The Kings Men of Ghana. Histories untold, looking to be told.
It’s difficult to convey how I first felt when I recognised a time tunnel in my garage. Some of the most iconic people of that generation sharing their stories from thirty years ago: Spike Lee, the Jacksons, Actor Norman Beaton from Desmonds, Alice Walker, Fela Kuti, Quincy Jones etc.
Back then, fresh out of Uni, I would win one of the presenting chairs at BBC London and a newly launched show, Black London.
My co-presenter, Sheryl Simms had just come from the BBC Rough Guide series. We were both determined to put a new spin into the show and for two years we did. When it was time to move on, we realised all the programmes we’d made had been dumped in a skip. Gone! I didn’t dwell on it; I had a new challenge moving to South Africa to document the extraordinary changes from Apartheid.
History is a story gift wrapped. Thirty years on during Lockdown, I found some suitcases; curiously opened them up and discovered duplicate recordings of some of the shows. An amazing archive producer Jose Velazquez, MA had an idea. Let’s see if these can be presented to FIAT/IFTA a global body that preserves important archive.
We competed against eight international companies. The portfolio had swelled to TV programmes; the series: The United States of Africa (1996) — a co-production between South Africa TV and Ghana TV.
The King’s Men features an extraordinary documentary interview with a hero of Ghana’s education and one of its main schools, Prempeh College. Here’s what the current President of Ghana @NAkufoAddo said about the College.
The Black London tapes as diaries all wrapped together as Black Lives about to be unwrapped.
We won. We haven’t even started unpacking the digitised tapes, but we will. They reveal histories untold, stories burning through the tapes awaiting to be heard. Imagine no more, because you hear from the people who were there.
We have ideas for the archives, but welcome any enquiries about its sharing. We’re going to be at the conference BBC 1922- 2022 in November. If you’d like to know more you can contact me at Gyimahd@cardiff.ac.uk
