Although he believes in diversity of representation in story-telling, Ghanaian playwright Chief Moomen would like to see the good part of Africa amplified in film making.
The ‘Wogbejeke’ creator said story-telling could also be aspirational, a reason he believes it is important to shape society with films.
The poet intimated that art does two things: one, it shows people who they are so it is a direct representation of the reality but most importantly it shows people who they can be.
“I believe that as African artistes we have an important role to play in creating the aspirations that our people are to follow, in creating alternative realities that they can aspire to but also projecting a side of the continent that is edifying especially because we come from a system and environment where we’ve had an over-expression or abundance of the stories of poverty, disease, witchcraft, we’ve had a lot of stories on those, right?”
I believe that we are the last frontier for the development of the continent and if we fail then everything else has failed,” he said.
Chief Moomen made the statement on Joy Entertainment’s Twitter Spaces conversation while discussing how best African film makers can tell the African story to the world.
Also on the panel was Ghanaian film director Peter Sedufia said that films that put Africa in a positive light do not sell on the Western movie market.
According to him, because the Western movie market is Africa’s largest selling point, it becomes difficult for film makers in African to do films that glorify the continent.
“African doesn’t have the market, I am telling you the truth. Our markets are in the western world. They tend to pay more money for our content. And those people, they are not enthused about an empowered Africa, a very beautiful Africa.
“If you give them those films they are like ‘oh this is not the Africa I know’. So those films don’t even go anywhere. They feel like you are just trying to lie about your continent,” he said.
Chief Moomen currently staged his new stage play titled ‘The Mansa World.’
Other speakers on the panel were Kwezi Patrick (movie show host, Uganda), Tony Asankomah (film critic, ghmoviefreak.com) and (Omowonuola Giwa, Nigerian Scriptwriter/Producer).