Finding The Lost Fishermen: Cinematic Adaptation as a Safeguard for Ghana’s Ailing Folk Operatic Tradition

Abstract

This paper interrogates the meanings, praxis and theoretical implication(s) of cinematic adaptation as a safeguard for Ghana’s ailing operatic arts using The Lost Fishermen folk opera as a case. It explores the extent to which the underlying objective to safeguard, the peculiarity of the operatic art as one genre that privileges integration of music with drama, as well as medium change foreground (in)fidelity as a key contextual issue in the determination of success of the project. Saka Acquaye (1923-2007) pioneered the art form in the nationalist spirit of Ghana’s political independence from colonial rule in 1957 and its immediate aftermath. Some 30 years after it premiered, however, the once highly popular genre was already in danger of extinction. Kwame Crenstil’s piloted film adaptation in June 2023 is part of the search for a viable safeguard for the endangered genre. The paper argues that cinematic adaptation for the purpose of safeguarding ought to be seen, primarily, in terms of composite audio-visual documentation. Since adaptation is inherently subject to the vagaries of representation, notions of fidelity on which the success of safeguarding hangs, cannot mean exact reproduction due to the change of medium, but in terms of the degree to which the resultant story resembles the referent.