Difference between revisions of "Nokofio (Ghana)"

Documenting cases of ''nokofio'' in broader politics has been key to Ghana’s anti-corruption efforts, perhaps most audaciously spearheaded by the country’s foremost journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In his two recent exposés, about national football and the judiciary, Anas secretly filmed several officials taking bribes. Films follow a similar plotline. First, gifts exchange hands at the lowest levels of official hierarchy. Of particular resonance with the public at this stage are two types of bribes – goats and yams – as they result in shenanigans especially poignant on the camera. Goats do not want to cooperate with the bribe takers and heavy yams are not the easiest to move around. Accra’s streets retorted sarcastically to these exchanges: ʻnokofio ni gbomo baayeʼ (ʻsomething small to feed onʼ). As the films progress, the plots reveal acts of corruption and voluminous bribes in the higher echelons of power, implicating high court judges and the President of Ghana Football Association himself. Rather than circulated on the Internet and viewed in the secrecy of one’s private home, Anas’ films are screened in the National Conference Centre located opposite the country’s Parliament. The spectacle arouses mixed reactions. The attitudes of takers invokes laughter – a sly expression at the person accepting the bribe and returning the crumpled envelope in which it came, or accepting a bribe while pretending to sleep – but it also invokes contempt and frustration. The films successfully present ''nokofio'' that starts at the peripheries of power as a building block for the overall corruption of the system – and that it is at once comical and consequential.  

Documenting cases of ''nokofio'' in broader politics has been key to Ghana’s anti-corruption efforts, perhaps most audaciously spearheaded by the country’s foremost journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In his two recent exposés, about national football and the judiciary, Anas secretly filmed several officials taking bribes. Films follow a similar plotline. First, gifts exchange hands at the lowest levels of official hierarchy. Of particular resonance with the public at this stage are two types of bribes – goats and yams – as they result in shenanigans especially poignant on the camera. Goats do not want to cooperate with the bribe takers and heavy yams are not the easiest to move around. Accra’s streets retorted sarcastically to these exchanges: ʻnokofio ni gbomo baayeʼ (ʻsomething small to feed onʼ). As the films progress, the plots reveal acts of corruption and voluminous bribes in the higher echelons of power, implicating high court judges and the President of Ghana Football Association himself. Rather than circulated on the Internet and viewed in the secrecy of one’s private home, Anas’ films are screened in the National Conference Centre located opposite the country’s Parliament. The spectacle arouses mixed reactions. The attitudes of takers invokes laughter – a sly expression at the person accepting the bribe and returning the crumpled envelope in which it came, or accepting a bribe while pretending to sleep – but it also invokes contempt and frustration. The films successfully present ''nokofio'' that starts at the peripheries of power as a building block for the overall corruption of the system – and that it is at once comical and consequential.