Naija jolof vs Ghana jolof 1
I'm not sure whether I believe Ghanaian Jolof is better than the Nigerian version.
And, I share the same sentiment with respect to our movies as well.
When I was younger, I was scared of the scenes of voodoo worship and terrifying black magic that permeated the Nigerian movies that were aired on television.
The Ghanaian movies at that time were honestly way worse ( if that's possible)!
Apart from horrible bewitchment and terrifying afflictions, the setting was poor and the characters were almost always so overly dramatic that the movies became comical.
In fact, I was so scared that I used to run and hide—sometimes crying— even when my older relatives were changing stations and landed momentarily on these movies.
And I wasn't alone.
A lot of my friends in middle school told me that they were so traumatized by these horrid scenes that their parents decided to get cable TV( DSTV anyone?) so they could watch people their age having blissful fun rather than being sacrificed in a weird cult-like manner!
A few years later, I fell in love with Mercy Johnson.
I loved Dumebi the Dirty Girl and Dumebi Goes to School. Who didn't?
I was fixated with Genevieve Nnaji, Tontoh Dikeh, Olu Jacobs( anytime I picture a Nigerian king, he comes to mind), Patience Ozokor (Wicked stepmom, anyone?) and many other Nigerian actors.
I watched Nigerian movies religiously up until about ninth grade when I went on some kind of 'no-tv cleanse' (more about that later).
And, to those who are asking: When you fell in love with Nigerian movies, did you neglect Ghanaian movies?
Definitely not!
My favorite African actress, even now, is Jackie Appiah.
I thought she and John Dumelo were married (who didn't) when I was younger, and I loved them both.
My favorite line from a movie they've aced together, though I don't remember exactly what the movie was called, is 'I'm fat, ugly and shapeless'.
Someone, please remind me. I'd watch it again if I could.
I admired (still do!) Jackie's acting prowess, versatility, and natural beauty.
She is definitely one of my role models, and she's still going strong even now.
I loved Nadia Buari as well. Who doesn't remember Princess Tyra?
Yvonne Nelson was also a favorite of mine, as well as Martha Ankomah, although I don't see them in movies lately.
I preferred Majid Michel to Van Vicker—who remembers that debate?
I also don't hear of those two very much anymore.
And, I had a little girl crush on Rahim Bandah because of a movie I watched in which he was a street child.
I forget what the movie is called, but it was with Kalsoum Sinare.
I knew very little about Joselyn Dumas as an actress before eighth grade, and even then I only knew about her from Adams Apples, the Shirley Frimpong Manso movie I've never watched because I was a bit too young (at the time it was released) for the mature content it contained.
However, I was a committed follower of her talk show: The One Show, and, later, At Home with Joselyn Dumas on the television station Viasat One.
I really miss Viasat. The station got canceled a few years ago. It was a really interesting entertainment source. Who remembers and misses it— especially Anita Erskine, Kukui Selormey, and Patrice Amegashie?
I love Joselyn now, though, and I'll talk a bit more about her in later posts.
During the summer, I took the opportunity to watch a few of the most recently made Ghanaian and Nigerian movies, and I'll be dedicating the subsequent posts in this series to talking about them.
Since I don't want to be accused of bias because I'm Ghanaian, I'll start the next post with Isoken, a Nigerian movie and the most recent Netflix movie I've watched.
It promises to be awesome!
As always, read, like, subscribe, and share. I love you so much for supporting my efforts.
See you soon for the next helping of incredible Jolof rice!