Born in Koforidua, in the eastern part Ghana on 12th September, 1978. Born as Barima Asare-Bediako to Mr. Yaw Asare and Ms. Lisa Effua Coffie. Barima, popularly known as "Bediako the Poet,"who is currently a resident of South Africa; holds a diploma in education from the university of Cape Coast. He is a motivational speaker, gospel song writer, and medical evangelist.
His style of poems focuses on harmonial rhythm, fusing with traditional drums to send spiritual motivation in the form of gospel poetic expressions to communicate his thoughts about God, nature and His word.He always has this saying, "l obey God, for every other thing to obey me" He also ministers at government hospitals, churches and some social gatherings.
Today, we sat together to discuss his latest project and what we should expect in the nearest future in an interview chat texted below:
Q.: Can you please introduce yourself?
A.: My name is Barima Asare Bediako but my stage name is Bediako the Poet. I am from Ghana; residing in South Africa, currently. I am into gospel poetry. I am a motivational speaker, and a medical evangelist.
Q.: Can you please tell us about your family background?
A.: I got one sister; whose name is "Akua". That's what they usually call her, and myself and parents.
Q.: Can you please tell us more about your involvement with poetry?
Q.: Can you tell us why you choose to do poetry?
A.: We have a lot of ways which we communicate. I am a gospel poet and I only talk about God. People use motivational speaking, preaching, teachings and other means to portray the greatness of God but I choose poetry so that I would be unique and express my thoughts in words as to how awesome our God is.
Q.: Can you tell us about the project you just released title, "The God"?
A.: The project is about the nature of God, his character, his works, the embodiment, how God is. I was only trying to let the world know how God is and that is how I expressed my thoughts in that piece.
Q.: How long does it take you to accomplish this project?
A.: One may not be able to be specific as to, how long it takes for a project to come out because as poetry is what we do everyday and sometimes you may start a project small-small and sometimes you will start in one go and you will finish it. One thing about us human beings is that on daily basis there are ideas coming to you. So is up to you to decide what to do with that idea; weather you want to put it writing or in different forms.
Q.: In the process of your finishing your latest project, titled, "The God"; what are the challenges your faced and how did you overcome them?
A.: It took sometimes, but the challenges, were that; to put the things together and the time frame for me to work on it wasn't there actually as we are always busy and poetry needs a lot of attentions,
concentration; you need to sit down and meditate so one of my biggest challenges was time for me to sit every time meditate on the goodness of God because I don't need distractions and one doesn't need distraction when he or she wants to embark on a project like this
Q.: What advice do you have for those who are trying to release their first project?
A.: Obstacles are what you are going to see once when you take your eyes off the focus because the moment, we have a focus, you may be distracted but somewhere, somehow, you know where your goal is. So I will tell them that they should be focused, put themselves together, is not going to be an easy thing especially if you want to explode as I have exploded but you need to be focused, have the means, the financial power, have the mental strength because if there is going to be friction somewhere, somehow but you have to know that this is what I want to achieve. Before I started this project I knew where I wanted to get to and that's what I am looking at.
A.: My goal is to reach millions of people with my poetry craft and for them to see how great our God is in my way of communicating my thoughts.
Q.: What are the plans you have towards making sure your that poems reach the whole world?
A.: Is already on digital platforms, some of the FM stations are playing and streaming it, it will soon reach gospel TV stations across the globe and any moment from now my EP will be dropping.
Q.: What can people do in order to help you achieve your goal?
A.: By viewing my channel, going to my YouTube channel -Bediako the Poet, subscribing and sharing my video with other loved ones.
Q.: Can you give us an exclusive information regarding your next project - what is the EP about?
A.: The title is "As the deer pants for water". Is basically patenting after God.
Q.: Who or what motivates you to write?
A.: Well, nature. Nature motivated me because God dwells in nature. I love talking about God. I like thinking about God. As a day doesn't pass without me sitting down just to think about God not because I got a problem but to see how dynamic this God is and is what gives me joy that God is God.
Q.:In what ways our God has been so good to you in the past years?
A.: Well, if I want to talk about it I don't think we will finish this programme because God has been so amazing to me in all my journey. When I sit down I reflect the goodness of God right from my childhood till now. Sometimes I ask myself, 'why do you love me so much'? Because people went through what I have passed through but they couldn't survive. Some fail, some die, some became wretched in life and stranded but in all , I have a God who says to me that I am still in charge no matter what I go through and that doesn't stop me to reflect on his goodness and mercies upon my life.
Q.: What advice do you have for a person going through a tough time in life?
A.: There's one statement I always say, "I obey God for everything under him to obey me!" In other words, if you want everything to obey you just obey God. It doesn't mean it would be easy as you think. God's ways are too mysterious. When you look at the bible, God told Abraham that move out of your people and go to the land that I will show you. Abraham started moving without knowing where he was going. God will tell you that I'm going to take you to this height but he will tell you how you are going to get there and that's where we get confused. Because at any given time you are going to have a challenge (lots of problems) but you have to know that he has spoken to you already (this is where I am taking you to) and you must have lots of focus.
Q.: What advice do you have for the next generation in terms of focus on whatever they wanna get done?
A.: The only thing is you have to set your priorities right if you wanna do something and avoid distractions and speak to the people who know what you are doing, who are ahead of you in that field because they know the challenges that might be coming your way: they will give you advice on what to do and not to do and it will build you as you prepare for your financial capability as you embark on that project.
Q.: Coming from Ghana to South Africa, what are the challenges you faced before you finally find yourself here?
A.: The challenges at home wasn't much as I was working at home and starting to explore life to my best ability as a teacher at home and when I came to South Africa I also taught in Limpopo as a science and math teacher.
Q.: In your years of teaching what can you bring out of it?
A.: What give me joy is that some of my students who have graduated and working and whenever they see me they point to me.
Q.: Is poetry teachable?
A.: Poetry is teachable. You just have to be passionate, you have to listen to poetry and you just don't get into something you don't like.
Q.: Are you planning to have a platform to teach people about poetry in the future?
A.: Yes, I am ready to do that. To teach other people who want to know. It may not pay you immediately but as time goes on you might get paid.
Q.: Looking at South African music industry, what do you think needs to change in order for our contents to be well circulated?
A.: The issue is, there should be diversities in the creation, or writing of pieces.
Q.: Do you sometimes act as a ghost writer?
A.: I have been a ghost writer to some gospel artists but for now I am to stick to writing and producing my own songs.
Q.: Since poetry is more less like writing a book, do you have an intention to write a book in the future?
A.: I want to write a book of quotes.
Q.: Where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?
A.: I want to take the music industry by storm apart from releasing an EP; there should be an album and at any given time I want to come out with something unique that no one has seen and also work with other gospel artists across the globe to carry the message of God across.
Q.: Who among the great poets of the past has inspired you?
A.: The issue is I have never looked at any poetry from any one as I said earlier I started by myself. I sat down and decided that I want to communicate my thoughts about God through poetry.
You can catch up with him on these social media platforms:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isvn8OuLP7k
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/bediako2020
Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/BediakoPoet
IG Page: https://www.instagram.com/bediakothepoet/
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B09F8R8BRW/bediako-the-poet
Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-god/1584019549?i=1584019550
By Olagunju, Success Taiwo
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