Biography:

Fascinated with the world behind the words, Kojo’s poetry embraces the spectrum of human experience and brings together a range of emotions and thoughts in free flowing verse.

Uninhibited by boundaries, he is constantly learning and stretching his craft… “on a quest to find the perfect poem, a gentle balance between word, rhythm and thought …a poem that sends the moon and sun dancing over the skyline hand in hand”.

His poetry is a passionate journal detailing a life still finding its truth, a life that is neither ordinary nor extraordinary, a life that is representative of us all.

As a performer, Kojo struggles to make peace with exposing elements of his soul, while driven by the need to interact and share with his environment.

It is a love/hate relationship … “what is it I do, standing before you, sprouting words of pseudo-intellectuality … I, the poet, and you, the listener, or is it, I, the patient and you, the psychiatrist.” The voices in his head still speak, and the words still come.

Kojo is a poet and writer who has travelled a journey filled with incident and accident and has found a home in the world of word, thought and feeling.

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Born in Germany to a Ghanaian father and German mother, he spent his formative years playing in the streets of Maseru, Lesotho, and eventually completed his A Levels / International Baccalaureate at Machabeng High School.

Plagued with typical adolescent drama, he found solace in the blank page, starting off with the usual ramblings and somehow stumbled into poetry, thereby saving on therapy fees.

After high school in 1990, he went off to Germany for a year, to find his Germanic roots, as a Rotary Exchange Student, which he followed up with three years at the University of Natal - Durban, Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Economics, Marketing and Business Administration. At this stage, poetry continued to be a release from day-to-day trivialities, protectively shared with only close friends and family.

Kojo then returned home to Lesotho where he worked in the family business, including economic and management consulting, information technology, hair product retailing and publishing. In 1998, he started to build relationships, business and personal, in Johannesburg, and with the emergence of a minute poetry movement in 2000, Kojo started performing at the traditional, smoke-filled, arty venues in Johannesburg.

In 2001, the pull of poetry was too strong and he leaped into a poetry career that is still growing. He has since performed at a number of events and venues, including Soulful Sundays (Rosebank), Monday Blues (Orange Grove / Newtown), Freespeech (Melville), Cinnamon Toast Party (Monsoon Lagoon), Bassline (Melville), Poetry in Locomotion (Melville), Elevators (Rosebank, Sandton, Newtown), Kippies (Newtown), Windybrow Theatre (Hillbrow), amongst others.

Not content with merely performing, kojo has translated his creative writing into a wide range of arenas, including lyric writing, copy for commercials, greeting cards, and even business writing.

He continues to be driven by his passion, his belief and his love for the WORD. The voices in his head still speak and the words still come.

Activity:

Performance - CIDA City Campus Mini Concert
Performance - SoWeTo Poetry Event
Performance - Diva Africa Awards Ceremony
Performance - Youth Development Trust Year End Function
Performance - Open Disclosure Centre Launch
Performance - British Council presents The Writers Ball, featuring British Poet, Joolz Denby
Performance - FNB ‘One Account’ Product Launch
Performance - School Tour for 10 Years of Democracy Celebration
Performance - Freedom Bash, 10 Years of Democracy Celebration Finale, Windybrow Theatre
Performance - Feela Sistah Poetry Collective First Sunday Show
Performance - Rhythm In Lokomotion, Rhythms, Sandton
Recording - House of T-Bose, Vol. II - The First Meal
Recording - South African Institute of Chartered Accountants Business Camp CD
Commission - Rand Water Centenary Project
Commission - Collect-A-Can TV Commercial
Commission - Lyrics for song on upcoming Fingerprinted CD by DJ Fingers