Film Screening: Gone to the Village

Gone to the Village: Royal Funerary Rites for Asantehemaa Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II

A Film by Kwasi Ampene

 

Gone to the Village is a unique and powerful documentary on the elaborate funerary rites for the Queen Mother of the Asante in Ghana. Leading Asante scholar and musician Professor Kwasi Ampene directs and narrates with the authority, gaze and sensitivity of a true insider, with stunning footage of the rich cultural traditions of the Asante people.

Filmed on location in Kumase during the funeral, we witness traditions that have stubbornly and proudly resisted the onslaught of colonial rule and globalization. Through the film, we learn about the history of the Asante as well as the central role of women in this matriarchal society. The scenes of dance, song, drumming, proverbs, and dress code are of exceptional and exquisite beauty, unprecedented in the African continent.

Nana Afia Kobi was 111 years old when she passed away on November 14, 2016. She served Asanteman and Ghana for 39 years. Gone to the Village captures the collective mourning and the performed history of Asante in contemporary Ghana. The burial and final funerary rites of the Asantehemaa (Asante Queen) Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II in January and December of 2017, was the first time in 209 years a reigning Asante King performed the funerary rites of an Asantehmaa who was also his birth mother. Gone to the Village is a multifaceted and multidirectional documentary that chronicles the fusion of oral traditions, political authority and national unity with the visual, musical and performative arts of Asante.

A must-see for scholars and students of African expressive culture.

Image: A portrait of Asantehemaa Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, Kwasi Ampene