Snakes Chases Actor

Though his claim to fame was acting the role of a fetish priest in a Twi movie titled ‘The Mask,’ actor-comedian Abraham Kofi Davis, well-known in showbiz as Salinko, says he will no longer act such roles again.

An despite concurring with many, particularly local movie fanatics, who rate him as the best in such roles, Salinko thinks continuing to act as a fetish priest (known in local parlance as Okomfo) he angered some gods and fetish priests who are seriously after his life.

According to him, no single day passes by in recent weeks without three monstrous ‘black-and-white’ snakes chasing after him in his dreams, to the extent that he no longer enjoys sound sleep.

“I now can’t sleep at nights because I’ll dream and three black-and-white snakes are chasing me all over,” Salinko told ‘Spectator Agoro’ on Tuesday, insisting he was still alive because of the prayer support he enjoys from two pastors in Kumasi, namely Mama Vida and Kyiri-Abronsam.

He attributed his dilemma to a similar ‘Okomfo’ role he recently played in a movie titled ‘Diawuo,’ as well as the movie from the market, after a fetish priest based at Sandema in the Northern region had threatened to kill all the actors who featured in the movie.

“I played the role of an ‘Okomfo’ who goes by the name Sabaliki but I never knew that was also the name of a deity at Sandema. So the ‘real’ Sabaliki heard about it and became angry, because he said the movie makes a mockery of him and his shrine.

“He therefore warned the producer to withdraw the movie from the market and added that if he (the producer) fails to do so, he (Sabiliki) will kill him (the producer) and every actor in the movie, including myself, Emelia Brobbey, Kwaku Manu and Akrobeto.”

“But the stubborn producer didn’t think about our (referring to the actors) lives and went ahead to release the movie. Now Sabaliko has started working. Only last weekend, Adrobeto drove his car into a ditch on his way to Kumasi from Koforidua.

“The fetish priest was being granted an interview on a radio station in Kumasi called Kessben Fm on this same movie issue. When he was questioned about whether he would really kill us for imitating him, still stood by his words and he directed the presenter to call Akrobeto and find out about his health.

“It was then that we realized Akrobeto had been hospitalized for three days for an accident he was trying to keep accident,” he explained.

Salinko added: “Though Akrobeto has said he doesn’t believe the accident has any mystical connotation, I strongly think Sabaliki’s warnings and threats should be taken serious now, and I don’t want to be his next victim.”

He said about 800,000 copies of the movie released so far have ran out of stock “all because the shrine doesn’t want any disgrace, so it sent his own ‘ambassadors’ to come and buy all of them from the market.

“I talked to some of the renowned CD and cassette retailers in Kumasi, the likes of Nyankonton and so on, and what they told me is even more frightening. Some said one person would walk to their shops and buy about 15,000 copies of the movie at a go. And you think there is nothing mystical about this?,” he opined.

He disclosed that some elders were now talking and apologizing to Sabliki “to forgive us for whatever wrong and displeasure we might have caused his shrine through the movie. We did in unintentionally.”

Consequently, Salinko – who has starred as a fetish priest in most local movies since 2002 – has now made up his mind not to act as a fetish priest again, regardless of the inducement that may come with such roles. “People have told me I act well as a fetish priest, but I won’t do it again. My life is also important. I know I’m generally good with comic roles, not necessarily as a fetish priest.

“I acted as a house-help in ‘Adults Only,’ a pastor in ‘Agya Koo In Prison,’ a boy-boy in ‘Atta Mortuary Man,’ and so on. I can be exploring more of such roles and new ones from today,” he said. Some of his other movies are: ‘So, so sand so,’ ‘Sika Kasa’ and ‘M’etim nea m’etim,’ among others.