Saka Acquaye

Saka Acquaye is a singer and textile designer from Accra, Gold Coast.

Saka Acquaye was born 2 November 1923, the 6th child of his parents Regina and John Akweifio. He was educated in the Methodist School, Accra Royal School and then Government Boys Schools. He obtained a Cadbury Scholarship to enter Cadbury House, Achimota School. He washed dishes in the school’s dining hall, so he could have extra food, since his parents could not afford to supplement his meals.

While at college he became a champion hurdler, training without shoes using his own primitive hurdles made from tree branches. He became the captain of a squad of the National Athletic Team to represent the Gold Coast in 1950. He was Champion hurdler for the Gold Coast.

On completion of his course at Achimota, he taught for a couple of years at St. Augustine’s College in Cape coast, in the early 1950s.

Wanting to pursue further studies in the United States, but with a bare pocket, Saka started creating textile designs which he sold to build his resources. At the time, he had founded the Black Beats Band much to displeasure of his father, who insisted that bandsmen were wayward and drunkards. To prove to him wrong, Saka would always put half of whatever amount of money he made from performances on table at which his father ate from, his father who always questioned where it was from. He loved and played the saxophone, flute and mouth organ and practiced till he achieved a harmonious blend of melodies. Saka vividly remembers how he always had to stuff the ends of his musical instruments with cloth to dull the sound whenever he had to rehearse at home. This was because he didn’t want to disturb anybody.

Saka Acquaye’s break finally came in1953 and he left the shores of the Gold Coast to pursue further studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Here too, he has a number of stories to tell. Among them an accident in a factory, where he worked part-time like many other students in college. In his case, his finger got caught in a machine, which resulted in him losing a chunk of skin from his middle finger. Fortunately, he had a graft with skin from his thigh, leaving him with a big black scar, to remind him and us about his sojourn in the United States. In College, he shared a studio with a very rich white girl, who realized that Saka was a poor International student. For whatever reason, he would always refuse an offer from her to go out for a meal while working. His explanation to us was that even though he was starving, he didn’t want to be always the free gift, and not to be able to reciprocate the gesture. However, in spite of his turning down the offer the lady would every day, buy two packs of whatever meal she had, eat hers, put the other pack in the wastepaper basket and proceed to leave the studio for a while. Saka would then into the bin and polish off the second pack, which had been brought purposefully for him. This silent trade went on for a while.

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Wikipedia