[3][4][5] He studied playwriting at Mountview Theatre School (1966–1967), began visiting Paris in 1968 and connecting with Caribbeans and Africans there,[6] then for four years from 1970 he lived in the United States,[7][8] going there at the invitation of Ed Bullins, who had been in London for the production of some of his plays.
He also contributed to other international publications including Essence, The Amsterdam News, Crawdaddy, Présence Africaine, UNESCO Courier, Trinidad Newsday, and Bendel Times (Nigeria).
[7] His master's thesis was subsequently published as Colonialism & the Destruction of the Mind: Psychosocial issues of race, sexuality, class and gender in the novels of Roy Heath (1997).
Karnak House authors have also included Cheikh Anta Diop, Hilary Beckles, Ifi Amadiume, Imruh Bakari, Jan Knappert, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Maureen Warner-Lewis, Théophile Obenga, and Jacob Carruthers.
[15][12] In 1985, Karnak House organised its first major international conference under the title The Afrikan Origin of Civilization, which featured Cheikh Anta Diop as the primary speaker, along with Ivan Van Sertima, and Carlos Moore.
[18] Saakana's own books include poetry collections, the first study on Jamaican popular music, entitled Jah Music (1980),[19] a 1985 novel Blues Dance (reviewing which Polly Toynbee wrote in The Guardian: "It is a harrowing book, bloody and violent, frightening and often mystifying, but through it all there is a surprising kind of optimism"),[5] and works of literary criticism such as The Colonial Legacy in Caribbean Literature, as well a notable work on Guyanese novelist Roy A. K. Heath, entitled Colonialism and the Destruction of the Mind (1997).
[21] Saakana directed and produced the films Texturing the Word: 40 Years of Caribbean Writing in Britain (1985, featuring George Lamming, Edward Brathwaite, Roy Heath, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Grace Nichols, Marc Matthews),[22] and Ida's Daughter: The World of Eintou Pearl Springer (2010).