THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
ZDF will broadcast the new documentary film König Bansah und seine Tochter (King Bansah and his daughter) on 29 March.
The film takes viewers to Ludwigshafen, where Togbui Ngoryifia Kosi Olatidoye Céphas Bansah lives and runs a car repair workshop, and on a journey to Africa, where he’s a chief who is active in the development of his community.
König Bansah und seine Tochter, which depicts a life between two identities, premiered at the Hofer Filmtage on 24 October where it was also awarded the GRANIT prize for best documentary film, as it “approaches the ever-important topic of identity in an unusual way”.
Togbui Céphas Bansah (72), better known as “König Bansah” in the German media, comes from Ghana and has been living in Ludwigshafen am Rhein since 1970. In Ghana, Bansah is the traditional chief of the 300,000-strong Gbi community of Hohe Gbi in the Volta Region of Ghana, a region that is home to the Ewe people.
In Ludwigshafen, he runs a car repair shop and works with his wife to raise funds for the implementation of development projects in his home country.
For Germans, Chief Bansah’s children, Carlo and Katharina, whose mother is German, are too dark to be considered natives; for people in Ghana, they are seen as white. It is said that this is not a stigmatisation associated with negative feelings, but it does contribute to an identity crisis, which the daughter in particular seems to be struggling with.
Who am I? What makes me different? Where do I belong?
And so, Katharina (39), an artist, feminist and freethinker, accompanies her father to Ghana for the first time in many years. She wants to find out what role her Ghanaian side plays in her life – and whether she wants to get actively involved in her father’s community one day.
“König Bansah und seine Tochter is a film about roles, expectations, limits and the breaking of boundaries. It tells of a search for the inner home. It’s entertaining and informative, also because the family is in a conversational mood and so likeable,” a film critic Oliver Armknecht writes glowingly of the documentary.
While the film will be broadcast on Monday, 29 March at midnight. However, you can watch the film anytime you like as the video is already available in the ZDF media library (ZDFmediathek) for viewers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
Femi Awoniyi
You can watch the film here
