You Hide Me
by Nii Kwate Owoo
Ghana, 1970
synopsis
You Hide Me, made 50 years ago, reveals for the first time hundreds of thousands of previously unseen rare Asante art treasures stolen by the British after the “Sagrenti War” and invasion of Kumasi by Sir Garnet Woseley in the 1870s, as well as other art treasures looted by the British Expeditionary Force when they sacked the city of Benin (in modern-day Nigeria) in 1897. The film shows how these and other African treasures are buried deep in the basements of museums throughout Europe and America.
about the director
Nii Kwate has over 50 years of filmmaking experience as a writer, producer and director of feature and documentary films. Highlights of his career include: co-producing and directing, with Dr. Kwesi Owusu, Ouaga: African Cinema Now in 1988, a documentary of the biennial Ouagadogou Film Festival; and Ama, the first African feature film to be financed by a major British television network, Channel Four, in 1991. Odupon Atutu, documenting the death, burial and enthronement ceremonies of an Asantehene; Women of Substance, a feature-length documentary on women in leadership, shot in six African countries for the Africa Women’s Development Fund; Nii Kwate founded the Media Research Unit of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana in 1978 and directed it until his retirement in 2004.