If you must apologise, be genuine

The wisest thing that any person who has wrongly offended another is expected to do is to offer an unqualified apology when the person realises that his utterances have one way or the other affected another person negatively.

Many a time, the manner in which the apology is delivered confirms whether the person is genuinely sorry for whatever he or she might have done or if the apology is offered to achieve something else.

The Ghanaian entertainment industry is structured such that, practitioners who are most sought after are the ones who are constantly in the public eye. Such people are said to be relevant because they are most likely to get the deals, the sponsorships and the attention. 

A movie producer once told me that, for his movies, he casts actors and actresses based on how popular they are in the public eye at a particular time. According to him, there is a reason why those actors are in the public domain and for him, he believes, that will help him to sell the movie, recoup his investment and make profit in addition. 

Curiously, this preference doesn’t always favour musicians as compared to actors. For a musician to be considered as relevant, it means  such a musician has banging songs been played on both radio and television, as well as at clubs, parties, funerals and any other social gatherings.

Now that a clear picture has been painted about how important it is for entertainers to be constantly in the media or public domain. Let’s look at how some of them manage to get themselves busy or popular in the public eye.

I decided to write this piece based on two reports making the rounds that two personalities; one musician and the other a boxer, had offered an unqualified apology to  two other personalities; both musicians, for things they had said about them in the heat of misunderstandings.

Bukom Banku

Prior to the heavily publicised bout between Bukom Banku and Ayitey Powers, there was a more publicised beef involving a known Dancehall King in Ghana and another Dancehall act who has a song titled, Dancehall King.

Yes, I’m talking about Samini and Shatta Wale. Their beef then had reached such a crescendo that, it was even difficult for people not to have noticed them including Bukom Banku and Ayitey Powers. 

For whatever reason, Powers opted for Shatta Wale while Banku settled on Samini. The latter capitalised on the widely held view by many Ghanaians that Samini was much better than Shatta Wale and he drummed it home perfectly that based on that, he was going to beat Powers and rightly so, he did just that. 

“If Ayitey Powers is bringing Shatta Wale, I will bring Samini because Samini is the best solution to Ghana,” he said as he jabbed Powers with some lyrics of Samini’s diss song against Shatta Wale.

Build up to the bout, Banku even used Samini’s Scatter Bad Mind, a direct but cleverly done diss song against Shatta Wale as a motivation for the fight.

Mzbel 

Singer, Mzbel, waded into the controversy almost when it was dying out when she was asked on Multi TV which of the two artistes was her favourite. 

She said, “I am a Shatta Walean. I love Samini but Shatta Wale is trending so I am for him. He is down to earth and inspires the people of the streets. Samini used to be that but he lost it.”

In both instances, Bukom Banku and Mzbel said what they believed in so one wonders on what basis was the apology like José N. Harris puts it aptly, “Never apologise for showing your feelings. When you do, you are apologising for the truth.” 

After publicly rating Shatta Wale over Samini, Mzbel made a u-turn to apologise to Samini. According to her, she didn’t know that there was a beef between the two Dancehall artistes and that, her words were based on the fact that, the self-acclaimed Dancehall King was making waves and was trending.

“I know a lot of people are disappointed in me for making that comment about Shatta Wale and Samini. But the thing is I have no idea … I didn’t know the extent of their beef.”

“I really didn’t know that there was a problem between the two of them. I spoke like a layman on the street who listens to music. And the thing is, everywhere you go, you hear Shatta Wale’s music being played everywhere, every party, every event, every club,” she told Ghanagist.com.

Just last week, Bukom Banku was reported to have also apologised to Shatta Wale for his comments prior to the boxing bout. 

“… It is my greatest regret to have insulted Shatta without any provocation and I promise to have a song with Shatta to seal the reunion in the coming days.

“I am highly refreshed to reunite with Shatta since the situation has created sleepless nights for me,” he said.

My question is, are all these apologies necessary and genuine or are they well calculated for publicity gimmick?

eanangfio@hotmail.com or tweet @anangfio