Osofo Dadzie (formed in October 1972) is the title of a Ghanaian television drama series that was aired in the 1970s and 1980s. It was performed by the Osofo Dadzie group, a drama and concert group that was very popular in Ghana at the time the series ran. The group enjoyed two major stints on Ghanaian television; from 1972 to 1982, and then from 1985 to 1989.
Concert Party
Osofo Dadzie was initially a touring concert party group known as the S. K. Oppong Drama Group. They toured rural and urbran areas of Ghana where they performed improvised and unscripted stage plays accompanied by live music. Their first breakthrough came when they were recruited to perform alongside the African Brothers Band led by Nana Kwame Ampadu. Most concert parties at the time combined music and theatre. Osofo Dadzie was a very popular group and had many performances around the country. Its plots often centred on social criticism, with the support of the Ghana government. The leader of the group was S. K. Oppong.
TV series
The group's breakthrough on television came when they performed a play Aku Sika written by Nana Kwame Ampadu, in combination with the Nana Ampadu's African Brothers Band. S. K. Oppong featured in the play as a drag queen, which turned out to be quite popular with the audience. They performed this act on a programme called, Anansekrom, (Ananse Town) organised by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). This was very well received and also impressed one Kobina Taylor of the GBC. Nana Bosompra, a producer with the GBC, later invited the group to perform in "Jatokrom", another storytelling show which drew largely on Ghanaian folklore and contemporary events. He engaged Joris Wartenberg, an English-language drama writer then at the University of Ghana, to be the scriptwriter for a new television series. Joris had actually come up with the idea of producing an Akan-language drama program with a much broader appeal for the uneducated masses. This led to the start of the Akan drama series Osofo Dadzie on GTV. GTV was the sole domestic broadcaster and television channel in Ghana at the time. Wartenberg suggested the group change its name to the "Osofo Dadzie Group" to reflect their new profile. They became the most popular drama show on Ghana television. The series ran from 24 October 1972 until December 1981.
Osofo Dadzie plays essentially translated popular Ghanaian oral narratives and everyday occurrences into dramatized performances for the enjoyment of ordinary folks in rural and urban areas. Episode themes usually blended Ghanaian folklore and Akan proverbial messages with prevailing socio-cultural norms in an attempt to instil virtue and moral uprightness in the populace. In some instances, the plays addressed current events, such as ritual murders, the stigma attached to HIV-AIDS, deforestation, environmental degradation, family planning, sanitation, civic responsibilities, among others.
The group initially rehearsed at Nana Bosompra's house at the Dansoman housing estate. Osofo Dadzie plays had no written scripts; at rehearsals, Nana Bosompra will come up with the main outline of the story, the core theme or moral story and then get the actors to improvise on set. The actors will then fine-tune each scene through repeated rehearsals. They also selected the most appropriate songs to incorporate in the story, often changing the lyrics to suit the context. The Acheampong government, realising the popular appeal of the show allocated each member of the group a house at Dansoman. The street where the cast lived was aptly named "Osofo Dadzie Street" and remains to this day. Oppong remained the leader of Osofo Dadzie for many years after this remarkable transformation in the group's fortunes. The group provided Sunday evening entertainment on television to millions of viewers for 17yrs. Oppong played many lead roles in Osofo Dadzie and was often cast as a man of virtue and noble character. The group's drama performances were hugely popular on GTV between the 1970s and 1980s. Several key members of the group were also recruited by Allen Gyman to feature in his popular film Abyssinia (1985).