Investment In The Creative Arts Will Put Ghana Beyond Aid

Many people have attempted to explain the abysmal and poor state of Ghana and Africa as a whole. Many have made mention of the lack of purposeful leadership as a contributing factor to the economic crises of Ghana. These factors, certainly have contributed to our economic crises in one way or the other.

But history has taught us times without number that the issue of development is also a battle of the mind. Rene Descartes, a French Mathematician and a philosopher was known for the famous expression, “cogito ergo sum” which literally means that “I think, therefore I am”.

As if these two individuals were reading from the same script, Mahatma Gandhi also asserted that “the mind is everything, what you think, you become”. The issue of building a nation beyond aid is all about building a positive mindset through the creative arts industry.

Growing up, many people in Ghana have always perceived Americans to be very strong and undefeatable. Many have grown to love Chinese for their skills in martial arts. Ask any child in Ghana about his or her opinion regarding Indians.

I wouldn’t be surprise to hear expressions like, “they are good dancers”, “they are all beautiful and handsome” and so on. How did these children develop this mindset about Americans, Chinese and Indians? They did that through the movies and songs from such countries.

The layman on the streets knows God and Jesus to be a Whiteman because Hollywood told him so. What if the first movie about Jesus was acted by Ghanaians or Africans? Wouldn’t the colour of Jesus be that of the African? So Ghanaians have fallen for the foreign culture hook, line and sinker. Is it therefore surprising to see our women dressing like Indians? Our Ghanaian culture is lost in the shuffle.

This is the power of the creative arts through the movies of other countries surrounding us.

Every good student of history knows that Americans lost the war in Vietnam. Though they lost this war, they have not lost the battle. They keep on winning this battle through Hollywood.

They have flipped the pages to rewrite these particular narratives to their own advantage. We cannot keep on blaming colonialism for our woes as a country. It is time to build a resilient economy and forment a strong self-esteem through an investment in the creative arts of Ghana.

Great civilizations have tapped into the creative arts industry to project a positive image of their countries and also to boost the economies of their countries. These countries have substantial evidence to show.

It will interest you to know that the U.S.A arts and cultural centre runs a trade surplus of $24.1 billion (in 2013) that has been growing since 2006. Statistics show that the movie and TV industry alone contributed $15.93 as in 2013. In 2014, a French TV station suggested that the priceless Mona Lisa which is the handiwork of Leonardo Darvinci could be sold at the value of €1.5 billion to ease the national debt of France.

In the case of Ghana, there are avalanche of great and intriguing stories that could be scripted very well by writers, playwrights, authors and artists when given the necessary investment. All hands should be on deck since the government alone can’t bring about this drastic change.

This will call for the support of the banking industry to consider and review their sponsorship and loan conditions over the years. They should venture into something new like the creative arts. Well- meaning Ghanaians should also take giant steps in investing their monies in this industry. The truth is that good stories that will put Ghana on international scale are expensive to produce.

Fascinatingly, not only will this great investment in the creative arts give us value for money but it will also help change the perception of people about Ghana.

Great civilizations have always been built on mindsets. Let’s us flip the pages and rewrite the narratives to our own advantage; only then can we win the battle. We should project the good aspects of our culture in the form of movies, paintings, and music.