dadson, a retired beautician, Kojo Dadson attended the Achimota Primary school but left with his siblings at the age of eight to continue his education in London.

Kojo continued his secondary school at public school in Southwest England called Grenville College and it was there he discovered himself. He spent four years there between 1965 and 1969.“It was there I really realized the passion I had for both music and drama but it was more of the drama, so I got very much involved in the drama club in the school” he said.

The school authority, he told B&FT LifeStyle, gave him all the encouragement and was at a point given exit to skip prep so he could join and perform with a local drama troupe. The time spent with the drama troupe helped sharpen his skills.

Determined to have a life in drama school he enrolled at the Westham School of Further Education to acquire more experience in his chosen field. He studied ‘Drama and Personal Development’ in1969. His decision did not go down well with his parents who disapproved of his line of studies especially when there was a family business to be taken care of.

“It didn’t go well with my father who had established a business here in Ghana,” The pursuit of drama and outdoor performance also had severe consequences on his academic records as his GCE results were to show. Obviously impatient with his son’s lack of good academic and determined for him to take up a course more relevant to the family line of business, E.K. Dadson brought Kojo back to Ghana where he was sent to St. Augustine College in 1972 for his O levels.

It was St. Augustine’s College that he met Kofi Bucknor, also an actor and former boss of Ghana television. Though he was somewhat focused to getting his studies done with, he still had the passion for drama burning within him. So after a year and half of studies he “managed to convince” his father to “send me back to England” to pursue his passion but will still have time for the family business.

Back in England he enrolled for a part time course in drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Though he was doing well in his studies his parents still insisted it was wrong for him but he also thought he had been left alone to “plot my own future and that is what I was left to do and that was my flair.”

Kojo came back to Ghana and joined the family fishing business as a tally clerk but still found time to pursue his dream. He joined the Freelance Drama Troupe led by the late Ansong Manu and it was there his star began shinning. “I was being called practically every week to perform on TV,” he said with some nostalgia. It was during that time that he met Rama Brew and the two have since knocked it really well till date.

He said the production which was later christened ‘Thursday Theatre’ was put together by the production company ‘Villa Kakalika.’ The two starred in a production called ‘Farewell to Dope.’ “That was the first film I did with Rama,” he said.

Kojo also reunited with his old school mate and friend Kofi Bucknor. The two, together with other school mates, formed the group ‘Talent Incorporated’ which gave them the platform to experiment with their talents. Their first performance was called ‘African Connection’ which was a contemporary dance performance about colonialism and how Africans were brainwashed by the whites. The group had great success as the performance took them throughout the country.

In 1978 they had a big break when the government at the time invited them to represent Ghana at the ‘World Festival of Youth and Students’ in Cuba. It was an exciting opportunity for them but Kojo said they never looked at it as an opportunity to make money but just enjoy their talents.

He disappeared into thin air until Village Communication, the producers of the popular Taxi Drive sitcom’ dug him, literally, out of his hole for a different production called ‘Number 5 Kotokuraba Street’ which was about a brilliant but swift Cape Coast lawyer who often exploited his position to settle cases at his home. The production folded up.

After a stint on Sun City he joined Emmanuel Apea’s Revele film which was then working on ‘Home Sweet Home.’ He had hoped for a quiet role but was handed the role of the husband to Rama Brew, who had replaced Jackie Ankrah. He said he fell in love with the script after reading it the first time.

He had just returned from shooting another movie called Elimina by Emmanuel Appiah. The film looks at Ghana’s oil discovery and its impact on the environment.

Despite his artistic prowess Kojo is yet to feature in any of the many movie productions in the country. He said most producers are unable to approach him because of the perception he might turn them down.

Kojo who has four lovely children said “circumstances” had blessed him with two wives. He is a brilliant guitarist and finds time to team up with friends to play for a crowd. He spends his time clubbing and there is no night club in Ghana worth its name that he has never been in.