The artistic development of Anokye began with my first documentary Queen Yaa Asantewaa and the Golden Stool. Yaa Asantewaa was a Queen and grand mother who stood galvinised the Asante to fight when the British demanded the Golden Stool.
Once I learned that the famed Golden Stool would be brought out in public 2 years later I made myself a promise to make a documentary about Anokye and Osei Tutu, the 17th century architects of the unification of the clans of Akan, who became a new nation called the Asante. As we grappled with how to tell the story of Anokye’s conjuring of the Golden Chair from the sky and his thrusting into the ground of the only immovable sword in the world.
The story burst out of the confines of a documentary into a Children’s book of Rhymes, an animated TV series and a mythic adventure feature length 3D animation film.
all tThese we hope will do justice to a story of magic, living ones destiny, unity, respect and honouring the environment. Over the last 2 years I have gone from a happy lone filmmaker into working with a wide group of artists and film people in the UK, Ghana, South Africa and America. For me working on Anokye is something more than an obsession and as we work tirelessly to raise the investment needed to make Anokye a truly multi format, multi platform story. Our over ridding ambition is to do justice to the greatest
Story that we have to share with the world.
Our team has expanded and shrunk over the years, but each artist has left a trace of their work. I think of Anokye as a train. Different people get on and get off, but they all do something to move the project and change us a bit, and the Anokye train just keeps moving!
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