I remember Daddy Lumba as the “gyrating devil” of the highlife scene of the late 1990s, with hits like “Aben wo ha”.
I cut my teeth on evangelical Christianity of the 1980s, which was stern, uncompromising and judgemental.
Thus, with that initiation, I steered clear of all such gyrating happy “tyrants” who were larger than life on television screens.
Unfortunately, in those days, there was only GTV, so one could easily tune off; unfortunately, tuning off when there was just one TV station was difficult sometimes, so we had to endure intermissions (short and long) of Daddy Lumba’s “Aben wo ha” and other such songs.
The “Daddy Lumba gyrating avoidance syndrome” brought on by my Christian initiation of the 1980s meant that I became totally indifferent to the musician, the buzz about him and his music.
What made it worse was that he had some very lovely girls in his music videos, who also danced in tune and sensuously to the hit, acting out the music, with Daddy Lumba always invariably in the middle of all that “enjoyment.”
I used to wonder then, how he got such lovely ladies to star with them in his music videos, but did not delve too much into it or make any effort to find out, because of my orientation.
Daddy Lumba
Thus, I was Daddy Lumba “free” for most of my life, until I met my boss Mustapha Suleiman at the Daily Graphic.
He knew all Daddy Lumba’s songs back to back, and in his high, sweet, tenor tone, would mime along hits as they played over the radio in the newsroom.
Love
Mustapha’s love for Daddy Lumba’s songs is so total that he knows them by rote, line by line, word by word, and most often, would not gyrate like the girls in the video, but would dramatise the songs, and when in his element, coo them into the ears of both willing and unwilling colleagues.
I believe I might have told him off once or twice, but he was undaunted and would continue. I, on the other hand, was so set in my perceptions that I was not inclined to budge and be tolerant of Daddy Lumba’s music.
Then the man died, and somehow, the airwaves seemed awash with his songs. With his hits all over, I started paying some attention to his lyrics.
I was able to decipher some of his words, which in the past had all seemed too sensuous and salacious to me!
Somehow by epiphany, my ears were opened to a particular song that hitherto had been totally incomprehensible to me.
It is the intro of the Joy FM programme, That’s my opinion. I listen to the programme, but had not bothered too much with the opening tune, satisfying myself with the fact that it was a Daddy Lumba sensuous tune that I had to steer clear of
The song is “Ɔsoro nkyɛ me nne”: and the first stanza goes:
Ɔsoro nkyɛ me nne, me nto me dɔfo ho nwom bi
Dɔfo Yesu ho nwom bi, Yesu mu ɔ'dɛ o, ah
'Soro nkyɛ me nne, me nto me dɔfo, ne ho nwom bi
Dɔfo Yesu o, kwɛ! Paapa ei, Wo mu ɔ'dɛ o
Translated in English, it means the heavens should gift me a voice to sing about my beloved Jesus! And that song showed Daddy Lumba’s deep understanding of God and his salvation.
Exploring further, I realised that in Gyedi, he had sung about faith in the face of hardships, and how the enemy’s tasking hand over one’s life would get tired for one to have his or her freedom.
In Yɛ kura kura mu he talks about the futility of life, but the consistency and faithfulness of God, who finishes our courses in life, regardless of all the challenges.
In all the songs, I was amazed by the richness of words and their impact on the soul.
I will not say I have a deep appreciation of all the inspirational vibes of Daddy Lumba; however, the little
I have encountered has made me revise my perception of the legend; he matured as a deep and wise lyricist.
I believe now, I will be paying attention to Mustapha when he starts cooing Daddy Lumba’s music in my ears.
Writer’s E-mail: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh
