Highlife musician, Dada Hafco has said Ghanaians perceive musicians who identify with the highlife music genre as uncivilized and uneducated.
According to him, most musicians who compose and sing highlife songs in the country are unwilling to identify themselves as highlife musicians because of the misconception by many Ghanaians that highlife artistes are illiterates and uncivilized.
This misconception, he said, is born out of the mindset that local creations are inferior to that of foreign and the Ghanaian lack of appreciation of anything originally Ghanaian.
He said although almost all the songs which brought the country’s top notch musicians into the limelight and have sustained their careers in the music industry are of the highlife genre, most of these musicians pride themselves in other genres which are foreign.
This, he opined, does not augur well for the growth of the music industry and strives to promote Ghanaian music globally.
For him, the country’s music can only make a breakthrough onto the global market if Ghanaians do away with such misconceptions and embrace and appreciate the highlife music genre.
He argued that countries all over the world have a particular music genre that citizens rally round to promote hence, Ghanaians will have to do same in promoting their music globally.
“Ghanaians don’t appreciate anything Ghanaian. We worship foreign culture a lot. If you are singing highlife songs, they see you as a villager. I have had such experiences so many times. People get shocked when I speak English in interviews. So the mindset with Ghanaians is that if you’re a highlife musician, you’re uncivilized. The songs that have made dancehall musicians and rappers big in this country are highlife music. But all these musicians who make highlife music shy away from associating themselves with the genre. Why? Because if they identify themselves as highlife musicians, people will see them as uncivilized.
But highlife is originally Ghanaian. Every country in the world has a genre that they rally around. We in Ghana here need to have a genre that we will rally around. And that’s highlife because it is ours,” he stated on UTV’s United Showbiz.
His comments follow recent public discussions about the state of the country’s music industry after 2 Nigerian musicians picked up awards at the recently held Grammys award ceremony.
Top notch musicians in the country came under severe criticism and attacks by Ghanaians for what they say is their failure to promote their music globally so as to receive recognition like their counterparts in Nigeria.
