Ghanaian-born Idris Elba to establish film studio, health centre in West Africa

Ghanaian-born film superstar, Idris Elba, born as Idrissa Akuna Elba, is planning to establish a film studio and healthcare centre in the West African sub region.

Idris Elba, born to a Ghanaian mother and a Sierra Leonean father, told the UK Guardian that he wants to bring “something” home that will be beneficial to the continent.

Elba, 38, told the publication with deep shame that he has never visited either Ghana or Sierra Leone. “It’s embarrassing… I have to go…There are plans, serious plans! I can’t wait.”

These two projects, according to Elba, would be located in Sierra Leone.

“I would really like to open a studio in Sierra Leone…If I could somehow encourage a film community to use Sierra Leone as the studio in West Africa to make films there”, he told Guardian’s reporter Afua Hirsch, who is a half-Ghanaian herself.

He added: “I want to go to Sierra Leone with something – whether it’s some sort of contribution to healthcare, or to the entertainment industry. My cousin is a nurse; we are talking about opening a clinic.”

His parents met in Sierra Leone, his mother having moved there when she was 12, the Guardian says.

Idris Elba started his career as a performer in sitcoms in the 1990s and early 2000s before doing Hollywood movies in 2005.

In 2007, he featured in a movie “This Christmas” alongside Chris Brown that brought in nearly $50 million at the box office.

He was one time reported to play a lead role in the upcoming Bob Marley’s documentary “Marley” which Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle is said to be one of the locations.

By Ekow Quandzie