Find Ghana Films archives or lose a chunk of our history - Teye Kitcher

A retired journalist who worked with the late former President for many years as a presidential correspondent, Teye Kitcher, has wondered where the Ghana Films Industry Corporation is.

Concerned that the idea that the corporation no longer exists might mean that the country may have lost a chunk of its history, stored in video format.

He has therefore called for whoever was behind the sale of the institution to bow his or her head in shame.

Teye Kitcher, who worked with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, was narrating his experiences working with Rawlings to journalist Solomon Mensah for his YouTube channel, Aniwaba, and monitored by GhanaWeb.

Having been posted to the Castle as a correspondent in 1982, he shared how disappointed he was knowing that the institution responsible for archiving official videos of the country was no longer in existence.

Even more, he was concerned that since the GBC lost most of its videos from a fire that engulfed part of the corporation in the 1980s, Ghana Films should be available to fill that void.

If not, he stated, it is a catastrophic low point for Ghana.

“Somewhere in the 1980s, GBC lost a chunk of its data in a fire. That day, I wept because there were certain films that we had with the late President Rawlings in the Afram Plains when one night, we had a visitor at night – a huge snake. All those things got lost in that fire.

“During our time, it was only the state-owned media covering the presidency; there were no private media houses. It was just us: GBC, GNA, Times, Graphic, Ghana Films Industry, and the Information Services Department.

“Ghana Films had to come back and put together what we call a newsreel. They started doing that thing right from the colonial days before Kwame Nkrumah’s time. I don’t know where they are now but if they are not around, they might have lost a chunk of our history. We need to find out where they are.

“I know the BBC has some of those archives but after Ghana became Ghana, the Ghana Films Industry Corporation, as set up by Kwame Nkrumah, also had newsreels. As to where they are after the sale of the Ghana Films Industry Corporation, I don’t know but if it is with someone, then it means that when we want a chunk of our history, then we need to go and pay.

“And I think that whoever took the decision to either give that thing out or watch it get destroyed by the weather and co, has done a great disservice to this country. That person must be ashamed of himself,” he said plainly.