Kofi Akpabli

Kofi Akpabli is an author, teacher and journalist whose special interests are triangled between tourism, culture and the environment. Whether he is covering a 9/11 memorial on Ground Zero in New York or discovering traditional taboos in Ghana's Upper West Region, human interest is ever his soft spot. Happily, as he uncovers the intrigues of the human situation, humour never seems to leave him alone...

Kofi started writing when a historical play he wrote captured first prize in a National Play Writing Contest. The drama, 'The Prince and the Slave' has subsequently run at the Art Centre in Accra, Kumasi and at the Cape Coast Castle.

While doing his National Service in the Upper East of Ghana, he started freelancing for the Graphic Communication Group, Ghana's largest newspaper group in 2001.

In March 2003 he won a national biodiversity reporting award with a piece he did on Baobabs.

He also wrote for a couple of other newspapers namely, The Spectator, Daily Mail, etc. In September 2007 he was among 5 African journalists invited by the UN Department of Public Information over the climate Change conference in the United Nations Headquarters, New York.

In 2010 he was voted by the Ghana journalist Association (GJA)for Journalist of the (Year Entertainment and Tourism)

In June 2011 in South Africa, Kofi Akpabli was voted CNN Multichoice African Journalist for Arts and Culture for the second time. In Uganda the previous year, he had won the same category, making him the only African to have annexed the CNN African Journalist Awards back-to-back.

Since January 2012, he has written Going Places with Kofi Akpabli, Ghana's foremost travel column in The Mirror newspaper. He is also columnist with the Business and Financial Times.

In November 2013, he was also voted Tourism writer of the year by the Ministry of Tourism Culture and Creative Arts.

He has authored four books:

* Harmattan- a Cultural Profile of Northern Ghana-2014

* Romancing Ghanaland the Beauty of Ten Regions- 2014

* A Sense of Savannah-Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana- 2011

* Tickling the Ghanaian-Encounters with Contemporary Culture- 2011

Kofi Akpabli holds an MPHIL in Tourism and an M.A. in Communications Studies from the School of Communication Studies University of Ghana. He teaches Communication Studies, CUC. His areas of research are language use across various domains, tourism marketing and intercultural communication.