By Doreen Hammond
FOR being at the wrong place at the wrong time, Ken has had to spend nine years and six months of his life in jail for a robbery he claims he knows nothing about to date. According to Ken, he was with some friends in a house at Mamprobi in Accra when the Police rounded them up in a swoop and sent them to the Mamprobi Police Station.
Then in Senior Secondary School Form two, Ken’s nightmare was just about to begin as he was moved to the Nima Police Station Cells, then to the CID headquarters before he finally found himself as a remand prisoner at the Nsawam Prisons.
With no money to get good legal counsel, Ken had to remain on remand without trial for those nine years and six months.
As he spoke to the Daily Graphic about his bitterness and ordeal, Ken intermittently had to pause as he came close to tears.
Call it fate, call it destiny, Ken came out of prison a year ago by the kind courtesy of the justice for all programme which looked into his case and found that he could not be held that long without trial and therefore the necessary procedures were put in place which got him his freedom.
But that was not to be the end of his predicament. He was released from prison with nothing to find his feet in society except his strong feeling to seek revenge which he thought would be to burn the house in which he was arrested on that day.
His family have not been supportive, “ they still do not feel comfortable with me around and I find that very sad”.
This is part of the story of a convict who claims innocence but has had to suffer for a crime he did not commit.
At the Royal House Chapel in Accra where I found Ken was another convict, Ameyaw, who on the contrary, admits to committing series of robberies , found himself in a shoot out with the Police, was shot in the leg and ended up in prison.
Ameyaw speaks of how he dropped out of primary school at age 10. He recounts how some friends he made eventually turned him into a big time armed robber.
Because he was small when he joined the gang, he was passed through holes made to house the old type of air conditioners to gain access into homes for robbery.
With time, Ameyaw left home because “ I was seeing a lot of money, more than my parents could ever give me” ,he recalls.
At 16, he rented his own apartment and was steeped deep in robbery. To fortify himself, Ameyaw said he and his gang visited Mallams in the Volta Region, Paga and La Cote D’ivoire where they were given various charms, some in the form of powder which put their victims to sleep until they had finished their operation and left. Other charms took away from them the human feeling of pity. They had no sympathy for their victims.
He said they also had boxer shorts that made them disappear or gave those who tried to pursue them a wrong impression as to where they were actually heading.
According to Ameyaw, their informants were househelps and private security guards in people’s homes.
This kind of criminal life was however to end for him when he and his two other gang members went in search of money for an Easter which was approaching.
When they entered the house they were to rob, they found a middle-aged woman sitting alone in the living room reading her Bible deep in the night.
They tied her up, put her in a bath tub in the house and opened the hot water tap over her after they had taken whatever they wanted from the house and left.
According to Ameyaw, the sight of the Bible had given him the feeling that something terrible would happen to them, but his friends urged him to go on. If only he had obeyed his first impulse, he could have escaped what was about to face him and change his life again forever.
They had not gone too far when the police caught up with them and when they felt uncomfortable with the questions they were being asked, they sped off as they shot at the police. The police gave them a chase, shot his two friends dead but he survived with a shot to his leg.
After spending seven years in prison, Ameyaw is out and says he is treated like “a mad dog any time I near home”. Like Ken, the prison authorities released him with nothing to support himself except his transport fare.
Ken and Ameyaw are among the 14 graduates of the Royal House Chapel’s Restoration School this year. The good news is that Ken is back in school getting ready to sit the WASSCE and Ameyaw has been employed by the church.
The school was set up two years ago by Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah, General Overseer of the church two years ago with the intention of restoring social deviants such as ex-convicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and drug addicts back to their normal selves.
In an Interview with Rev. Mrs Rita Korankye Ankrah, the wife of Rev. Ankrah who administers the school, she explained that the school’s curriculum included teaching on forgiveness, how to handle depression, dealing with fear and anger and faithfulness.
She said the programme had been designed to help equip such otherwise social misfits who become their students for reintegration into the society. The students are also provided with role models to mentor them and are given full scholarship to study whatever they wish.
Mrs Korankye Ankrah said the students were also given some stipend to live on for work they did around the church, were fed and given clothing by the church.
This, the church is able to do from money it receives through tithes and collection from the members of the church.
She said the idea to start the school was conceived by her husband when he celebrated his 50th birthday with inmates of the Nsawam prisons where he interacted with and fed over 3,000 inmates . When?
“He then asked himself what next after the visit, and what next after prison life and that was when the idea of the school of restoration came to him” Mrs Korankye Ankrah said.
Ken and Ameyaw talk of the hardship of prison life with no proper sleeping places, bad food and insanitary conditions. They said they did not go through any programme that prepared them for life outside prison and were therefore quick to join the school when they heard about it. To them, the Royal House Chapel is a safe haven.
The question that therefore comes to mind is whether our prisons are reforming its inmates and after serving time, what awaits the ex-convict?
In his article on the challenges prisoners face after their release, Mr Abundant Robert Awolugutu, Assistant Director of the Kumasi Central Prisons recognises the shortcomings of the country’s Prison Service in this direction and attributes it to lack of adequate funding.
He mentions homelessness, joblessness and relationship factors as a result of being behind bars as some of the challenges faced by the prisoner who is released/ex-convict.
As a result of financial challenges, he said the Ghana Prisons Service provided only transport fares of released prisoners from the prison to the place of conviction of the prisoner.
He is concerned that “when a prisoner arrives at his destination and is without money, how does he get food, water and possibly accommodation without resorting to crime to make up?”
This state of affairs is definitely not the best for society because it leaves the ex-convict vulnerable. The probability of a return to crime for survival becomes real and it is society that ultimately pays the price.
The Royal House Chapel’s effort is commendable but how many of such convicts in this country can it cater for?
The situation calls for a governmental effort to support ex-convicts in the form of a budgetary allocation to set them up on a clean path after serving time.
Meanwhile, the Royal House Chapel has formally set the pace, how many of our churches would follow?
The church must not only be interested in preaching the word for preaching to a hungry and needy soul because it would be like sowing the word among thorns.
More churches and institutions should start similar programmes so that society would go to sleep at night and have a good sleep.
Writer’s e-mail: aamakai@hotmail.com
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
A dirge for our cinema industry?
By Doreen Hammond
For a certain generation of Ghanaians, names of popular movie actors like Bruce Lee, Christopher Lee, who played Dracula and the images of Charlie Chaplain would remain in their minds perhaps forever, thanks to the cinema houses of old.
In those days, there was Opera in Accra Central, better known to the youth of the 1980s as ‘twe’ because it showed certain films at 12 noon. Many students got into trouble with ‘twe’ because they ran away from school to watch films such as Shaolin Master and Snake in the monkey’s shadow , in which Chinese karate fighters showed their skills as they flew high up in the sky and landed blows and kicks on their opponents on rooftops and horses.
Yet, it was difficult to understand the reason for the fights. It could range from revenge for pouring away tea meant for a great grandfather over 50 years ago to a fight supposed to maintain “the family honour”.
The whole country was littered with cinema houses. There were cinema houses such as Olympia at La, Roxy and Globe at Adabraka, Plaza at Mamprobi, Rex and Palladium in Accra, Oxford, Orion at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Dunia and Gaskia at Nima and Casino at Tema.
In the regions there were Mikado at Nsawam, Royal and Odium in Kumasi, Rex in Sunyani and Capitol in Koforidua, Tamale, Takoradi, Cape Coast, etc. These regional cinema houses, in addition to Palladium and Parks in Accra, were owned by a Ghanaian businessman, John Kabu Ocansey, who introduced cinema into Ghana in 1925.
Films were mainly imported and showed at these cinemas.
In those days, going to the cinema was exciting. Queuing to buy the ticket and buying popcorn, chewing gum and other sweets was a great experience. Then when the lights were switched off, the audience would first have to watch some few minutes of government propaganda documentaries and trailers before the real thing.
Little wonder, going to the cinema was part of wooing and a reward for children who had been of good behaviour.
Then came the video surge in the late 1980s, resulting in a decline in cinema attendance. With video tapes such as VHS and later JVC — some of which looked as big as boxes — video operators just needed to cover structures with blankets and cloth to prevent those who had not paid the fee from peeping. On benches, people paid a cheaper amount than they would pay for the big cinemas to watch films.
But there were more established video centres such as Video City at Lartebiokoshie. By the 1990s the hiring of video tapes had become brisk and profitable business as more people bought their own video decks but could not afford to buy more tapes.
With technological improvement in the shape and size of videos and their affordability, cinema attendance saw a complete dip as many Ghanaians stayed indoors to watch home videos. The introduction of compact discs (CDs) have further compounded the problem. There are a few private movie houses now but the two that come close to the big cinemas we used to have are GAMA Films and Silverbird at the Accra Shopping Mall. These are not open air, as the public cinemas used to be, though.
Today, many of those big cinemas stand as memory for what used to be a booming industry that provided employment to scores of people. Opera now houses a warehouse, a bank and small shops. The only thing that can be associated with cinema around the building now is the sale of CDs by some individuals at its entrance, which is now a bus terminal.
Most of the other cinemas are now venues for church services.
From the look of things, cinema, the way we used to know it back in the days, is dead. The question is: Should we bury it?
I put this question to Prof. Linus Abraham, the Rector of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), who thinks cinema should not be buried but resurrected. He sees the need for rehabilitation and revival of the cinema spirit.
Prof. Abraham believed that even though cinema attendance had dipped the world over, “nothing can replace the cinema experience and there is nothing like letting go”.
“Nothing can match the experience in the cinema house, the environment, etc,” he emphasised.
He said cinemas played a critical role in development as outlets for distribution and exhibition and created opportunities for film producers to improve themselves and reach larger audiences.
He gave the example of how the renowned film maker, Kwaw Ansah, first premieres his films at the theatre before making them available on CDs for sale.
The rector said cinemas had to be revived and that the government could be a source of help in raising funds, since the revival would be capital intensive, before they were privatised.
He thought there should be at least regional cinemas to provide the entertainment they used to.
Prof. Abraham encouraged private entrepreneurs to invest in the cinema, since it was still a very viable business.
Ghanaians still appreciated good films, as Kwaw Ansah’s films at the National Theatre had always shown, he said.
On the contrary, Nanabanyin Dadson, an arts writer and Editor of Graphic Showbiz, thinks that cinema, as we knew it, is dead and can never make a comeback.
He answered the question from two perspectives, change in attitude and technology.
He said Ghana had never been a strong cinema country like its neighbour Burkina Faso and was never able to establish a strong cinema tradition.
According to him, the production of films did not start in Ghana till the British introduced it in 1940 and that era saw the terminology “Aban Cine”, meaning Government Cinema, because films were used by the Information Services for propaganda .
He recalled films such as ‘Theresa’ on health and ‘Mr Mensah Builds a house’ which sought to promote savings.
Nanabanyin maintained that technology had come with easier and cheaper ways of acquiring, showing and watching films.
“We are able to entertain ourselves without going to the cinema,” he explained.
“With home theatres, which you can watch in more comfort with even a towel around your waist, who would want to dress up and head for the cinema? Videos and CDs killed the temporary upsurge in the cinema because we are mainly consumers,” he explained.
Nanabanyin believes that the film industry should go ahead with home videos in mind because the days of cinema are gone forever.
To get an idea about how the major cinema in Accra, Silverbird, is doing, I spoke to Mr Kweku Yankson, the Marketing Manager, who said Silverbird was doing great business and that all its halls which could seat 1,500 and showed four times in a day were often filled at the weekends.
He said cinema was still very relevant today for entertainment and business.
The government also seems to have concerns over our dead cinemas. The Minister of Information, Mr Fritz Baffour, said in a chat that the government knew the importance of promoting cinema in the country and was engaged in some talks with GAMA Films to see how best to revive cinemas.
I still crave for the day when I, in the company of friends, would visit one of these cinema houses as we used to do in the days of old. The cinema complemented our night life as a people and its demise will make us poorer as a fun loving people.
Over to you, Government and all stakeholders.
• Writer’s e-mail:
aamakai@hotmail.com
For a certain generation of Ghanaians, names of popular movie actors like Bruce Lee, Christopher Lee, who played Dracula and the images of Charlie Chaplain would remain in their minds perhaps forever, thanks to the cinema houses of old.
In those days, there was Opera in Accra Central, better known to the youth of the 1980s as ‘twe’ because it showed certain films at 12 noon. Many students got into trouble with ‘twe’ because they ran away from school to watch films such as Shaolin Master and Snake in the monkey’s shadow , in which Chinese karate fighters showed their skills as they flew high up in the sky and landed blows and kicks on their opponents on rooftops and horses.
Yet, it was difficult to understand the reason for the fights. It could range from revenge for pouring away tea meant for a great grandfather over 50 years ago to a fight supposed to maintain “the family honour”.
The whole country was littered with cinema houses. There were cinema houses such as Olympia at La, Roxy and Globe at Adabraka, Plaza at Mamprobi, Rex and Palladium in Accra, Oxford, Orion at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Dunia and Gaskia at Nima and Casino at Tema.
In the regions there were Mikado at Nsawam, Royal and Odium in Kumasi, Rex in Sunyani and Capitol in Koforidua, Tamale, Takoradi, Cape Coast, etc. These regional cinema houses, in addition to Palladium and Parks in Accra, were owned by a Ghanaian businessman, John Kabu Ocansey, who introduced cinema into Ghana in 1925.
Films were mainly imported and showed at these cinemas.
In those days, going to the cinema was exciting. Queuing to buy the ticket and buying popcorn, chewing gum and other sweets was a great experience. Then when the lights were switched off, the audience would first have to watch some few minutes of government propaganda documentaries and trailers before the real thing.
Little wonder, going to the cinema was part of wooing and a reward for children who had been of good behaviour.
Then came the video surge in the late 1980s, resulting in a decline in cinema attendance. With video tapes such as VHS and later JVC — some of which looked as big as boxes — video operators just needed to cover structures with blankets and cloth to prevent those who had not paid the fee from peeping. On benches, people paid a cheaper amount than they would pay for the big cinemas to watch films.
But there were more established video centres such as Video City at Lartebiokoshie. By the 1990s the hiring of video tapes had become brisk and profitable business as more people bought their own video decks but could not afford to buy more tapes.
With technological improvement in the shape and size of videos and their affordability, cinema attendance saw a complete dip as many Ghanaians stayed indoors to watch home videos. The introduction of compact discs (CDs) have further compounded the problem. There are a few private movie houses now but the two that come close to the big cinemas we used to have are GAMA Films and Silverbird at the Accra Shopping Mall. These are not open air, as the public cinemas used to be, though.
Today, many of those big cinemas stand as memory for what used to be a booming industry that provided employment to scores of people. Opera now houses a warehouse, a bank and small shops. The only thing that can be associated with cinema around the building now is the sale of CDs by some individuals at its entrance, which is now a bus terminal.
Most of the other cinemas are now venues for church services.
From the look of things, cinema, the way we used to know it back in the days, is dead. The question is: Should we bury it?
I put this question to Prof. Linus Abraham, the Rector of the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), who thinks cinema should not be buried but resurrected. He sees the need for rehabilitation and revival of the cinema spirit.
Prof. Abraham believed that even though cinema attendance had dipped the world over, “nothing can replace the cinema experience and there is nothing like letting go”.
“Nothing can match the experience in the cinema house, the environment, etc,” he emphasised.
He said cinemas played a critical role in development as outlets for distribution and exhibition and created opportunities for film producers to improve themselves and reach larger audiences.
He gave the example of how the renowned film maker, Kwaw Ansah, first premieres his films at the theatre before making them available on CDs for sale.
The rector said cinemas had to be revived and that the government could be a source of help in raising funds, since the revival would be capital intensive, before they were privatised.
He thought there should be at least regional cinemas to provide the entertainment they used to.
Prof. Abraham encouraged private entrepreneurs to invest in the cinema, since it was still a very viable business.
Ghanaians still appreciated good films, as Kwaw Ansah’s films at the National Theatre had always shown, he said.
On the contrary, Nanabanyin Dadson, an arts writer and Editor of Graphic Showbiz, thinks that cinema, as we knew it, is dead and can never make a comeback.
He answered the question from two perspectives, change in attitude and technology.
He said Ghana had never been a strong cinema country like its neighbour Burkina Faso and was never able to establish a strong cinema tradition.
According to him, the production of films did not start in Ghana till the British introduced it in 1940 and that era saw the terminology “Aban Cine”, meaning Government Cinema, because films were used by the Information Services for propaganda .
He recalled films such as ‘Theresa’ on health and ‘Mr Mensah Builds a house’ which sought to promote savings.
Nanabanyin maintained that technology had come with easier and cheaper ways of acquiring, showing and watching films.
“We are able to entertain ourselves without going to the cinema,” he explained.
“With home theatres, which you can watch in more comfort with even a towel around your waist, who would want to dress up and head for the cinema? Videos and CDs killed the temporary upsurge in the cinema because we are mainly consumers,” he explained.
Nanabanyin believes that the film industry should go ahead with home videos in mind because the days of cinema are gone forever.
To get an idea about how the major cinema in Accra, Silverbird, is doing, I spoke to Mr Kweku Yankson, the Marketing Manager, who said Silverbird was doing great business and that all its halls which could seat 1,500 and showed four times in a day were often filled at the weekends.
He said cinema was still very relevant today for entertainment and business.
The government also seems to have concerns over our dead cinemas. The Minister of Information, Mr Fritz Baffour, said in a chat that the government knew the importance of promoting cinema in the country and was engaged in some talks with GAMA Films to see how best to revive cinemas.
I still crave for the day when I, in the company of friends, would visit one of these cinema houses as we used to do in the days of old. The cinema complemented our night life as a people and its demise will make us poorer as a fun loving people.
Over to you, Government and all stakeholders.
• Writer’s e-mail:
aamakai@hotmail.com
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