Rebecca Ohene-Asah

The last two decades in Ghana’s creative arts sector has witnessed a rise in Akan language video movies originating primarily from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. The quantum of movies produced and reception have resulted in a decline of foreign movies circulation. Particularly, those of Nigerian origin which once dominated the Ghanaian cinema industry. Despite its popularity, the video products and the industry have not been widely researched. As such, their place within the intangible heritage in Ghana cannot be clearly determined. This qualitative study explores Akan language video movies as significant intangible heritage within the framework of the oldest films produced in Ghana. It focuses on language as the main heritage component in this cultural production. By comparatively analyzing relationships that may be found between the two organizations structure and products, the study will determine the heritage value of Akan language video movies in Ghana.

In this study, I argue that local audio-visual archives, are important repositories of Ghana’s intangible cultural heritage just like the film archives found outside the country. From a post-colonial theoretical underpinning, this study employs qualitative tenets such as interviews of archivist and stakeholders, observation of their activities, as well as content analysis of accessible film formats, to interrogate the varied preservative methods and strategies employed to archive, preserve and manage film materials both at the nation state level and at the individual level. Specifically, I examine the nature, purpose, issues of ownership and historical antecedents of film materials stored in Ghana to suggest that current archival practices impede greatly on access to contents of archived audio-visual materials yet, there are prospects in technologies such as digitization towards facilitating easy accessibility to contents of stored or archived film materials connected with Ghana.