This Ghana sun has shown us no mercy; our wallets have grown so light that a small breeze could carry them away, and every trip to the fuel station ends with us staring at the pump as if it insulted our mother.
Between the heat, the bills and the cost of simply getting from one place to another, most of us have shed a tear or two this season, whether we admit it or not.
But cry as we might, there are super dons in this crying business that even we cannot hope to outrank.
Long before we started weeping over transport fares, these women were turning on the waterworks in front of the camera, and they did it so convincingly that whole households cried along with them in their living rooms.
Whether it was a wicked stepmother, a cheating husband, a family curse, or in-laws sent straight from the pit, they always found a reason to wail, and Ghanaian movie lovers loved them for it.
Patricia Bentum
If you watch Kumawood as we do, then you know she deserves the crown. She literally starred in a movie called Tears of the Ghost. She cried more than the dead. That should tell you what type of wailing you’re dealing with here.
Vivian Jill
We are yet to see Vivian Jill not cry in any movie she’s done. She’s either being scorned by a husband or maltreated by her in-laws. She can’t catch a break.
Christiana Awuni
Christiana Awuni is the mother who is always going through it. She’ll be the loving and doting mother, and then her children will carry palaver and bring it to the house. If it’s not the children, then she’s a mourning widow. She is tired.
Emelia Brobbey
Emelia Brobbey cries like her body is 90% water. She can cry on cue that you wonder whether she does crying exercises when she’s not on set. My Tears and Sorrows of Love are a few of her credits. With titles like these, why won’t we fear that she’ll drown in her tears.
Nana Ama McBrown
Ghana’s Number 1 versatile actress and Tears mu King Kong. Before Nana Ama McBrown became TV’s premier showbiz hostess, she used to cry in movies like her life depended on it. She’d be weeping, and you would not even realise when you’d joined her.
Jackie Appiah
If you grew up watching Ghanaian movies, you probably remember how reliably Jackie Appiah could make you cry.
In almost every film, she seemed to be either the orphaned village maiden nobody protected or the girl Yvonne Nelson or Nadia Buari maltreated, and she played it so convincingly you were in tears with her before you noticed.
Maame Serwaa
Maame Serwaa, born Clara Amoateng Benson, was crying on screen before most of us had figured out what we wanted to do with our lives. She started acting at six, and the Kumawood industry quickly found a use for a child who could cry so convincingly.
She became the go-to girl for the sorrowful, mistreated or orphaned child, often working alongside senior stars like Emelia Brobbey. Whenever she was in a scene, you could expect to need a handkerchief before it ended. Her tear-jerking scenes are still the reason many Ghanaians remember her.
