One of Ghana’s veteran comedians, ‘Nkomode’, real name Yaw Donkor has died from a chronic kidney, liver and bladder problem.
He died on Friday morning at the Tema General Hospital, according to his close pal and former colleague in the stage acting business, Akwasi Boadi, affectionately called Akrobeto.
Akrobeto, who confirmed his friend’s demise on Accra-based Peace FM, said he died as a result of problems with his kidney, liver and bladder.
Local movie producer and member of the Music Rights body GHAMRO, Ahmed Banda, (Bandex), also corroborated his death in an interview with Accra-based Kasapa FM.
Nkomode became a household name alongside the likes of comedians Bishop Bob Okala, Iced Kenkey, Agya Koo and several others who featured in the then Key Soap Concert Party .
These men and many others including women like Kumiwaa, kept Ghana’s theatre alive until the early 2000 when majority of them started moving into mainstream movie making.
Nkomode was a member of the vibrant Kristo Asafo Drama Group. As stage acting back then took a nosedive, the likes of Nkomode and others travelled abroad in search of greener pastures.
But even in his case, when he left Ghana in 2002, he was at the peak of his comedy career, although that skill was not rewarding financially at the time.
At some point, there were rumours that Nkomode had been arrested in London and jailed for dealing in drugs, which turned out to be false.
Nkomode, who returned to Ghana in 2011, finally cleared the air saying he was never arrested and that he had not dealt in drug before and would never do it.
He however admitted that he got involved in some visa racketeering incident which is normally referred to as ‘visa connection’ locally, but he was finally able to clear himself.
According to him, in his nine years in the UK, he had been living in London and a point moved to Manchester.
He returned to Ghana in 2011, in what appears to be a life that had not gone so well for him in the UK where he sometimes fell sick for months.
When he returned to Ghana, he made an attempt to get into the mainstream movie industry, but could not make any significant impact after playing a few roles in the locally produced movies.
The man Nkomode
Nkomode in his best days as a comedian won the Key Soap Concert Party Champion of Champions competition for three consecutive years.
He defeated local comedian Bob Okala (Real name: Kwadjo Buabeng) in 1996, to win it for the first time, he beat another comedian called ‘Original 32’ to win the Champion of Champions for the second time; in 1997, and Nkomode defeated Agya Koo (Kofi Adu) who is currently the most popular actor in Ghana in 1998 to win the title for the third time running.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AfanyiDadzie