A few days ago, GhanaCelebrities.Com’s satirical team published a piece which was clearly stated as a satire; titled, “Ghana to Send 6 Helicopters to Syria to Help Fight ISIS”.
As a satire, the article touched on the fact that Ghana’s President John Dramani seems to be bathing in misplaced priorities—by satiring this as, he even intends to 6 helicopters to help fight ISIS in Syria while Ghanaians continue to suffer under ‘Dumsor’ and several other hardships.
The same satire piece rubbed up on journalist Kwesi Pratt, saying he has somewhat become an unofficial spokesman of President Mahama—considering his constant defence of the government in power, and his less criticism of their actions.
Also, the piece threw light on Ghana’s military’s readiness to join the fight against extremists—asking, whether we have warships and the necessary military equipment needed to protect our country in the face of the random attacks.
Unfortunately, the literary device of satire seems new to a lot of Ghanaians and the piece has been literally taken by some Ghanaians as truth—leading the Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations Department to issue a statement to deny any intentions of sending 6 helicopters to Syria.
The Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations Department in their statement recognised the piece for what it is: a SATIRE, but insisted the piece was unnecessary.
Considering the seemingly disconnect between some Ghanaians who have commented on the issue and the true purpose of the article-a SATIRE, as the Managing Editor of GhanaCelebrities.Com, I write to reiterate that the piece was indeed a satire and should not be taken literally.
Of course a large percentage of our readers and social media followers found it interesting and recognised it as a satire—but there will always be the small minority who wouldn’t even read articles, except the headlines and make their own meanings out of it.
For those new to satire, it “is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations, government or society itself, into improvement.”
It seems our understanding of Satire is not well placed, and people’s wrongfully interpretation of our satirical piece has even induced the Ghana Armed Forces to issue a statement. As such, we’ve pulled down this article as an editorial discretion to end the confusion.
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