The Boy Kumasenu

The Boy Kumasenu is a 1952 feature film made in Ghana by a British film crew. It was produced and directed by Sean Graham from a script by Graham and John Wyllie. The score was by Elisabeth Lutyens.[1]

Production

It was the first feature film made by the Gold Coast Film Unit, which sought to produce both educational and informative films for distribution in Ghana and abroad.[2][3] The director was Sean Graham, who was a student of documentarist John Grierson, though Graham preferred to work more in the idioms of popular cinema.[2]

It was filmed in 1950 and 1951 in Accra, Kedze and Keta, with a non-professional cast, and edited in London. It was premiered in Ghana in 1952 but the makers had trouble getting it distributed in Ghana, due to a belief that Africans preferred escapist films. However it subsequently proved very popular.[3][4] It was awarded a diploma by the Venice Film Festival and had its British premiere at the 1952 Edinburgh Film Festival; it was also shown at the 1953 Berlin Film Festival.[3] It was nominated for a British Academy Film Award for best film in 1953.[5]

It was widely distributed in the UK and Ghana.[2]

Plot

It tells the story of a boy Kumasenu who moves to the city of Accra from a small fishing village, encouraged by his cousin Agboh's exaggerated tales of the wonders of city life. Hungry, he steals bread and is caught by police, but is rescued by a doctor and his wife who find him work. Agboh attempts to get Kumasenu to rob the doctor, but Kumasenu foils his cousin's plans.[3]

Critical reaction

Variety praised it as "amazingly well done film fare" and suggested it could be an arthouse success.[3] West African Review considered it dramatised an important issue facing African, and showed the ability of African leadership to solve Africa's problems.[3] Monthly Film Bulletin was less impressed, finding it "vague and sentimental" though praising it as a starting point for African cinema.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Fraser, Robert (2008). Book History Through Postcolonial Eyes: Rewriting the Script. Routledge. p. 172.
  2. 1 2 3 Diawara, Manthia (1992). African Cinema: Politics & Culture. Indiana University Press. p. 5.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Boy Kumasenu". Colonial Film. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Essah, Doris S. (2008). Fashioning the Nation: Hairdressing, Professionalism and the Performance of Gender in Ghana, 1900--2006. ProQuest. p. 74.
  5. ↑ "BAFTA Awards". BAFTA website. Retrieved 21 March 2013.

Further reading

Bloom, Peter; Kate Skinner (2009–2010). "Modernity and Danger: The Boy Kumasenu and the Work of the Gold Coast Film Unit,". Ghana Studies. 12-13: 121–153. 


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