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It is not every day that you come across papers that give you some indication about your heritage and family history. This happened to one East London family that can trace their ancestry to a Ghanaian royal from the Ewe nation. Ewe Fia  - Togbui Adamah II reigned from 1915 to 1963 - and thanks to a collection of official and personal letters and papers written by him and addressed to him, we know much more. These papers - known as the Adamah Papers - were found by a family member and eventually donated to the Black Cultural Archives (BCA) in Brixton, London. This is likely to be the first time such a find has been discovered in this way, and provide great insight into what life was like during a time when present-day Ghana was under British colonial rule. These papers give us rare insight into what life was like for Fia Togubui Adamah II, the people he ruled and his intersection with neighbouring kings and the British. Check out my interview with...

The son of the late British-Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta is leading a project to digitise and re-launch all her works. By February 2018, her most well-known novels: 'In the Ditch’, ‘The Bride Price’ and ‘The Slave' will be re-launched with more titles set to follow, Onwordi told MisBeee at the sidelines of literary festival Africa Writes 2017 earlier this month. The plan to digitise and republish Buchi's entire collection of over 20 books – complete with new book covers - emerged after the Ibusa-born London-based author passed away in January this year. Sylvester Onwordi - son of Buchi Emecheta ©  MisBeee Writes "..one of the consequences was a realisation that lots of people wanted to read her books but unfortunately some of her books have gone out of print,” said Sylvester. “And so the idea came to me, and the other people I have been collaborating with, that we should get together and form a publishing company to re-launch some of those editions....

Bamboo is equivalent in strength to steel The guy Ghanaians reportedly call the bamboo man came to London in June to promote his handmade bamboo bikes to the UK market. Kwabena Danso is the founder and ceo of Booomers - a range of bikes made in Ghana and designed to provide the healthier ones among us with a novel way of getting around. These bikes are also hoped to tackle Ghana's youth unemployment problem, and promote green transportation.  Ok, so these bamboo bikes are not completely made of bamboo. The frames are, but not the wheels, handles or gears, and there is no bamboo helmet (yet?!). Nevertheless, the invention has been eagerly embraced by bike enthusiasts all over Europe, Canada, USA and Australia.  Even the UK's Minister for Foreign Affairs and the figure behind the sponsored London bikes Boris Johnson also had a go on one when he paid a recent visit to Ghana.  Danso hasn't stopped riding them since coming to London for the first time in early June and...

Buchi Emecheta was a prolific writer of fiction, non-fiction, drama and children's books I have been so enchanted by Nigerian author Buchi Emecheta OBE  and her books since my early teens and sorely regretted missing an opportunity to see her in my 20s. So, in my 30s – some months after she had passed on – I jumped at the opportunity to celebrate her life at a tribute event. This event included an audience with her son Sylvester Onwordi,  Diane Abbott - MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Margaret Busby OBE  – Buchi's publisher who just happens to be the UK’s first Black female publisher. Greenwich Book Festival I was surprised that the event – organised by the Greenwich Book Festival and chaired by writer Ade Solanke – wasn’t filled to the rafters. I was even more surprised that I was one of the youngest people there. I had assumed that, like me, Buchi’s books had been staple reading material for most Black people growing up. Over ...

Morning All! I wanted to share with you my first podcast as an interviewee.  Motivational coach and podcaster  Abigale Otchere  interviewed me about this  MisBeee Writes  blog, understanding identity growing up as a British-Ghanaian and what motivates me.  She shares similar stories of inspiring people every Monday - so check her out - here !  All comments are welcome on this page. If you are having trouble posting on the Google+ page, please share your views via Facebook  here  or tweet @MisBeee Please be aware that you may not reproduce, republish, modify or commercially exploit this content without our prior written consent.  

I just came back from the Ghana 60 years on, mobilising Ghana's future event - staged at London university SOAS. In a nutshell, I would have to say that there was more politics going on behind the scenes than was discussed during the session. Serious egos bouncing off each other which meant there was NO REAL transformative discussion about Ghana at all. The highlights for me were the way the filmmaker Paul Adom-Otchere structured the film 'From Gold Coast to Ghana' - around legal and constitutional milestones dating back to 6 March 1844 when part of modern-day Ghana came under British jurisdiction. I thought it was a simple way of crystallising and distilling a lot of our complex history and creating some sort of timeline of historical events and their significance.  A legal route to Ghanaian history But this did not go down well with everyone and one audience member took issue to what she thought was an omission of Ghana's ri...

On the day that one of the last political prison mates of Nelson Mandela died, a South African play capturing life at the notorious Robben Island was released. South Africa's diverse cultures © South African High Commission, London  Written by Matthew Hahn, the play is based on selected texts from the complete works of William Shakespeare that became an important source of support and inspiration for inmates. The book - 'The Robben Island Shakespeare' (formerly known as The Robben Island Bible) was smuggled into the prison by the wife of political prisoner Sonny Venkatrathnam. Sonny was one of 33 political prisoners sentenced to life after being convicted of sabotage in the Rivonia Trial . The trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964 and resulted in those famous pictures we know showing Mandela and his comrades imprisoned on Robben Island. Inspiring texts Apart from a Bible, inmates were forbidden access to reading materials. ...