Anita Afonu and “The Eyes of Ghana”: Ghana Will Film Its Own History

TVS News AI redaktionell betreut präsentiert Anita Afonu und „The Eyes of Ghana“: Ghana will seine Geschichte selbst filmen.

Why Ghana’s Independence Is More Than Film History

Ghanaian director Anita Afonu has been working with Chris Hesse, Kwame Nkrumah’s cameraman, for more than ten years to save images from Ghana’s independence era. Her documentary “The Eyes of Ghana” uses this work as a starting point to explore the political significance of filmmaking in Africa.

For Afonu, this story does not begin only in the archives. She points to colonial films that depicted Africans as primitives or savages. Kwame Nkrumah, she argues, recognized early on that images can hold political power. The question is therefore not only which footage survives. It is also who places their own history at the center.

You can find more about Kwame Nkrumah in our political profile. Initiatives such as Africa’s media landscape now also address the question of who controls African public spheres and stories.

What “The Eyes of Ghana” Does With Film History

Afonu does not stage her documentary as a mere archive showcase. It combines the rescue of moving images with a fundamental examination of how colonial representations shaped Africa and how Ghanaians want to change those narratives.

At the center is her collaboration with Chris Hesse. His close connection to Kwame Nkrumah’s work in film makes him an important figure in preserving and passing on those images. At the same time, the project makes clear that filmmaking here is tied to national memory: it is about visibility, political representation, and the authority to tell one’s own history.

You can read this as a critique of simplistic representations of history. Afonu’s ambition goes further: film in Africa should not merely report on Africa, but enable African perspectives. You can find more documentaries in our film section.

Why the Images Have Not Disappeared Today

The fight to preserve film footage is also a warning against the loss of cultural memory. Moving images can have political impact, but they cannot simply be replaced by retrospective narratives. Afonu’s project therefore poses a concrete question: Who can preserve, research, and make documentary material accessible in their own country?

The title “The Eyes of Ghana” already makes this perspective visible. It is about the gaze on Ghana, not about a supposedly neutral view from outside. This distinction runs through Afonu’s commitment and her documentary.

What the Film Says About Colonial Images

Afonu describes colonial films that showed Africans as “savages.” Such images created a distorted public image and later became a subject of Ghana’s own film history. Nkrumah’s recognition of the power of images points to a deliberate break with this externally imposed representation.

“The Eyes of Ghana” therefore does more than place historical images at the center. The film asks how a society can make its history visible and memorable through visual material. For more insights into African culture and history, explore our culture and history pages.

“The Eyes of Ghana” premieres on October 28, 2026 as part of the French cinema program. In her conversation with “Le Monde,” Anita Afonu grounds the project in a clear conviction: Africa must film its own history.