In 1951, A.R.G. Prosser, the Chief Social Development Officer for the Gold Coast wrote an article in the Community Development Bulletin outlining the ways in which the Gold Coast Public Relations Office (P.R.O.) had used Amenu’s Child as part of its mass education campaigns within the area.

Prosser stated that the P.R.O immediately recognised the value of Amenu’s Child as an ‘instrument of propaganda and instruction in Child Welfare’ and called a meeting with the Medical Department, the Public Relations Officer and the Social Development branch of the Department of Social Welfare, at which they decided to co-operate in forming a Mass Education Team. Prosser clarified how this collaboration worked: ‘The Public Relations Officer made available a Mobile Cinema and crew; the Medical Department made available a trained Midwife and notes for the instructors on Child Welfare; the Chief Social Development Officer contributed two Assistant Mass Education Officers’. This team would then use Amenu’s Child to ‘train village leaders in Child Welfare’ (Prosser, 1951, 52).

The team trained at the School of Social Welfare and at the P.R.O. cinema, where they discovered that the film was ‘far more effective as a medium of instruction if the story of the film were first told to the audience’. The instructors used stills from the film to stress pertinent points – for example one poster on the board read ‘Wash your hands always’ – before showing the film, and then leading a discussion afterwards. Amenu’s Child was one of the earliest films (and first ‘story’ film) produced by the Gold Coast Film Unit, and thus its success, and the experiments in exhibiting the film, had an enormous influence on the P.R.O.’s use of subsequent GCFU films. Indeed, Prosser concluded, in light of Amenu’s Child, that ‘films made in Africa for the African are going to prove the most potent factor in the present drive to eradicate ignorance, poverty and disease, and contribute to the prosperity and happiness of the people’ (Prosser, 1951, 54).

Amenu’s Child was initially shown in the Trans-Volta area as part of a course in childcare and nutrition. ‘A village called Kpetoe was made the headquarters’, Prosser explained, ‘and invitations were sent out to one hundred surrounding villages to send two women from each village to attend the courses’. Prosser claimed that the response was ‘magnificent’ and recognised the ‘tremendous value’ of the film within this one-week course. ‘Seeing their own people facing up to situations of which the course members were all too well aware, and solving the problems made evident in the film, was an experience that imprinted itself deeply on their minds’, he added, noting also the number of traditional midwives who attended. The team subsequently visited each of the villages represented on the course, with the film now used as a means of propaganda to generate enthusiasm for the work (Prosser, 1951, 54).

The film was subsequently shown all over the Gold Coast. For example, the Colonial Office reported its widespread use by women’s groups in the Fante region (Gold Coast, 1952, 17). It was also screened extensively in Nigeria in 1952 as part of Peter Morton-Williams’ research into African audiences. Morton-Williams argued though that the film was too elaborate as a pedagogical tool and ‘was not in itself a strong enough stimulus’ to bring about change. The film played at the meeting of the United Nations Trusteeship Council in June 1950 and was widely used to demonstrate the use of film in visual education – for example at a UN seminar in Messina, Italy in 1953 (Visual Aids, 1952).

Amenu’s Child also played at international film festivals, winning awards at Edinburgh and Venice in 1950, after which an Italian company ‘acquired the rights for five years’ (Commonwealth Survey, July 1951, 28). Commonwealth Survey claimed that ‘this is the first time a film produced by a Colonial Government has been shown commercially’ as it was also reviewed and presented in England, and then in America in 1955 through British Information Services (Commonwealth Survey, July 1951, 28). Reviews praised the depiction of African life – ‘shot in three months in Togoland, the intimate pictures of African village life are human, veracious, and singularly moving’ – and The Times argued that the film ‘has a dramatic quality which might well appeal to a wide audience in this country’ (The Times, 23 May 1950, 3). Film Forum noted the personnel involved in the production, reporting that ‘here, as in Malaya, the intention is to train native technicians, but progress has been slower, and most of the names on the credit titles are British’. The publication concluded though that ‘Amenu’s Child brings warmth and affection to its educational purpose’, labelling this an ‘encouraging experiment’ (Film Forum, November 1950, 7).