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CHRIS-VINCENT Writes!

Ghana Movies:Please Get Your Biological Facts Straight!

blankEver watched a Ghanaian movie in which the doctor launches into a string of medical gibberish? Ever witness these doctors diagnosediseases by placing their stethoscope over a patient’s chest?  Tired of all the medical baloney huh? So am I!  According to Ghanaian (African) movies, when a couple can’t have a boy it’s the woman’s fault, hence the man divorces the woman and marries another.  Do all women go to the hospital for a test before knowing for certain that they are pregnant?

Well, according to Ghanaian movies that is the case. Ooh…ooh…ooh have you grown weary of actresses screaming on top of their lungs the moment they go into labor? So am I! And for Christ sake do all accident victims require a bandage around their head? Even a bullet to the butt requires a bandage around the head, what the heck?

Medical jargons dropped by some Ghanaian movie doctors are just absolutely ridiculous.  Mispronunciations among other slight slip-ups can be easily ignored, however, what I find impossible to overlook is the constant misdiagnoses I am bombarded with. It seems script writers are completely unaware of the fact that there are conditions with similar symptoms thus, the need to perform various tests before coming to a conclusive diagnosis.  However, in Ghanaian movies all it takes is a stethoscope to diagnose a disease. Kidney failure, Congestive Heart Failure, Bone fracture, Cancer, Asthma, STDs etc are all diagnosed by placing a stethoscope over a patient’s chest. How a stethoscope reveals a broken bone is beyond me, a simple palpation would have been more believable. These doctors are so fast they can diagnose any ailment within seconds of placing their stethoscope on a patient’s chest.

The most irritating aspect of Ghanaian movie medical mishap is the “decoration” of patient. It appears all the movies take on the same decoration format; bandage over the head (sometimes slanted a little to give a stylish effect), an arm in a sling and a heavily bandaged leg. Even if a patient shows up at a hospital with a serious case of the flu, chances are the patient may end with a bandage wrapped around his or her head!

This is where things get tricky. According to Ghanaian movies when a couple can’t have a boy, it’s the woman’s fault. What? I tried so hard to wrap my mind around why producers fell for this misconstrued crap but I just can’t.  Why can’t they take such solid platform to educate their audiences? It is a simple known fact in biology that in humans the sex of an offspring is determined by the male. The male produces X and Y chromosome, while the female produces only XX chromosome. When an X chromosome from the male, and an X chromosome from the female fuse during fertilization, the resultant child will be a female. However, When a Y chromosome from the male, and an X chromosome from the female fuse during fertilization, the resultant baby will be a male.

Please stop the screaming! It appears anytime an actress goes into labor she immediately starts screaming. Labor come in three stages, the first stage is mild contractions coming at relatively regular intervals.  Hence, a woman in the early stage of labor gets some breaks in-between contractions. However, as time progresses the contractions will gradually become longer, stronger, and closer together. According to Ghanaian movies, this is not the case. One has to scream from the very beginning of labor until the baby is delivered. The whole set-up is so absurd and annoying I usually fast forward such scenes. Also, according to Ghanaian movies all women experience morning sickness when pregnant and usually require a visit to a doctor to determine whether pregnant or not. The reality is, in our society (Ghanaian) most women can’t afford such luxury, plus a woman can usually tell when knocked up. So why all the drama?

As an individual well informed on biological subjects, I find it very hard to overlook these scientific bloopers when I watch movies. Given that these are simple and easily accessible facts, it irks me beyond reason that script writers would not take the time out to verify or validate information provided in movies. Care to admit it or not, some audiences take this stuff literally. Producers should not expect viewers to take information they provide in their movies with a grain of salt. Misinforming audiences comes with repercussions. Though the consequences in this case may not be grave, it should be addressed nonetheless.

By Cassie Johnson(Editor In Chief,Ghanacelebrities.com)



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0 thoughts on “Ghana Movies:Please Get Your Biological Facts Straight!”

  1. Thanks Cassie for that well-written piece. Personally, I can hardly stand our Ghanaian movie ‘medical/hospital’ scenes. Elsewhere, people actually consult experts in various fields to make relevant scenes more factual & believable. I think we need to do a little more investing if we want to go anywhere with our movies.

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