POST-COLONIAL CINEMA PRODUCTION IN GHANA: AKAN VIDEO MOVIES WITHIN GHANA’S CINEMATIC HERITAGE.

ABSTRACT Existing literature on postcolonial cinema production in Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates substantial success of indigenous film industries. The last two decades have witnessed a rise in local Akan videos originating largely from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The quantum of movies produced, and audience reception have resulted in a decline in the circulation of foreign movies, including those of Nigerian origin which once dominated the Ghanaian cinema industry. Akan videos are currently popular and dominant across Ghana. In spite of their popularity, the video products and the industry have not been widely researched. Their value and relationship with film production units during the Gold Coast colonial era is not adequately investigated. From a normative perspective, this study relies on postcolonial theoretical bedrocks and the dictates of Third Cinema to interrogate current and past film productions. The theories, postulate that the ex-colonized can overcome neocolonial bondage through critical discussions which can lead to inventions. Therefore, relationships between the organizational structure and products of the Akan video industry and those of the Gold Coast Film Unit (GCFU), the first establishment to make films in the Gold Coast and whose films are preserved by the British Film Institute are critically examined within the above theories. Employing a largely qualitative approach, this study used interviews, survey questionnaires, content analysis and ethnographic methods to collect data on Akan films, GCFU films, and Ghana’s cinema heritage traditions. The study has demonstrated that apart from the difference accounted for within filming technologies, there are similarities between the two organizations products. Akan filmmakers are unconsciously influenced by the style, content, and philosophy of the GCFU films and organization structure. These similarities are exhibited in the thinking that inform ideation, themes and language of Akan videos. The study has also revealed that although Ghana has archived and preserved some films in the past, Akan video have not been preserved nationally, although they are constructed with cultural elements that are of value to Akan heritage. Although the British colonial government and post-independence governments spearheaded by Kwame Nkrumah packaged and presented some films as the official cinema heritage of the Gold Coast and Ghana, no such collective currently exist. Whereas Akan videos represent aspects of Ghana’s cinematic heritage, it cannot profess to represent the cinema heritage of the diverse groups of people who make up Ghanaians.