Ghana has got talent
Listening to Accra-based Citi FM last Monday induced a heady mix of high energy and nostalgia as the station rode the waves of Ghana’s musical heritage in the lively presence of Professor John Collins of the University of Ghana.
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The programme was the start of the station’s collaboration with the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) which has spearheaded the celebration of the ongoing Ghana Music Week.
The programme’s host, Bernard Avle, described Professor Collins as a “music historian”, but that was a huge understatement. John is probably the living most knowledgeable repository of Ghanaian popular music culture.
What John does not know about Ghanaian popular music has not happened yet or may not ever happen. His appearance on the Monday show was not only a tour de force but a delightful trip down memory lane for older folk; for the youth it could be a delightful new experience.
Taking us from the very beginning of popular music in Ghana, we had a taste of brass-band music through the “guitar band” phase to dance music, Burgher Highlife to hip life and all the new “rap-turous” sub-genres.
The interview brought home very forcefully to me that Ghana has talent in abundance across the entire spectrum of creativity. From Kwaa Mensah to George Darko through King Ayisoba and the gospel melodies, Ghana has shown talent through the generations. And not just in music.
I have just returned from Sunyani and Wa as part of two teams from the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) which launched the association’s Schools Outreach Programme in the Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions, and I must say the creative talent on show contrasts so sharply the mostly turgid shows on television.
The boys and girls from 60 senior high schools in the four regions could keep the nation entertained and educated for days on end.
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The format of the regional launches had been designed to enable students from 15 schools in every region exhibit their own literary and creative productions, usually at short notice and with no budget.
Left to their own devices, but with help from teachers and a desire to please, these kids come up with such high quality productions, mostly written and directed by the students themselves.
There is no doubt that Ghana has talent in every field of human endeavour. Ghanaian scientists, artists, actors, writers, athletes and designers are famous across the world for their creativity and industry.
Indeed, if all footballers of Ghanaian parentage or heritage were to play for the Black Stars, we could win the World Cup. Many of our famous and not-so-famous creative achievers were actually born in Ghana, but one has to ask whether or not they could have developed their talents to the level they have done in Ghana.
It is not for nothing that the two words – talent and latent – are so closely related in spelling and meaning. For all its positive connotations, “talent” remains at best an inclination, endowment that must be nurtured.
So, while Ghana has talents in abundance, it is not certain that such talents will find that right nourishment for it to grow and flourish.
Last week Friday, I spent a delightful couple of hours in the company of hundreds of children at an event dubbed; Carrier Guidance Workshop.
It was organised by Values for Life, an NGO set up by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts before she took up her appointment in governance.
I was very impressed by these children from the much maligned public school system. Despite the relatively low investment in these schools, the children were well turned out and very intelligent.
Having had the privilege of speaking to more than 2,000 students across the country over the past one year, my optimism for the future should be overflowing.
And yet I am not that sure of my confidence because we cannot just march our young ones through the school, church, mosque and home and hope that somehow, pieces of knowledge, morality and patriotism will stick to them like a magnet attracting metal filings. It does not work that way.
If we want the young talents to become manifest, we need to have programmes in and out of school for mentoring, encouraging and training them.
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In the past, concert party groups and their “promoters” - who were entrepreneurs and impresarios - scoured the country for new musical talents and an eager nation provided the platforms for them to showcase their abilities.
Unfortunately, the coups of 1979 and 1981 and their curfews destroyed that well established system. But we cannot blame it all on Rawlings and his coups because sports have gone down the same path and yet stadiums were not affected by night curfews.
All talents need platforms on which to perform, whether these are art galleries, sports fields or theatres, and this is one area that is suffocating talents in Ghana.
There are no theatres to speak of, and the few that exist lack the technical resources to make them operate professionally. Budding writers are among the most deprived of resources and platforms on which to practice their art.
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The GAW has lately received some funding from the Danish-funded Ghana Culture Fund to start a magazine for the students in the outreach programme, and a committee headed by Dr Gheysika Agambila, the Vice President of GAW, is at work to ensure that it comes out in the next month or two. But only about 3,000 copies can be printed for young writers numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
One area that could nurture artistic talents, especially in the performing arts, ought to be television but their offerings in Ghana are very thin on the ground. Some stations are doing well in unearthing new talents but even that is not enough. Commercialisation has driven down quality almost to the point of no return.
One can only hope that the Broadcasting Bill, which has again seen prospects of finding favour in the eyes of Parliamentary schedulers, can do something about quality.
Nurturing talents needs time. Today, young people are too eager to cash in their talent before they are ready and many get burned along the way.
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Perhaps, today’s youth will argue that the old ways were too cumbersome and that we are in the digital age. True, but talent is talent, and it is only by its result that we can separate the good from the bad. But here is the good news: Ghana has got talent.
gapenteng@outlook.com