Francis Doku: Of Jazz Festival, AMAA and touring South Africa
About a month ago I had the opportunity to travel with a team of travel and tourism operators to visit South Africa. The purpose, as I would tell you afterwards, was to explore some of the tourism destinations and to experience what that country has to offer to those who choose to visit it for the purposes of tourism.
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That trip to Johannesburg (and environs in the Gauteng Province) and Cape Town (and environs in the Western Cape Province) in the company of some very interesting people from Ghana and Nigeria gave me some interesting experiences that I would never forget.
I mean who would forget that blood rushing adventure to Lion Park to watch lions and play with their cubs, not only encounter mammoth elephants but also feed them and walk with them, have that interesting tour of the traditional South African ethic living in the Lesedi Cultural Village and experience the thrill of SOWETO along the Vilakazi Street at Orlando West.
Or go up on the much cherished and revered Table Mountain, ride in a sidecar for about 60km to go ride quadbikes through wine estates and taste their wine afterwards and above all take the boat to the historically, culturally and politically relevant landmark of Robben Island and walk through the prison cells of some of the greatest sons of South Africa including the much respected Nelson Mandela!
I thought I had had it all, seen it all, done it all and nothing else could beat that experience. However, when I was contacted ponce again by the West Africa office of South Africa Tourism if I would like to go to Johannesburg’s Joy of Jazz Festival and the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Port Elizabeth I jumped at it. After all, I was yet to visit Port Elizabeth, which I had heard was a very beautiful city; but trust me I didn’t think whatever experience I would have on this trip would come close to the one I previously had.
It turned out that traveling in the company of six other people from Ghana namely actress Juliet Ibrahim, Joy FM’s Drive Time host Lexis Bill, Graphic Showbiz and ghanagist.com’s Ebenezer Anangfio, the lady who won the competition on Joy FM Berlinda Dentaa, Samantha Wuta-Ofei of Global Media Alliance and Michelle Angela Ghandour, who works with Juliet Ibrahim, was a great trip in itself.
Not to talk about the contingent of eleven from Nigeria including the actor OC Ukeje and the West Africa Trade Manager of South Africa Tourism Mohammed Tanko Kwajaffa, who was the host for the two teams from the two countries. It was an amazing experience and I would like to share a few of them with you.
STANDARD BANK JOY OF JAZZ FESTIVAL
Jazz is a big thing in South Africa and it seems those who love this type of music look forward to the three-day event with all the fondness they can muster. It was very obvious from the billboards and other posters in town, radio and television hype and the entire preparation for the event that the city of Johannesburg and its residents take the Standard Bank sponsored Joy of Jazz Festival seriously.
The organisers of the event, which was the city authority of Johannesburg did not hold any punches to bring in some of the biggest and best jazz artistes and groups both from within South Africa and around the world to take part in this festival.
Among the big name artistes displaying different guitar riffs, hitting home on the drums, strumming through with bass, showing great skill on the harmonica, getting excited blowing the right notes on the trumpet and saxophone and serenading with voice at the 26th to 28th September event include home boy Hugh Masakela, Larry Carlton, Marcus Miller, Peabo Bryson, Kimmy Dludlu, Dwight Trible and Yellow Jackets.
The event which took place at the Southern Sun Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg drew in many audiences to the rather huge venue. The building with about eight floors with events happening on each floor simultaneously had great numbers filling each auditorium.
Our team was at two events – the opening day and the second day – and it was amazing seeing this big name performers you have only read about up close doing what they know how to do best. The highlight for me was when Lexis, Anangfio and I met Dwight Trible in the morning and he said that he had never met Gyedu Blay Ambuley, but he loved his music so much.
Africa Movie Academy Awards 2015
For the first time in the eleven years life of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) it was held outside Nigeria. The beautiful The Boardwalk hotel in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province of The Republic South Africa was host to the event and all the razzmatazz that went with it.
This was an opportunity for the West Africa to show to South Africa and the rest of the continent that we are good at organizing big events. But no, we confirmed to them that we are very terrible at it. I have never been to any of the previous ten AMAA events, but the 2015 event held at the Nelson Mandela Bay was terrible.
The sound in the auditorium was bad, the coordination of the event was worse than anything I have seen anywhere and the performances could only be compared to what you should witness at a secondary school levers jam than at a multimillion dollar budgeted event that brought the high and mighty in African politics and entertainment like the AMAA.
Classic example. Omotola was billed to emcee but she didn’t show up although she was in Port Elizabeth. A lady introduced as Camille tried to compere but was not doing it well. That was when Segun Arinse mounted the stage and said he was going to co-host with Camille. You did not need a PHD in anything to know he was called to save the show! And he did well.
Some of the big name actors on the continent including the likes of Ghana’s Juliet Ibrahim and Lydia Forson, Nigeria’s Segun Arinse, Desmond Elliot, O.C. Ukeje, Bob Manuel Udokwu and Kunle Afolayan, Ethiopia’s Theodros Teshome Kedebe and Samson Tesede were present at the event and walked the red carpet too.
In spite of the turn out, many other actors and actresses and other film industry professionals were unable to make it to the event because of difficulties in acquiring visas from the various African countries into South Africa.
Consequently, the founder of AMAA Peace Anyiam-Osigwe in her opening speech at the event called on African leaders in general and South Africa in particular to remove the boundaries that divides Africans and makes it impossible for citizens from other African countries to visit their neighbours.
Anyiam-Osigwe did not hide her anger and frustration at the difficulty that many actors and actresses, especially from West Africa, faced in acquiring visas to attend the event. She said the Europeans who met in Berlin to create the artificial boundaries that divide Africa have now removed their own boundaries and Africans needed to take a cue and remove theirs as well.
Ghana had three nominations in the 2015 AMAA but failed to win any of them. There were nominations for Joselyn Dumas for Best Actress in a Leading Role in “Silver Rain”, Ama Ampofo Best Actress in a Supporting Role in “Devil in a Detail” and “Agorkorli” for Best Animation and yet none of them was able to win in their respective categories.
Among the biggest awards on the night were Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Leading Role which respectively went to Nigerian Sadiq Daba for his role in Kunle Afalayan’s “October 1” and Angolan Lesliana Pereira for her role in “NJINGA: Queen of Angola”. Joselyn Dumas along with Ini Edo, Queen Nwokoye and Aida Wang lost to Pereira.
Ghanaian actress Ama Ampofo, Toulou Kiki, Reina Salicoulibaly, Prossy Rukundo who were all nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role lost to Nigerian actress Hilda Dokubo for her role in the movie “Stigma”. Thus whatever you read or heard about Ama Ampofi winning this award wasn’t true. It was a gaffe by the twitter handle of AMAA.
The Amazing Experences
HOTAIR BALLOON SAFARI: We went up in Bill Harrop's Balloon Safari with old man Bill himself as the skipper. It was an amazing ride up in the skies over a 1000 feet above sea level and overlooking the Cradle of Humankind in the Gauteng Province. It was scary and yet fun and adventurous to go up like that.
SOWETO AGAIN: It would seem that a trip on tourism to South Africa without passing through SOWETO is not a complete trip. We did another round of SOWETO and this time we stopped by the famous Soccer City Stadium for photo opportunities and also by the SOWETO Towers for same. We looked through Nelson Mandela’s house again and then had lunch again at the famous Sakhumzi Restaurant on Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
GOLD REEF EXPERIENCE: Have you ever done something you wish you had decided against at the eleventh hour? That’s what happens when we (some of us) did the Tower of Terror in Gold Reef City. Having toured the old mines we decided to fall from the terrible tower and it was “too late to call for mama”. You have to experience it or see the look on my face in the photograph that I am showing to no one to get what this means!
NIGHT CLUB EXPERIENCE: This old man hasn’t been to the club in a long time, but when you go to Rome…so we ended up in the Taboo Nite Club close to The Maslow hotel where we lodged and it was one good fun night. The DJ was not the best but it was great night with the team and all. The old bones were shaken well and a good sleep was elicited.
WATCHING DOLPHINS AND WHALES: Port Elizabeth is a beautiful city for many things and one of such is for whale and dolphin watching. We made our way to say on Sunday morning with a skipper and a female guide. We did the rounds and we started with the sighting of about ten dolphins in the shallow waters. Then we moved into deeper waters and saw a few whales as well. They were shy of us buy eventually came up to give us a few shows. One again scary, but adventurous.
ANIMAL SAFARI: After the dolphin and whale safari was another safari in the wild. We drove for about an hour from Port Elizabeth to the Amakhala Game Reserve. Another great experience this was because here we saw animals in the wild unlike what we saw at the Lion Park. We came very close to rhinos, lions, cheetah, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, ostriches and a host of other animals in this vast game reserve!
Indeed this was another great experience across South Africa and one I am sure will stay with me for a very long time. Thanks to South Africa Tourism.