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.