In a book co-authored by Kayper Mensah and Horst-Wolf, titled ‘’Ghanaian Writing Today’’ published in Germany in 1972, Professor Senanu, who had a brief tenure in office as a transistory Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana after the incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Professor Daniel Adjei Bekoe had retired from office during the 1982/83 academic session, made a significant statement about Ghanaian creative writing, which is paraphrased here as follows: ‘‘Ghana abounds with great globally renowned and acknowledged writers of non-fiction in the humanities, arts and sciences such as History, Geography, Law, Political science, Philosophy, Sociology, Economics, English, French, Physics, Chemistry, Biology etc.
However, only a few well educated Ghanaians who also are renowned and globally respected like their counterparts in non-creative and fiction writing are found in the area of creative and fiction writing’’.
The above statement gives as much food for thought, as it also worrying in the contemporary Ghanaian situation as far as creative and fiction writing are concerned.
Apart from the renowned Ghanaian creative and fiction writers that Ghana can boast of in the arena of imaginative and fiction writing such as Ayikwei Armah, Amu Djoleto, Joe De Graft, Efua Sutherland, Ama Atta Aidoo, Atukwei Okai, AseiduYirenkyi, Kofi Awinoor, Mohmamed Ben Abdallah, Bill Marshall, Martin Owusu, Lade Wosornu and a few other obscure ones in the Ghanaian situation. Ghana can be said to be wanting in this aspect of writing.
Since the time Professor Senanu made this statement about the state of the creative and fiction writing in the contemporary Ghanaian situation, one can critically say that this unpleasant situation has not changed much for the better up to date as one would have expected.
As a matter of fact, the create writing or the cultural industry in Ghana at the moment needs to be boosted significantly in order for it to contribute substantially and meaningfully to the economic growth and development of the country.
Ghana urgently needs to produce more great and renowned creative and fiction writers to be on the same stature as those mentioned in the foregoing in order to address and solve this long standing problem of rarity and impoverishment in the creative and imaginative and for that matter, the cultural industry of the country.
By critical standards and evaluation, can anyone justifiably affirm and confirm the hackyned and common saying in some quarters that, Nigeria abounds with a greater number of creative and fiction writers; and had also produced more globally renowned creative and fiction writers than Ghana?
Personally, I hold a contrary opinion from this hitherto superficial and myopic opinion that had been speculated in comparative analysis and evaluation between Ghana and Nigeria quantitatively and qualitatively in the context of creative and fiction writers and their output in this aspect of literacy endeavour.
The crust of the matter, in this long standing discourse and debate can be put briefly that, many well educated Ghanaians do not have the interest and love in this area of literary persuasion; hence this native and simplistic assumption of this fallacy.
It is indisputable and a fact that on the African continent today, Ghana is ranked highly respected and recognised for the quality of her educated citizens who havedistinguished themselves globally in all fields of learning and intellectual achievements.
In order for Ghana to achieve a great boom in the creative and fiction writing arena; and to produce a great number of creative writers, who will write to enhance Ghana’s present ailing cultural industry, she must adopt some drastic and effective measures that will impact effectively on the youth at the senior high schools, colleges of education, technical and vocational schools levels of Ghana’s educational ladder.
And in the efforts of finding various ways and means of boosting the present fragile and impoverished cultural industry in the country, it will be of interest, inspiration and help to retrospect and to revisit the era of the 1960’s in Ghana when creative writing spirit prevailed in the country, and was at its apogee; promoted and developed in the secondary schools and training colleges in the country. One can recall in vivid memory of the founding of a national creative writing Journal known as ‘’Talents For Tomorrow’’ which was founded by an English white lady teacher at the Achimota School in Accra by name Mrs Mary Sangster.
Some of the keen and regular contributors of creative and fiction writings to be published in the ‘’Talents For Tomorrow’’ literary journal emerged as great creative and fiction writers of the country. Some examples of these products of the contemporary Ghanaian creative and fiction writing situation like Kofi Anyidoho, AsieduYirenkyi, Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Ama Atta Aidoo, among others, developed their imaginative and creative writing skills tremendously by their regular output in this national literary journal.
In fact, the creative writing spirit among the youth in the country at that period of time in Ghana was highly inspired and fired to a very high level of manifestation among the youth.
In the persuit of developing a very high creative writing spirit among the present youth of Ghana, the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) must be highly commended for theinitiative it had taken by signing a memorandum of understanding with the Ghana Education Service in 2012 to open up literary clubs in all senior high schools in all the regions of Ghana to encourage the youth to take a keener interest in reading and writing.
In the light of this significant national initiative to revive the creative writing spirit from its present doldrums among the youth of Ghana, I humbly suggest that this should be extended to embrace all the colleges of education and the vocational and technical institutions of the country as well.
To this end, the Ghana Education Service must solicit for financial assistance from its stakeholders and from non-governmental organisations like the UNESCO, Ford Foundation, Goethe Institute etc, and from wealthy and charitable Ghanaian business men and women so that, this national programme will receive much resounding success to benefit the country.
This approach will certainly help in the national crusade to whip up the creative writing spirit among the present youth of Ghana to venture into the creative and fiction writing enterprise.
It must be noted that the creative writers of acountry are indeed great treasures and visionaries, who by their creative works incite progress,development and prosperity for their countries.
Highly wealthy and developed countries in the contemporary modern world today owe their present developmental stature to the works of their creative and, fiction writers.
Ghana’s creative writing and for that matter, cultural industry, must be salvaged now to make it very vibrant and viable in order to propel and drive the present on going Ghana Beyond Aid Agenda to achieve great success.
I am of the opinion that if the present youth of Ghana will be given the opportunity and assistance to develop their inherent creative talents and skills by the Ghana Education Service in collaboration with its stakeholders involvement as suggested in the foregoing, the creative writing spirit and for that matter, the cultural industry in the country, will experience great transformation and change that will bring about great economic growth, development and prosperity to the country at the present time in her developmental aspiration.
In Conclusion, I assert categorically that Ghana abounds in great creative and fiction writing young talents who must be given the opportunity and the necessary ideal and conducive environment now, by the Ghana Education Service and all its stakeholderorganisations of these teeming young talents to fulfill their destinies as the future great professional creative and fiction writers of the country in the present 21st century of historic time.
