African American Studies Commons^™

Black, Phil, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Felix Sarpong, known as Phil Black, is a Ghanaian American native of the Bronx who works as an educator and music producer in the Bronx community. Phil Black was born in the Bronx on October 14^th, 1974, and he spent most of his life in the borough. His mother worked as a housekeeping supervisor and was involved in Ghanaian politics, while his father was a teacher. His parents emigrated from Ghana in the late sixties. They moved the family there during his early childhood years so that Black and his older brother could learn the language and the …

Black, Phil, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Phil Black aka Felix Sarpong

Interviewer: Renee White

Date: May 3, 2012

Summarized by Daniel Matthews

Felix Sarpong, known as Phil Black, is a Ghanaian American native of the Bronx who works as an educator and music producer in the Bronx community. Phil Black was born in the Bronx on October 14^th, 1974, and he spent most of his life in the borough. His mother worked as a housekeeping supervisor and was involved in Ghanaian politics, while his father was a teacher. His parents emigrated from Ghana in the late sixties. They moved the family there during …

Ahmed, Ramatu, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Ramatu Ahmed

Interviewer: Dr. Mark Naison

Date of Interview: March 10, 2010

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Ramatu Ahmed is a leader in the Ghanaian community in New York City. She is currently a committee member of the National Council of Women of the United States and the Harlem Hospital’s Medina Clinic but is actively involved in many other projects and organizations that are working towards the improvement of the lives of women who live in both Africa and America. One of her greatest passions is bringing awareness to the issue of the lack of availability of higher education for …

Yartel Iii, Nan, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Nan Yartel III was born on the 15^th of an unmentioned month in 1965 in a village called Amatsou in the West African nation of Ghana. He attended primary school from 1971 until 1981. He is a member of the Fanti ethnic groups, one of the many different ethnic groups found in Ghana.

As a member of the Fanti people, he was able to obtain the position of chief, which enabled him the opportunity to finish his secondary education and thus came to the United States to do such that. He completed his education back in his homeland of …

Wallace, Kojo, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Born September 16, 1985, Wallace grew up with his family in Tarkwa, Ghana. In 1988, his father immigrated to the United States and has worked as a taxi driver. His father is also a leader within the Ghanaian community in the Bronx. In 2006, Wallace immigrated to the Bronx with his siblings and has been living with his father on Sedgwick Avenue. He will be attending medical school in the September 2010. He has an older brother who is talking college classes and is also in the United States Navy, a sister who is working to become a nurse, and …

Kontihene, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Kontihene

Interviewer: Dr. Jane Edward, Kojo Ampa, Kareem Salifu, Dr. Mark Niason

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Kontihene is a Ghanaian Hip Hop musician who has lived in the Bronx since 2004. Kontihene describes his own music as being Afro-Pop or Hip-Life because it combines lively beats with traditional Ashanti folk music from Ghana. Kontihene grew up in Ghanaian town called Kumasi with his parents and two sisters. His love for music developed at a very young age. By age ten he was already writing poems and songs that discussed his family life. Encouraged and mentored by a local musician …

Boakye, Benjamin, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Reverend Benjamin Boakye

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Benjamin Heither, Amy Davies, Jane Edward

Date of Interview: October 29, 2009

Summarized by Sheina Ledesma

Reverend Benjamin Boakye is a senior pastor at the Ebenezer Assemblies of God church in the Bronx and the president of the Ghanaian Ministers Fellowship. Boakye was born in 1962 in the Ashanti region of Ghana. He was the eldest of six children and as the oldest was given great responsibility within the family. From an early age Boakye was exposed to University life. His father was a plumber at the University of Science and Technology in …

Ampah, Kojo, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Kojo Ampah is the head of a student organization at Fordham University called the African Cultural Exchange and has a long history as a radio host, organizer of cultural festivals and educator in Ghana. He is a Phantee from the Southern tip of Ghana, Cape Coast and his father is Muslim, while his mother was Catholic but converted. His father always maintained four wives so he has many siblings. His father was the medicine man for the tribe in a type of Voodoo and worked with herbs etc ., in a blend of Islam and local traditions. His father taught …

Mardah, Muhammad, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Mohammed Mardah is the head of the Ghanaian Association of New York, and is heavily involved in the Bronx Ghanaian community, as well as the public school system. Mardah was born on February 28, 1966 in Accra, Ghana. His father was head of the Ghana Publishing Corporation, and he died when Mohammed was ten years old. Mardah’s mother was uneducated, but was a businesswoman who traveled the world in search of goods that she could sell for a profit in Ghana. Mohammed grew up a practicing Muslim, and Hausa was his first language. His upbringing took place during a time …

Benjamin, Michael, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin was inspired to work in public service after hearing that President Kennedy had been shot and killed; he found it interesting that a person would be involved in public service and they could lose their life. His youngest brother, Vernon, suffered from lung ailments and his mother wrote Mayor Wagner. She got an application back from the Mayor’s office for public housing and in 1965 they moved into the John Adams’ houses. The area was made up of working-class, two parent families. There was a communal feeling there and the building and amenities were new and safe. …

Otibu, Johnson, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Johnson Otibu (b. 1955) is the proprietor of the Sahara African Caribbean market in the Bronx. He came to New York from Ghana in 1978, at the age of 23. Otibu left a good job in the social security business in Ghana in order to try out the opportunities in America. When he immigrated, the exchange rate was 2 American dollars to every Ghanaian dollar, so Otibu arrived with more money than most immigrants. Initially he settled in Harlem on 150^th St. and lived off of what he had brought. However, he soon realized that it was much harder …

Boadu, Mary, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Jane Edward

INTERVIEWEE: Mary Boadu

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Mary Boadu was born in Koumase, the Ashanti region of Ghana in 1988. At the time of the interview, was a student at Columbia University. When she was three years old, Mary’s mother got the chance to work in a nursing home in the United States, and she left her family in Ghana. Mary was raised by her father and cousins until 1995, when her father got the opportunity to join her mother in the States. Mary’s mother was pregnant when she left Ghana, and she gave birth …

Bonsu, Sonia, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

INTERVIEWER: Mark Naison, Jane Edward

INTERVIEWEE: Sonia Bonsu

SUMMARY BY: Patrick O’Donnell

Sonia Bonsu was born in the Bronx on March 16, 1977. She attended public school in the Bronx, then the Calhoun School in Manhattan, and Harvard University as an undergraduate. She then attended law school at Fordham University, and she is currently the Director of Annual Giving at the Calhoun School. She was raised by both her parents, who were Ghanaian immigrants (Ashanti people). Her father had come to the Bronx in 1969 on a student visa for a job and brought his wife with him shortly thereafter. …

Attah-Mensah, Nana, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewee: Nana Atta-Mensah

Interviewer: Dr. Jane Edwards

Date of Interview: May 16, 2007

Summarized by Alice Stryker

Nana Atta-Mensah migrated to the Bronx in 1979. He was from Ghana originally, then moved to Germany for 10 years, then moved back to Ghana and from there immigrated to the United States. When he initially moved to the Bronx he was working as a gas station attendant. In 2005, however, he went back to school at Lehman College and got degrees in Accounting and African American Studies. With these degrees, he now operates a small business on Gun Hill Road.

He also …

Brath, Elombe, Bronx African American History Project

Oral Histories

Interviewers: Mark Naison, Maxine Gordon

Interviewee: Elombe Brath

Date of interview: 21 June, 2005

Summarized by: Craig Teal, 26 March 2007

Elombe Brath is a longtime political activist in New York City who is one of the founders of the Jazz Arts Society and was active in organizing some of the first cultural pageants in New York City in the 1960s. Born on September 30, 1936 in Brooklyn, Elombe grew up in Harlem and in Hunt’s Point on 751 Kelly Street between Longwood Avenue and 156^th Street. His family moved into a crossroads area of the Bronx that was …