In the history of mankind, great deeds have often been achieved when least expected. The ability of the human spirit to transcend expectation and soar over the horizons cannot be underestimated. And so as our dear Black Stars start to prepare for the world cup, Ghanaians call on them to remember, that nothing is impossible, if only we believe.
They have a responsibility. A responsibility to help sever the psychological shackles of colonialism, which has so often, impaired our development as a nation and as a people. The very warped mentality that others are simply better than us and we have no prayer competing.
Let others underestimate us at their own peril. We are a proud nation and a royal people. We are the sons of Yaa Asantewaa, inspired by the indomitable spirit of Shaka the Zulu. We shall attack when the enemy least expects and return in glory, marching to the sounds of atenteben, and hoisted aloft the shoulders of our proud people. This is Ghana we are talking about –the Ghana of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and all our great leaders long gone, the Ghana of CK Gyamfi, Addo Odamtey, Osei Kofi, Robert Mensah. and Baba Yara.
We are four times winners of the African Cup of Nations, two times winners of the FIFA under 17 world cup, the first African winner of the FIFA under 20 world cup and bronze medallist at the Olympic games. We are one senior world cup win away from having a better footballing pedigree than England, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France and many of the so called advanced countries with all the resources at their disposal. Let’s go for it boys!
Let’s go for it, for we have come together this far. We have reached the cross roads and there is no turning back. Hand in hand, we shall traverse the storms as we head towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Throughout history, underdogs have triumphed in adversity. In 1974, Mohammed Ali, faced with the unenviable task, at the tail end of his career, of dethroning the young, strong and apparently invincible George Foreman had to summon his most inner spirit and reserves of strength and determination for the battle.
Preparing for the fight was no child’s play. In his own words, he rustled with the alligator and tussled with the whale. He handcuffed lightening and threw thunder in jail. He murdered a rock and injured a stone. He hospitalized a brick and made medicine sick. That is Ali for you, but the message was clear, he left nothing to chance. And the result was a famous victory in the Rumble in the Jungle that shocked the world.
Milo, my dear Milo. Which idiot said you can’t stand up to Fabio Capello? Who said the only brilliant coaches in the world are the famous ones we know of? Talent and skill are important but a modicum of luck and being at the right place at the right time also helps. Even the great Alex Ferguson came within a hair’s breath of being sacked from Manchester United in 1990, after a string of poor results. But for a goal scored by Mark Robins in a 1-0 FA Cup third round win against Nottingham Forest in Jan 1990, many believe that Ferguson would have lost his job as United manager. Ferguson survived, of course, and went on to build a dynasty at Old Trafford that has lasted over twenty years.
Brian Clough was a virtually unknown coach who took Derby County from the bottom of the then English second division to become champions in the first division and subsequent semi finalists in the European cup. He was later to lead a small provincial English club, Nottingham Forest, against all the odds, to back- to- back European Cup championship triumphs. When asked who he thought the best English coach was, he admitted that he was not sure, but felt he was in the top one. Such was the confidence of the man.
So Milo, this is your opportunity to shine to the world, and when the time comes, twenty million Ghanaians will be with you in spirit as you stand on the touchline, looking into the eyes of Fabio Capello. Have no fear. Be brave; be strong, for God is on our side. We are a blessed nation.
And we are not going to get a better chance, for many years, to triumph. This is a world cup being played on African soil, where the ghosts of all our brave forebears murdered by the wicked invaders, will rise to fight for us. We can count on the support of our brothers, and as the Satellites showed in Egypt, home support can take us a long way.
Let’s go for it boys because man for man, you are among the best in the world. Michael Essien, you are one of the best midfielders in the world. Even the great Steven Gerrard vaporizes into thin air at the very sight of you. You are a leader on the pitch. You have to lead off the pitch as well. Stephen Appiah, Ghanaians fasted and prayed and God has rewarded your humility at the right time. When you regain full match fitness, there is no midfielder in the world that can stand up to you. Sulley, Insha Allah, the best left foot in the business. The three of you form an impregnable midfield barrier that can hold its own against any team. The youngsters like Annan and Asamoah are there to give a hand when your weary legs give way. Who said we have no depth.
Amoah, you are an intelligent striker and a very respectful guy off the pith. On the pitch, however, you have to roar like a lion and tear into the Robert Carlos of this world. You can apologize after the match. Gyan, this is your time to shine and prove Ghanaians wrong. You are doing it in the French league and are going to do it for your nation. Paintsil, Addo, the Rock, Jonathan Mensah, Adiyah, the Ayew brothers, Laryea Kingston, Dramani, your nation summons you to duty.
Together, we shall defend the red, gold green and the black star. We shall rustle with the alligator and tussle with the whale, handcuff lightening and throw thunder in jail, and in the end, against all the odds, we shall bring the world cup home, one warm July night, in 2010.
God bless our homeland Ghana.
Papa Appiah
Friday 27 November 2009
Stealing in the Name of the Lord - Ghanaian Gospel Music
“If only you were to me like a brother
Who was nursed at my mother’s breast,
Then if I found you outside
I would kiss you and no one would mind…”
These are not the lyrics of a “wiase ndwom.” These are words from the Song of Songs in the bible. And there are more. For whoever wrote Solomon’s Song of Songs appreciated the beauty of poetry and understood that poetry nourished the human soul. Song of Songs enriches the bible and its story of love adds to the politics, murder, miracles, adultery, magic and wars that grace the good book. For the bible is after all, a human story, with all the attendant strengths and weaknesses.
In times gone by, Ghanaian musicians, the poets that they were, sang about life as they experienced daily. So when Egya Koo Nimo remembered the experience of failing examinations in Europe, he wrote “Adesua ye ya.” When Kaakeku wrote “Driver nyi na meware no” where he claimed even a driver who was out of work could earn money as a bookman and this job security made them ideal husbands, Kwabena Onyina responded with “Ye no Waawa ma Yenkodo” where he extolled the virtues of farmers.
Every now and again when the “spirit” descended on them, Ghanaian musicians would sing in praise of their maker and his bountiful gifts to mankind. So for example, Bob Pinodo’s most popular song is “Eye me se, Mento Ndwom Nnyi Awuradze Aye”, though he was not usually a gospel singer. Every now and again, CK Mann, Nana Ampadu and Pat Thomas would depart from their usual styles and sing gospels. When you bought their albums, you were exposed to a variety of emotions that made the listening experience richer. Gospel music belonged to everyone. Nobody criticised them for singing gospel, for sinful as we all were, we understood, that they had as much right as anyone else to praise their maker and I am sure angels rejoiced in heaven whenever the musical platform was used to honour His name, irrespective of who the singer was.
My earliest recollection of gospel music as we have now was when Prof Kofi Abraham released great songs like Enkaa Akyi, Fa Wadesoa, Okwan Bi and Di kan Ma Mendi Wakyi in the seventies. His pioneering role inspired other gospel singers like Yaw Sarpong, Asiedu Teku and many others. Even then, gospel remained a minority genre. Then the great mushrooming of Evangelical Churches began as every bible school student got a vision that God wanted them to establish their own church. Ghanaians left the traditional churches in droves to attend these new churches that had a style in message and in worship that appealed to the youth.
Suddenly, it was not enough to have been baptised into churches that had been in existence for hundreds of years. For salvation, one ought to have made that crucial step towards a pastor to receive “the baptism of the holy spirit.” Suddenly, you were either with us and going to heaven or with them and going to hell. Suddenly, you were either one of us and listened to gospel or one of them and listened to “wiase ndwom” Sales in gospel music blossomed and a multi-million cedi industry was born.
The young reverends, bishops and evangelists, once they could as much as whistle a tune, joined the industry. Their titles lent some credibility to their records. Listening to their records became a religious experience and the financial rewards were enormous. So if the pastor could not sing, then maybe his wife, who would also often carry the title of Reverend, might be able to get an album out. Few missed this opportunity to make hay while the sun shone. Any churchgoer who could sing a bit and was able to save some money also made a gospel album. It did not matter whether they started going to church last week.
With a churchgoing community ever ready to fork out to assist Brother John or Sister Mary, a profit was almost always assured. Not having to face the harsh unpredictable reality of the music market however meant that often times quality was compromised. In fact gospel songs are the best-selling and yet the worse produced music one could hear on our airwaves. Not only that, whiles our hi-life and hip life artists invest large sums of money to make good videos, our gospel artist hardly see the need to do that and their typical video consists of the singer waving a white handkerchief by a fountain while Brother Kwesi and Sister Jennifer dance stiffly behind. Lack of competition breeds over-confidence and the Ghanaian music lover is the one who suffers.
I dare anyone listen to Prof Kofi Abraham’s albums in the seventies and compare with recent releases to see whether thirty years on, the quality has changed. In fact, the quality and musicianship on Prof Abraham’s records is much higher despite the vast improvement in studio facilities recently. Ghanaians are being taken for granted. People invest as little as possible in gospel and rely on the loyalty and sympathy of churchgoers to sell their records and make millions in profit.
Listen to Ghana Beats on a Sunday and try momentarily ignoring your Christian inclinations and the sympathies thereof and you would be surprised how bad the music is. Most of the songs sound the same and it soon becomes obvious that in most cases, these are people out to make a quick buck. Gospel lovers have no alternative but to put up with this. We have been indoctrinated to believe, that Ben Brako’s well-produced Baya album for instance is “wiase ndwom” even though the bible allows for expression of diverse emotions and the album actually addresses pertinent social issues.
Our experienced, talented and successful artists are no longer coming out with the occasional good gospel piece for fear of being ridiculed and accused of doing it “just for the money” Daddy Lumba’s “Mesom Jesus” – a brilliant song on all accounts was ridiculed. People could not reconcile the Lumba of “Obi ato me so boo” and the Lumba of “Mesom Jesus”. The churches have thus high jacked gospel music for good.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with people making a good living from ministering to their countrymen through song and I am sure every lyric is heartfelt and the personal lives of the singers are an example to us all. However, if people are going to be discouraged from listening to good conventional Ghanaian music such as is produced by Kojo Antwi, Ofori Amponsah, Dr Paa Bobo and Samini then the least that we’d expect is gospel music of similar quality. Unfortunately, at the moment, this is not forthcoming.
Papa Appiah
Who was nursed at my mother’s breast,
Then if I found you outside
I would kiss you and no one would mind…”
These are not the lyrics of a “wiase ndwom.” These are words from the Song of Songs in the bible. And there are more. For whoever wrote Solomon’s Song of Songs appreciated the beauty of poetry and understood that poetry nourished the human soul. Song of Songs enriches the bible and its story of love adds to the politics, murder, miracles, adultery, magic and wars that grace the good book. For the bible is after all, a human story, with all the attendant strengths and weaknesses.
In times gone by, Ghanaian musicians, the poets that they were, sang about life as they experienced daily. So when Egya Koo Nimo remembered the experience of failing examinations in Europe, he wrote “Adesua ye ya.” When Kaakeku wrote “Driver nyi na meware no” where he claimed even a driver who was out of work could earn money as a bookman and this job security made them ideal husbands, Kwabena Onyina responded with “Ye no Waawa ma Yenkodo” where he extolled the virtues of farmers.
Every now and again when the “spirit” descended on them, Ghanaian musicians would sing in praise of their maker and his bountiful gifts to mankind. So for example, Bob Pinodo’s most popular song is “Eye me se, Mento Ndwom Nnyi Awuradze Aye”, though he was not usually a gospel singer. Every now and again, CK Mann, Nana Ampadu and Pat Thomas would depart from their usual styles and sing gospels. When you bought their albums, you were exposed to a variety of emotions that made the listening experience richer. Gospel music belonged to everyone. Nobody criticised them for singing gospel, for sinful as we all were, we understood, that they had as much right as anyone else to praise their maker and I am sure angels rejoiced in heaven whenever the musical platform was used to honour His name, irrespective of who the singer was.
My earliest recollection of gospel music as we have now was when Prof Kofi Abraham released great songs like Enkaa Akyi, Fa Wadesoa, Okwan Bi and Di kan Ma Mendi Wakyi in the seventies. His pioneering role inspired other gospel singers like Yaw Sarpong, Asiedu Teku and many others. Even then, gospel remained a minority genre. Then the great mushrooming of Evangelical Churches began as every bible school student got a vision that God wanted them to establish their own church. Ghanaians left the traditional churches in droves to attend these new churches that had a style in message and in worship that appealed to the youth.
Suddenly, it was not enough to have been baptised into churches that had been in existence for hundreds of years. For salvation, one ought to have made that crucial step towards a pastor to receive “the baptism of the holy spirit.” Suddenly, you were either with us and going to heaven or with them and going to hell. Suddenly, you were either one of us and listened to gospel or one of them and listened to “wiase ndwom” Sales in gospel music blossomed and a multi-million cedi industry was born.
The young reverends, bishops and evangelists, once they could as much as whistle a tune, joined the industry. Their titles lent some credibility to their records. Listening to their records became a religious experience and the financial rewards were enormous. So if the pastor could not sing, then maybe his wife, who would also often carry the title of Reverend, might be able to get an album out. Few missed this opportunity to make hay while the sun shone. Any churchgoer who could sing a bit and was able to save some money also made a gospel album. It did not matter whether they started going to church last week.
With a churchgoing community ever ready to fork out to assist Brother John or Sister Mary, a profit was almost always assured. Not having to face the harsh unpredictable reality of the music market however meant that often times quality was compromised. In fact gospel songs are the best-selling and yet the worse produced music one could hear on our airwaves. Not only that, whiles our hi-life and hip life artists invest large sums of money to make good videos, our gospel artist hardly see the need to do that and their typical video consists of the singer waving a white handkerchief by a fountain while Brother Kwesi and Sister Jennifer dance stiffly behind. Lack of competition breeds over-confidence and the Ghanaian music lover is the one who suffers.
I dare anyone listen to Prof Kofi Abraham’s albums in the seventies and compare with recent releases to see whether thirty years on, the quality has changed. In fact, the quality and musicianship on Prof Abraham’s records is much higher despite the vast improvement in studio facilities recently. Ghanaians are being taken for granted. People invest as little as possible in gospel and rely on the loyalty and sympathy of churchgoers to sell their records and make millions in profit.
Listen to Ghana Beats on a Sunday and try momentarily ignoring your Christian inclinations and the sympathies thereof and you would be surprised how bad the music is. Most of the songs sound the same and it soon becomes obvious that in most cases, these are people out to make a quick buck. Gospel lovers have no alternative but to put up with this. We have been indoctrinated to believe, that Ben Brako’s well-produced Baya album for instance is “wiase ndwom” even though the bible allows for expression of diverse emotions and the album actually addresses pertinent social issues.
Our experienced, talented and successful artists are no longer coming out with the occasional good gospel piece for fear of being ridiculed and accused of doing it “just for the money” Daddy Lumba’s “Mesom Jesus” – a brilliant song on all accounts was ridiculed. People could not reconcile the Lumba of “Obi ato me so boo” and the Lumba of “Mesom Jesus”. The churches have thus high jacked gospel music for good.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with people making a good living from ministering to their countrymen through song and I am sure every lyric is heartfelt and the personal lives of the singers are an example to us all. However, if people are going to be discouraged from listening to good conventional Ghanaian music such as is produced by Kojo Antwi, Ofori Amponsah, Dr Paa Bobo and Samini then the least that we’d expect is gospel music of similar quality. Unfortunately, at the moment, this is not forthcoming.
Papa Appiah
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