An Assistant Professor of Global Media at the University of Georgia, Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed has joined calls for the banning of Venus Film’s Savannah.

The film which was written by Jemilla Sulleman and directed by Kobi Rana has been accused of defaming the Dagbon Kingdom by depicting them as a people who practice female genital mutilation.

According to Dr. Wunpini Mohammed, the issue of misrepresentation stems from filmmakers from Southern Ghana making films that appeal to the white western gaze in order to win production deals.

“Some Ghallywood filmmakers are trying to make films that are based in poverty and grounded in narratives of impoverishment so that they can get a sweet Netflix deal. The North is not there for you to extract from to further your career.”

This is another unfortunate incident in which Dagbamba are misrepresented in media. FGM has never been part of our culture but for writers like you, the North is all the same so you reproduce these harmful reductionist narratives about us. https://t.co/dNK2uF64um

— Wunpini F. Mohammed, Ph.D. (@wunpini_fm) December 23, 2021

She said this has fueled the misrepresentation and stereotyping, particularly of people from Northern Ghana.

“Media mirrors society. But in this case, our social realities are not being represented. This is how stereotypes are created. Groups are misrepresented and the misrepresentations are played over and over again and they become accepted as fact.

“This gross misrepresentation is what happens when Southern filmmakers are making films for the white western gaze. Films about impoverishment and oppression that make white people feel good about their donations to ‘save African children’,” she said in a Twitter post in reaction to the film.

She added that Southern Ghanaian filmmakers are only now directing their attention to the North because they have run out of film ideas that will attract viewers.

“The North is all the same so you reproduce these harmful reductionist narratives about us… They go to the North to not only extract but misrepresent us. Similar happened with Azali…”

Dr. Wunpini called for an end to such harmful narratives of Northerners, as she says the perpetuation of such narratives affects the people of Northern Ghana.

“As Africans, we often complain about the ways in which Western media essentialize our realities. In Ghana, South media often treats the North the way that the Global North treats the Global South. This has to end,” she said.

Meanwhile, Silverbird cinemas and the Venus Films production risk facing legal action from the Dagbon Forum should they go ahead and premier the film on the 25^th of December as scheduled.

According to the Dagbon Forum, till the makers of the film prove with substantial evidence that indeed Dagbon practices female genital mutilations, it cannot show the film.