Occult Forces on Screen: Representation and the Danger of Mimesis in Popular Ghanaian Films.

Abstract

This essay focuses on the popular video-film industry in Ghana. Thriving at a time when the state is no longer able to control what is shown on public screens, Ghanaian popular cinema violates expectations of intellectuals and state officials as to what African cinema should be about. It is argued that this industry does not develop in a separate sphere of art, but deliberately locates itself in the midst of everyday life and is entangled with the Pentecostal-charismatic movement, which is extremely popular in Southern Ghana. Posing as revelations, films claim to show on screen how otherwise spiritual forces operate to mess up people's lives. At the same time, the work of representation is found to be tricky on the part of actors who fear the forces they set out to depict.

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