Ghana was recently named as the number 4 perfect holiday destination in the world, on CNN’s list and December 2018 will go down in history as one of the Decembers to remember, in Ghana.
Most Hollywood stars of African descent flew in to Ghana to celebrate and promote the Full Circle Festival which seeks to better connect American and British Africans to their African roots. As part of the celebration, Idris Elba, Boris Kudjoe, Jidenna, Diggy Simmons, Naomi Campbell, Michael Jai White, Anthony Anderson, among many other Hollywood stars, honoured their roots by touring Ghana, and of course partying. There is no shortage of selfies on their pages to prove that.
Whilst most Ghanaians found the visit exciting, some Ghanaian movie industry players found the Hollywood stars’ visit unproductive, mainly because they were unable to socialize with the stars.
Actor, Producer, Prince David Osei is one actor who found the Hollywood stars’ visit unproductive. In January 2019, the actor was interviewed by Nana Adwoa Sarkodie of Citi TV, where he had this to say “I feel if it is a way of boosting tourism, they are all in the creative arts industry, they are musicians and actors, so if they come to town we need to interact with them to share expertise and aside that we should have had a workshop. Of what benefit is it to us the actors and the musicians here in Ghana when at the end of the day we saw them at the beach having parties, popping champagne and drinking with some being enstooled as chiefs but we never got to engage them”.
As monitored by ghlinks.com.gh on the most recent episode of actor, producer Yvonne Okoro’s TV show “Cooks and Braggarts”, Yvonne hosted Hon. Catherine Afeku, Minister for Tourism, Arts & Culture.
In engaging the Minister in a conversation, she asked the Minister’s opinion on the controversies that surrounded the visit of the Hollywood stars. To this, the Minister replied and rhetorically questioned, “You heard that Anthony Anderson of ‘Blackish’ is in town, what are you doing? Do you ask anybody how do I get hold of him? That’s what they do; they hustle. You don’t sit in your home and expect them to knock on your door because you’re in the industry. I think we need to tell it like it is. They came on vacation they took pic, did Instagram and Twitter and the whole world knows of Ghana and you’re here you’re like ‘oo they didn’t look for me’ why? When you go on vacation, do you go looking for your industry players? Even right here in Lagos, you don’t go and look for Genevive Nnaji. You went to do your own business and if you happen to post about Lagos, so be it. It wasn’t an agreement with creative arts council that when they come, they’ll meet up.” Further interaction during the conversation suggests that Ghanaian Movie Industry players or stakeholders would likely be subsequently involved in such ventures as and when they come up.
By: Ferguson/ Gh Links