Founder of the African University College of Communications (AUCC) and creator of the popular ‘Inspector Bediako’ tv series, Hon. Kojo Yankah, has shared the drive for producing one of the best and sole locally produced law enforcement programme in the early 90s.
In an interview with Y107.9 FM’s Rev Erskine on the Y Leaderboard Series, Hon. Kojo Yankah disclosed that his passion for writing factored in the creator of ‘Inspector Bediako’, but most importantly, the desire to change the narrative and allow Africans “see themselves on television sets.”
“I’m happy that DSTV came on board and said they wanted to show Inspector Bediako. It’s one of the things I created. It was just like writing a book. I created it because I thought Africans should see themselves on television. We used to watch a lot of detective series. I asked myself that we also do detective work. Our Police haven’t gotten to that level so I’ll use technology into a fiction space and create an Inspector Bediako,” he told Rev Erskine.
On choosing the name, he added, “I chose the name for a reason. Bediako is one who likes fighting so he fights against social ills, indiscipline, corruption, bribery and stuff like that. I created Bediako to be the one who is now going to fight all these social ills. It was late in the early 90’s and again we got private sponsorship from a number of companies. They were fighting among themselves to sponsor and at first it was like will this survive. An African tv, detective series then it got on. Even children when you send any child in the afternoon they’d probably forget because they’re going to watch Inspector Bediako.”
By: Jude Tackie