Heritage… Africa

Set in 1955 in the violent run up to Ghanaian independence, this ambitious political drama follows the conversion of conscience of the first black District Commissioner, an anglicised Cambridge man so dedicated to his duties that he refuses to attend his mortally ill son. Ansah presents a diffuse political analysis - he is at pains to distinguish both between the 'enlightened self-interest' of the Governor (Whitbread) and the cruder reactionary methods of sneering civil servant Snyper (Collier), and the rivalries in the 'Association of Freedom' led by Kwame Nkrumah. Stilted acting and dramatic over-emphasis make it hard going, but the complex pains and ironies of colonialism come over only too strongly.