Adwoa Smart (Belinda Naa Ode Oku)

ADWOA SMART, the popular actress of Obra fame is a very desirable woman judging from the number of men who pester her as potential husbands and lovers. What’s the magic that compels men to chase Adwoa Smart who became famous in the 1980s as a member of the Obra drama group? Adwoa who bared her heart to Graphic Showbiz a few days ago explained that she is convinced it is God’s light shining on her. “ Otherwise what have I got that such handsome men will chase me? Is it my popularity, is it my circumstances? When I say it is God, you have to believe me because you will be surprised the kind of men who propose to me sometimes.” “I wonder, ( looking at myself) what they see in me,” she smiles. Adwoa says she thanks God for that because she knows she is blessed. In 1990 at 18, she fell in love with a 35 year old man called Nana Yaw, one of the musicians of the Obra Soul Train. Two years later, they were blessed with a baby girl who however died after seven months. “ I was devastated but I was asked not to cry because she was my first child. After that, I decided not to continue with the affair, after all we were not married,” she laughed. According to Adwoa, after persistent refusals from her to marry him, Nana Yaw married another woman. Adwoa met another young man, a 34 year old businessman called Alex in 1993 who promised to marry her. “ But while we were planning for our future, he wanted us to have a baby which I was not ready for.” “I wanted us to get married first. Because you know I am now matured and know I had to do the right thing,” she added. Adwoa explained that even though Alex is single and still not married, he has to do the right thing she is now born again and wants to do the right thing. “I am a big girl now and know that some people just want to have fun with me because of my popularity and also because of my special circumstances so I ma now very careful.” “Of course I am sure some men are curious and want to know how it will be like with Adwoa,” she emphasised. Adwoa pointed out that now that she knows God, it has helped her to resist many men who otherwise would have taken advantage of her. “ You will be surprised at the kind of men who propose to me sometimes. So many men want me to me their lover” I ask myself what do they want? Do they genuinely love me or do they just want to have fun of me? She asked. Adwoa Smart says all she is asking from God is for him to give her a nice man “ who will love me for what I am and be a good father to my children if we are blessed with any. How soon does she want to marry? In God’s own time she says, whenever He gives me the right person. Born Belinda Naa Ode Oku, to Mr and Mrs Oku of Abossey Okai, a suburb of Accra some 32 years ago, she was raised by her grandmother the late Cecilia Quaye a.k.a. Ayi Nye (Ayi’s mother), who doted on her with the support of her uncle Dan Oku and her mother. Adwoa remembers a happy childhood full of fun and love from her family and others from her community. Because of her size which is unusual for her age ( she is about 3 feet now) people loved to have her around them. “ I am sure many people were surprised by my looks and struck friendship with me out of curiosity.” But this was to cost her because she dropped out of school the first few months of her enrolment. “ It was difficult to concentrate in school, at that tender age of six or seven can you imagine what I went through?” “ The other children pulled and pushed me, jeered and poked fun at me and did all sorts of unpleasant things to make me very unhappy forcing me to drop out of school” she added sadly. How come she speaks English and delivers lines in English in some films she has appeared in? She says it is by the Grace of God, according to Adwoa even though she was unable to go to school almost all the other children, her uncles, aunties and others in the house speak English and so she picked bits and pieces of conversations from them. Adwoa mentioned that one auntie she stayed with at Kaneshie always sent her to shop at the market with a long list of items and their prices written on a piece of paper. “Once she mentioned the items on the list to me I was able to identify them and subsequently got used to whatever she wrote. She also owes a lot of gratitude to who deliberately communicated to her in English and assisted her when she was given a script for a production. How she does it? Deliver her lines faultlessly in English? “All I do is let somebody read the script to me. Then when I get the gist of the story, I go through it myself, recognise the lines and commit them to memory.” “It took a lot of practice though and the support of a number of people for me to get it. I guess the Good Lord also opens my mind when it comes to that” she chuckled. Adwoa who says she became smart and witty at an early age, attributed it to the realisation that she can stop people from making fun of her by joining them to make fun at herself. On how she entered the Arts, Adwoa says she has always loved dancing and cracking jokes so she got invited to funerals, weddings and other such occasions to entertain the guests. Obviously her exploits caught the eyes the eyes of Grace Omaboe who asked the late Auntie Rose of Obra to invite me for an audition. “That was around 1984, at the audition, after only one dance Auntie Grace informed me that I didn’t need any further auditioning and I was picked to join the group.” “ From then on I virtually became the daughter of Auntie Grace and since then I have been in her house,” she adds proudly. Adwoa if grateful first to God, Auntie Grace who says has made her what she is today especially in her work as an actress. She has performed in a number of television dramas and stage productions for Obra and also featured in a number of films. These include It’s too late, 1 and 2, Father and Son, Naomi, Yaa Asantewaa, Moneybag, Matters of the Heart, Judgement Day and Lucifer parts 1 and 2.