Ghana’s entertainment industry has witnessed some rejuvenation in recent times albeit the attendant excesses. Indeed, the verve introduced by some good film and music video directors within the last 4 years cannot be over emphasized. Ghana’s film and music industry today is rubbing shoulders with their counterparts in sister nations and even beating them up to it.
A recent African Movie Award ceremony held in Nigeria, saw many young and budding Ghanaian movie stars, directors and musicians winning awards. This is testimony to the reforms and changes that the industry has witnessed thus far. Besides the soccer teams of Ghana, I am of the view that the entertainment industry is another strong marketing tool the nation is yet to benefit from.
In spite of these successes, recent developments in the sector leave much to be desired. Our stars in the entertainment industry are either heading for destruction or assuming lifestyles that they can obviously support and thus forcing them into all manner of social vices including armed robbery, theft, cheating, drug abuse and sexual immorality.
From the Goodie’s cocaine smuggling syndicate, his arrest and subsequent imprisonment to the ongoing trial of Ibrahim Sima, of Exopa fame; the imprisonment of Ramzy; a finalist in the Stars of the Future fame, to the theft case against Miss Nasara, winner of TV3 Ghana’s Most Beautiful and her subsequence loss of the crown, the fracas between Miss Confidence Heugan and a hiplife artist, Ayigbe Edem over a million dollar Mobile phone theft; the death of Santo, a popular Akan movie actor after he was busted for swallowing some quantities of cocaine with the purpose of transporting them to the United States of America, just to mention but a few cases.
A few days ago, another Music Star, 31 year old Richard Cobbina, popularly known as Shaka Zulu, of the 4X4 fame, was arrested at a popular drinking spot at Adabraka on Monday night after he had been identified by another robbery suspect. The report, according to Ghananewslink.com, stated that Shaka Zulu allegedly confessed to taking part in robbery with some Nigerians on the Spintex Road.
This incident will go down as another blow to Ghana’s entertainment industry which has been saddled with negative publicity lately. I remember walking into a chop bar in Ashalley Botwe, a suburb of Accra, for launch one hot afternoon, only to be joined by some young Hiplife Musicians. Just after taking their seats, I realized something was wrong somewhere. I could not believe the sight that held me spellbound. This young man was heavily drunk and had to be virtually fed to the embarrassment of the owners of the joint and to the amusement of other patrons.
This is a young man whose group and their performance had won them and Ghana an international award for a song they made way back in 2006. Immediately it dawned on me, that what we watch on TV might be a creation of a world of these young men and women who are bent on copying blindly from the West and other culture so as to be accepted in society. For many of them who cannot afford living this high society lifestyle, they are quick to resort to unorthodox means of financing their greed via the drug trade, armed robbery and other social vices.
In their videos, life is always and will forever remain a party. Blings, big boots, expensive clothes, exotic cars, etc are what is portrayed as the life of the man behind the microphone, while in the secrets of their homes, the wear themselves down on drugs, booze among other social vices.
A serious challenge to our Stars, (soccer, music, movie or media) is that the image they cast for themselves today might haunt them in future. In some countries, entertainment and soccer stars have found themselves in public offices as members of parliaments and even attempting the highest office of President.
The dashed dreams of Wycleff Jean, the International HipHop Raggae Artist, in his quest to contest the Presidential elections of his country Haiti is a call on our Stars to live a life worthy of testimony and emulation.
I have heard some radio presenters who host reggae programmes on a number of radio stations across the country sing the praise of marijuana, a banned substance. Some even go to the extent of calling for a legalization of the drug. That is the extent to which we have allowed the entertainment sector the free hand to engage in all manner of social vices that has the tendency to derail our campaign towards greater discipline and morality.
Just watch our movies, music videos, live shows and other TV Reality Shows lately and you will appreciate the fast rate to which morality is fast becoming a stranger in the sector. In their music videos, nudity, smoking, drinking of hard liquor, riding in exotic cars, exotic tastes for clothes, jewelry and even the very language that they use to express themselves is sounding more American than Ghanaian!
The challenge is upon all of us to call our stars to order and ensure that they do the right thing to protect the moral fibre of our society. While it is common knowledge that many groups condemn publicly actions of politicians and call them all manner of names in their bid to deter them from engaging in some action or the other, we are dead silent on the very terrible things happening in the entertainment sector.
There are many of these Stars who are flying high the national colours in their chosen fields and there are others who are disgracing our country by their acts.
Our stars must project themselves as role models for our young generation. The way we dress, the way we speak, the way we even react to problems as young people is heavily influenced by what we watch on TV and in music videos.
Lately, the craze is about poolside and bikini parties. These parties are sustained by an array of hard booze, nudity and hard drugs. Worse of all, there are no restrictions as to the ages of patrons. I understand in other countries, some form of identification is needed before one is admitted into such parties and concerts but in Ghana, I doubt if we even concern ourselves about the age factor as many of the organizers busy themselves with bagging in their profits than caring too much about who attends.
It is sad that our entertainment industry is being infiltrated by hoodlums, criminals and drug addicts and it behooves you and I to work hard to clean it up if we are really interested in building a this nation.
I do not sympathize with these goons. The law must deal with them.
Very insightful.
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