Joe Coleman de Graft

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Joe Coleman de Graft (April 2, 1924 - November 1, 1978) was a Ghanian writer, playwright and dramatist. He was born in Cape Coast, Ghana.

De Graft graduated from the University College of the Gold Coast in 1953, from where he was among the first graduates. That year, he also married Leone Buckle, an accountant from Osu, Accra. They subsequently had three children, named Carol, Joseph and Dave.

From 1955 to 1960, de Graft taught English and served as director of the Mfantsipim Drama Laboratory. His main influence was Shakespeare, and he acted in, and directed, many performances of English classics.

De Graft received a UNESCO fellowship in 1960, which allowed him to travel to the United Kingdom and the United States of America to observe amateur, professional, and university drama for a year.

In 1961, Ghana's political head, Kwame Nkrumah, opened the Ghana Drama Studio, as part of a movement to create artistic works relevant to Ghana and Ghanians. Joe Coleman de Graft was the first director, and in 1961, his play Village Investment was produced there. In 1964, his play Sons and Daughters was published.

A second UNESCCO grant in 1969 helped him reach the University of Nairobi, in Nairobi, Kenya, where he then spent almost eight years as a drama professor. At that time, he produced and directed plays for radio, stage and television, including a number of Shakespeare's works.

Among de Graft's other works were the ambitious Muntu, a broad treatment of African history from creation through the modern day, and Mambo, an adaptation of Macbeth. Mambo was produced in 1978; de Graft died later that year..