Call the Ghana Movie Industry ‘Nyamedua’ - David Dontoh

The issue of how the Ghanaian movie industry should be called has still not been settled in the film making circles.

In America, Hollywood is the name of their movie industry. In India, it is called Bollywood while Nigerians have christened theirs Nollywood. But how do we call Ghana’s?

Ghallywood that was proposed by some people has been rejected on two grounds. That it is a registered name of someone’s arts school, and two; that it has the suffix ‘wood’ which is too common with the aforementioned movie industries.

Arts/screenwriter Anthony Osarfo has suggested that ‘Anansekrom’ be used as name for our movie industry. To him, Ananse, the cunning protagonist in Ghanaian folktales is an important character that can best represent the industry.

However, Michael Yamoah, an arts observer and communicator has a differing opinion. He thinks the ‘Anansekrom’ will not fly because it is limited to the Akan tribe. The name that will be chosen should be couched to seem national in nature.

He went ahead to propose that a name should be carved around ‘akwaaba’ for the movie industry. His reason for Akwaaba is that it is one word that is well known the world over and would catch up easily. But won’t this be another tribal thing?

On my entertainment show ‘Arts and People’ last Sunday on Vision FM, ace actor David Dontoh said that he thinks the suffix ‘wood’ doesn’t bode well to be chosen as name because ‘wood’ is a dead tree. He however proposed Nyamedua which means the living tree. Nyamedua is a certain tree that has long life span.

“When we talk about wood, it is a dead tree. Why do we go for something that is dead? When you use ‘Nyamedua’ one would be curious to know what it is and that will sell the ‘industry’ better,” he said.

He added that perhaps what has made it difficult getting a name for the movie industry is the fact that there is not a movie industry in Ghana.

“A movie industry is a huge conglomerate of so many aspects of the movie making process. What goes on before shooting the film, what goes on during and after, which is the marketing are what make up an industry. But we lack all these. In Ghana, we just piece things together to call industry but it doesn’t exist here,” he said.

He intimated that until a film policy is established, it would be difficult to have a vibrant movie industry. He charged the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to push for the passing of the film policy bill into act so it helps structure the industry.

So what name do you propose be used for the Ghanaian movie industry? Keep the debate alive. I will be back.