Gemann — From disgrace to grace

Saturday, May 23, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 3)

By Rebecca Kwei
From Fame to Shame, From Disgrace to Grace is the title of his book which will be out soon and perhaps the title clearly speaks about his life.
Nana Kwasi Agyemang popularly known as Gemann who shot to fame in the early 1980s but had to spend 14 years in prison for murder, says he has come a long way but very grateful to God for His love.
“I am doing very well by God’s grace. In fact I’m doing extremely well,” was what he said when The Mirror caught up with him at his office at Adabraka, a suburb of Accra, to find out how he was coping with life after prison.

New life
Now a pastor, Gemann celebrated his 46th birthday on Tuesday, May 19. He now sports a new-look an afro (Gemann used to have long wet curls) and is involved in a number of Christian activities.
He has started a church, New Life Christian Love Fellowship which operates at the O’reilly Secondary School at Adabraka. The church has about 35 members.
He said being a pastor was a vision the Lord gave him while he was in prison.
“I had wanted to become a preacher even before I went to prison. As a kid I always played the role of a pastor which earned me the name Osofo,” he recalled.
He explained that his intention then was to be rich and succeed in the entertainment industry before taking up pastoral duties so people would not think he went into it because of the money .
“But God had His own plans and it happened that I had to go through the training inside prison,” he said.
The New Life Christian Love Fellowship started while he was in prison. He says aside the church having a branch in Accra, there are three branches: one each in the Condemned Cell and the main yard at Nsawam Prison and one at Ankaful Prison Annex.
Gemann now also has permit to visit all police cells in the country to preach and educate on life and crime.
He said he had visited some police cells in Accra and Tema and was happy that anytime he visited a police cell, not less than five people gave their lives to Christ after hearing him.
“I believe God has preserved my life so that I may be light unto those who are still in darkness,” he noted.
Suspects in police cells, he indicated, related better to him because they knew he had gone through a similar situation.
Gemann has not shirked his love for the entertainment industry and has also started a Christian multi-media entertainment company called Godsbiz (God’s Business) that deals in gospel music, video production and artiste management.
According to him he has also developed a radio programme, Talent from the Biblical Perspective which airs on Channel R, where he tries to help the youth identify and develop their talent by bringing in guests who have made it in life to share their experiences.
He said he was developing a television version of the programme which will hit the screens soon.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, he is a panelist on the entertainment review programme, 205, on the same station where he brings his Christian perspective to bear on entertainment matters.
Despite having so much going for him already, Gemann, revealed that he is recording a new gospel album which he calls 14. The title represents the number of years he spent in prison. He said the album will probably have 14 tracks on it as well.
Gemann said he was also a motivational speaker since he got a lot of invitations from other churches to come and share his testimony.

January 9, 1995
January 9, 1995 was the day Gemann’s life changed. Although he was not too willing to be retrospect since the story had been told over and over again, he did summarise what happened that day.
According to Gemann, a lady friend called Nada had boarded a taxi to come and visit him at his then residence at Dome CFC.
He said apparently, Nada who did not have money on her to pay, had also not come to an agreement over the fare with the driver.
Thus when Nada got to his place and he decided to pay, there was a disagreement over the fare and the taxi driver left without taking any money.
He said the taxi driver came back an hour later, parked his car about 500 metres away from his (Gemann’s) house and then came to the house to collect sand into a plastic bag.
He said when he enquired what he (taxi driver) was going to do with the sand, he replied that he would kill each and every one in the house.
“This led to a heated argument and as a result, I fired a warning shot to calm the situation but this rather infuriated him (taxi driver),” he narrated.
According to Gemann, in the course of bringing the taxi driver back to the house from where he (taxi driver) had parked his car to reverse whatever curse he might have done, there was a struggle and the pistol went off killing the taxi driver.
“What happened was purely an accident. I was a novice at handling such weapons and because I had fired a warning shot earlier, the pistol went off easily, he said with sadness in his voice.
I felt terrible, devastated and broken. I immediately went to the police station to report myself.
Gemann was later sentenced to death by hanging on January 9, 1995. He was granted presidential pardon and coincidentally released from prison on January 9, 2009. He believes the dates are not a coincidence but a miracle.

Turning point
According to Gemann he was a Christian but did not have a personal relationship and commitment with Christ.
“But when the incident happened, I knew at that moment that the only person who could save me was Jesus and I made a personal commitment to Him that very day,” he recalled.
Asked why he had bought a pistol, Gemann said when he moved to his then residence, he was told that the area was armed robbery-prone so he bought the pistol for protection against armed robbers.
“But in the end I slept with armed robbers in the same prison. Now I know it is God who protects and not pistols,” he stated.

Good things
One good thing, Gemann notes, is that he is at peace with the family of the taxi driver, Kwasi Agyei, whom he accidentally killed.
“The good thing is that the family of the late Kwasi Agyei wrote a petition to former President J. A. Kufuor for my release”.
Quoting Proverbs 16:7 — When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (King James Version) to support, he said: “I prayed to God always to heal the wounds I had created and God touched their hearts.”
He said when he was released from prison, the family of the late Kwasi Agyei received him warmly and he is now part of that family.
He said the late Agyei had a daughter who is 14 years now and is almost like a daughter to him. He promises to take full responsibility of her at the appropriate time.
Unfortunately, Nada died two years ago.

Family ties
Gemann said he was grateful to his family and many others for their support without whom he would not have survived in prison.
Gemann has three siblings; his older brother is also a pastor, while his other brother is in the United Kingdom and his little sister is in the United States.
His father, Amoo Agyemang passed on six years ago and he now lives with his 76-year-old mother, Augusta Asiedu Agyemang at Teshie Nungua, a suburb of Accra.
Gemann has a daughter, Tremina Gemann, who is 18 and lives in Holland.
“Tremina was only three years old when I went to prison and obviously a difficult time for her growing up. But the good thing is that now I can talk to her anytime I want,” he said.

Early life
Born at Kokomlemle in Accra, Gemann had his basic education in different parts of the country because both parents were teachers and they travelled extensively.
He went to West Africa Secondary School and indicated that the late Ola Williams was his classmate.
He continued his secondary education at the Tema Secondary School and left for the UK while in Form 3 to pursue his entertainment career in 1982.
“As a kid I was already in show business. I was dancing and performing at parties,” he recalled.
Prior to leaving for the UK, Gemann who was well- noted for his dancing skills, had won the national dance championship from 1980 to 1982.
While in the UK, he did the Michael Jackson look-like show by dancing and performing to Michael Jackson’s songs which took him to many places around the world such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden.
He released Highlife in G Major in 1987; Hiphop the Jungle in 1989, Danzing Mann in 1992 and a gospel album God is Love in 2003 while in prison.
When he returned from the UK to Ghana in 1992, Gemann set up a recording and production company, Gemann Productions, and a studio known as Studio G and at the time, he had about 35 young men and women he was training in music and dance.
In 1994, he was the side attraction for the Miss Ghana pageant and he travelled with the team to all the 10 regions.
According to Gemann, he was three days away from completing a musical movie when the shooting incident happened.

Great lessons
“If I knew the Lord then, what happened on January 9, 1995, would not have happened. God’s word has made me more patient.”
Asked if he misses the old days he said “No. Now the joy of the Lord is my strength. The ministration gives me so much joy.
Some people have accepted me but some still doubt that I have changed. What is happening to me is real. I have chosen to do God’s work because I know what He has done for me.”
He advised the youth “to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteoness and all other things shall be added to them.”
He said parents should be concerned about their children and help them to know Christ properly and not only taking them (children) to church on Sundays.
He noted that most of the youth are leading hypocritical lives as such it was necessary for them to have a firm foundation in Christ to prevent the ‘sakawa’ generation which is rearing its head of late.

Future plans
Gemann believes the future is very bright and he has plans of opening up more branches of his ministry. “Bigger things start with humble beginnings’, he said.
He said at the moment he is “single and unattached” but hopes to marry sometime.
Psalm 116 is very dear to Gemann’s heart and he says “this scripture sums up my life.”