Playwright to sue God in February

By Solomon Mensah

Kobina Ansah

A friend recently tagged me in a Facebook post. That post had some letters written by white children to God.

“I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that ok?” wrote Neil. “I bet, it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it,” said Nan.

However, one of such letters to God by the children really got me thinking. “Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?”

That child is named Jane. A seemingly troubled Jane’s letter had thousands of emotional comments on the social media network. Could this be the reason for a Ghanaian playwright to be so determined to sue God in February, 2016?

Let’s knock on the door of the playwright, Kobina Ansah, to ask him his reasons for such a bold step and whether he believes he will win the anticipated court case.

Born to Mr. Francis Ben Ansah and Madam Faustina Donkor, Kobina Ansah completed Pope John Senior High School in 2006 and wanted to read medicine at the University of Ghana, a year after. He was, however, denied admission. Why was he denied admission?

“I was shortlisted for interview. However, I was bounced for reasons I can’t really tell,” he said.

He got heartbroken. “But I put myself together because there was no way I could change the hands of time,” Kobina noted. He would later find solace in reading Biochemistry which he completed in 2011.

In all these ups and downs in the young man’s life, he loved one thing that he attests the craze to study medicine never overshadowed. Kobina Ansah loved writing.

“The passion was there. The science couldn’t just cover it. Passion would always win,” he said. Kobina says some friends realizing his penchant for writing encouraged him to stage his first play after university.

“That Day,” a Christian-themed play became his first as a playwright. Although That Day’s audience gave a positive feedback, the playwright thinks it didn’t get the best of directing because it was directed by someone else.

Challenged by his first play, “This Family Is Not For Sale” became his second play which drew hundreds of theatre lovers, first, to the Efua T. Sutherland Drama Studio in University of Ghana and, at a reloaded show, at the Christ the King Church, all in Accra.

So, what was the bottom line of Kobina Ansah’s This Family Is Not For Sale? “We made one thing clear … no family is worthy of sale no matter how troublesome it is,” he said.

Kobina Ansah’s second was humor-laden yet carried a word of advice to families. Judging from the rehearsals of his upcoming play “I Want To Sue God!", it promises to give theatre lovers another dose of value for their money.

I Want To Sue God! to be staged by five cast chronicles issues in [modern] marriages which help discard such marriages to the bin.  “We have people wedding today yet not ready to marry,” said the rising playwright.

He believes that happiness after a wedding is a decision and not a wish. “Marriage has downs. You face them and don’t blame God for them,” he added.

When asked how God would be sued in the play, he said that remained a surprise package to his audience in February, 2016.

He who has ever attended a Kobina Ansah play would attest that the budding playwright needs but time to soar like the eagle.

Despite the numerous challenges that come with producing a drama, he is determined to register his name among men who are holding high Ghana’s theatre flag.

Aside not securing corporate sponsorship for his plays coupled with lack of theatre-friendly venues, Kobina says he made losses for all his shows. “Huge ones [losses], sad to say. I have not made a single profit yet,” he observed.

That sounds sad, right? Self-motivation is the best thing an individual could give him/herself. Kobina Ansah seems to have mastered that: “That’s how every dream starts. One needs to keep pushing.” 

Why don’t you be Kobina Ansah’s audience at Central Cafeteria, Legon on Saturday, 13th February 2016 to join him sue God? "First show is at 4pm. Second show is 7pm," he concluded.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

 

 

 

Amaniampong, a shoemaker dreaming dreams

 

By Solomon Mensah

Amaniampong repairing shoes

“I have… I have been...," Amaniampong stuttered as he busily attended to his customers.

Hello there. My name is Solomon Mensah and on #SoloTellsMyStory today, I tell you the steady progress being chalked by a cobbler (shoemaker).

I would, for the purpose of this piece, use the words ‘shoemaker’ and ‘cobbler’ interchangeably to mean a person who makes or repairs shoes.

Amaniampong, a cobbler, plies his trade directly opposite to the Ghana Institute of Journalism’s (GIJ) entrance. He tells me a security man at GIJ (named Nicholas) recommended he pitched his ‘tent’ at his current spot to repair the shoes of students.

“Bossu [he addresses me], Nicholas has really helped me. I used to walk from Madina then would make a stop here [GIJ]. But upon his advice here am I today,” he says.

Amaniampong wears a brownish white singlet over a pair of knickers. On his laps is a piece of cloth dirtied by the footwear he places on it.

His voice sounds as deep as the bass singer of Mark Anim-Yirenkyi’s Deliverance Singers’ music group.The voice, a great competitor it would be to Joy FM’s Fiifi Koomson’s ‘patented’ deep voice. However, seeing and interacting with student-journalists and communicators at large does not tickle him to dream working as a broadcaster someday. He is happily engrossed in his trade.

In 2011, when I got admission to study at GIJ, Amaniampong had only a shoemaker’s box. Four years on, the shoemaker, who I have a cordial relationship with, has proven the enterprising passion of most Ghanaian youth.

Walking from campus to eat at the GIJ bush canteen, Edward Balami, a friend, poked me to have a look at Amaniampong’s acquired machines. You won’t believe the shoemaker has bought for himself a generator and another machine he (Amaniampong) calls a grinder! Yes he has!

“The grinding machine cost me Ghc700 and the generator, Ghc900,” he tells me.

The generator & grinding machine
 

 

He says aside being tired of begging to tap electricity from nearby sources, the 'dumsor' the nation faces forced him to buy the generator.

Amaniampong, a native of the Asante region, is poised making it in Accra before going to settle in his hometown. He wants to put up a metallic kiosk, the size of a lotto kiosk, to give a facelift to his business. He is, however, faced with a challenge.

Amaniampong’s challenge is not monetary. He has been able to save some cedis.

“A day? Mmm ok, say Ghc80 or Ghc90." This is the amount he makes in every single day, he tells me.

“That was why I was able to buy those machines [referring to the generator and grinding machine].” Amaniampong wipes off beads of sweat, like that formed on a chilled beer, on his forehead.

At a point in time, I thought he had forgotten my question asking him the challenge he faces in putting up his kiosk.

“I just need a permit to enable me put the kiosk here,” he says shooting his right hand to show me where he wants the kiosk to be located. He would need that approval from the Ghana Journalists’ Association and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

Amaniampong knows how to make shoes and he would learn to improve his skills to give GIJ students the best of his services. In his yet-to-be-erected kiosk, he would have compartments for storing shoes to be repaired and those already repaired.

A successful young man per his own standard, I asked him if he is married or has a girlfriend? His answer was simply interesting and thought-provoking.

“Bossu, I am not married nor do I have a girlfriend. I want to make it in life before I think of relationship matters.” He continues, “if you have God and money, almost everything comes your way.”

Amaniampong’s stay at GIJ has gotten him a shoe-polishing job at the State House. He says some of the parliamentarians and government officials who often use the Garmel Abdul Nasser road, in front of GIJ, spotted him and offered him the contract.

He says polishing shoes at the State House is somewhat a juicy deal and that those officials seeing him in his dream kiosk would further appreciate his progress and ‘brand.’

Little did I know that the bench on which I sat to interview the shoemaker was his. On it was the inscription: “Amaniampong K.” He says the ‘K’ stands for Kwarteng.

Amaniampong Kwarteng has made a steady progress since my first time of seeing him in 2011. Aside his tools for his job then, he could now boast of a generator and a grinding machine. And Oh... a branded bench!

Should his dream of putting up a kiosk become a reality, I wouldn’t be surprised if he serves his customers with a sachet of ‘pure’ water each.

Who knows? He may even partner the Students’ Representative Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism to make branded slippers and shoes for students.

Why don’t you feel free to dream, too? After all, Ghana’s Inspector General of Police can NEVER call for your arrest for dreaming big.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

 

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

 

 

MY VIEW: Of Nana Aba Anamoah & TV3

Nana Aba Anamoah

Last week, ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ alleged judicial corruption scandal temporarily submerged to give way for all aspects of the Ghanaian media to talk on TV3 Network’s anchor, Nana Ama Anamoah on her purported social media picture theft.

Nana Aba Anamoah on September 27, 2015, published on Twitter some photographs suggesting she was at a Manchester United football game in London.

Nana Aba further stated that she had seen some of her favorite football players who play for the Manchester football club. The mere fact of seeing such soccer stars, she said, made her a f**l.  

Her tweet later panned out to be a trailer in Manila as owners of the pictures she tweeted accused her of stealing their pictures. This, social media fanatics spoke about it and made a ridicule of the celebrated television news anchor by posting all kinds of edited pictures in which Nana Aba was made to pose in such pictures.

Notable among such pictures was the historic picture of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his comrades at the phenomenal 6th March, 1957 declaration of Ghana’s independence. As if that was not enough, the hashtag ‘Nana Aba was there’ accompanied the pictures making it highly embarrassing for the news anchor and her employers.

Following this development and other issues undisclosed, TV3 Network on October 3, 2015, released a press statement citing Nana Aba for unprofessionalism and subsequently taking her off air until further notice.

"If one fish in the basket rots", our wise elders say, "they all rot." In this light, the TV3 Network would immediately take Nana Aba off air before things go out of hand in order not for the public to tag the station as a bunch of unprofessional individuals.

We must congratulate TV3 for this bold step. On the international media landscape, this sanctioning of media persons is not uncommon. A mention could be made of the British Broadcasting Corporation once suspending top gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson after a fracas with his producer.

However, while we pat the shoulders of TV3 for showing a level of professionalism, we must not forget to tell them in the face that they are equally to be blamed for what has befallen them.

A Dagbani proverb says that if you see a pregnant goat in the market, it means that there are pregnant troubles at home. Indeed, for TV3 to finally offer onto the ‘Ghanaian market of interrogations’ Nana Aba Anamoah, who has been pregnant with uncultured mouth for over a period of time now makes it clear that there are pregnant troubles at TV3.

Not long ago, Nana Aba Anamoah in a live telecast on TV3 poured rains of insult on an Accra based television station, Viasat1, calling the station a ‘kontomire farm.’

This was in relation to what was supposed to be a comic awards organized by Viasat1 which scored low marks for TV3’s New Day programme. This, Nana Aba deemed an insult to her station and would not even be stopped from trading insults on air by her co-host, Benny Blanco.

TV3 Network, then, did not release a statement to apologize for the bluff of its anchor, especially for her unprofessionalism. After all, Nana Aba Anamoah is not the PRO of TV3 to have reacted to Viasat1 in such a manner.

If Nana Aba was rebuked internally for her Viasat1 comments, we cannot tell since the public does not work with TV3 in its newsroom. Silence, they say means concerned and Nana Aba would have the consent of TV3 to talk and act with such impudence.

Things have escalated to the highest degree but we must not totally condemn Nana Aba Anamoah for there is more room for improvement.

In hard times like this, Nana Aba Anamoah should be strong enough to stay resolute of the public’s possible further ridiculing.

Other media houses and the corporate world in general must all learn a lesson from this development. We must not let words freely leak out of our mouths as breasts milk leaves a mother’s breast. We must rebuke ourselves whenever the other person goes wrong.

Most importantly, we must be circumspect of our actions and inactions within and outside the walls of our work places and especially on social media.

The Igbos of Nigeria teach in a proverb that a person whose father received a bullet in the head uses an iron pot as a helmet.

By Solomon Mensah