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| For Darfur! |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jul-08 Times |
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It happened a week ago. Kwame Karikari’s Media Foundation for West Africa, collaborating with a coalition of rights-based Ghanaian NGOs, produced a show that would have gone down into the annals of showbusiness, except that 99 per cent of the audience were activists of all hues – human rights, gender right, Pan-Africanist.
For an event that didn’t have the benefit of a typical Ghana Music Awards or Miss Ghana level of hype, it says something to see that the National Theatre was nearly full.
The audience cut across all walks: The Chief Imam was competently represented. Oh, even the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra , Most Rev. Palmer-Buckle was there! And you may not believe this: Baptist’s gift to Christian Council - Fred Deegbe - was there in his numbers!
But why would anybody who witnessed the night qualify the mention of these two names with an "even"? By themselves, the Archbishop and the Baptist pastor waxed poetic and fiery with their messages.
Kofi Anyidoho! You wanted to run upstage and swallow this man alive. Wasn’t he splendid! Poetry came out of him like human breath – so naturally and so live-giving. Did anyone notice that even the non Ewe-speaking section in the audience broke out into the chant after him?
Hugh Masakela was expected to be the star-act of the night. He didn’t disappoint. But if you ask me, that group called Gonje was the night’s thriller. What music!
Traditional and folk music was given an interpretation that is a far cry from the banalities which have become an infliction audience from amateurs. You couldn’t believe that this group is only three years old. They are certainly Ghana’s newest sensation.
Sappers? They weren’t bad. Their music relaxed the audience, whetting many an apetite, including that of Dr Esi Sutherland-Addy. I have been calling up some of the friends I saw at the show. My goal is to find out how many of them have lost memories of the performance of Amandzeba Nat Brew.
Amandzeba is not an artist. He is art.
The show was organized to raise solidarity with the people of Darfur who are being killed and raped and starved by their own government.
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