Ghana Twitter as used here, refers to conversations on Twitter that are mainly engaged in by Ghanaians and are based on very local issues. Thus, if you are not a Ghanaian on Twitter and you do not engage trends and in such spaces, you are not the target of this piece. There used to be […]
Unsung — Mahoney P and the Origins of Hiplife in Ghana
Image credit: Album sleeve of ‘Ebe Ye Yie’ released in 1994 A few weeks ago, the death of Mahoney P was reported. Really, this was his second death. The first persists in the ghost treatment he receives when the history of Ghanaian hiplife is told. As if to make a statement, his passing coincided with the […]
WHAT CAN’T WE JOKE ABOUT? OPINIONS ON OB AMPONSAH’S ‘MAHAMA’ SAGA
The comedian, OB Amponsah WHAT CAN’T WE JOKE ABOUT? OPINIONS ON OB AMPONSAH’S ‘MAHAMA’ QUIP The star comedian, OB Amponsah told an ‘expensive joke’ at this year’s December to Remember Concert. At the heart of the joke was the idea that names have implications for those who bear them. He illustrated with how Bill Gates […]
‘You are a Villager’: An insult to unlearn
‘You are a Villager’: An insult to unlearn “I’m from far away. That’s why”. The legendary late comedian, Super OD famously espoused this theory in a movie. The words supposedly crafted for the purposes of humour, mirrored a popular and longstanding depiction of the Ghanaian non-urban. For the avid fan of mid 1990s Ghanaian cinema, […]
‘Villager’ and the rise of local orientalism in Ghana’s everyday discourse
As a heuristic device, ‘akurase/akuraseni’ (village and villager/villageness) to all its intents and purposes describes that which is small (town) and unacceptable (behaviour). Why then has that which is unacceptable and small become placed-based, fixed and immutable in the Ghanaian everyday discourse? To give colonialism its force and potency, countries in the global south were […]
The BBC’s #SexForGrades Video: We are the ones entrapped
Like many others, I was disappointed that in the case of the two Ghanaian lecturers, the specific claim of ‘sex for grades’ was not proven by the BBC documentary. The disappointment was founded on years of dismay and angst from hearing all these stories of sex and power play in our universities and beyond. […]
Misery, the Patient and the Medicine Man… (A short story on social media and Us)
Misery, the Patient and the Medicine Man (A short story on Social Media and Us) I chanced upon him and he looked miserable. His eyes begged for comfort, the kind couched as an advice or better, as a revelation. So I thought. My possibly right judgment if not acted upon might have left me feeling […]
Celebrity Endorsements: The other Menzgold Issue
Celebrity Endorsements: The other Menzgold Issue In a country with a weak royalties and copyrights regime, product endorsement is more straightforward a revenue stream for celebrities. Sometimes these endorsements work out so well that, for years, we cannot help but remember both the product and the celebrity in the same breath. A personal favourite is […]
The ‘Obroni’ endearment is very wrong
Photo Credit: Akosua Adoma Owusu The ‘obroni’ endearment is very wrong I recently read Halifu Osumare’s book ‘The Hiplife in Ghana’. Early on in the book, the author, an African-american woman recounts her experience some years ago in Ghana. Osumare had been referred to as “obroni” and she chose to lecture whoever called her that, […]
#IAmANAS! No, You Are Not: A Country, A Man, A Veil and A Recorder
Rapper Dadie Opanka dressed as Anas in the video for his song, I AM ANAS In the last few months, the Ghanaian news media has been dominated by the investigative report on football operations in the country authored by Anas Aremeyaw Anas. At least once or twice each year in the last few years, this […]