Ghana is losing its sense of identity - David Dontoh

Popular Ghanaian actor, David Dontoh says the
creative arts industry is gasping for breath
because; the nation has not taken the industry
"very seriously".
According to him, the once vibrant and organised
industry is now experiencing gradual and
continuous loss of patronage because there are
no laws regulating it.
"As a nation, we've not taken ourselves very
seriously," David Dontoh stated on the Super
Morning Show on Joy FM, Friday, March 7, 2014.
"If we really consider creative arts and the
entertainment industry [as] an industry for real,
then there should be a policy that really regulates
it; directs it and gives it a certain sense of
belonging such that people would respect it," he
stated.
Known for the roles he played in very popular
movies including; The Dead (2010), Deadly Voyage
(1996) and Heritage Africa (1989), David Dontoh
expressed regret that many professionals were
forced to divert from the arts and entertainment
industry, for lack of support.
"In many countries, people in this industry
happen to be the richest but it is the opposite
when you come to Ghana because, we don't have
any mechanisms in protecting the arts industry in
Ghana. We don't have any social security; we
don't have any policy that controls what we do
[and] we don't have protection against
copyrights".
Apparently dejected, he said Ghana, which is
preparing to celebrate a centenary of
conventional theatre next year, is missing the
opportunity to use the arts to shape norms,
values and ethics in the society. He fears of
serious consequences if nothing is done about the
situation.
"If people are not cultured, they are not
disciplined, and that is where we have trouble
controlling them; we have trouble ruling them...If
you have a people that are unbridled, you can't
control them [and] you can't harness them in any
way [then] you must as well give up the ghost
that I've lost it!"
Letting it go
Contributing to the discussion, renowned
playwright, Uncle Ebo Whyte said there was
nothing wrong with some societal values giving
way to foreign ones. "Any value that has been
eroded is worth eroding" because, times have
changed and so must we."
"Times change but society must evolve...Yes, we
know we are Ghanaians but the world is changing.
Let us evolve; let's accept influences; then that
will let us grow as a people," Uncle Ebo Whyte
added.
But David Dontoh said care must be taken in
giving way to foreign cultures. The Ghanaian
culture risks being extinct, he added.
"Culture is dynamic, Ghana is not an island;
certain things must change but as a people we
must have an identity. If your development takes
a trajectory that avoids your history [then] you get
lost in what is called 'popular culture'...What
happens is that the basis of your economy
collapses because, your taste now becomes
popular taste.
"...At the end of the day what you'll be telling
yourself is that as a civilisation you want to
dissolve into history [extinct]," Mr. Dontoh
cautioned.