A Family, a boy and his parents went to a nude beach while they were on holiday.
The little boy was building sandcastles when he noticed some women had bigger boobs than his mum. Confused he went to his mum, "
Mummy mummy, ... read full comment
A Family, a boy and his parents went to a nude beach while they were on holiday.
The little boy was building sandcastles when he noticed some women had bigger boobs than his mum. Confused he went to his mum, "
Mummy mummy, why do some women have bigger boobs than you?"
His mum laughed and replied "
Honey, the bigger boobs they have, the dumber they are"
Please with the answer the little boy carried on building sandcastles, when he noticed some men had bigger willy's than his dad. Confused he went to his dad, "
Daddy, daddy, why do some men have bigger willys than you?"
His dad laughed and replied "
Son, the bigger the willy, the dumber the guy"
Later the boy said to his mum "
Mummy, Daddy was talking to the DUMBEST girl on the beach, and the more he spoke the dumber he got"
AKASI MARTHA NZEMA 10 years ago
'MY FIRST COUP D'ETAR" IS NOTHING ORTHER THAN A BITTER HERBS SALAD" THE WORK AND HAPPINESS GHANA, CHAINED TO CORRUPTION, BITTERNESS AND CONFUSED GHANA. THE YOUTH BECAME ELDERS WITH NO VISION FOR THE COUNTRY. THE MAIN JOBS FO ... read full comment
'MY FIRST COUP D'ETAR" IS NOTHING ORTHER THAN A BITTER HERBS SALAD" THE WORK AND HAPPINESS GHANA, CHAINED TO CORRUPTION, BITTERNESS AND CONFUSED GHANA. THE YOUTH BECAME ELDERS WITH NO VISION FOR THE COUNTRY. THE MAIN JOBS FOR MOST OF THEM ARE, NDC, NPP, CPP,PNC AND FOLLOWERS AND SEEKING FOR VISA TO ABROAD. "HOLY SPIRIT" HELP US TO LOVE OUR COUNTRY GHANA/AFRICA, AMEN.
Kojo T 10 years ago
Francis , be it the youth, the elders, or what we need to get to an understanding SAVINGS=INVESTMENT=Prosperity. You do well to motivate but if the youth are not interested , what can you do. I am sure you read about the roar ... read full comment
Francis , be it the youth, the elders, or what we need to get to an understanding SAVINGS=INVESTMENT=Prosperity. You do well to motivate but if the youth are not interested , what can you do. I am sure you read about the roaring 60s , when the world was changed by people like Martin Luther King and his band of youth ful activists. That was the era of the Beatles, Bob marley, Jimmy Cliff, Santana. Osibisa, fela Kuti. Todays youth want MONEY and money only . All over the world they are quiet and fight no issues . Where is the truism " each generation blames the one before?" The old have pushed this far and it is for them to say , hey guys you went wrong on this and push for a new direction. We inherited socialism and capitalism . What have they come up with? Stop blaming one another and start a new revolution. The revolution of investment and self reliance .
francis kwarteng 10 years ago
Hello Kojo T,
Let me start with a quote from Albert Einstein: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
Therefore, throwing the line "the revolution of investment and self-reli ... read full comment
Hello Kojo T,
Let me start with a quote from Albert Einstein: "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."
Therefore, throwing the line "the revolution of investment and self-reliance" in the open air does not say anything. I am afraid it's a hollow statement.
I have already raised many of your concerns in later installments.In the first place, Kojo T, did you take time to carefully read the piece in its entirety?
Did you read where I talked about social and financial responsibility and hard work (via Nas' rap song "I Can"?
What do you think my critique of materialism is if not about personal responsibility (which includes among things a revolution of investment and self-reliance)?
You cite the example of Martin Luther King and his band of youthful activists, is that not what this article is also trying to emulate? What is your point?
Isn't the era of the Beatles also the beginning of the era of universal recreational drug use and abuse, of the era of public pornography, of the era of social irresponsibility, universal disrespect of authority, and youthful delinquency?
What positive legacies did the Beatles leave for posterity? Apart from a few positive songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" and Paul McCartney's "Let It Be," what did the Beatles leave for us?
Moreover, unlike Bob Marley, who told Rita Marley to use his fame and wealth to transform society (including Africa's), what has the Beatles done for society, including Africa's?
Please try to read Rita Marley's "No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley." See what the estate of Bob Marley has done for Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, etc) and compare that with the senseless looting of the national coffers by our leaders.
Don't you think the youth are entitled to know what a dead person, Bob Marley, is doing for Africa today, as opposed to the shameless thievery of our political leaders, of which President Mahama is the head?
This is why I celebrate Bob Marley as opposed to our post-Nkrumah governments. Is President Mahama a better leader than Bob Marley? No. I can put the Beatles and Mahama in the same class.
That said, do you have any idea the negative effects bad music and bad musicians have on human psychology and society in general? Maybe you have not seen the research.
And do you have any idea how materialism from rap materialism, for instance, shapes youth mentality in America?
Do you have any idea how hip-life negatively impacts society and the youth? Yes, not everyone can me a mathematician, scientist, accountant, doctor, nurse, etc. Some have to be musicians, no doubt.
But didn't Bessa Simons, an ex-member of Osibisa, say recently that the greed of radio and television owners is eating away the future savings of musicians (See Ghanaweb future article "Demand Your Royalties-Bessa Simon"?
Yet many of the youth ignorantly go into music without knowing about royalties and the shallowness of the music industry.
For instance, one of my friends in America (a Ghanaian, old student, SSS, of Mfantsipim and KNUST) once told me how some of his mates spent countless hours writing hip-life songs rather than studying.
He said many of these ended up failing their final exams and not going to university. Again, he also told me many did not get signed on by record labels. Now he goes to Ghana and soon realizes that many have turned drug users. Some have even become armed robbers.
What does a revolution of investment and self-reliance mean to such individuals if the educational system is not structured in such a way as to teach them, the youth, alongside their regular curriculum,the politics of personality conflicts, institutional handicaps, and financial complications associated with the music industry?
What is the use of "revolution of investment and self-reliance" to such impressionable minds if their leaders steal their money and hide them in foreign accounts (and not use these stolen money to build the right institutions for them)?
I don't care if their leader is from the CPP, NPP, or NDC. Must the youth sit idle while their leaders destroy their future, which includes our future, those of our children, and their grandchildren? Is that what you are saying?
Do we teach the youth, especially females, that they sometimes have to sleep with leaders in the record and movies industry to get signed on? I don't even see why I should belabor these things since they are already public knowledge. Yet many don't know these things.
Do the youth have critical reading and mathematical skills to fully understand the complexities involved in some of the contracts they sign? We you know how many have come out to say how they have been deceived into signing bad contracts?
What could a "revolution of investment and self-reliance" mean to a person who can't read a simple contractual document or understand the mathematical implications of a document written without numbers?
How can a person with poor critical reading and basic mathematical skills read an investment journal or newsletter to understand or know that sustained political scandals negatively impact investment projections directly, even turns prospective investors away? Do the youth generally know these things?
And what did Osibisa do for Ghana socially and politically as far as the youth is concerned?
Weren't some of their members recreational drug users? What can the youth learn from those members of Osibisa who used hard drug?
What can the Ghanaian youth learn from their elder Kiki Gyan, Osibisa's keyboardist, a millionaire who died penniless and from using hard drugs? What are the youth learning from the sustained corruption scandals in Ghana today as opposed to the time of Nkrumah?
Yes, we need to pit the righteous anger of the youth against the senseless corruption and leadership stupidity of today's governace. That is how a society learns and grows. The youth must not sit idle while leadership stupidity takes them for s ride.
Let me address one of the serious misconceptions you raise about the youth: Today's youth do not want only money. You are wrong on that one. They want other things: They want good education and governance, better standard of living, peace, technology, political stability, lower cost of living, less problems related to tribalism and racism, intelligence, good roads, good leaders, and creative inventions.
For instance, how many of our elders worked hard in their time to be on Silicon Valley? Today, we have a start-up tech company, Dropifi, the first of its kind in the world,on Silicon Valley, California.
Dropifi was founded by three young Ghanaians. And what are their leaders doing? Stealing our money left and right. Why can't they use the stolen money to create a Silicon Valley for the youth in Ghana? Or they are waiting for Roland Agambire's tallest building? Shouldn't this have been built fifty years ago?
Let me remind you of these facts: 14-year-old African children are getting four A's on their Advanced Level GCE in Zimbabwe.
12-year-old African American children are making A's in calculus in American universities.
Top American universities are fighting to admit 15-year-old African children in their universities.
15-year-olds (Kelvin Doe from Sierra Leon; Kelvin had been invited to give talk at MIT, etc) are building FM stations (with materials from garbage)in Sierra Leon to serve whole communities without government assistance. Materials he uses come from garbage.
Who says the youth are only interested in money? Where is that coming from? Where did you get the false idea that the youth are only interested in money?
Do you watch CNN'S "Africa Voices" and BBC's "African Dream" to learn about some of the positively transformative things the African youth are doing to raise the profile of the continent? Please take that misconception out of your mind. We need to encourage the youth to to do more.
The Arab Spring was conceived and advanced by the Arab youth. The Tunisian youth who burnt himself to jump-start the Arab Spring did not initiate the revolution for money.
The American youth (white, Hispanic, Black, Asian, etc) who worked tirelessly to bring President Obama into office (these youths have used their electoral and activist power to tell their "racist" elders that it was high time racism got buried) did not it for money.
The black youth in American inner cities who used rap music to fight racism in the past 20 years or so did not do it solely for money.
The Chinese youth who are pressuring their Communist elders to democratize their societies are not doing solely for money. What happened? Their leaders are meeting this week to implement many of these youthful solutions.
So, again, what do you mean that today's youth are only preoccupied with money?
Moreover, we see the creativity of the youth in literature, music, social and political activism, media, etc., in fact, everywhere.
Exactly what I am advancing here and later installments. We need to encourage the youth do more to help society!
Let me get back to your misreading of this article: Even if I didn't raise them, your concerns, here directly, I have raised them elsewhere in many of my previous installments.
In fact, you are aware of them. Moreover, you and I have discussed many of them on this platform. But then again, we have to look at every angle of the problem.
How do you expect the youth to carry out a revolution when you don't thoroughly explore their elders' weaknesses with them? Didn't every single post-Nkrumah government magnify the weaknesses of Nkrumah?
In other words, didn't Nkrumah's enemies end up repeating and magnifying the very same mistakes they accused Nkrumah of?
You may not have been aware of this but a revolution of investment and self-reliance comes with certain per-conditions:
Good education, strong institutional structures like banking, judiciary, individual and social ethics, etc., good leadership, social and individual de-emphasis on materialism, and what have you).
You need to build industries. You need to create a favorable atmosphere for investment. You need to build stronger institutional structures (with constitutional guarantees of enforcement). You need to work with the international investment community.
You need to build stronger educational institutions as well as think tanks to inculcate personal responsibility in the youth. Parents, religious institutions, etc., all have a role to play.
I cite stronger educational institutions because that's where the conscientization of the human mind begins.
I think the home, that's, parental care, competes with educational institutions for the impressionable human mind of the youth. So both have a big role to play in revolutionizing the mind of the youth.
The larger society is another. And examples from national leadership is also influential in revolutionizing the mind of the youth.Therefore, try to make creative suggestions in contextual totality. I don't mean this as an insult.
I make this assertion because your "revolution of investment and self-reliance" has no social, economic, and political utility outside the immediate contexts of the pre-conditions I cited above.
Plus, we have to work on our border problems. How do you invest in the cocoa or oil industry, for instance, when thieves are stealing cocoa and oil products across borders?
In fact, you cannot achieve any longstanding success, if at all, with the youth as regards your revolution of investment and self-reliance if you don't simultaneously implement those pre-conditions I listed above.
Do our educational institutions teach secondary school students how to handle investment portfolios, financial planning, forecasting, etc? How does Ghana's Stock Exchange work? Do the youth know anything about the intricacies involved in the workings Ghana's Stock Exchange?
Does Ghana's Stock Exchange publish its tradings for the public? Can the average youth on the street correctly interpret them?
Are our educational institutions educating the youth to delay instant gratification for longer term benefits connected with carefully executed investments?
In fact, Nas' rap track which I used to conclude this particular essay says it all. I am not too sure if you skipped that part. Go back and read again.
Actually, our failure to do this, coming up with fresh and revolutionary ideas, have sustained the self-perpetuity of our problems.
Because we are blindly using the same fruitless and useless models to address new challenging problems. How long are we going to use the same old bottle for our new wine?
Let me ask you this: Are the youth going to use the same corrupt institutional bodies (like our banks, etc) and individuals to implement your revolution of investment and self-reliance?
Or do you expect them to use the same Swiss banks and American banks which their thieving elders use? Why can't we create the same Swiss and American banks in Ghana and the rest of Africa?
I have read many respected financial analysts (from the Jewish community mostly) and will tell you how they use synagogues and Jewish educational institutions to inculcate financial responsibility in their youth. That's why Jews (European/American Jews mostly) are generally more financially successful. Many of them are also thieves, we know this.
It's not because any God has blessed them, the Jews. The same God they worship has blessed everyone. It's mental slavery which tells us they are blessed while black people are cursed.
Therefore, Kojo T, we need to build a stronger Stock Exchange. China, America, Japan, France, Australia, in fact, all the powerful economies have strong Stock Exchange to help them gauge the health of their national economies?
America's Wall Street is the driver of America's economy. Can you say the same of Ghana's Stock Exchange. These are some of the pertinent issues you need to address before talking about "revolution of investment and self-reliance." And you do this with the simultaneous social and political (educational) conscientization of the people.
Therefore, Kojo T, you just don't get up and carry out a revolution, any revolution.
You know why the Arab Spring is such a blatant failure? Let's look at this: The very same youth leaders who led the Arab Spring revolution did not have any long-term viable alternative ideas in place.
Therefore, they overthrew their leaders and ended up repeating what their elders did. Now you see the shameful products of the Arab Spring killing each other. So, you see, there are so many complicated dimensions to the revolutionary question of investment and self-reliance.
Of course, I have thoroughly studied the 60s but I was not born in that era. And you will agree with me that studying and practical experiences are not always mutually exclusive.
Besides, I don't see anything particularly wrong if one generation blames the other for its shortcomings, as long as we, the youth, learn not to repeat the shameful shortcomings of the generation we are blaming.
The generation of elderly leadership must also accept its failures and make positive improvements. That's how societies grow.And since the future is for the youth, they must make sure that their elders don't leave a legacy of problems for them. This is my point.
Therefore, I will challenge the youth to question bad leadership, as President's Mahatma's. And I will do that via positive revolutionary songs, like Fela's and Marley's, and not through drug-filled and materialistic songs like those made by the Beatles.
In other words, my intellectual preoccupation is if one generation sees or identifies the moral weaknesses of the other and uses that as a social or political platform to make life better for everyone else.
This is why we all have nostalgia for the era Nkrumah (as far as corruption is concerned). This is not to say corruption did not exist in Nkrumah's presidency.
But the scale and prevalence of today's corruption is probably beyond Nkrumah's presidency. Nkrumah did not have a penny (which belonged to Ghana) in his accounts at the time of his overthrow and death.
Can we speak of any post-Nkrumah Ghanaian leader in these terms? Isn't the right of the youth to compare the political "sincerity" of Nkrumah with the shameless likes of Mahama? This is what I am trying to do with this particular piece.It is the moral right of the youth to know the weaknesses of their leaders and shy away from them. I am not pitting the youth against their elders. It's merely a philosophical assertion. Yes, we must teach the youth not to emulate the blind stupidity and weaknesses of their elders.
And don't rush your judgment, later installments have already covered your concerns in much more detail. Nearly all of my earlier essays posted on Ghanaweb have dealt with your concerns one way or the other.
Thanks.
Brother 10 years ago
It is all about attitude which was demonstrated during Osagyefo's time. we have succeeded in destroying the attitude that was build with hard work by our first elders. The solution is in reigniting that nationhood attitude w ... read full comment
It is all about attitude which was demonstrated during Osagyefo's time. we have succeeded in destroying the attitude that was build with hard work by our first elders. The solution is in reigniting that nationhood attitude with programmes that teach people hard work and cooperation. Thanks my brother for the bold topics
francis kwarteng 10 years ago
Hello Kojo T,
I forgot to say that Kiki Gyan, the millionaire, a gifted keyboardist who played for many giants (even for Elton John, I have been told) died in toilet penniless.
These are not the kind of people of people ... read full comment
Hello Kojo T,
I forgot to say that Kiki Gyan, the millionaire, a gifted keyboardist who played for many giants (even for Elton John, I have been told) died in toilet penniless.
These are not the kind of people of people I want the youth to look up to. Tell me what Osibisa did for Ghana apart from taking high-life to an international level.
Remember that Fela Kuti is celebrated in the world than Osibisa. Besides, Fela raised the political, social,and political consciousness of Africans than Osibisa did.
Osibisa was more generally about materialism and spiritual vanity. The life of Fela Kuti has been celebrated in America on Broadway.
Fela was a social and political force on Africa than Osibisa. Many have compared him to Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, etc. Therefore, never put Fela and Osibisa in the same category.
Study their lyrics and forget about their rhythm. Osibisa's rhythm is not as revolutionary as Fela's jazzy Afro-beat. Osibisa's music was ordinary, nothing complicated as Fela's.
Further, Osibisa's music does not approach the complexity of Koo Nimo's palm-wine or traditional highlife music.
I have studied Osibisa's music and I am not too impressed by them. Onyina, Nana Ampadu, Adofo of City Boys (Black Chinese), Senior Eddie Donkoh, Alex Konadu, Amakye Dede, Alhaji K. Frimpong, George Darko, CK Mann, ET Mensah, Ramblers, Joe Mensah, Wolomo (the Ga group), etc.,in my opnion, are all gifted than Osibisa. Osibisa are noise makers.
Moreover, people have written about Fela, his music and political life than Osibisa. Unlike Osibisa, Fela was a global phenomenon.
The English musician Thomas Yorke once named Fela's musical influence as being behind the formation of his Atoms for Peace super-group.
Take time to study the music, social and political influence of Fela and Osibisa. Osibisa is nothing compared to Fela. Fela left more than his association with AIDS.
Thanks.
Media Mogul 10 years ago
Francis,
I have been drawn to write a comment not by the article itself but by your comments on music.
I don't know if Kiki Gyan reached "millionaire" status but he was okay and didn't need to die penniless if his perso ... read full comment
Francis,
I have been drawn to write a comment not by the article itself but by your comments on music.
I don't know if Kiki Gyan reached "millionaire" status but he was okay and didn't need to die penniless if his personal life had been different from what it was. Yes, he was a good musician. He was not a founding member of Osibisa and came in when that group had passed its best.
You mentioned a group of musicians as having been "more gifted" than Osibisa. That may be a very careless statement. It's difficult to compare groups as being more gifted than other groups. You can do that with individuals but it doesn't make much sense with groups. Three of the original members of Osibisa had made their marks on the Ghanaian musical scene before moving to London. They played with some of the big dance bands in the country before moving on. They were as gifted as the members of the groups you claim were "more gifted" than Osibisa.
When you said that you've studied the music of Osibisa - I became suspicious. I understood that directly to mean you studied the lyrics of Osibisa's production and didn't find much in them. You didn't pay anything attention to the music! If you read my last post to you on your previous article, I rate music higher than the lyrics. Osibisa sang nonsense lyrics but the music they made was great! And they rightfully started the trend of what is today known as "World Music". When I talk about Osibisa, I mean the original group made up of the three Ghanaians, three West Indians and the Nigerian. That was before Kiki Gyan and Kofi Ayivor and the others who came later on.
If you rate the lyrics and the social impact of musicians higher than the actual music they make, then you and I may be unable to discuss the same things. For instance, you and I love the music of Fela, I see, but for different reasons! I love his beat, the discipline in his music (not in his life) and above all his saxophone (the horns). But I hate his keyboards works. As for the kind of things he sang about, I don't really pay much attention to them and they are not really what draws me to him. Not that I don't think they are not important. For me they are just not part of the music that the man made. That is why my best Fela tunes are the instrumentals and especially an album he made for the US market that doesn't contain any singing. Of course, if you attend Fela's shows, he has a yapping session where he tells stories about the times and his revolutionary ideas. But his music comes first. Without the music, no one will listen to his yappins. And his comprehensive shows with the dancing girls are beautiful spectacles.
Ok, I didn't want to read today's article because I thought it was a recycling of an article that appeared some time ago. I did read it though and don't know if it is a continuation of the earlier article or not because this one also promises a part IIb. I've now lost track of how you arrange your articles especially thematically. I have a few comments on today's piece but I'll leave that for another day...
francis kwarteng 10 years ago
Hello Media Mogul,
I will like to bring your attention to something important. And that is, don't hype Osibisa's role in creating "World Music."
There were/are better musicians who contributed to "World Music" than Osi ... read full comment
Hello Media Mogul,
I will like to bring your attention to something important. And that is, don't hype Osibisa's role in creating "World Music."
There were/are better musicians who contributed to "World Music" than Osibisa. In fact, there were/are many better musicians who did so before Osibisa even came on the scene.
In other words, there are many important musical groups from the Middle East, Asia, Central Music, Europe, South America, Oceania, New Zealand, and Africa who contribued to "World Music."
Osibisa is just of those from Africa who contributed to the "World Music." Osibisa did not start the trend.
Besides, Osibisa's kind of rhythm production was not particularly anything new. It was merely a blend of modernist instrumentations based on a synphony of jazz, saxophone, highlife, trumpet,some fusions of roots reggae, pop, etc.
Only the drum (conga) may be said to be of African origin. So, again, Osibisa didn't do anything revolutionary in the musical world except, perhaps, taking fundefied (Westernized) highlife to an international level. That's that.
Moreover, Real "World Music" is waht the Japanese Koto, India Raga Music, to name just two, make. Let me give you another example: I hope you are familiar with Nora Jones and her music. Her father, Pandit Ravi Shankar, the world-famous Indian sitar player, made what is probably called "World Music."
Pandit Ravi Shankar made music based purely on traditional instruments, not the borrowed lyricism and instrumentation of Osibisiba. Even the sheet music he used relied on ancient Indian musical theories. What about Osibisa? Everything Osibisa did was borrowed, nothing original.
Please if you want to have a feel of real "World Music," listen to the two-album CD "Best of Narada World," 2003. Though many of the instruments used are modern and Western, you will see or understand why Osibisa doesn't belong in this class of gifted "World Music" musicians.
As an aside, even traditional highlife is not purely an African genre. That's, traditional highlife is not traditionally African. Most of the instruments used in highlife, the guitar, which is the instrumental trademark of highlife (from its early days in Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leon) via its palm wine highlife variation, is Western.
More specifically, the guitar used in the early days was modeled after the Cuban Afro-Cuban Guajeo. So, you see, Osibisa's instrumentation cannot be said, technically, to be anything new. It's merely a fundefication of mainstrean highlife. Therefore, the musical predecessors of Osibisa, such as Koo Nimo, indirectly contributed to what you call "World Music."
Even Koo Nimo's palm wine highlife is studied and taught in Western (American) universities. He had taught it at Seatle's University of ashington.
Also, I have had the occasion to discuss traditional African music (as well as read extensively) with some of the major figures in African music in the American academy. Musicians like Fela and Koo Nimo count more than Osibisa.
In fact, many of these serious music scholars who have studied African music don't appreacite the musicology of Osibisa because their variant of highlife is not anything particularly new from mainstream highlife, as I said before.
Then again, most Ghanaian musicians of their era, I mean, Osibisa's, had similar beats. There were also some highlife musicians from Sierra Leon and Nigeria (and all over the continent) who made something close to Osibisa's.
Let's get to "World Music": In the first place, most respected academic musicologists, musical historians, and musical theorists don't respect the musical category you call "World Music."
Sadly, others dismissively or derisively call it Ethnomusicology (or ethnomusic). Ethnomusicology was what Koo Nimo taught at the University of Washington.
You may not have been aware of this: I simply see Osibisa's music as music. But the West does not see it so.
Besides, many scholars (musical theorists, musical anthropologists, cutlural critics, and musicologists) questioning the racist politics behind the classification.
The problem is similar to the question of philosophy: The West calls African philosophy "ethnophilosophy." Yet the West calls its philosophy "philosophy." You know why? The argument is essentially that our "philosophy" or "thinking" is not as developed, structeured, and complicated as Western thought. It also explains why the West classfies Chinua Achebe as "Africa's Best novelist" and not as one of the world's best novelists.
Ironically, the West initially used the nomenclature "World Literature" to represent literary works coming primarily from the West (Europe), therebye sideling or subjugating the literature of the non-Western World. Now the West has seen fit to expand the nomenclature to include literature from the rest of the world. So, Media Mogul, don't be happy to associate Osibisa with "World Music." Most African and African American scholars don't recognize that classification. It's racist.
Why is most Wesstern musical genres called "music" while non-Western musical genres are generally classified as "ethnomusic" or "World music"?
Of course, there a few Western musical genres which fall under "World Music." Unfortunately, those Whites in the West who make "World Music" are European minorities or oborigines who are ussually discriminated against or not respected by the White majority.
Back to my question: Why is Western music generally called "music" and non-Western music generally called "ethnomusic" or "World Music"?
Answer: That's because "World Music" is generally rated below mainstream Western musical genres in terms of quality and complication of musical theory and instrumental production.
It also explains why "World Music" is studied primarily in anthropology class, if at all, as ancient pots, cave drawings, tribal sociology, etc. "World Music" is generally not studied alongside genres like rap or clasical music! Simple.
Then again, "World Music" does not even receive the same recognition and intellectual respect in Western academia as rap, classical music, country, blues, jazz, roots reggae, rock (metalic and soft), rock & roll, etc. I bet if Ghana's musical (educational) institutions spend time studing Osibisa at the same rate as they study Koo Nimo (and others)!
Therefore, I see no reason Osibisa's contribution to "World Music" should make the headlines. There are many productive muscicians who contributed immensely to the creation of "World Music," men and women whose work are more respected and recognized in the musical world than Osibisa. This is not to question the diverse musical talents of Osibisa. Actually, gifted men like Kiki Gyan spent significant portions of their musical lives contributing to non-African musical genres, which ended up more recognition and respect than theirs, highlife. That's my essential point.
Finally, Fela has more global recognition for his contributions to musical theory, musical anthropology, powerful lyrics, and beats production than the likes of Osibisa.
And let me say this: I study rhythm as I study lyrics. It's rhythm which first moves me closer to lyrics. Therefore, don't make the mistake of saying I pay attention to only lyrics.
If there is one thing I know about music, it's the complexity of rhthymicity, the theoretical pattern of rhthymicity, and structured instrumentation. Give me the beat of a musician (without the voice or lyrics), and I will likely tell you the name of the musician correctly! Rhthym is the DNA I use to identify a particular musician.
In fact, the rhythm which accompanied the noise-making of Osobisa's wasn't anything new. Study the evolution of their rhythm production and you will notice their instumental simplicity.
People the world over love Fela's mature musicality, mature lyricism, and complicated instrumentation. Most of the Africans (young and old) with whom I have discussed the musical gifts of Fela, are familair with his mature and transformative social and political lyricism as well as his complicated instruments. Osibisa is no match for Fela in terms of instrumentation and lyricism. The only major problem Western musicologits probably have with Fela is the length of his tracks, some of which runs as long as 11 minutes. Actually, I rate Mani Debango, the Camerronian, over Osibisa. Bango's "Soul Makossa," for instance, internationalize Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Starting Something.
Debago has worked with world-famous talents like Sly and Robbie Shakespear (read to see which world-famous musician in the world Sly and Robbie have probably not worked with), Akon, Fugees, Rihanna, etc.
Let me recap my points here: Any good RESPECTED musical theorist or musicologist will tell you how complicated Fela's rhythm was. Personally, Lyrics- and rhythm-wise, I don't, like most good musicologists, don't see Osibisa's music as something not seen before.
I have listed a few (Joe Mensah and Ramblers) who are better, in fact, gifted than Osibisa in both lyrical production and instrumentation. Miriam Makeba is even popular in the musical world than Osibisa. Moreover, Debango and Fela are still sampled today by well-respected muscians from the West to Africa.
Forget about Osibisa and "World Music." No serious person respects the classification "World Music." If I were a good and respected musician, I will strongly object to my music being placed in that category.
I await your response. I have more.
francis kwarteng 10 years ago
The correct name is Manu Dibango
The correct name is Manu Dibango
Media Mogul 10 years ago
Yes, I knew you meant Manu Dibango and it was just a slip. Like I always say, there's no need to correct or apologise for petty mistakes the reader can easily overlook...
Yes, I knew you meant Manu Dibango and it was just a slip. Like I always say, there's no need to correct or apologise for petty mistakes the reader can easily overlook...
Media Mogul 10 years ago
Looks like you were carried away with this Osibisa thing. Your very long response was only trying to say that Osibisa are not as good as the others. But my point was never to say that Osibisa were better than those others or ... read full comment
Looks like you were carried away with this Osibisa thing. Your very long response was only trying to say that Osibisa are not as good as the others. But my point was never to say that Osibisa were better than those others or that they are the best. I never implied that. I said it was unfair of you to say that a group was more talented than another group. You could make that point for individuals, not groups. You never addressed that issue. Then I said that as individuals, the original members of Osibisa were as gifted as the others. Your answer is to say that Osibisa's music wasn't really good. I don't think that answers the question.
My major point in my write up is to say that I rate music greater than the lyrics and that it is the music that carries the lyrics. You never addressed that point even though response was very long.
You concentrated on this World Music thing. Ok, I said Osibisa "started" it which is, indeed, a bad choice of word. I withdraw that word. What I really meant was that it was after the appearance of Osibisa on the scene in Europe that a certain category of music started to be labelled by Europeans "World Music". That, of course, does not mean that that type of music did not exist before. It existed long before that. If you argue that, I will agree with you.
Yes, I am also aware of the fact that the term "World Music" is really not beloved by those of us whose music has been labelled as such and there is something racist about that. I saw that personally myself when I came to Europe more than a quarter of a century ago and saw the kind of music labelled as such in the record shops and didn't like it. You mentioned the example of Literature also, which I agree. I can tell you when I came to Europe first, I didn't really like people referring to my native food and some other things native to me as "exotic". I felt it was racist. Indeed, I still don't feel fine with that term - lol even though it may be neutral.
Please, if you keep your responses short, I will appreciate it a lot.
Thanks
Mr Figure-Out 10 years ago
You are definitely right on point. Kwarteng shoulda make his comments brief. Long comments scare people away from joining the debate. Anyways you guys are doing well in educating some of us
You are definitely right on point. Kwarteng shoulda make his comments brief. Long comments scare people away from joining the debate. Anyways you guys are doing well in educating some of us
francis kwarteng 10 years ago
Hello,
I just read your response.
I shall be more brief next time. You know I don't do what I say (lol). I am always saying one thing and doing another. Anyway, have a great weekend.
Thanks.
Hello,
I just read your response.
I shall be more brief next time. You know I don't do what I say (lol). I am always saying one thing and doing another. Anyway, have a great weekend.
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Francis,
I have been drawn to write a comment not by the article itself but by your comments on music.
I don't know if Kiki Gyan reached "millionaire" status but he was okay and didn't need to die penniless if his perso ...
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Hello Media Mogul,
I will like to bring your attention to something important. And that is, don't hype Osibisa's role in creating "World Music."
There were/are better musicians who contributed to "World Music" than Osi ...
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The correct name is Manu Dibango
Yes, I knew you meant Manu Dibango and it was just a slip. Like I always say, there's no need to correct or apologise for petty mistakes the reader can easily overlook...
Looks like you were carried away with this Osibisa thing. Your very long response was only trying to say that Osibisa are not as good as the others. But my point was never to say that Osibisa were better than those others or ...
read full comment
You are definitely right on point. Kwarteng shoulda make his comments brief. Long comments scare people away from joining the debate. Anyways you guys are doing well in educating some of us
Hello,
I just read your response.
I shall be more brief next time. You know I don't do what I say (lol). I am always saying one thing and doing another. Anyway, have a great weekend.
Thanks.