Joe De Graft

Joseph Coleman de Graft (2 April 1924 – 1 November 1978) was a prominent Ghanaian writer, playwright and dramatist, who was appointed the first director of the Ghana Drama Studio in 1962. He produced and directed plays for radio, stage and television, as well as acting, and was also a poet and educator. De Graft was born in Cape Coast, in the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). His surname derives from a Dutch grandfather. He received his secondary schooling there at Mfantsipim. In 1953, at the age of 29, and after an education interrupted by four years teaching at his old school, de Graft graduated from the University College of the Gold Coast, one of the first undergraduates to take English Honours. That year, he married Leone Buckle, an accountant from Osu, Accra, and they subsequently had three children, Carol, Cobbie, and Kweku.

In 1955 de Graft returned to Mfantsipim School, where he taught English and was in charge of the Mfantsipim Drama Laboratory. A major influence on his work was Shakespeare, and he acted in, and directed, several of Shakespeare's plays. He was also responsive to developments in African theatre and was responsible for the Ghanaian premieres of plays by two Nigerian dramatists: James Ene Henshaw and Wole Soyinka. De Graft wrote plays himself, and one of the best known, Sons and Daughters (published 1964), dates from this time. It is a contribution to debates about careers and values among secondary-school pupils.

In 1960, de Graft was awarded a grant that enabled him to spend time in the United Kingdom and the United States observing amateur, professional, and university drama.