When ‘Anas’ landed on Mallams and Pastors

It was a time of laughter for patrons who were at the Accra International Conference Centre last Saturday when playwright, Latif Abubakar and his Globe Productions landed with Mallams and Pastors.

Beginning exactly at eight minutes pass 8pm, the hilarious play, which is a depiction of how some fake spiritual leaders use dubious means to live off their wealthy but helpless clients, begins with a pastor and a mallam both ‘preaching’ to the audience.

The play revolves around a wannabe politician who is cheating on his wife while canvassing for votes. A prophecy from a man of God that he would die before the elections make him run to a fake pastor and a mallam who were sucking dry their ‘victims’ with fake prophecies and directions. 

Unknown to John the politician, the spiritual men were friends who use their tricks to extort money from their patrons. When they both meet at John’s house by coincidence, they both fail to outwit each other and worse when their friend, a fellow fake fetish priestess arrives to also milk John.

Things take a dramatic turn when the old but cunning househelp of John, Atongo, turns out to be an investigator and arrests both John and his spiritual friends.

 Latif’s play this year has an unusual guest whom for a moment, patrons take for the  much- feared Anas as Atongo is no ordinary investigator. He is the dreaded Investigatve Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas(Atongo) who takes to the stage to arrest all the ‘offenders’ in the play and to advice the thrilled patrons against corruption as his videos on the various dangerous cases he had handled, plays on the screens.

It would have been a perfect night ,save for the absence of one of the much advertised actors, Kwadwo Nkansah Lilwin. He was really one of the main side attractions. Funny Face showed up but patrons could not hide their disappointment that Lilwin wasn’t there. To some of them, who preferred to remain anonymous, aside Lilwin not showing up, Latif did not address the issue when he mounted the stage to thank patrons, and this to them was bad. Funny Face tried to address the issue with an excuse of bad weather for Lilwin.