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| Is the Ghanaian fan/supporter a zombie? |
I arrived from Bolgatanga where I have been for the past one year. The beauty of my journey was just marred by the driver of the bus I was in. The bus was just bumping into speed ramps whiles my head was just hitting the roof of the bus.
I got to my base in Suhum to suck a little breast milk because it’s been a year since I saw my sweet mother. I slept and woke up midday and as accustomed, I took to the Internet to read excerpts of what has been happening whiles I was sleeping.
Fortunately for me, I chanced on a story about the wife of NPP communicator, Richard Nyamah, who abandoning movies which have starred John Dumelo because he is meddling in politics and has been seen campaigning for the governing National Democratic Congress. The story further mentioned that Mr Nyamah gave examples of celebrities who have openly disclosed their political affiliation and have been rendered stale in the industry and therefore called on them to stay in their lane.
Well, after reading this story, I concluded my thoughts about the Ghanaian “fan” I have always described as a “ZOMBIE” because of this three categories,
1. Ghanaian fans who follow blindly.
In Ghana, most individuals do not really fall in love with the works of an individual celeb or whatever they support. The dominating thing most people fall for is the looks and how attractive the celeb looks in one dress or the other. Don’t dispute this because I can enumerate countless ladies who do not like Pappy Kojo’s songs but love him for his “freshness”. For this reason,a Ghanaian fan will always jump to the defence of his/her favourite celeb without really understanding why or how come he/she is being criticised. This best describes political party supporters.
2. Ghanaian fans who think their celebrities are “untouchable”.
A Ghanaian fan thinks that his/her favourite celebrity is right in everything he/she says or does. No individual should criticize or say anything about them when they goof or make certain “silly” comments or actions. For this reason, a Ghanaian fan will bite hard, every individual who comes up to “touch” their favourite celeb.
3. Ghanaian fans who think their celebrities should either keep quiet on issues of national concern and should not express varied opinions.
A Ghanaian fan thinks it’s either his/her favourite celeb does not express his/her opinions on issues. A Ghanaian fan expects that if his/her favourite celeb has an opinion on an issue it should not contravene what he/she the fan thinks of an issue. If there is contravention in opinions, that is where the celeb is rendered useless in society because his services will not be patronised and his works will be treated with contempt.
In other countries, especially the United State of America, celebrities have openly declared their political stance and support for a specific political party flagbearer but have still stayed relevant in the industry. Other celebrities have expressed their varied opinions on issues of national concern and these opinions have been taken to help build a better tomorrow for these countries. Moreover, in other countries, although a fan and a celebrity could disagree on an issue, the fan continues supporting the celebrity’s work and follows his/her progress. Fans elsewhere take criticism of the favourite celeb as criticism and advice that they work at making themselves better rather than seeing it as a backlash.
However, the game seems different in Ghana. Although we have copied aspects of other cultures, we seem not to have copied the culture of tolerance, and Ghanaian fans expect that their celebrities think like them. The three categories of fans in Ghana seem to be having a similar theme running through, which is intolerance.
They all believe anything contrary to what they stand for is bad and should be dispelled and disregarded. Hence the reason for why especially some showbiz personalities like Mr Beautiful, Great Ampong (people whose works are to be consumed by the masses) and others have prematurely retired from showbiz and seem extinct from the industry just because they publicly declared their political stance. That is why Yvonne Nelson received serious backlash from sections of the same people who claim to “love” her when she organised the infamous #dumsormuststop to drum home the need for government to put an end to the power outage in the country. That is why fans of Shatta Wale, Sarkodie and other popular music artistes will hear criticisms of their “god” “king” and will not sit to subject the criticism to logical reasoning but attack the individual who criticised for things to be done right for the development of their celebrity.
Even in supporting political parties, most Ghanaian party faithful believes all their party does is the best thing to have ever happened and that people who think otherwise are seen as people on the other side. They swallow everything hook-line-sinker without digesting issues to bring out the negatives hence rising tensions and clashes mostly during election season.
Zombies are people who respond or act in a mechanical or apathetic way. It can also be described as a dead body that has been brought back to life by a supernatural force. The characteristics of zombies from the above definitions tell us that they are just like robots who respond to just commands and do not subject their commands to critical analysis before executing them.
Juxtaposing this to the categories of Ghanaian fans, it is left to you to judge whether the Ghanaian fan is a Zombie or not.
