The tour is dubbed ‘OK In Your Zone’ and the sole aim is to raise funds to support his ongoing free Hepatitis B screening campaign. The Kumasi show was the first of the three cities tour. The show attracted mostly the youth who seems to have missed their ‘favourite rapper’ and were willing to even pay more than the GHC 5.00 charged at the gate, just to support a worthy cause.

At each venue, the free screening exercises (the clinics) took place in the morning and the musical event followed in the evening. Basically, the idea behind this is to create awareness and educate the people on Hepatitis B through entertainment.

Earlier on in the day at Kumasi, free hepatitis B screening was held at the forecourt of Prempeh Assembly Hall (Fox FM). Over 500 people were screened for the hepatitis virus; education and advice were offered to the affected persons.

The show which was for a seated audience was well attended; Bradez, Mimi, Obour, Agya Koo Nimo, Morris D’Voice, Kofi B, Bertha offered a helping hand to one of Ghana’s greatest linguist Okyeame Kwame.

After staggering performances from the supporting musicians, Stone of Bradez fame exerted lots of pressure on the shoulders of the ‘Rap Doctor’ but then when he came on stage, he conquered his own show. Watching Stone represent both himself and his brother Kunta Kinte, one thing comes to mind: who the hell says, he’s the fastest rapper in Ghana?

Like ‘I-miss-you-fashion’, the audience welcomed the MTN and Coca Cola brand ambassador on stage. His performance on the night could be described as best in recent times. No wonder, he is called Mr. Versatility.

Kwame started with ‘Masan Aba’, a track he did together with his former partner in the rap duo Akyeame. Slowly, he managed to get the audience involved.

Kwame performed with a live band, in what he describes as ‘hybrid’ presentation. ‘Hybrid’ is a CD playback fused with some live instruments. This presentation is believed to be popular with foreign musicians, though not very popular in Ghana.

Performing with a live band was perhaps surprising to many, notably people who thought hip lifers are only good in miming on stage, GhanaCelebrities.com gathered..

Kwame was able to entertain the crowd for over an hour with his live band presentation. The standing ovation offered to him confirms that, indeed, he is one of the best entertainers in his league.

Even before being ushered unto the stage as the next performer, 5 people out of the thousand had earlier on been invited to the stage to imitate the rap doctor. It came out that, there is only one best rapper alive and that is OKYEAME KWAME.

The Hepatitis B screening is the first exercise from the Okyeame Kwame Foundation (OKF) which was launched earlier this year. The foundation is a non-governmental organization that seeks to counsel, create awareness and screen Hepatitis B.

The tour is sponsored by the biggest telecommunication network in Ghana, MTN. GhanaCelebrities.com is proud to be part of this experience and we are following the tour throughout.

Be on the look out, if you see Okyeame Kwame somewhere near your neighborhood then you know it’s all about ‘OK In Your Zone’.

The tour continues in the following towns … Jubilee Park, Takoradi on 3rd December, 2010. Cultural Centre, Sunyani on 11th December, 2010.

Ebenezer Anangfio Jnr.

ghanacelebrities.com

He said China and Japan have forged ahead with progress because they have maintained their cultural identity and way of life.

Mr. Cliff, who is also an ECOWAS Peace Pageant made this observation at the Kotoka International Airport yesterday when he made a stop-over on his way to Sierra Leone to attend the ECOWAS Peace Pageant.

He called on governments on the continent to resist all forms of foreign influences saying “we do not want foreigners to rule us anymore” .

The reggae legend, who is passionate about African unity, further advised governments to redirect their resources towards providing quality education for the people, particularly children.

He enjoined the continent’s leaders to abolish the name “Africa” since it was borrowed from the Ottoman Empire which meant “to divide” adding that it did not befit a continent struggling to unite.

The Jamaican musician advised local musicians, especially the young ones, to work hard and inspire the present generations with their songs.

A Deputy Minister of Information, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, who met the reggae legend at the airport, expressed government’s pleasure to have him in the country.

He commended Jimmy Cliff for his success in his career despite his challenging beginning, saying, “His humble beginning is an inspiration to the present day generation. We are very happy to have him home.”

Ghanaian Times

According to a press statement, the move is directed towards Viasat 1’s drive to become the number one television station in Ghana. Ama K. Abebrese replaces Ivan Todorov, who is returning to Bulgaria after overseeing the launch of the company’s Own Productions in August 2010.

Ama K. Abebrese has been part of the team that played pivotal roles in launching the channel’s three Own Productions namely; The One Show, Laugh a Minute and the UEFA Champions League Studio Discussions. Her vast experience in a more matured television market in the United Kingdom coupled with her Ghanaian heritage would drive the channel’s ‘think global, act local’ agenda in their Own Productions.

At a farewell party held in honor of Mr. Todorov, CEO of Viasat 1 Rune Skogeng lauded him for his tenacity and persistence in getting the Own Productions and Studios running. He said the nine months that Mr. Todorov had been with Viasat 1 he has been nothing short of a force to reckon with and has left a positive legacy. He added that he appreciated the quality of recruits Mr. Todorov brought into the department as they have shown dedication to the tenets of the company.

A very emotional Todorov praised CEO Rune Skogeng for encouraging a creativity- oriented mindset in the Viasat 1 Ghana team, which impacted positively on the Own Productions team. He firmly believes that Viasat 1 Ghana will be the number one entertainer country wide sooner than projected.

Ms Ama K. Abebrese said she is grateful for the opportunity given her and is poised to further strengthen the Viasat 1 brand via more quality own productions into the Ghanaian television market.

Ama K. Abebrese has over a decade of experience in television with experience working with the YCTV (Youth Culture Television), BBC2 and OBE TV in the United Kingdom. An accomplished television producer Ama K’s co-producing credits include Fresh Act, a reality television show format that sought to find actors and actresses for a TV drama, the first of its kind to be produced on a UK Minority ethnic TV channel. She produced and presented a six part series filmed on location in Johannesburg called South Africa Business Profile. She was also a producer on long standing shows – One Touch and On the Sofa. She holds a BA in Media Arts and Drama obtained from St Mary’s University College, Surrey.

Filmfestival

8.12. – 19.12.2010

Eröffnung 8.12. 19.30 h                                                                  

Berlin, 5.11.2010

Zum zweiten Mal findet im Dezember 2010 das brasilianische Filmfestival Première Brasil im Haus der Kulturen der Welt mit den interessantesten und erfolgreichsten Neuproduktionen aus Brasilien statt. Zusammengestellt von Ilda Santiago, der Leiterin des Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, zeigt das Haus eine Auswahl aus dessen Sektion Première Brasil, die alljährlich auch im Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York zu sehen ist. Dem Berliner Publikum wird in den Bereichen Spielfilm, Dokumentar- und Kurzfilm ein Querschnitt des aktuellen brasilianischen Kinos vorgestellt. Die Eröffnung am 8. Dezember um 19.30 Uhr findet in Anwesenheit der Kuratorin und einer Großzahl der Regisseure statt. Der Eröffnungsfilm Chico Xavier ist in Brasilien der Erfolg des Jahres 2010; er wird in Berlin von seinem Regisseur Daniel Filho und dem Produzenten Julio Uchoa präsentiert. Lounge und Party mit Daniel Haaksman (Man Recordings), dem Berliner Experten für tanzbare Musik aus Brasilien, runden den Eröffnungsabend ab.

 Eintritt: 5 € / 3 €

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

There are those moments that you would like to “sumptuously” celebrate the passing of great artists of genius and the illustrious, in general, but you are often at a loss to do so, either because a surfeit of tributes by those more intimately familiar with the subject have already been written and published, or it just could be that you are simply so overwhelmed as to be literally rendered nonplussed.

In the case of Nana Kwaku Addai, better known as Agyaaku, there is absolutely no such lack. For the very personality of the man – as epitomized by such highlife perennials and classics as “Serwaa Akoto,” “Saman Me” and “To Wo Boto Mu,” and also, of course, the churchy and staid numbers that Owura Agyaaku did with my homeboy, the resonant and electrifying Mr. Smart Nkansah – was just too formidable to be allowed to recede into the dimly lit lanes of memory without remark.

I didn’t personally know the man, though I had the much cherished privilege of performing with Agyaaku on the same stage at Anokyekrom of the Ghana National Cultural Center in the early 1980s, when the Sumsum Band, led by Smart Nkansah, ranked among the topmost acts on the Ghanaian highlife circuit. On this particular occasion, Mr. Godwin Avenorgbor, of GBC-2 fame, was hosting a weekend special of his popular show called “Variety Ahoy!” I would perform my poetry one more time on “Variety Ahoy!” several months later.

Anyway, what makes the occasion being recalled here quite meaningful, as well as memorable, is the fact that for the first time in my poetic career, I would also be backed by the drummer of the Sumsum Band whose name I cannot readily recall now. Neither do I suppose that I could be blamed too much for such forgetfulness, being that I was, naturally to be expected, a bit nervous and busy rehearsing my lines in the wings of Anokyekrom’s Apatakesease. Needless to say, in those days, one did not often get the chance of a radio exposure and/or publicity.

Well, when I finished performing my poem titled “Africa!” Smart Nkansah, waiting back stage, after a brief intermission for my act, heartily commended me for the effort. And so did Agyaaku, who gently nodded his approbation. I, in turn, expressed my gratitude to the drummer. The idea of a drum-suite accompaniment, as it were, must have been the brainchild of Mr. Avenorgbor, Mr. Robert Owusu, then-director of GBC-2, or even Mr. Yeboah Nyamekye, the artistic director of Anokyekrom. I forget who. I would years later encounter Mr. Owusu, once more, at the now-defunct Accra radio station called Groove-Fm, where he would exquisitely and deliberately tutor the likes of Ms. Matilda Asante, then a recent graduate of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), in the solemn art of news reading, largely the time-honored phonetic art of enunciation.

Anyway, I grew to relish Agyaaku’s number titled “Serwaa Akoto,” allegedly written in celebration of the fabled beauty of a daughter of the Chief Linguist (or Spokesman) of the Asantehene, Nana Baafuor Akoto. I grew to relish it if also because I got to know the wife of Dr. Agyei (Adzei), one of the leading lights of the University of Ghana’s agricultural science department in the late 1960s. I mostly remember Dr. Agyei for his red Chevrolet, which seemed to be rather too large for the narrow roads of Ghana at the time. The couple also had a daughter by the name of Sylvia, who had been born in Canada, where Dr. Agyei had, reportedly, earned his doctorate in agronomy. I often then imagined that I would one day grow up and distinguish myself like Sylvia’s father and even marry her! In the late 1990s, just before she passed on, I asked my mother about “Auntie Serwaa Akoto” and was told that Sylvia’s godmother had invited her for a stay over in Canada.

I guess what I am driving at here is that there are song that wheeze past the leaves – or foliage – of one’s ears and promptly cease to exist the moment playtime ends. And then there are those songs that reverberate through one’s mind’s-ears and keep playing and evoking memorable and delightful experiences without cease. And the best pieces of Agyaaku’s belong to the latter category. Still, what is even more interesting is that one can almost endlessly talk about the music of Agyaaku without so much as event a hint about the man who introduced the great singer into the throbbing world of highlife. And on the latter score, of course, the unmistakable allusion is to Mr. Yamoah, whom I also had the privilege to see perform under the Big Shed (or Apatakesease) at the Anokyekrom of the Ghana National Cultural Center. The man who also introduced Nana Kwame Ampadu I to the at once jolly and pensive world of highlife music was then officially in retirement but had delightfully decided to rekindle memories of the good, old days with some highlife bug-bitten youths of the Kumasi municipality.

What made Agyaaku remarkably stand apart from other recognizable contemporary lead-singers of highlife music, unmistakably had to do with both his vocal and physical femininity. It was quite tempting to look at the man and instantly imagine, accurately or inaccurately, that one was also looking at the singer’s mother. In fact, so pretty and delicate did the man appear that it was almost unlikely to fathom him in any conjugally heterosexual relationship in which Agyaaku was actually said to be the father of any offspring.

On the particular occasion being herein recalled, too, Agyaaku was paired up at the microphone with the resplendent Eugenia Asabea Cropper, a kind of inimitably deft combination. And on this Saturday afternoon at Anokyekrom, Agyaaku and Smart Nkansah did a resonant and pulsating number called “M’asem Yi” (“This Predicament of Mine”), a semi-Christocentric number that brought out the full-throated pastel-richness of Agyaaku’s silken voice. And so when on September 10, 2010, the striking caption of “Stop Press: Agyaaku Dies at 60” appeared on the website of Ghana’s Daily Graphic, I could only mournfully sigh, simply lament the glorious but, perhaps, untimely passing of an artist of genius. Godspeed, Agyaaku, be still and peaceful!

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and the author of 21 books, including “Ama Sefa: Unrequited Love” (iUniverse, 2004).

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

By Eric Singh, ANA Snr. Contributing Editor

Eric Singh and Stefanie Sycholt after the ascreeing in Berlin/Photo: Stefanie Sycholt

Themba – A Boy Called Hope, is one of, if not, the most powerful socio-political film coming out of South Africa. The novel by Lutz van Dijk, the German/Netherlands writer, is packed with action. It deals with politics, grinding poverty, love, squalor, hate, and for good measure soccer, although the overriding factor is AIDS.

All these components are beautifully handled by South African-born Film Producer/Director Stefanie Sycholt and moulded into a great epic. She certainly knows exactly when salt is needed in the soup, and how much. Not a pinch too much or too less.

Therefore, it is not surprising that this film has received bouquets of praise and prizes from numerous circles. Even former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Desmond Tutu, could not hold back his admiration when he said: “The movie Themba can play an important role here. I wish the film project – that will be realised in cooperation with the local people in the Eastern Cape and the township of Masiphumelele near Cape Town all possible success. In my opinion, this film deserves two or three Oscars”. The film has already won a number of prizes and hopefully that process will continue.

An aeriel view of the Sparrow Rainbow Village - copied by Karin Singh

I will most certainly not cross swords with the Arch. I concur entirely after seeing the film here in Berlin last Sunday. I am not a regular cinemagoer. But the publicity surrounding this film made it left me with no other alternative but to see movie. I am glad I did because IT IS A MUST SEE film.

The film is about Themba aged 11, who lives with his mother Mandisa and his sister Nomtha in dire poverty in a village near Lusikisiki in what was the former Transkei. His father, a migratory worker in the mines of Johannesburg, suddenly stopped sending money for the upkeep of his family and was not heard of anymore. Mandisa was forced to work on a tea plantation under slave conditions and poorly paid.

Themba’s passion was football and together with his pal Sipho, used every spare minute to emulate his heroes – international stars Zidane, Ronaldo, or his South African idol Andile Khumalo. Together with his friends, Themba founded the “Lion Strikers”. This barefooted team reached the semi-finals of a youth tournament in the area. Among the spectators was the Head of the “All Star Academy” in Cape Town – John Jacobs (Jens Lehmann – former German national goalkeeper), and Andile Khumalo. Although the Lion Strikers lost in the finals, John Jacobs was simply flabbergasted by their performance that he promised to donate the teams football boots and gave Themba his visiting card.

Mandisa lost her job and was forced to make the journey to Cape Town to work as a domestic maid so as to support her family. She left her family in charge of her boyfriend, the unemployed alcoholic Luthando. Luthando turns out to a wild beast and attempts to rape Nomtha which Themba prevented and was himself raped in the process.

A nurse with an infected child at Rainbow Village/Photo: Karin Singh

There was no other alternative left but to go in search of the mother in Cape Town who had stopped communication with her family. After a long search, she was found in one of the poverty-ridden shantytowns living in squalor. She was on her death bed suffering from AIDS with which Luthambo infected her.

Little Themba pushed heaven and earth to earn money to help his mother who finally landed in a hospital and received the treatment that was so badly needed. Themba managed to do this by taking on all sorts of jobs which were for grown ups only. He was desperate. He needed the money and in the process remembered the card John Jacobs had given him. At the Academy Jacobs remembered the young man and he was hired without hesitation and remunerated very handsomely. Thereafter there was no looking back on Themba’s football career.

Speaking to the press after an important match, he made a startling revelation. Themba confessed to being HIV-positive and refused to be ashamed of it. That was a brave and noble move with a clear message that he wants to go on living and continuing to play soccer for the national team.

AIDS is a killer. But an even bigger killer is the secrecy and the stigma attached to it. The result is that thousands of people lost their lives earlier than they did. Society has not been taught NOT to look down on people infected with this hideous disease. HIV victims are people who need help and solidarity and not slurs and abuse. They are not outcasts. This message is loud and clear in the film.

That is why institutions like the SPARROW RAINBOW VILLAGE in Johannesburg should receive all the support for the wonderful work they are doing to deal with precisely the problem raised in the film.

‘Sparrow Ministries is an inter-denominational Ministry of Help, not associated with any church, caring for Destitute Terminally ill adults and children with HIV/AIDS. We primarily function as an In-Patient Hospice facility offering comprehensive medical, nursing, psychological, social, spiritual, educational and occupational care, through a multi-disciplinary team.

Our hospice called SPARROW’S NEST was founded on 14 February 1992 by Rev Corine McClintock. Since opening, the reality of AIDS has been staring us in the face daily. From the hopeless, helpless individuals who stand outside our doors in the morning to the children with their brave smiles – we seemed to be surrounded by the biggest tragedy in human existence.

Regardless of this reality, we refuse to be stunned into passivity by this silent killer. Our motto is and has always been GET UP AND LIVE. Over the past decade we have said farewell to over 2 000 individuals – but – with dignity and peace. As the pressure of beds intensify daily, we have “enlarged our tent” and opened Sparrow Rainbow Village – The First AIDS Village in the world on 14 February 2002. Our new Village project enables us to care for 400 individuals including 200 children.’

Obviously such projects don’t live on air and sunshine, they  need assistance and it is hoped that the film Themba – a Boy called Hope will have huge audiences wherever it is screened and that it will play a pivotal role in educating people about this killing disease.