Anansekrom And Ghollywood – Which Is More Appropriate For Ghana’s Movie Industry?

In the field of filmmaking, when one mentions Hollywood, the country that comes in mind is America. Bollywood (Bombay) is for India and Nollywood for Nigeria respectively. Research has it that Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood are the three most influential film industries in the world. Indeed, they are referred to as the “three film nations”.

For many years writers like myself have been advocating for a name to be used to brand or call Ghana’s movie industry. In my candid, I suggested Anansekrom. Below were my reasons. First, Ananse is a legendary fiction character around whom most of Ghana’s folktale revolved – as told by our ancestors from generation to generation.

As far as story telling in Ghana’s history is concerned, folktale is the origin of storytelling and has evolved from folktale to novel, play or theatrical performances and now on screen storytelling popularly known as movies or motion pictures (as Hollywood will term it).

It therefore makes perfect sense to tag the name of our story telling industry with the name of such a character whose name and stories are deeply rooted in our storytelling history and has also lingered on for more than five millenniums and is still relevant in today’s generation.

Secondly, Anansekrom because the name Ananse is an original name from Ghana. A search o of Ananse or who is Ananse or Anansesԑm (Ananse stories) on any of the internet search engines will educate you that Ananse is the character around whom storytelling in Ghana was and is told.

So pushing the name Anansekrom as the official name of Ghana’s movie industry on the internet will not be anything difficult, because the basis of the name has already been established on the World Wide Web (though other continents try to own Ananse).

Thirdly, Anansekrom because, we did not have a solid name for our movie industry. For how long should one say or write “Ghana’s movie industry?” Is it not boring, when just a name – Anansekrom, could cater for that long phrase?

Fourthly, Anansekrom because we shouldn’t follow the “wood” vogue of naming movie industries. I advised we don’t exercise our typical derisory Ghanaian “follow follow” and “copy copy” proclivity in this regard. Anansekrom is an original name from Ghana and any Ghanaian can identify with it.

Finally, Anansekrom because the name will aver our storytelling history; especially for the young ones of today who don’t know much or anything at all about Ananse and the stories that were told about him. My suggestion was never discussed or deliberated upon on any TV or radio programme.

Later, another School of Thought came in to repress my Anansekrom with some facts. The most worrying issue in formalizing Anansekrom will be the ethnic factor. Issues of Anansekrom being an Akan name cannot be taken for granted. A lot of meanings will be read into the choice of the name because:

In Daily Guide, Sep. 27, 2011— Chiefs of the La Traditional Area appealed to government, especially the Ministry of Tourism to use the Ga word for ‘welcome’ to greet visitors at the Kotoka International Airport instead of ‘Akwaaba,’ the Akan version of the word currently being used. For a long time, people coming into Ghana have been greeted by the word ‘Akwaaba’ written on a huge sign in front of the airport.

On Citifmonline, Sep. 28, 2011— “The Akwaaba is a certain ethnic language and where the airport is situated belongs to a certain tribe, so what we all need to know is that where the airport is situated now is for the Ga Dangbe people. Akwaaba has been projected for a very long time and we need to project other languages so we should just add “Mo hee” meaning welcome in Krobo or Dangbe.

“We also want to project our language; Accra is cosmopolitan but belongs to a certain tribe.” One chief Nii La said they should just add ‘Mo Hee’ to the Akwaaba or they should remove the Akwaaba and leave only welcome there.”

Again, was the tribal tussle that led to the reversal of the name ‘Ohene Djan Stadium’ to ‘Accra Sports Stadium’ by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly AMA. The questions of why an Akan name and not Ga, Ewe, Dagbani, Nzema would have arisen because we find ourselves in a country where everything is polarized – if not on ethnic grounds, it is political.

Finally, the current executives of the Film Producers Association of Ghana FIPAG, led by Mr. Steven Asare Hackman, came into office and said Ghollywood is what should be used as the official name for Ghana’s movie industry.

In your opinion, taking into accounts the reasons given above, Anansekrom and Ghollywood, which could have been more appropriate as the official name for Ghana’s movie industry? Please let’s unfurl some intellectual discourse. Until then…MOTWUM!!