By Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria
The recent humiliation that Ghanaian artistes suffered in Nigeria brought back memories of the former Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs, Dzifa, crusade of a united entertainment industry in Ghana.
To Mrs. Dzifa, achieving total development in the creative arts industry needed all the sectors to be united. The first time I encountered her crusade for a united creative was at the launch of Dancetera at the Accra Mall when she asks the organizers why they did not invite fashion/accessory designers, makeup artists, directors, and the list continues. To her, all these people are needed in one way or the other for the success of Dancetera since they will need the services of these professionals in the cause of their work.
The entertainment industry in Tamale is developing without any structures or hierarchy that will see to the proper development and fight for its members when there need arises
Everyone in the industry is crying of disunity and sabotage but have all curled up in their rooms. The only person who tried to unite the industry was Arnold Mashud of Hyperlinks Entertainment but he did not get the backing from the rest. They perceived him to be a Fancy Gadam fan. He was vilified and mocked at by the same people he was trying to unite to fight for a common goal.
Arnold Mashud formed Alliance for Northern Entertainers (ANE) after the Mayor brouhaha with Fancy Gadam. ANE according to Arnold, was formed to unite all entertainers to fight for a common goal, thus the progress of the entertainment industry in the region but his peers did not understand his vision and mission hence, the lack of support.
ANE, to Arnold, was not just going to be about musicians, it will include radio/television personalities, actors/actresses, producers, directors, bloggers, event organizers and all people who make up the entertainment fraternity but people misunderstood him and same people he was fighting for fought against him.
There only fraternity in the entertainment industry in the north that seems to get a union and meet annually for their congress and to forge ahead is the movies industry. Even though we have Musiga office in Tamale, how many musicians are registered and those who are even registered how many can boast of gaining something from Musiga. Musiga and Gharmro only work in Accra and Kumasi.
ANE would have turned out to help more of the musicians than any sector. But at the time it was formed, they thought it was a Fancy Gadam fandom group, hence they did not come to support it. Even Fancy Gadam camp did not really come out to support the group. I guess that is why Arnold and his people have relaxed in the pursuit of the agenda.
If we had a united entertainment frontier, we could have pushed for the establishment of entertainment theatre in the capital but we do not have one voice to push for this. The northern region was the first to start the regional music awards but for the past three years now, we have not had it. What seems to be the problem? If we do not appreciate what we have now and work to improve upon it, we might lose everything and our industry will go down the drain again.
