Recent Ghanaian Movies: Signifiers of Surging Inferiority

*By Akadu Ntiriwa Mensema, Ph. D.

I. HOLLYWUDIZING LOCAL MOVIES
Recent generic Ghanaian movies
Happily pontificate Hollywood
Non-African cultures
Of celebrating violence
Of brutalizing women
Of prescribing gun-toting heroism
Of depraved sex/sexuality
Of dignifying drugs, alcohol
Of promoting gangsterisms
Of foreign weddings
Of foreign modes of greetings
Of imitation of foreign accents
Of slanging! Gurl, gurl [girl]

II. SCRIPTING THE NEOCOLOY
Ghanaian movies scream it all
Oh! Inferiorized Ghanaians
Oh! Neocolonized Ghanaians
Oh! Benighted Ghanaians
Oh! Enslaved Ghanaians
Ghanaians without roots
Ghanaians accept anyone
Anything non-Ghanaian
Anything except our own
Ghanaian movies are a mirror
Our jaded mirror of hopelessness
Of our dearth of inventiveness
Copy, copy copy oh, oh
Of always imitating others
Those who deride us
Those who neocolonize us
Those who disempower us
Those who otherize us
Those who misrepresent us
Those who ghettoized us
Oh! Inferiorized Ghanaians

III. LIGHT-SKIN SYNDROME
When film-makers parade stars
They parade light-skin stars
Biracial is the choice
Light-skin tones are the norm
Bleached skin tones
Contradictory skin tones
Bleached forehead area
Opposing unbleached ears
Light-skin is akin to heroism
Dark-skin is akin to villainy
Light-skin is upper-class
Dark-skin is lower-class
Light-skin offers advantages
Dark-skin offers disadvantages

IV. WESTERN NAMES
Film stars wear Western names
Strange lackluster names
Their badges of honor
As a badge of Westernization
As a badge of education
As a badge of social class
Westerners don’t use our names
Don’t know our names
Don’t care about our names
Oh! Ghanaians! Lost Ghanaians
In the crucible of neocolonialism
In one Ghanaian movie
These strange names abound
Not a single “African” name
Not a single Ghanaian name
All these slave names:
CLARA, TRISHA, SIMON
PATRICK, JAMES, PAUL
THEODORA, BOND
SILAS, VERA, SYLVIA, ROSE
EDWIN, ANN,VALENTINE
Where did local names go
Amma, Memuna
Afi, Adzo, Yaa, Yawa
Kofi, Kwasi, Yao,
Oh! Inferiorized Ghanaians
Oh! Neocolonized Ghanaians
Even in our postcolony
We adore Westernisms
We now adore Chinanisms

V. FASHION
So they wear dog chains
Big crucifying chains
Chains of imitation
Gangster-rap chains
Chains of enslavement
So we wear wigs
Our women adorned
Manufactured hair pieces
Pig, sheep, dog, goat hair
Blonde hair, brunette hair
Our local hairstyles are gone
Oh! Ghanaians! Inferiorized

VI. EPILOGUE
Oh! Ghanaians Africans
Oh! Neocolonized Ghanaians
Oh! Benighted Ghanaians
Oh! Enslaved Ghanaians
Time to be proud as Ghanaians
Time to stop imitating others
Time to showcase our cultures
Champion our rich cultures
Our vibrant rich cultures
Let us come into our own
Let us pioneer our own sun

*Akadu N. Mensema, Ph. D., is a nationalist Denkyira beauty. She is a trained
oral historian cum sociologist and Professor in the USA. She lives in
Pennsylvania with her great mentor and teaches Africa-area studies at a college
in Maryland. In her pastime, she writes what critics have called “populist
hyperbolic, satirical” poetry. She can be reached at akadumensema@yahoo.com