Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Ghanaian Celebrities Are Not Helping To Shape Our Future

Any celebrity can write a check for a good cause. But are Ghanaian celebrities standing for something beyond Instagram filters and long essays coupled with their ‘fan party’ hangouts?

Ghanaian Celebrities Are Not Helping To Shape Our FutureMaybe that’s all the fans who made them who they are, deserve. Nothing special for them as good philanthropic PR I guess.

In recent years, a select group of public figures and celebrities have lent their philanthropic hands to opening schools across their country or abroad. While some, like famed rapper Pitbull, have opened charter schools in his Miami communities, others, like actress Angelina Jolie, have also founded schools in disadvantaged communities overseas.

Meanwhile, Latin American sensation Shakira has been an advocate for education causes. Using funds from her nonprofit organization, she has also opened schools in her native country of Colombia. She has also lobbied Latin American leaders to support early childhood education.

Thus by far, a worthy contribution to nation building and these superhumans are not only entertaining their audience, they’re actually giving back to society in a very special way that would not be a one-time-off giveaway.


In the case of most Ghanaian celebrities in the entertainment sector, it’s rather nothing good to write home about yet, they are the first to whine for support in the country once a sector wins an election.

There has been a fair number of celebrity charity scams—take Wyclef Jean’s foundation, which went under because of embezzled funds that were intended to help locals after the Haiti earthquake, or NBA player Lamar Odom’s cancer foundation for children that allegedly never spent any funds on actual cancer research. These, mainly, it being—proving that it’s not all virtuous but, there are equally good celebs out there doing great stuff… you can trust them with your donations.

The recent Houston Flood and its related contributions drew my attention to loot ways our Ghanaian celebrities have taken fans for granted. It seems it’s all a humble show-off until they become ‘stars’ and then they care less about the same fans who promoted them to their status —sad!

We can date back to the June 3rd disaster and these celebrities gave a fuck about the whole incident! The celebrities who could have championed a good cause to help the victims—mostly their fans as they term it, but, they ignored them and haven’t even bothered to check up their well-being whatsoever.

Do we have celebrities in Ghana or a bunch of hyped personalities with social media following if not bought?

As floodwaters continued to devastate Houston, many of USA’s mega-celebs came out to respond with substantial aid pledges. J.J. Watt – $5.6+ million (raised). Kevin Hart – $1M+ (raised), Chris Young -$300,000+(raised). Sandra Bullock even thought of the Red Cross and donated $1M to support their good cause, Beyonce, among others all came out to support their fans in the city.

Houston may not be known as an entertainment capital. But it has, in one way or another, launched or advanced the careers of some of America’s biggest stars just like the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and it’s popular Vienna City!

We can talk about all the slay queens on Instagram who display luxurious lifestyles in Ghana-online but we can’t even trace a single community they have helped. Unlike rappers in the USA who mostly go home to help their communities, giving hope to the new kids, rappers in Ghana will easily relocate from their old habitation to a more engaging community once they ‘blow’.

The sad part of this lifestyle is their once-in-a-blue-moon attitude towards donation! To most of them, ‘once we give something small to Korle-Bu Hospital or an orphanage downtown, we can be in the news for the good reasons.’ No track back of progress from their donations whatsoever, just a waste of public time and anticipation of their forthcoming events.

Lately, the trend is to become a celebrity, although many have tried through nudity, stolen movies, and songs which have lasted for a while, before getting all warm-hearted and generous with your celebrity lifestyle, rethink about what you can also contribute to the country without waiting on the government to solve all the national issues.

Children in your community should be learning in schools founded by your famous self, others should be benefiting from your work in music, fashion or movies.

Slaying and bragging on social media are outmoded these days. It’s time to support your community!

NB: This doesn’t mean we don’t have celebrities doing amazing stuff. A few names like Asamoah Gyan, Micheal Essien, Yvonne Nelson, Menaye Donkor, Juliet Ibrahim, Nana Ama McBrown, Nadia Buari, Van Vicker, Stephen Appiah and John Dumelo can be lauded for their consistency in giving hope to needy kids.

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