... As Film On Him Causes a Stir
Henk Otte, the middle-aged unemployed Dutch "Ngorgbeyifia" (Nkosuohene) of the Mepe Traditional Area in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region, who hit the local headlines two years ago over negative media reports on Ghana in the western media, is in the news again.
This time, the 43-year-old Dutch construction worker, living on welfare in Amsterdam, is in the news because an American company, Reel Films, has completed its first production of a documentary on the life of "King Togbe Korsi Ferdinand Gakpetor II of Ghana," as some American media houses put it.
The film, titled "Togbe," has already aired on some TV channels in the U.S., Chronicle gathered. A similar documentary on the same Otte aired on the History Channel, an American television network, got a student to confront this reporter over how a Dutchman on welfare was made "King of Ghana" during a recent fellowship at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. This reporter had a difficult time explaining things to the American, who would not believe that the report was inaccurate.
Efforts to contact Reel Films, producers of the film, through their phone number in the US throughout this week have failed.
But a report in the PR Newswire last month announced the completion of the documentary by Reel Films, a film company owned by five alumni of the New York University film school.
The narrator on the Otte documentary is reported to be Don Morrow, a familiar voice on numerous Hollywood movies, including the award winning movie, "Titanic."
Despite the protests that engulfed similar reports by several Dutch and other European TV stations after reports by international media houses, such as the Associated Press in 1999 on Otte, the new film is said to have repeated the misrepresentations that infuriated many Ghanaians abroad.
Many Ghanaians in the US, Canada, Europe, South Africa and Thailand protested against the 1999 reports, which portrayed Ghanaians in general and the people of Mepe in particular in a negative light. Many advocated the abolition of the practice of installing foreigners as chiefs when most of the foreigners have no understanding of their created posts.
But PR Newswire reported Rob Aitro, a co-director of "Togbe," as having described the film on Otte as "Cool". James Okyere Darko, a Ghanaian resident in Maryland, USA, who drew the attention of the Chronicle to the latest production in an e-mail, said he would organise a protest against the new documentary, since even the review of the film presents Ghanaians in derogatory terms.
Togbega Kwao Anipati IV, Paramount Chief of the Mepe Traditional Area, told the Chronicle in an interview at Mepe recently that he was not bothered about the impact the reports and film on Otte could have on the image of Mepe and Ghanaians.
"It doesn't bother me at all. It is a result of ignorance. I've had the opportunity to explain," he said, adding that "the confusion [in the western media] is over the fact that in those places, they have kings and not chiefs, so somebody might have likened him to a king."
"We don't have kings in the Volta Region. It is only the Ashanti Region that has a king in this country. What we have here are chiefs," he stated.
He said he was contacted by a number of western media houses two years ago and he explained to them that the unemployed Dutchman was given a created post as a chief, and not a king, because he had contributed to the development of the community. He said African Journal, a popular television programme that covers the African continent, and currently running on TV3, also interviewed him in a documentary on the issue.
"He is not even a divisional chief. He is a sub-chief of a division," Togbega Anipati said, noting that his town was not the first to honour a foreign visitor in the country for his development initiatives, and would not be the last.
On the contrary, the reports on the jobless Dutch man and his "kingdom" in the media abroad, including the Associated Press, which broke the initial report on the Ghanaian two-years ago, have often not reflected this.
The same misrepresentation is repeated in the preview on the new film.
A review of the film in the PR Newswire claims that a tribal elder had a vision of a white man as a reincarnation of their beloved king, who would help save the town from its economic plight.
"Enter Otte, charmed by Mepe's people and genuinely interested in assisting in the village's development. The tribal elder's revelation was fulfilled, and Otte was soon hailed and crowned a chief. Or, as it is known in Ghana, "Togbe."
The preview also recognised that Otte's new role as Togbe was coldly received by some Ghanaians abroad. "A Ghanaian organisation in New York took issue with Otte's royal position. A movement to dismiss him was born, covering three continents and reaching as high as Ghana's Foreign Minister."
This is how part of a report by the Associated Press in 1999 captured the story of Otte.
" During a 1995 visit to the hometown of his Ghanaian-born wife, Mamaa Awo Mepeyo Kpui, Otte was identified as the reincarnation of the late chief, his wife's grandfather. "'My two brothers were there when I was asked to become king," Otte said with a chuckle. "When I translated for them what had been said, they almost choked with laughter: "You, a king? Ha!"
Now, when his brothers accompany him to Ghana, Otte is carried by throne-bearers and surrounded by cheering crowds. There have been several Dutch television documentaries on Otte already.
Otte's attraction to Ghana began as a child, while reading about the geography and history of the region. Later, he says, a Ghanaian fortune-teller predicted he would obtain a position of power. During a visit to his wife's village of Mepe, a spiritual healer told Otte things about his life, things the Dutchman is convinced the healer couldn't have possibly known.
Villagers stared at him, insisting his spiritual "aura"' reminded them of the late king. He became a magnet for swarms of children and visitors, who walked for days to see him. One evening, Mepe's leaders told him he was the chosen one. "'They asked me how I would feel about becoming king,"' he said. "'I looked at them and thought: 'You've got to be completely insane."
Although he's considering moving to Ghana, Otte is aware that life as a king isn't all fun and games. In Mepe, he is prohibited from eating or drinking in public; he can't shake hands with the thousands of "commoners" who flock to his side and is always escorted, even to the toilet.
Unlike the scores of foreigners, mostly aid workers, who have been named "development chiefs"' in Ghana and undergo a purely ceremonial coronation, Otte's is a position with authority.
