Kwaku Ananse | |
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Directed by | Akosua Adoma Owusu |
Written by | Iram Parveen Bilal Akosua Adoma Owusu |
Story by | Akosua Adoma Owusu |
Starring | Jojo Abot Koo Nimo Grace Omaboe |
Cinematography | Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio |
Music by | Koo Nimo Ebo Taylor |
Production company | Obibini Pictures LLC |
Distributed by | Grasshopper Film LLC KweliTv |
Release date |
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Running time | 25 minutes |
Countries | Ghana Mexico United States |
Language | Akan |
Kwaku Ananse [1] is a 2013 short film directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu. The short film combines semi-autobiographical elements with the tale of Kwaku Ananse, a trickster in West African and Caribbean stories who appears as both a spider and a man. The fable of Kwaku Ananse is combined with the story of a young outsider named Nyan Koronhwea, who attends her estranged father's funeral. At the funeral, she retreats to the woods in search of her father. The film starred legendary musician Koo Nimo and veteran actress Grace Omaboe. [2]
The screenplay was co-written by Pakistani-American filmmaker and entrepreneur Iram Parveen Bilal. The script was written for MaameYaa Boafo, a Pakistani born-Ghanaian actress, who was originally cast in the lead role as Nyan Koronhwea. However, the production team in New York City eventually decided to recast the character during the pre-production stage with Jojo Abot, an emerging Ghanaian artist. [3] [4]
Drawing upon the rich mythology of Ghana, this magical short film combines semi-autobiographical elements from Owusu's life with local folklore to tell the story of a young American woman who returns to West Africa for her father's funeral, only to discover his hidden double identity.
Kwaku Ananse is a traditional West African fable about a being that is part man and part spider, who spends years collecting all the wisdom of the world in a wooden pot. As he tries to hide the pot in a tree, he can't find a way to place it high up in its branches. When his little son, Ntikuma shows him the way, Kwaku Ananse becomes so angered, he throws the pot down onto the ground. It bursts and the wisdom seeps away. Everyone rushes over, hoping to salvage what they can.
Nyan Koronhwea returns to her father Kwaku Ananse's native Ghana for his funeral. They had lost contact with each other a long time ago. She has mixed feelings about her father's double life with one family in Ghana and another in the United States. Overwhelmed by the funeral, she retreats to the spirit world in search for Kwaku Ananse. [5] [6]
Kwaku Ananse was nominated for a Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the Best Short Film award at the 9th Africa Movie Academy Awards. [7] [2] [8] The film also received a Special Jury Mention at the 2015 Association Cinémas et Cultures d'Afrique in Angers, France. [9] [10]
Anansi or Ananse is an Akan folktale character associated with stories, wisdom, knowledge, and trickery, most commonly depicted as a spider, in Akan folklore. Taking the role of a trickster, he is also one of the most important characters of West African, African American and West Indian folklore. Originating in Ghana, these spider tales were transmitted to the Caribbean by way of the transatlantic slave trade.
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Akosua Adoma Owusu is a Ghanaian-American filmmaker and producer. Her films explore the colliding identities of black immigrants in America through multiple forms ranging from cinematic essays to experimental narratives to reconstructed Black popular media. Interpreting the notion of "double consciousness," coined by sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois, Owusu aims to create a third cinematic space or consciousness. In her work, feminism, queerness, and African identities interact in African, white American, and black American cultural spaces.
Kwaku Baprui Asante was a Ghanaian diplomat, government official and writer. Asante served as the Principal Secretary at the African Affairs Secretariat from 1960 to 1966. He then held several foreign service posts before being appointed a PNDC Secretary. He was Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1991 to 1993.
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Jojo Abot is a Ghanaian artist and musician, based in Brooklyn, New York City. Her creative output spans video direction, acting, modeling, singing and multimedia performance. Abot's work taps into her home country, using her first language, Ewe, as a source to title her work and as a point of origin for musical inspiration. Her musical inspirations include Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor. Abot has toured and performed with Kuti’s youngest son Seun Kuti, as well as rapper Common and Bob Marley’s son Stephen. She has also supported Lauryn Hill, whose influence can also be felt alongside that of Eryka Badu.
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Akosua is an Akan given name to a female child born on Sunday (Kwasiada). Although some might believe it is mostly practised by the Ashanti people, it is actually practised by all Akan people who follow traditional customs. People born on particular days are supposed to exhibit the characteristics or attributes and philosophy, associated with the days. Akosua has the appellation Dampo meaning agility. Thus, females named Akosua are supposed to be agile.