Colour-Me-Amba: ...Naming, Shaming and Jailing!!!

"I'm sorry I cannot show you my face, because if I do the bad guys would come at me"

- Anas Aremeyaw Anas, TED2013

Anas Aremeyaw Anas at TED2013 - How I named, shamed and jailed (Ted.com)

Anas' opening words at the TED Conference, filmed February 2013, best explains his attempt at hiding his identity with this wired mask. As an undercover journalist, Anas is well known in Ghana for bringing many criminals to justice - some of which include smugglers, spiritualists, government officials, police officers, and prison administrators. His methods are based on three set principles - Naming, Shaming and Jailing.

A journey which began about fourteen years ago, Anas remains determined to "shine light in the dark spots of society". He demonstrates this through his numerous disguise tactics and usage of hidden cameras to document what he calls 'hardcore evidence'. Through these methods, Anas exposes corrupt and illegal acts enabling grounds upon which perpetrators are placed behind bars. According to him, "If I say you have stolen, I show you the evidence that you have stolen. I show you how you stole it and when.”

Anas' tactics to obtaining evidence may seem extreme, but he certainly understands the hazards of his profession and willfully immerses himself in it. In his most recent project he deliberately arranged circumstances through which he was taken to court and imprisoned. At Nwasam Prison, Ghana, Anas covered shots exposing the unhygienic conditions inmates were subjected to - How they were fed and how they queued up for the 'toilet' (a hole in the middle of the yard, around which four men squatted back to back). His hidden camera also revealed shots of a room within the prison piled high with dead bodies.

A few of his other projects/stories show the great impact he is making whilst exposing wrong-doers within society.

Spirit Child is one of his major undercover stories on the ritual killing of deformed children believed in some villages in northern Ghana to be possessed by evil spirits and not good enough to live in society. These children were given concoctions to take which killed them. Anas built a prosthetic baby and went into the village pretending that this baby had a deformity. He had found that he could buy the life of his decoy son for 75 Ghana Cedi. Having gathered the "concoction men" one morning in preparation to do the killing, Anas alerted the police, who were already on standby. As he relays the story (TED2013), these men have been arraigned before the court awaiting their fate.

Another key project relating to the Spirit child phenomenon is Spell of the Albino, revealing atrocities faced by children born with albinism in Tanzania and considered unfit to live in society. These children had their body parts removed and used to make concoctions believed to carry powers of luck and wealth. Anas went undercover again with a prosthetic arm and using a hidden camera, filmed the men who carried out these acts. Thankfully, the Tanzanian government have taken action towards this practice, of course not without the help of such 'hardcore evidence'.

Other stories include Chinese Sex Cartel, where in 2009, Anas busted King James Xu Jin, the boss of the Accra-based Chinese sex cartel (named Peach Blossom Palace). Here, he posed as a bartender and filmed the hotel where Xu Jin ran the business. His hardcore evidence again produced grounds on which Xu Jin, along with his wife and brother were found guilty of sex trafficking and sentenced to a combined 41 years in prison.

Ghana's Madhouse Story is another one where Anas went undercover for seven months as a baker, taxi driver and finally a mental patient in and around Accra Psychiatric Hospital. He found unbearable conditions, extreme neglect and abuse by nurses and the heavy use and sale of narcotics by patients and staff. In one scene, Anas shows a body in the last stages of decay being carried away in the same van which transports food to and from the hospital. No doubt, his feigning as a mental patient and taking prescribed drugs throughout his stay made him suffer some setbacks leaving him impotent for a week after he left the hospital.

More of Anas Aremeyaw Anas' stories could be found on his website, anasaremeyawanas.org. He also has many followers on his twitterhandle, @anasglobal. Today, he has gained international recognition for his selfless heroic deeds towards curbing illegal practices and corruption even within the police force.