( Those who live by the sword will perish by the sword-Jesus Christ
Quite recently when the Art Society students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) were celebrating their college week one of the musicians invited was Mzbel. The whole event turned into an anti-climax when some misguided elements gathered there misconducted themselves and moved beyond their limits of expressing their emotions and libidinal feelings. This dastardly act must be condemned and all those who perpetrated this act must be made to face the full rigors of the law.
Ever since this happened, people have been talking about the types of students we have in our tertiary institutions. What is the future of Ghana? A century ago Abraham Lincoln said, ?The philosophy of one school in one generation would be the philosophy of the next government. If students cannot not control themselves at the least provocation then we have a big question to address.
The Musician Association of Ghana (MUSIGA), in no certain terms have condemned the act and have said that until the university brings the culprit to book none of their members will be allowed to perform at the university again. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) and FIDA have also joined in the bandwagon of those calling for the perpetrators be identified and dealt with.
The question: who violated Mzbel and assaulted her inappropriately and did that dastardly act is very important. It is good that we know such bad nuts in the society and know how best they can best be helped and rehabitated. Beyond you and I asking the question ?who did that?? let us not also gloss over the question ?what caused that?? The time has come for us, as a nation to stop the kind of superficial kind of social analysis that grapples itself with the effects of problems and leave the underlying causes not touched. ?No smoke without fire?, Is Mzbel the only female artiste who has ever performed at KNUST? What about artistes who were decently dressed? Were those also assaulted sexually? Basic chemistry tells us and I that when you expose petrol to the sun it will flame up. The Akans says that ? wotu okra fo no na wotu momone fo? which is translated whilst you are advising the cat then you must advise equally the fish.
One of the greatest agonies in life is that men seldom tell the truth. When Mzbel appeared on JOY FM she said that what she was wearing was a decent costume. Mzbel told Komla Dumour that the costume, which she used to perform at KNUST, she had used it to perform at Agoro before. If you happen to chance on the video footage, you would know that Mzbel was economical with the truth. She was seductively dressed and beyond this the kind of gestures on stage was sex-sex-sex. Even as somebody who had a panoramic view of her performance from a distance, all her dancers wore mini skirts and these girls when dancing would bend down intentionally so that their under wears could be seen. Is this artistic expression or madness display? How can you be exposing your breast and other private parts in the public? What kind of training do these girls get in their houses? What have we suddenly learnt from the western world? Are we copying blindly? What Mzbel and her dancers did at KNUST was sex-sex. How can you be tantalizing these boys? They are neither angels nor trees. Even some angels could not stand but fell alongside with Lucifer.
The way Ghanaian hip-life music is going is uncertain. If something is not done hurriedly to control the lyrics and the costume, which our hip-life artists are bringing on stage, we will be purchasing our destruction on an installment plan. If a media man goes beyond his bounds he is taken to court or NMC comes in. Who takes a musician who sings indecently on? Are we saying morality is absolute? The church, mosque and our traditional leaders must speak so that we can preserve and transfer our rich culture for posterity. The consumer of hip-life is the Ghanaian public and we need to be given better lyrics and music. Back in the US when the late Tupac Amaru Shackur came out with his album titled 2paclypse Now the then vice president Dan Quayle called for the banning of the music from American market. This was after a teenager in Los Angeles told a court that he was inspired by that music to shoot an off-duty police officer. Tupac?s lyrics were violent and like the old saying all those live by the sword will perish by the sword.
The question is why do we have to allow somebody to corrupt society with lyrics. Jesus reminds us that what defiles man is not what he eats but what comes out from his mouth. Most of the Ghanaian hip-life lyrics are nothing but rather sex, romance and thrash. Gone were the olden days when Nana Kwame Ampadu, Dr Paa Bobo, Amakye Dede, Obourba J.A Adofo, etc were giving us seasoned music. But less than a decade the Ghanaian lyrics have changed and like the words of Henry David Thoreau ?improved means to unimproved end? If you play a good music with seasoned words you will not get market. Sometimes you ask yourself ?what is this hip life music all about? Jesus Christ was right when he said that the light has come to the world but the people still enjoy darkness.
The Akans say that ?se wo ankasa wotiri ho yeyi ayibone? which is literary translated as ?if you refuse to talk to the barber he will give you undesirable hair cut?. The time has come for us to speak.
There is a need for the establishment of National Music Censorship Board to control, regulate and seek to censor any musical lyrics before coming out. This is not to stifle a good intellectual expression but rather make sure that unwholesome lyrics are done away.
MUSIGA must set a code of dressing for their members when the go to perform in the public and as a matter of urgency MUSIGA members must try to compose and sing decently and boys should also control their adrenaline. The stage and studio is not an extension of our bedroom private romance.
Appiah Kusi Adomako is an educationist, freelance writer and the president of the Ghana Chapter of Leaders of Tomorrow Foundation. He can be contacted through: Leaders of Tomorrow Foundation, P.O. BOX. KS 13640. Kumasi-Ghana: appiah@whatsonghana.com www.whatsonghana.com
