Have you seen this video circulating on social media?
It's a short report by BBC Africa on the Ghanaian cultural practice of professional mourning. The problem is, anyone who watches this report will perceive this tradition as nothing more than a joke!
After Moesha's interview with Christiana Amanpour, she has received severe backlash in the public eye from across the nation. Critics claim that she spoke losely, and was not even the best person to represent the working class of Ghanaian women. However, when at the receiving end of any information, one must always ask: who is the story teller, and what is their message?
Has anyone ever stopped to think of the agenda behind some of these reports? Why did they choose these characters? Why did they ask particular questions? Why has the report been edited in this way? The fact is this: until Ghanaians start taking control of how our local stories are told, we will never be able to influence our image and national identity in the global arena.
It's a short report by BBC Africa on the Ghanaian cultural practice of professional mourning. The problem is, anyone who watches this report will perceive this tradition as nothing more than a joke!
After Moesha's interview with Christiana Amanpour, she has received severe backlash in the public eye from across the nation. Critics claim that she spoke losely, and was not even the best person to represent the working class of Ghanaian women. However, when at the receiving end of any information, one must always ask: who is the story teller, and what is their message?
Has anyone ever stopped to think of the agenda behind some of these reports? Why did they choose these characters? Why did they ask particular questions? Why has the report been edited in this way? The fact is this: until Ghanaians start taking control of how our local stories are told, we will never be able to influence our image and national identity in the global arena.
You may argue that there are journalists like Anas, and great directors like Shirley Frimpong-Manso who bring Ghanaian stories to life with what they do. But how do these stories reflect Ghana's reputation and indigenous culture? Kumawood films sometimes have interesting stories, but the quality of production cannot compete in the international market.
As it stands now, based on the stories that have reached the world, Ghana can be described as a nation with a corrupt judiciary, no integrity in the game of football, and a poor economy that forces widows to become professional mourners, and young ladies to sleep with married men to survive!
So I pose this question to the our journalists, musicians, film makers, marketers, artists and the general public; who can we trust to tell our local stories to the world?
Written Story By: A Concerned Citizen
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