Second Coming of Nkrumah - 120 Pan-African cast enacts vintage play
The country’s theatre scene is set to experience one of the biggest ventures during the festivities when 120 ace actors and actresses stage one of the most intriguing literary performances at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
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Put together by Ghanaian playwright, Latif Abubakar, the one-hour-forty-five minutes production, “the Second Coming of Nkrumah”, will feature actors and actresses from across Africa.
The UNESCO endorsed event has been planned to be among the biggest theatrical ventures in Africa and the performance will be part of a bigger five-day African festival initiative that will draw audiences from all walks of life in the diaspora and Africa.
Mr Abubakar in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic said the annual event was being supported by the UN Resident Coordinator, Charles Abani, UNESCO, with the biggest support coming from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.
The Second Coming of Nkrumah will be premiered on Friday, December 15 to Sunday, December 17, before it would be shown to the larger public from Thursday, December 28; Friday, December 29 and Saturday, December 30, 2023.
He said the premiere would be screened to audiences mainly made up of personalities from the UNESCO, diplomats, chief executive officers of relevant institutions and ministers of state, among other dignitaries.
The play, which comes under the African festival initiative, an annual event, begins with a street carnival before the premiering.
From Saturday December 16; Sunday December 17; Thursday December 28; Friday December 29 and Saturday December 30, 2023, the play will be staged at the AICC for the general public.
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The ace actors and actresses staging the performance include Fred Amugi, Akofa Adjeani, Jackie Ankrah, Adjetey Anang, aka “Pusher,” with others coming from Kenya, South Africa and other countries.
As of the time of going to press, the cast was rehearsing to prepare adequately to deliver shows to give patrons top-notch entertainment with lasting impressions and memories.
Concept, thematic areas
Explaining the concept behind the project to the Daily Graphic, the playwright and founder of the African Festival, said the cast would re-enact roles of some of the founder fathers of Africa.
They include Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah; Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie; Kenya's first President and anti-colonial activist, Jomo Kenyatta; first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba; the first President of Guinea, Ahmed Sékou Touré, and Tanzanian anti-colonial activist and former President, Julius Nyerere.
Other Pan-African freedom fighters such as the American Baptist Minister and civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jnr; an American sociologist and Pan-African civil rights activist, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois; a leading Pan-Africanist journalist and author, George Padmore, and Jamaican political activist, Marcus Garvey, among others and what they each stood for would be re-enacted in ten different shows.
“The entire African festival and the second coming of Nkrumah project is to champion social and behavioural change towards the betterment of Africa, and which is people should not depend on government.
As individuals you must lead a crusade for change.
We can also be a change even in our homes, in our communities and offices” Mr Abubakar stressed.
African cultural heritage
Mr Abubakar said apart from entertaining patrons, the event would also create direct jobs for about 400 people and indirect jobs for more than 600 people in the tourism, arts and creative industry who were unable to realise income from their talents.
At the AICC grounds which would be decked and draped to depict an African cultural heritage, tour guides would assist patrons and explain to them the concept behind the many iconic structures and installations in the African setting.
One of the structures at the centre would be the Afro Heritage palace structure, where patrons could have a semblance of a Zulu palace, the largest ethnic group in South Africa, and the palace of the Maasai people, an ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, near the Great Lakes region.
The audience would also be educated on how the Ashanti palace in modern-day Ghana looks like.
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Also, visitors will have the opportunity of being educated on the roles each major ethnic group in Africa played in the fight for freedom on the continent.
The story of each of the 55 African countries will be told in the “Den of history,” including the historical background of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest Egyptian pyramid, and the Nelson Mandela capture site.
A miniature desert with camels riding on it leading to the Giza pyramid will be created on the grounds.
Children will not be left out as there will be a playground where they can have fun with their colleagues at the venue.
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Like Dubai’s Museum of the future, one of the iconic creations at the African festival ground would be a well-lit up miniature structure of Africa’s Museum of the future to create how Africa would look like in decades to come.
“The aim is to show to patrons how important other countries are cherishing their heritage, culture and history and to motivate, particularly Ghanaians, to help preserve the country's cultural heritage,” Mr Abubakar stated.
He said the tour would be combined with a massive display of arts and culture, exhibitions of paintings, creativity and innovations.
“The simple message we hope to send out to all Africans is ‘be the change Africa needs’," the playwright and project management, trainer and practitioner said.
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He said re-enacting the Second Coming of Nkrumah and other founding fathers of Africa sought to have “a futuristic view of our founders and what they would have perceived.
Africa to be now, based on their ideologies and their history.
We are looking at the futuristic view of the past of our founders.”